Annoying pop up ads in the lower part of the screen

[SpacePolice89]

How can I remove those irritating pop up ads that have appeared during the last couple of days? They even appear when I'm logged in.

[Lego Tom]

Are you using an ad blocker and/or Malware program?

[SpacePolice89]

18 minutes ago, Lego Tom said:

Are you using an ad blocker and/or Malware program?

I use McAfee and everything seems fine. It only happens on Eurobricks. There is an ad in the lower part of the page every time I click something and the ad follows me when I scroll down. I can click an arrow to minimize the the ad and if I click the arrow again the ad reappears. I find it very strange that Eurobricks allow such intrusive ads.

[Lego Tom]

30 minutes ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I use McAfee and everything seems fine. It only happens on Eurobricks. There is an ad in the lower part of the page every time I click something and the ad follows me when I scroll down. I can click an arrow to minimize the the ad and if I click the arrow again the ad reappears. I find it very strange that Eurobricks allow such intrusive ads.

McAfee is an anti-virus program. I don't know how effective it is on pop ups. Ad Block (free or paid) should kill the pop up.

[SpacePolice89]

2 minutes ago, Lego Tom said:

McAfee is an anti-virus program. I don't know how effective it is on pop ups. Ad Block (free or paid) should kill the pop up.

OK. Thanks! Do you know if other members see this ad?

[JaBaCaDaBra]

1/
Use Firefox
2/
Install Adblock + addon
3/
Install Ghostery addon

You're rid of all madware and add's

[SpacePolice89]

Now it is fixed. I installed AdBlock and now the ads are gone. Thanks for the help!

[zinnn]

The ads are so annoying, my browser speed is significantly down because of them.

[SpacePolice89]

9 hours ago, zinnn said:

The ads are so annoying, my browser speed is significantly down because of them.

I use Chrome and installed AdBlock a couple of days ago. I can highly recommend AdBlock, it removes all unwanted commercial material. 

[Peppermint_M]

I'll repeat what is said elsewhere: The forum runs off the ad revenue. Without it, we would have to shut down. Software and hosting is not free. Once the site loses too much money to run, it will be gone.

I am aware that a few people dislike ads and the software in them (If you use Chrome, Google already knows everything about you so it is pretty pointless to block ads with anything in them) but there would be no Eurobricks without them. 

[Lion King]

I’m using my iPad so I don’t think there is any way to install AdBlock. 

[JaBaCaDaBra]

1 hour ago, Peppermint_M said:

The forum runs off the ad revenue

Ads is one thing, and I fully understand it.
But I really can't find a reason why the site pollutes me with trackers.
While typing this 2 attempts to place trackers and 2 site analitc attemps were blocked.

Maybe you have an explanation why the site tries to spy on us?

[Peppermint_M]

18 minutes ago, JaBaCaDaBra said:

Ads is one thing, and I fully understand it.
But I really can't find a reason why the site pollutes me with trackers.
While typing this 2 attempts to place trackers and 2 site analitc attemps were blocked.

Maybe you have an explanation why the site tries to spy on us?

That would be the Google Ad client. not this actual site. Unless you choose to have the site "remember me" with cookies so you don't have to log in fresh each time? @Jim we don't run any kind of "trackers" do we?

[SpacePolice89]

7 hours ago, Peppermint_M said:

I'll repeat what is said elsewhere: The forum runs off the ad revenue. Without it, we would have to shut down. Software and hosting is not free. Once the site loses too much money to run, it will be gone.

I am aware that a few people dislike ads and the software in them (If you use Chrome, Google already knows everything about you so it is pretty pointless to block ads with anything in them) but there would be no Eurobricks without them. 

I've never before used AdBlock on Eurobricks but a few days ago a very intrusive pop up ad appeared in the lower part of the screen and I had to manually minimize it every time I clicked something. The normal built in ads are fine but the pop up ad forced me to use AdBlock.

[Peppermint_M]

26 minutes ago, SpacePolice89 said:

the pop up ad forced me to use AdBlock.

Unfortunately, these minimally "intrusive" (Has anyone seen the Fandom wiki pages eh? Now those are bad) ads that slide up from the bottom are a part of the ad client. Seeing as they hardly disrupt use of the forum, I can't tell what the issue is. (Granted, mine are all for World of Books... So I just see exciting books I may want to buy). 

Sadly, forums do cost money to run, even if all the staff are volunteers. 

[Yoggington]

2 hours ago, Peppermint_M said:

Sadly, forums do cost money to run, even if all the staff are volunteers. 

Is there any other way to support the running costs of the forum? A Patreon or the like?

No chance I'm turning off my various blockers.

[SpacePolice89]

10 hours ago, Yoggington said:

Is there any other way to support the running costs of the forum? A Patreon or the like?

No chance I'm turning off my various blockers.

That sounds like a great idea. I'd rather pay some money than see ads and we all want to support Eurobricks. Back in the day, I had to pay to use LUGNET but I can't remember how much.

[Yoggington]

I wouldn't suggest putting the whole site behind a paywall, but a Patreon option (or better again - a non-recurring 'buy me a coffee' link) might be taken up by some members, and every little helps.

There's enough Lego YouTubers generating some income this way.

I am thinking of something similar to the hobby website/forum for board games -  BoardGameGeek. Every January they have a fundraising drive to support running costs. Without knowing whether they make a lot from it, they come back every January so it must be worth something.

Edited January 8 by Yoggington

[SpacePolice89]

4 hours ago, Yoggington said:

I wouldn't suggest putting the whole site behind a paywall, but a Patreon option (or better again - a non-recurring 'buy me a coffee' link) might be taken up by some members, and every little helps.

There's enough Lego YouTubers generating some income this way.

I am thinking of something similar to the hobby website/forum for board games -  BoardGameGeek. Every January they have a fundraising drive to support running costs. Without knowing whether they make a lot from it, they come back every January so it must be worth something.

Something voluntary is the best solution. To use LUGNET new users had to pay a one time fee but I also believe that wouldn't be ideal for Eurobricks. I'd happily donate money as part of one time campaigns if it would mean less ads.

[Black Falcon]

Placing Affiliate links could also help, like placing one to the various Lego Stores to the main Page (however with that many different countrys here it might look a bit bloated if there is one for every country)

[Horation]

On 1/7/2024 at 1:25 PM, Peppermint_M said:

Sadly, forums do cost money to run, even if all the staff are volunteers. 

I'll have to agree with everyone else here, maybe add a patreon, I know Brikwars got over 30 supporters, and that's a tiny forum compared to this.

Ads suck, and they slow down browsers, and I often regret disabling adblockers, even for useful sites like this one. 

Reviews are one way to do it (say, Jay's brick blog has an affiliate link under every review-even the fairly negative ones)

Contests require funding to manage, and offering say, "50$ in XYZ products" is an easy promotional trick for said company, which might therefore be willing to do so. 

[Lego Tom]

Like others, I would have no problem making a monetary contribution to offset the lost revenue in not seeing ads. Something using PayPal for donations would be ideal.

[Jim]

On 1/7/2024 at 1:33 PM, Peppermint_M said:

That would be the Google Ad client. not this actual site. Unless you choose to have the site "remember me" with cookies so you don't have to log in fresh each time? @Jim we don't run any kind of "trackers" do we?

Nope, we don't.

Thanks for all the responses. We are aware that the Ads are annoying, but we need to pay the bills. We are very open to suggestions. We don't have experience with Patreon so I am not sure how that works. We basically have two options:

• Do something like an ongoing Patreon for people to support us
• A yearly fundraiser (like Kickstarter) to pay for the next years hosting costs.

Any thoughts on what would be the best option?

Currently, we do have some reserves, but without the annoying Ads we will run out in a couple of years. We are very happy to hear that our members are willing to pay a small amount to keep Eurobricks running.  

[Horation]

7 hours ago, Jim said:

Nope, we don't.

Thanks for all the responses. We are aware that the Ads are annoying, but we need to pay the bills. We are very open to suggestions. We don't have experience with Patreon so I am not sure how that works. We basically have two options:

• Do something like an ongoing Patreon for people to support us
• A yearly fundraiser (like Kickstarter) to pay for the next years hosting costs.

Any thoughts on what would be the best option?

Currently, we do have some reserves, but without the annoying Ads we will run out in a couple of years. We are very happy to hear that our members are willing to pay a small amount to keep Eurobricks running.  

You could do a Patreon and offer paying members some perks (like say a badge and an ad-free experience).

[Jim]

15 minutes ago, Horation said:

You could do a Patreon and offer paying members some perks (like say a badge and an ad-free experience).

Sounds like a great idea.

We have to check how to remove/hide ads for paying members, but that would definitely be a proper solution.