Does donating to AVSim remove the ads?

[Chock 17,769]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

That was purely my thought. You could have people donating 1p or 1c and then expecting the same privileges as someone who had donated considerably more. We've had it in the past with donations like that. It hardly helps the owners.

Well, yeah that's true, but I'd like to think anyone who really cares about Avsim would donate more than 1p, and if they wouldn't then it's no loss really because they were never going to donate any more than that anyway. Yeah, you'll get some cheapskates for sure, you always do in any endeavour, but as I say, anyone who really cares about Avsim and uses it a lot should have the sense to see that a decent donation every once in a while is something which actually helps them.

[martin-w 3,235]

Okay... the big pop up banners appearing at the bottom of the screen are getting annoying now. 

[GHD 21]

I removed all Google ads using cookie policy.

 

Edited October 2, 2021 by GHD

[Fielder 3,678]

Wow, as the other thread says, I have never seen a single AD banner on Avsim, none at all (PC, Windows 10).

EDIT: As a test just now I disabled ABP (Add Block Plus) from Firefox and went on Youtube website. I got two add videos before running even the first video on that site! I hadn't seen any Youtube adds at all for months and months with ABP enabled. I think ABP is also available on Chrome browser. It makes for a tremendous difference on Firefox. (Firefox is not owned by Google, but Chrome is).

Edited October 3, 2021 by Fielder

[birdguy 3,943]

Perhaps we could have a two tier membership system, one level with ads as we see them now and an ad free level for some donation, monthly or annual, to be set by the administrators.

Noel

[Garys 209]

 

1 hour ago, birdguy said:

Perhaps we could have a two tier membership system, one level with ads as we see them now and an ad free level for some donation, monthly or annual, to be set by the administrators.

Noel

According to a moderator in the other thread, the admins didnt change anything so these ads suddenly popping up have nothing to do with the need for financial boost. Ad Blockers are a bandaid solution to the real issue... The site has been compromised.

[W2DR 1,860]

I've made a couple of donations over the years and I just don't understand all the "donate to be ad free" stuff. Either you support this site as one of the best or you don't. "Ads" have nothing to with it. If you like it, donate. If you don't like it and don't want to donate, go someplace else. Please understand, I'm talking about the whiners. I know well there are many who are of limited resources (I used to be one of those) and in no way do I mean to address this rant to you. But to those of us who can contribute a bit I simply say...quit complaining and cough up a few bucks. Or go someplace else. End of rant (for now.....).

[Garys 209]

 

2 hours ago, W2DR said:

 End of rant (for now.....).

This topic started when the aggressive advertising first appereared with the assumption that the site admins needed to make a change for financial reasons. As has been stated by a moderator in the other thread no changes where made by avsim.

Edit:  Michael, thanks for your tip on tracking options in edge. I changed it from balanced to strict and no longer see the ads. 

.

 

Edited October 4, 2021 by Garys

[pmb 5,137]

I can only speak for myself, but I don't see any increase of ads, effectively I don't see any ads on AVSIM at all (not that I miss them...). I use Edge and don't have any adblocker installed. However, there is one critical setting: I deactivated tracking, effectively with the highest setting (there are three levels). If I allow tracking, AVSIM is indeed full of ads, as I just confirmed.

This should falsify any relation to donations, although I've been a regular AVSIM donor over the years.

Kind regards, Michael

[Ray Proudfoot 8,960]

32 minutes ago, Garys said:

The concern now  should be about getting to the bottom of how the bombardment of advertisements came to be and if the website has infact been hacked, getting it fixed

The site has not been hacked. I’ll leave it at that as I’m just a moderator.

[nobleord 17]

3 hours ago, pmb said:

I use Edge and don't have any adblocker installed. However, there is one critical setting: I deactivated tracking, effectively with the highest setting (there are three levels). If I allow tracking, AVSIM is indeed full of ads, as I just confirmed.

@pmb Thanks for posting this.  I just tried and guess I will start using Edge with this setting to browse AVSIM, as the ever changing hovering ad at the bottom has become intolerable in Chrome.

 

[birdguy 3,943]

Of the 11 people who posted on this page 8 are donors.  Not that this is typical but just saying many of us are donors.  And ads or not I will continue to be a donor as I expect the other donors on this page will continue to be.

Noel

 

[jcomm 5,939]

While I was surprised by the type and number of adds I now get while browsing AVSIM, I easily got accustomed to it.

I browse AVSIM pretty much every day, unless something big really prevents me from :-)

Well, I would like to be good Donor too, because being lsted as a Donor is actually ridiculous given the amount and # of times I actually donated ( years ago, when their was a request for contributions for the purchase of a new server... ).

These adds make part of Internet and our lives...

[birdguy 3,943]

5 hours ago, jcomm said:

These adds make part of Internet and our lives...

Which, along with telemarketer calls several times a day and sorting out a dozen unwanted catalogs and flyers from legitimate mail every afternoon make me long for the 60s and 70s again when my life wasn't complicated by these things.

I asked my postman if could place a garbage can by the mailbox so he could dump the junk mail into that and only put the first class mail in my mailbox but he said he couldn't do that.  Luckily my phone service prints 'Possible Scam' on the screen when my phone rings with a telemarketer call but I'm still disturbed by the ring.

I wonder how long it will be before advertisers offer free T-Shirts with their ads on the front and back for teens and young adults to wear.  Just convince them it's 'cool' and you'll have thousands of walking around ads. 

Noel

[Luke 782]

21 minutes ago, birdguy said:

I wonder how long it will be before advertisers offer free T-Shirts with their ads on the front and back for teens and young adults to wear.  Just convince them it's 'cool' and you'll have thousands of walking around ads. 

I think we've been doing this for a half century now, probably more. They're called logos. 😄

Cheers!