Sickening Forum Adds

Sep 4, 2017
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Yes I know there have been several threads complaining about this. But just look at what I have to put up with. The pic is a screen shot of when I was writing this post.

They are forced to get your permission to use your personal info for advertising.
It's a farce because they make it impossible to refuse, just a useless meaningless exercise to comply with the law, then after you finally "agree to everything" this is what I get.

It's a DISGRACE

Forum_Adds.JPG
 
Feb 6, 2009
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Old paws is feeling a little left out!
All these adverts freely available and I don't see any of them. :)
All I get is the forum posts with the 4 most recent "caravan reviews" links down the "right hand margin"

Like Niall suggests I do use an "ad blocker"and this seems to do the trick.
Regards to all, and of course,
Happy Caravanning.
paws
 
May 24, 2014
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Yep, use an ad-blocker, I dont get any of them.

Most browsers will have an ad-blocker as an extension.
 
Mar 8, 2009
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Yep, use an ad blocker, (this is the page I'm seeing with your comments) Works well on PC forum. There are however some 'smart' sites where you have to pause the ad blocker to view them, but overall Ad blocker works.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom

Ad_Blocker.jpg
 
Nov 6, 2006
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Grey13 said:
Yes I know there have been several threads complaining about this. But just look at what I have to put up with. The pic is a screen shot of when I was writing this post.

They are forced to get your permission to use your personal info for advertising.
It's a farce because they make it impossible to refuse, just a useless meaningless exercise to comply with the law, then after you finally "agree to everything" this is what I get.

It's a DISGRACE

Forum_Adds.JPG

I have the same problem here at work (lunchtime) as I can't apply an ad blocker.#

Your image is not even showing the top of the window! If you scroll right up, then you finish up with just a few cm2 of forum showing. I agree it is very bad.
 

Damian

Moderator
Mar 14, 2005
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I have to say that I am totally sick of the new owners and their complete lack of interaction and the overburden of adverts.
I have installed Ad Blocker Plus and it is showing me that it is blocking 12 ads on this page alone !!!!

In my opinion they have totally ruined what was a good forum. In general the users come to get information and advice NOT be bombarded with adverts which they can see in any other medium if they wish, and as the adverts tend to be of no use to the average forum user they are a total waste of time.
 
Nov 11, 2009
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I use an Adblock on my MAC and PC which works well and nothing on my iPhone as it doesn’t seem to be affected to any extent. On the phone they sit at the top or bottom of the thread.
 
Sep 29, 2016
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Damian-Moderator said:
I have to say that I am totally sick of the new owners and their complete lack of interaction and the overburden of adverts.
I have installed Ad Blocker Plus and it is showing me that it is blocking 12 ads on this page alone !!!!

In my opinion they have totally ruined what was a good forum. In general the users come to get information and advice NOT be bombarded with adverts which they can see in any other medium if they wish, and as the adverts tend to be of no use to the average forum user they are a total waste of time.

May I ask every forum member and visitor to post a THANK YOU to damian's post, perhaps our unison voices may be heard ?
 
Nov 16, 2015
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Anseo said:
Damian-Moderator said:
I have to say that I am totally sick of the new owners and their complete lack of interaction and the overburden of adverts.
I have installed Ad Blocker Plus and it is showing me that it is blocking 12 ads on this page alone !!!!

In my opinion they have totally ruined what was a good forum. In general the users come to get information and advice NOT be bombarded with adverts which they can see in any other medium if they wish, and as the adverts tend to be of no use to the average forum user they are a total waste of time.

May I ask every forum member and visitor to post a THANK YOU to damian's post, perhaps our unison voices may be heard ?

Done it.
 
Mar 24, 2014
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Damian-Moderator said:
I have to say that I am totally sick of the new owners and their complete lack of interaction and the overburden of adverts.
I have installed Ad Blocker Plus and it is showing me that it is blocking 12 ads on this page alone !!!!

In my opinion they have totally ruined what was a good forum. In general the users come to get information and advice NOT be bombarded with adverts which they can see in any other medium if they wish, and as the adverts tend to be of no use to the average forum user they are a total waste of time.

Adblock Plus is what I am using........Now if they could just stop the "We value your privacy" nonsense, because they quite clearly do not.
 
Nov 16, 2015
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Tried three different ones this afternoon for android , still get the adverts. . Probably close down until after the Woosiefest .
 
May 24, 2014
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When logging in via your mobile, try using the three dots to select "view desktop site", with an ad-blocker I dont get the rammel on my mobile.
 
Oct 12, 2013
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Gabsgrandad said:
Yep, use an ad blocker, (this is the page I'm seeing with your comments) Works well on PC forum. There are however some 'smart' sites where you have to pause the ad blocker to view them, but overall Ad blocker works.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom

Ad_Blocker.jpg

This is the kind of screen I am seeing to the same as GabsGrandad, nothing like the opening Post shows . All mine is done on my mobile .
 
Nov 11, 2009
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Craigyoung said:
Gabsgrandad said:
Yep, use an ad blocker, (this is the page I'm seeing with your comments) Works well on PC forum. There are however some 'smart' sites where you have to pause the ad blocker to view them, but overall Ad blocker works.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom

Ad_Blocker.jpg

This is the kind of screen I am seeing to the same as GabsGrandad, nothing like the opening Post shows . All mine is done on my mobile .

Same here on my MAC at present and just the same as your pictures.
 

Parksy

Moderator
Nov 12, 2009
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Contact with the forum owners doesn't seem to yield results, I know that Damian emailed them with no tangible result and I recently used the 'Contact Us' link at the bottom of the forum page to raise one or two points but I never had the courtesy of an acknowledgement or a reply.
Like others have mentioned, I use an ad blocker, I did try to use this forum without the use of one but it's not a good experience at all.
As for the 'Privacy settings', it's an intrusive nuisance at times.
I clicked 'Reject All' and went to the 'Show Purposes' to switch off every cookie and tracking device, so that every time that the Privacy Setting pop up appears now I simply click Reject All and Save. It's bad enough seeing adverts on this site (before I re-installed Ad Block) without them tracking my email address to intrude into other areas of my online experience. :S
 
Mar 8, 2017
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We have a choice here, a three way one.
Accept the adverts that are paying for the forum.
Pay a subscription to use this forum.
Lose the forum.

I suppose there is a forth way and that is for some generious person to fund a website and host a forum on it. It only costs a couple of hundred pounds a year which could easilly be funded by a few adverts.
 
Nov 11, 2009
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Dodger524 said:
We have a choice here, a three way one.
Accept the adverts that are paying for the forum.
Pay a subscription to use this forum.
Lose the forum.

I suppose there is a forth way and that is for some generious person to fund a website and host a forum on it. It only costs a couple of hundred pounds a year which could easilly be funded by a few adverts.

There’s another option which is the owners could look at other forums which are free and tailor their ads to be less intrusive. I am in three car forums none of which are supported by a commercial magazine and all have ads. On those I don’t use an ad blocker either. If everyone used an ad blocker then the owners could either refuse access which may antagonise members so much that they move to other forums. The advertisers won’t continue to pay for their ads if no one is looking.
 
Nov 16, 2015
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Strangely enough , tonight I dont have so many adverts around the site, and these are all caravan related. ???
 

Parksy

Moderator
Nov 12, 2009
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otherclive said:
Dodger524 said:
We have a choice here, a three way one.
Accept the adverts that are paying for the forum.
Pay a subscription to use this forum.
Lose the forum.

I suppose there is a forth way and that is for some generious person to fund a website and host a forum on it. It only costs a couple of hundred pounds a year which could easilly be funded by a few adverts.

There’s another option which is the owners could look at other forums which are free and tailor their ads to be less intrusive. I am in three car forums none of which are supported by a commercial magazine and all have ads. On those I don’t use an ad blocker either. If everyone used an ad blocker then the owners could either refuse access which may antagonise members so much that they move to other forums. The advertisers won’t continue to pay for their ads if no one is looking.
* The intrusive adverts seem to be antagonising a significant number of members anyway Clive.
With the notable and honourable exception of past editor Nigel Donnelly PCv staff and writers have always seemed a bit hesitant about forum interaction, but this seeming reluctance to engage has entered another level when the website admin can't be bothered to reply to their own forum moderators queries. :angry:
 
Sep 4, 2017
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Seems to me that since the take-over new owners have one thing and only one thing in mind.....money, selling stuff. This forum has 34597 registered users. Some audience if wanting to sell caravanning stuff. It is not difficult to set up a new forum the platform used here as far as I can see is free. Hosting does not cost an arm and a leg but as too how successful it would be is another question. There are a number of alternative forums already available. As I write this I have the same strip add down both sides of my screen, that means 100mm taken by one add shown in duplicate. The owners are idiots because slowly they will lose subscribers and all is lost.
 
Feb 23, 2018
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This forum is almost unusable on Mobile... the webpage jumps around an tries to load pop-ups. This post took 6 attepts to write as some dodgy page opens in a new tab telling me my Samsung has 6 viruses; this only happens on PracticalCaravan.com... Future Publishing need to sort out their advertising as it is putting me off. Does CaravanTalk pull this BS?
 
Oct 12, 2013
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CustardAvenger said:
This forum is almost unusable on Mobile... the webpage jumps around an tries to load pop-ups. This post took 6 attepts to write as some dodgy page opens in a new tab telling me my Samsung has 6 viruses; this only happens on PracticalCaravan.com... Future Publishing need to sort out their
advertising as it is putting me off. Does CaravanTalk pull this BS?

As I have said before I have no problems with adverts as they are at the bottom of my page on mobile out off sight . I have no problem typing posts but like custard has said that a few days ago i got a pop up I saying my Samsung 6 has been giving a virus but I have not clicked onto any thing naughty anything like that but all I done was go back a page and it goes off, when this came up I cleaned my phone reset all my stuff and done a virus check but all came back clean . I think it's a load of crap just so that you download the virus app for your phone . I keep thinking oh s$#! my phone is knackered but my own phone virus scanner comes back clean ! Shocking .
New owners if you do ever read your own forums , SORT YOURSELF OUT :angry:

Craig :blink:
 
May 7, 2012
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I use the forum on a PC or tablet and have no problem with the adverts. With practice I hardly notice them now and on the basis they fund the forum I can see no problem for.
The new owners do seem to have little interest in it though as we no longer have a digital editor adding posts nor do we get posts from other staff which we had before. It would help if one member of staff could keep an eye on it and contribute from time to time, even if this was on a part time basis.
 

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