Mudcat ads - new workaround available

Subject: RE: Mudcat ads
From: GUEST,JHW but the robots have forgotten
Date: 02 Mar 20 - 02:45 PM

I'm not a member any more but I still get ads. WTH, there are ads all over the net. I never click any, just in case its a rogue. None here today but that's just chance.

Subject: RE: Mudcat ads
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Mar 20 - 06:33 PM

JHW,
1) The ads don't have anything to do with Mudcat membership, other than Google having bot thingie on Mudcat's pages, and
2) You're still a member. Your computer trashed your cookie, and you just need to log back in. Joe Offer can help if you forgot your password.

Subject: RE: Mudcat ads
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 May 20 - 11:30 PM

Google changed their ads a while back, and they became much more annoying. And apparently, they no longer gave Max the option of putting the ads where he wanted to put them. Max puts the script for the ads at the top of the page, and the ads go wherever they want to go. They do pay for the operation of Mudcat, so we have to have them.

A Mudcatter sent me a personal message last week to complain about the ads. I told her that I was usually (maybe always) able to eliminate the ads from a message by clicking the printer-friendly link at the bottom of each message.

But this trick didn't work at all for the printer-friendly link at the top of threads that allows you to display an entire thread for printing. And the ads even showed up on the data that I sent to my printer, so Mudcatters would have to put up with printing a bunch of ads.

I finally figured this all out last week Monday, and I emailed Max about it. Max got to work, and took the ad scripts out of all the printer-friendly pages. So, if you want to read a thread or a message without ads, use the printer-friendly feature.

Thanks, Max.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Mudcat ads - new workaround available
From: DaveRo
Date: 05 May 20 - 03:10 AM

This thread started with a complaint about the adverts on a phone, for which Mudcat was never designed. So I just took a look at the printer-friendly pages on an iPhone with a 4" screen. I use Firefox on all my computers and mobile devices, so I started with that.

A big problem with the printer-friendly pages on a phone, like the whole site, is that the font is very small. You can turn it sideways, which might be big enough, but if you expand it with reverse pinch it goes off the edge. However, this is easily overcome in Firefox by using Reader View - the icon to the right on the address bar. There you can adjust the font size easily.

I tried to get reader-view on Safari, which is the phone's default browser, and couldn't find it. It did briefly display 'Reader View Available' so it's obviously capable of it. Googling suggests there should be an icon for it but I couldn't find it - maybe on a bigger phone? I suggest you poke about and google - it's there somewhere.

Reader view should work on Android phones too, it does in Firefox. (But so do ad-blockers.)

BTW - be aware that the printer-friendly page is always in date order, even if you started with a thread in reverse order.

Subject: RE: Mudcat ads - new workaround available
From: Felipa
Date: 05 May 20 - 07:59 AM

I do find the adverts intensely annoying. Why do they have to fill the middle of the screen (desktop computer, windows), breaking up portions of the discussion, rather than popping up in a corner as adverts on other websites do? [or at the top of the page as Joe says Max tries to do] In fact in the format they appear I don't read the ads at all ... I don't think they are having a subliminal effect. They only serve to make the threads difficult to read. Whereas I do notice the adverts to the side of the main forum listing; I have been intrigued and amused to see a notice about folkies being Conservative, but I haven't yet bothered to click on the picture alligned to that tag.

I've found firefox blocking popups on email, so that I couldn't follow links given within an email message. I don't have problems following clickable links on Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Mudcat ads - new workaround available
From: Felipa
Date: 05 May 20 - 08:02 AM

yes, printer-friendly worked for me
I had to return to normal mode to post a reply.

Subject: RE: Mudcat ads - new workaround available
From: Felipa
Date: 05 May 20 - 08:05 AM

maybe that advert about conservative folksingers was on youtube
... it must have been

Subject: RE: Mudcat ads - new workaround available
From: GUEST,Howard Jones
Date: 05 May 20 - 08:21 AM

Internet advertising is in danger of eating itself. I think most of us understand that sites need advertising in order to provide a free service, and I am prepared to tolerate it up to a point, provided it is not too intrusive (although I've very seldom seen anything that interests me). However the advertising has become so intrusive in some cases that the site itself becomes unreadable. Mudcat is by no means the worst, I've seen online newspaper reports where the text is squeezed around the ads and almost impossible to follow. If this drives users away (and it does me) then the publisher isn't getting its content seen, the advertisers aren't getting their ads seen, and the viewer isn't finding the information they were seeking. How can this work for anyone?

I also wonder whether advertisers have thought about the negative impact of excessive and repetitive advertising? The first time I have to sit through an ad which is preventing me from getting on with what I want, it is simply an irritant. By the fourth or fifth time I am seriously pissed off with them and I am likely to actively avoid purchasing something from them.

Subject: RE: Mudcat ads - new workaround available
From: Mo the caller
Date: 05 May 20 - 10:25 AM

Very true Howard.
And ironic that there is a large coloured ad in the middle of Jack's post of Aug 10th on my screen

Subject: RE: Mudcat ads - new workaround available
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 May 20 - 03:14 PM

When Mudcat started having ads, Max was able to place them where he wanted them. Not so anymore. He puts the ad script at the top of the page, but I'm not sure it matters where in the page the script is located - Google puts ads where Google puts ads. I found the ads much more appealing when they behaved better. Google ought to know that. But hey, they pay the bills. Try the "printer friendly" workaround. It works pretty well.
Oh, and DaveRo pointed out that if you add &desc to the URL of a printer-friendly thread, it will appear in descending order. There are a few other such URL tags at Mudcat that you can play with if you find you have nothing to do during this confinement. The ones I like to play with are at Google Books - you can tweak the displays at Google Books in many interesting ways.

-Joe-