Ad Blocker Detector

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#1400923 6-Oct-2015 11:58

Not an adblock thing, but off on a tangent, it would be good if you had some kind of service to accompany subscription...
Like teaming up with dns4me.net. Something like $30 per year geekzone subscription with accompanying geo-unblocking service included too.

freitasm

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#1400928 6-Oct-2015 12:07

Dairyxox: Not an adblock thing, but off on a tangent, it would be good if you had some kind of service to accompany subscription...
Like teaming up with dns4me.net. Something like $30 per year geekzone subscription with accompanying geo-unblocking service included too.

Interesting idea.

Satch:
freitasm: I was recently approached by a startup that is pitching a subscription service - the difference here is that instead of users subscribing to Geekzone, users sign up for this service and any website running this service will offer subscribers' features and receive a share of the monthly payment based on pageviews. The advantage for the user is that if this company manages to get some good sites behind it then users get "one subscription to rule them all".
Comments on the idea?

Is this option likely to cost us more?

It would cost more than an individual Geekzone subscription, but it would give ad free access to more sites. From the prices I've seen it would be around twice as much, so not that bad.

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#1400955 6-Oct-2015 12:40

Guv: I'm using adblock on chrome with this site whitelisted and it still comes up.

Ditto.

gzt

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#1401042 6-Oct-2015 14:33

freitasm: We are looking at ways of reminding people that ads are our only revenue for the site.

Currently we see around 35% of pages served to browsers with ad blockers installed.

We already put a red bar on top of the pages asking for people to whitelist Geekzone and a yellow bar reminding people that there's a Geekzone subscription option.

I was recently approached by a startup that is pitching a subscription service - the difference here is that instead of users subscribing to Geekzone, users sign up for this service and any website running this service will offer subscribers' features and receive a share of the monthly payment based on pageviews. The advantage for the user is that if this company manages to get some good sites behind it then users get "one subscription to rule them all".

Comments on the idea?

The web has needed something like this for a while so I am generally supportive of this approach to the problem.

Several have tried, its a tricky one, no one has really solved it so I would be interested to hear more about it.

Doubling the subscription, well I guess that depends on what else comes with this new service.

mdf

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#1401385 6-Oct-2015 22:34

I block ads (and flash) primarily due to the effect on my internet browsing experience - slow load times, weird reformatting etc. Not all sites are as enlightened as others. But equally I do try and support the sites I like/use frequently, either by subscribing, donating or purchasing something.

The bundled up thing sounds interesting, but I'd be concerned if I was forced to subscribe/send money to some sites I have no use for/actual objections to in order to support other sites. If I don't want X, Y and Z, why should I have to pay for it to get A, B and C (I'm looking at you, Sky). But the way you were describing it, if I only looked at one site out of the bundle, that site would get all my revenue?

Well off topic for an ad blocking forum, but I'd be willing to shell out some $$$ for some Geekzone merch. I can always do with more black hoodies and t-shirts with logos of things I like on them.

JimmyH

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#1401398 6-Oct-2015 23:13

freitasm: For those with false positive, are you using Ghostery or other such software?

I have recently started getting the banner.

I run adblock, but have GZ whitelisted, and have just double-checked that it's whitelisted with the icon greyed-out when I am on GZ pages. I didn't get the banner for ages, but it started a few weeks ago.

I run Firefox, and I also have NoScript installed, with GZ whitelisted for that. I have Ghostery and Flashblocker installed as well.

Flashblocker is staying put, and I would need a pretty good reason to disable Ghostery.

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#1401672 7-Oct-2015 12:11

freitasm: It would cost more than an individual Geekzone subscription, but it would give ad free access to more sites. From the prices I've seen it would be around twice as much, so not that bad.

While I don't mind paying the current subscription price to support the running costs of GZ, I would struggle to justify paying twice that amount for the same thing (I wouldn't be interested in this service for any other websites.

To be honest, I'd expect more for my money if the price went up. As it is, I'm not getting anywhere with (what should be) a reasonably straightforward request to change the reset read flags functionality so it is totally controlled by the user. This impacts my enjoyment of GZ as I like to browse/scan all new topics and posts, but I am forced to do this every single visit if I want to keep up. I don't have the freedom to quickly visit to reply to a specific post as my reset read posts are reset after each visit. Using the new posts today/yesterday doesn't cut it as I still have to look at the date on each post to see if it is new to me rather than seeing the easy to spot new icon against each, or pressing the option to go straight to the new post. Time is rather spent on features such as voting for posts which I see as a nice to have compared to my more valuable functionality request.

Sorry for the rant but I wanted to justify the reasons for my view on an increased subscription.

networkn

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#1401695 7-Oct-2015 12:56

Michaelfjs: Bloody annoying, if it keeps showing up I'll just quit geekzone altogether.

Talk about going to far.

Heh, I am truly unsure how the community will continue without your significant contribution!

Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill.

Talkiet

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#1401713 7-Oct-2015 13:24

Dairyxox: Not an adblock thing, but off on a tangent, it would be good if you had some kind of service to accompany subscription...
Like teaming up with dns4me.net. Something like $30 per year geekzone subscription with accompanying geo-unblocking service included too.

Wouldn't there be some hypocrisy there? Trying so hard to push people into paying or disabling adblockers, but bundling it with a service AT LEAST PARTIALLY (capitals for emphasis since I know it's not the only reason) designed to allow people to not pay local businesses for their services?

Cheers - N

(ps. I know every reason you will come up with for justifying their use, and I don't disagree with many of those reasons)

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

freitasm

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#1401716 7-Oct-2015 13:31

Talkiet:
Dairyxox: Not an adblock thing, but off on a tangent, it would be good if you had some kind of service to accompany subscription...
Like teaming up with dns4me.net. Something like $30 per year geekzone subscription with accompanying geo-unblocking service included too.

Wouldn't there be some hypocrisy there? Trying so hard to push people into paying or disabling adblockers, but bundling it with a service AT LEAST PARTIALLY (capitals for emphasis since I know it's not the only reason) designed to allow people to not pay local businesses for their services?

Hmmm. No. It would be similar if the offering was with a service that bypassed their checks and consumed the content for free. As it is the mentioned services don't do that. One still needs to pay for the services, these are just provided from other regions.

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freitasm

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#1401738 7-Oct-2015 13:34

Satch:
freitasm: It would cost more than an individual Geekzone subscription, but it would give ad free access to more sites. From the prices I've seen it would be around twice as much, so not that bad.

While I don't mind paying the current subscription price to support the running costs of GZ, I would struggle to justify paying twice that amount for the same thing (I wouldn't be interested in this service for any other websites.

To be honest, I'd expect more for my money if the price went up. As it is, I'm not getting anywhere with (what should be) a reasonably straightforward request to change the reset read flags functionality so it is totally controlled by the user. This impacts my enjoyment of GZ as I like to browse/scan all new topics and posts, but I am forced to do this every single visit if I want to keep up. I don't have the freedom to quickly visit to reply to a specific post as my reset read posts are reset after each visit. Using the new posts today/yesterday doesn't cut it as I still have to look at the date on each post to see if it is new to me rather than seeing the easy to spot new icon against each, or pressing the option to go straight to the new post. Time is rather spent on features such as voting for posts which I see as a nice to have compared to my more valuable functionality request.

Sorry for the rant but I wanted to justify the reasons for my view on an increased subscription.

I feel your pain but let's step back.

I left a good job in 2005 to work full time on Geekzone. Over the years I developed lots of features as people requested them. But at some point revenue started going down. So much that after eight years I decided to go back to a full time position instead of being self-employed.

This means I work full time during the week and spend time on Geekzone - moderating, managing the IT infrastructure, business dealings, etc after hours. Which means that I don't have much time to implement new features now.

You see the fact here is that one of the side effects of ad blocking is reduced revenue, which means less time for me to do what you want.

Then someone in previous replies mention that I am going a step too far by asking people to whitelist Geekzone.

I will stop here.

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Satch

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#1402298 8-Oct-2015 12:10

freitasm:
Satch:
freitasm: It would cost more than an individual Geekzone subscription, but it would give ad free access to more sites. From the prices I've seen it would be around twice as much, so not that bad.

While I don't mind paying the current subscription price to support the running costs of GZ, I would struggle to justify paying twice that amount for the same thing (I wouldn't be interested in this service for any other websites.

To be honest, I'd expect more for my money if the price went up. As it is, I'm not getting anywhere with (what should be) a reasonably straightforward request to change the reset read flags functionality so it is totally controlled by the user. This impacts my enjoyment of GZ as I like to browse/scan all new topics and posts, but I am forced to do this every single visit if I want to keep up. I don't have the freedom to quickly visit to reply to a specific post as my reset read posts are reset after each visit. Using the new posts today/yesterday doesn't cut it as I still have to look at the date on each post to see if it is new to me rather than seeing the easy to spot new icon against each, or pressing the option to go straight to the new post. Time is rather spent on features such as voting for posts which I see as a nice to have compared to my more valuable functionality request.

Sorry for the rant but I wanted to justify the reasons for my view on an increased subscription.

I feel your pain but let's step back.

I left a good job in 2005 to work full time on Geekzone. Over the years I developed lots of features as people requested them. But at some point revenue started going down. So much that after eight years I decided to go back to a full time position instead of being self-employed.

This means I work full time during the week and spend time on Geekzone - moderating, managing the IT infrastructure, business dealings, etc after hours. Which means that I don't have much time to implement new features now.

You see the fact here is that one of the side effects of ad blocking is reduced revenue, which means less time for me to do what you want.

Then someone in previous replies mention that I am going a step too far by asking people to whitelist Geekzone.

I will stop here.

I fully support pitching in to help pay for the running costs of this very useful resource and personally do not support the use of ad blockers on GZ. My point is though that new features have continued to be developed (perhaps not at the rate you used to when GZ was your full time job - I wasn't around these parts then), but a number of them have been more in the nice to have bucket that haven't improved the functionality of GZ from my point of view.

A manual read reset posts option would be probably the most useful thing in my opinion. It is clear from your response that perhaps the current level of subscription won't cover such an enhancement. I am simply pointing out that I would not be prepared to pay an even higher subscription fee for nothing extra (I would assume you would get a similar return to what you currently get otherwise it would not be sensible for you to look at the new subscription model). Access to whatever other sites this new subscription would pay for doesn't interest me as I am happy helping helping fund GZ and not other services. I hope this makes sense.

In summary (as you asked for opinions), I would not keep my GZ subscription if you moved to the new suggested model if I was not getting more for the increased cost (of the subscription overall, not the cut you get). Cheers.

freitasm

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#1402313 8-Oct-2015 12:19

What if we kept the old model and offered the new model? People could chose one or the other...

That's how I am thinking of going.

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Satch

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#1402319 8-Oct-2015 12:22

freitasm: What if we kept the old model and offered the new model? People could chose one or the other...

That's how I am thinking of going.

I would definitely continue to subscribe directly to GZ at the current price, no questions there.

networkn

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#1402321 8-Oct-2015 12:23

Do you have the subscriber base to make it worth splitting in two?

Personally for me, I'd rather pay more and get a mobile friendly (tapatalk), and some improvements to the quoting system (Head-Fi has the best I've ever seen).

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