If You're Blocking Ads While On ATS, You Get A Big Ugly Message

So wait. How many flags do we need before we don't see any more ads? Is that posted anywhere?

originally posted by: Domo1
a reply to: tothetenthpower

So basically this won't affect people if they just post every dumbass thought that pops into their head!? I forgot I don't get ads anymore.

Woah dudette......

You're telling me everyone is hearing my thoughts? And now you want them to post every thought of me online?

Interesting observation:

I use a couple different machines to access the website and received the "ugly message" on both. Since I do not have a problem supporting the site by allowing ads, I added the site to my list of exceptions on those machines.

Now I see the ads on one machine, but not the other.

Why is that?

I have never used a add blocker adds do not bother me and I think that blocking the adds only hurts sites I enjoy using.

You have my full support on this one, which I know counts for little

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

The only reason I use an add blocker here is because on iOS last year a candy crush or something ad kept redirecting my iPhone to the App Store. No matter what I couldn't get by it with out ad blocker to read ats.

a reply to: Xstokerx

That has long since been corrected.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Since the ads are based on your search history they are not showing you something that you have not already looked at.

I hear this a lot but I definitely get ads that are pretty far removed from anything I've searched for. Nothing embarrassing, just something I would never want or search for.

a reply to: Domo1

I am not an expert but I am sure there are some predictive algorithms being used so not everything will be straight from your search engine but my point to the other poster was how weak-minded do you have to be where you start to fear for your personal integrity that you will subconsciously patronize these ads? I think it is just more lame complaining for the sake of complaining. I would wager you are getting bombarded by more television advertising than on this site.

originally posted by: KellyPrettyBear
a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Good to hear. It would be a tragic loss to lose ATS.

How about a freemium model?

Such sites sell premium features to maybe 5%
Of the members, who wind up paying for all
The freeloaders.

Fyi my little website has grossed over 2 million dollars since 2001...and I've never sold ADS on it.

Kev

---

If this is a real problem for people where ATS is itself
put at risk, I guess we will just have to BUY IT!

I mean your daily ad revenue is probably about $500 to $1000 a day
and then add in other ancilliary profits, so the site on a good year
is at $360,000 a year gross. I would value the ATS website at
four-times earnings for business purposes, so I could probably
do $1.45 million US on an outright sale.

I would then move it to a secret Vancouver, BC, Canada location
to ensure ABSOLUTELY NO US, Canadian or foreign government
intrusion and utter secrecy where ALL website data and all
site-to-end-user-and-end-user-to-site communications
would go Shor's Algorithm resistant realtime encryption
packet encoding via a custom applet.

I'd put the site on an older but still goodie IBM System
z10 Mainframe (I should have a spare one around downstairs...)
so I can handle between 3000 to 7,000 users at a time!

Ads would then goto ONLY JPEG banners and user-click
videos ONLY max - 30 seconds long!

If worst comes to worst we could probably swing it.....

I'm just happy to be on ATS without popups and flashy ads banging my eyeballs all the time...kudos skeptic, for trying to thread the needle with this.......

originally posted by: SkepticOverlord

originally posted by: Daedalus
I've got 4,430 posts, i've been here a couple weeks shy of 12 years, I still see ads when i turn the blocker off.

The metric for disabling ads for members favors content-starters, those who create threads. Your flag count is low, that's why you're not in the upper-category.

See I don't see ads but I still get the adblocker message?
If I don't get ads anyway, do I need to unblock or whitelist ATS?

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

S.O.

Just to tell you how much I appreciate this thread and your position I have made ATS my one and only white listed site. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is this is a site I use and care about.

Most sites that started blocking content would lose my traffic, but ATS has grudgingly become a site I actually value and consider important to my life. Could I live with out it...sure, but no need since your request is reasonable and made with sincerity.

Thank you from one of the hardest to please members you will ever find...anywhere.

Also I can't see any avatars, what's all that about?

a reply to: Domo1

Nope it's based on flags, not post count.

So thread contributing members are the ones that would be absolved from ads.

~Tenth

a reply to: blupblup

What do you see just under Basic Info here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

You should have a WayAbove status of 1, which means we stop showing you ads, and there are no restrictions.

But still a option to get a paid subscription or donate and get rid of ads possibility would be cool.

And not only with paypal.

A bitcoin address that starts with 1ATS----- or 1Above------ would be cool though and maybe opens up a new area in adrevenue

a reply to: Cygnis

originally posted by: SkepticOverlord
a reply to: blupblup

What do you see just under Basic Info here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

You should have a WayAbove status of 1, which means we stop showing you ads, and there are no restrictions.

Yeah I have a WAS of one... and funnily now my avatar (and everyone else's) is showing.
Was weird, they were all just grey boxes of text


Thanks SO.

Since I first saw the big ugly message no more than a couple hours ago, I've disable my ad block for ATS, but then all avatars have just disappeared.
All I see is a grey space where the avatar is supposed to be.
Did this happen to anyone else?

a reply to: athousandlives

It can take up to 15 minutes for the system to recognize that you've disabled ad blocking. At that point, everything will be normal.