Mobile display ads on SVTP?

[Thump_rrr]

Here is the thread which shows the great adblock/advertising revolt on Montreal Racing.
The site is bilingual but you can get the gist of it.

http://www.montrealracing.com/forums/showthread.php?879191-Please-disable-adblock-while-browsing-MR

 

[VerySneaky]

I am cool with ads in the sidebar, as long as it doesn't turn into youtube where I have to watch a stupid video for 30 seconds before I can view content, or some other forums that have ads in place of comments.

 

[MovingZen]

Hellcat!!


Suck it up or get a premium membership, nobody rides for free .

 

[CobraBob]

Yeah, Premium Members don't see Google ads. Just one of the benefits of Premium Members (which I highly recommend as it helps fund this great site).

Forums have to rely on some ads for generating revenue. Revenue that helps to keep this site running AND ensure it is state of the art.....which it is. Remember that the majority of members use the site for free. I restrict my visits to my 24" desktop and 13" notebook. I find that it's too cumbersome to browse and post for any length of time using my iPhone 6.

 

[motoman991]

People still surf without AdBlock?

 

[Admin]

I hate ads as much as the next guy, but they're a necessary evil.

Web content isn't free, as much as we'd all like to believe it should be.

Sites such as newspaper sites use paywalls.
Wikipedia uses an all too frequent donation drive.
Social media sells your data so that advertisers can better market to you.
Search engines have paid results.
Most sites use display ads to generate revenue.

The fact is, running a highly trafficked site is expensive. And without a generous wealthy benefactor, we have to use display ads to keep the lights on.


That said, the placement and the amount of mobile display ads is not set in stone. We're just testing them for now to see how they do.

The mobile theme/skin had been ad free since the beginning, the free ride is over. Half of our traffic now comes from mobile and mobile CPM's are on the rise, which makes mobile display ads worth looking into.

 

[Admin]

Also... I'm changing the click bait title of this thread and moving it to the appropriate forum.

 

[GT Premi]

I don't visit the site using a mobile device. The site is just too "heavy" and cumbersome. I tried the mobile site once, and it was terrible. That said, though, have you admins given any thought to the damage you're doing to mobile users' data plans? I don't think any providers are still offering unlimited data plans anymore, and if you're going to be flooding mobile users with ads now, you're costing them money. Just something else to consider with your decision to push ads to mobile.

 

[Admin]

I don't visit the site using a mobile device. The site is just too "heavy" and cumbersome. I tried the mobile site once, and it was terrible. That said, though, have you admins given any thought to the damage you're doing to mobile users' data plans? I don't think any providers are still offering unlimited data plans anymore, and if you're going to be flooding mobile users with ads now, you're costing them money. Just something else to consider with your decision to push ads to mobile.

If you had visited the site on a mobile device (and you really should before commenting), you'd notice that it's a completely different template/skin. Super lightweight.

mobile forumhome is only 450 to 600KB in size (including the ads). not even a tiny drop in the data bucket.

 

[GT Premi]

You didn't read what I said. I did state that I have visited the mobile version of the site. It sucks. I guess I could have used better wording to differentiate visiting the full site on a mobile device and visiting the mobile site on a mobile device. Either way, the mobile site sucks. (Or sucked the last time I visited.)

In other words, the mobile site sucks and the full site is too heavy for a mobile device.

 

[Admin]

You didn't read what I said.

I did read what you said.. I understood it to mean that you visited the site once on a mobile device, but it was heavy and cumbersome. Which in my mind, meant that you visited the site on mobile, prior to us having the current mobile skin.


Regardless, what in your mind makes the mobile skin suck and what would make it better? I'm genuinely interested in feedback.

 

[03cobra#694]

I have no issues on my little phone with the mobile version. Did you click on the go the "full site" button or something like that at the bottom of the page?

 

[GT Premi]

I did read what you said.. I understood it to mean that you visited the site once on a mobile device, but it was heavy and cumbersome. Which in my mind, meant that you visited the site on mobile, prior to us having the current mobile skin.


Regardless, what in your mind makes the mobile skin suck and what would make it better? I'm genuinely interested in feedback.

That was probably a year or more ago, and I can't remember specifically what I hated about it. However, it was bad enough that I preferred dealing with the weight of the full site on my mobile devices than to visit the actual mobile site. I haven't seen the new skin.

 

[SID297]

That was probably a year or more ago, and I can't remember specifically what I hated about it. However, it was bad enough that I preferred dealing with the weight of the full site on my mobile devices than to visit the actual mobile site. I haven't seen the new skin.

We did not have a mobile skin a year ago. Check out the current version and post your thoughts.

 

[GT Premi]

The "new" skin is alright. Nothing special. Clicking the forums link takes me to the full site, though. However, it is SIGNIFICANTLY faster than before. It [the full site] is actually fully acceptable for mobile use now.

I also noticed that, on my desktop, the pages load almost instantly now. Good job on the maintenance yesterday!

 

[Admin]

The "new" skin is alright. Nothing special. Clicking the forums link takes me to the full site, though. However, it is SIGNIFICANTLY faster than before. It [the full site] is actually fully acceptable for mobile use now.

I also noticed that, on my desktop, the pages load almost instantly now. Good job on the maintenance yesterday!

I'm still tweaking the settings today, should be able to squeeze a bit more performance out of it.
So far I'm really happy with the boost.