Display ad reduction

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Moonchild
Pale Moon guru
Pale Moon guru
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Display ad reduction

Unread post by Moonchild » 2019-03-14, 20:59

Because several parties have been overreacting to having display ads in 2 particular places because they are loaded by default after installation, and insisting Pale Moon as a result should be classified as "adware", even if the browser itself is 100% free and Open Source with no advertising in the application itself, I've been working on resolving this situation to everyone's satisfaction:

The "first run" page

This is a one-time displayed page providing a few basic hints on use of Pale Moon and which sites to get more information at.
Like all other pages on the Pale Moon website, this included an ad in the footer. This ad has been removed from that particular page (but other pages on the website will necessarily continue to have display ads) to prevent the "displays ad on install" criterion people use to classify software as "adware". This likely won't cause much impact.

The Pale Moon start portal

This is a bigger problem. The display ad there offsets the costs they have to make to run this (geo-aware!) start portal for free for your benefit.
I have worked with our partner start.me to remove the ad from the static (non-customized) pages as of today, but this will cut into their revenue. Impact of this is not yet known but might need to be compensated in another way (e.g. through change of the available search engine for poorly-paying localized pages, or affiliate links).
If you use the portal's customization capabilities, please consider signing up for their Pro account which is a very reasonable price for the fully customizable and cross-device start portal service they provide.
Depending on the actual impact on revenue and what needs to be worked out with them, which won't be known until at least a month from now, we may need to bump our current "ad-free" Patreon goal up, as well, which I really would hope to avoid. Please do consider becoming a patron to help support further development, hosting, and additional free services we provide to Pale Moon users like Sync.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

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