Forum sustainability, EthicalAds and adblockers

[Moonchild]

As people have undoubtedly already noticed, I've looked into reintroducing ads on the forum to try and keep it self-sustainable. This has been necessary due to the continued increase in costs, and devaluation of the USD (in which most of Pale Moon's donations and DDG search revenue are paid). Google ads clearly weren't an option because it would impose censorship on our forum's community content, so I've explored non-intrusive and GDPR-compliant alternatives that do not impose any draconian oversight of user content.

EthicalAds seems to fit the bill for us, being non-intrusive, non-tracking, no-cookie ads from a smaller advertising firm and fitting the overall developer/power user demographic that is strongly represented in Pale Moon's community, so I've worked with them to get a publisher account set up.

Of course, this does mean that adblockers, if active in the web browser used to visit the forum, may be blocking these ads. As such, a kind request to please disable adblockers on our forum and allow JavaScript (since the ads are served with a small script). That way you can help keep this sustainable without having to reach into your own pockets in these financially unstable times. If you do see something advertised that peaks your interest, please do consider checking out the advertiser's site, as well.
If you really don't want to see ads, then that's fine, keep blocking all you want - but please do consider a small donation in that case to help out.

[Mæstro]

Thanks for reminding me that I won a contest in early November with $50 of prize money which I meant to donate for this project instead of accepting for myself, but I had kept forgetting to write to the organiser about my wishes as (mostly academic) business kept me occupied. I have written back noe. Depending on how they process my letter after they read it, you might see the money coming from me, from the Free Dictionary or a robotic astronomer.

[Night Wing]

I have uBlock Origin disabled for the Pale Moon Forum site and has been for many, many years. UBO is always disabled for the Download Locations, Pale Moon Homepage, Themes and Extensions.

[jobbautista9]

If one wants to allow EthicalAds in any website in uBlock Origin they can use this filter to override EasyList's blocking:

Code: Select all

@@||server.ethicalads.io^$script

[Mæstro]

How much additional revenue would be needed to remove adverts again? Quoting this in Swedish crowns or in euros instead of US dollars, if exchange rates are influencing this, might be appropriate.

[Moonchild]

How much additional revenue would be needed to remove adverts again? Quoting this in Swedish crowns or in euros instead of US dollars, if exchange rates are influencing this, might be appropriate.

Going by current exchange rates, trends and costs, I'd say around $50/month ($600/year) or current equivalent in other currency would realistically cover costs to the point of not needing ads on the forum unless something drastic changes (e.g. complete dollar collapse, being forced to switch server host or type of contract, or what not).

[Basilisk-Dev]

Is there anything else that the community can do to help besides donations and unblocking ads?

[Octopuss]

Oh I can disable Ublock for a simple banner or whatever that's not screaming or showing fullscreen videos, lol (I don't even use browser on my phone anymore because of all that junk unless I absolutely must and it's still not enough with apps ads being at their peak worst).

[Moonchild]

Is there anything else that the community can do to help besides donations and unblocking ads?

For this particular thing it really is just a matter of money, unfortunately. I know the squeeze is on everyone at the moment (except for the ultra-rich) so I'd love to be able to offer alternative ways to help but it literally is a balance sheet that needs to ... balance out. That being said I did notice an uptick in people donating so maybe I can take off the ads again if that remains the case with great thanks to everyone helping out, but it'll need a few months to know if it is not just a temporary thing.

Of course there's the option to help with open issues too, but that requires programming skills putting it beyond a large portion of our community members.

[Octopuss]

I wouldn't expect there to be many people here who care about the ads, so I would say you might as well just keep them for any additional income, which surely will come handy at some point in future.

[Moonchild]

I've made some template changes so (hopefully) the pages no longer jump as the ad loads in.

[Octopuss]

I disabled Ublock on the forum but still don't see any ads btw.

[Moonchild]

I disabled Ublock on the forum but still don't see any ads btw.

Then you're probably blocking it elsewhere. router, host, dns, etc.

[Gemmaugr]

Would one have to click the ads to generate revenue, or just simply see/load them?

[Moonchild]

Would one have to click the ads to generate revenue, or just simply see/load them?

Both display and click-through generate revenue, although of course with orders of magnitude difference.