New ads

[Gerry Zagorski]

Appreciate the feedback and going to look into and work on this so some patience please...

[Gerry Zagorski]

Looks like opting out of the ads is working on windows/chrome, at least it is for me.. Still trying to get a solution for Firefox since it's not working there or on Safari/IOS mobile devices. Waiting to hear back from InfoLinks on those.

Let me know if any of you are still having issues and if your on mobile or your computer and what operating system and browser you're using.

[Jigman13]

On my Microsoft laptop, I opted out of the ads last week. They came back today and I had to opt out again. That shouldn't be and likely violates a privacy policy on the Infolinks side of things.

On my Android Samsung smartphone, the ads offer no option to opt out.

While the ads are small on laptop/desktop and not as invasive, they inhibit functionality and navigation on my smartphone. And clicking the "X" is 50/50... Not having the opt-out is detrimental to the user experience.

Have the Samsung Pixel 2 with the Android operating system. 95% of my logins are from my smartphone as opposed to my desktop so I'm really not concerned about the impact of these info links using the desktop application and operating system.

As far as accessing NJF using my smartphone, these info links are a royal pain in the ass. As Jigman pointed out, you don't have the opt-out option using my smartphone and trying to interact with the thread is constantly interrupted with these links. Not to mention when you go to reply on the thread, the info links logo is right in the same location as the reply icon and half the time instead of replying to the thread you end up being directed to an advertisement. In addition these ads take up a majority of space on your screen and are frustrating as hell trying to interact with the site.

Again over 90% of my access to the site is through my smartphone so those hits are definitely going to decline since as Jigman eluded the irritation of the advertisements is detrimental to the user experience. The decision you need to make is whether the short-term advertising revenue generation from the info links application outweighs the benefits of however you plan on monetizing the site down the road but for the short-term from a user perspective these things are a real pain in the ass.

It's always been my understanding that the level of traffic on a site is what drives the ultimate valuation at some point whenever that event takes place. At the same time Ad revenues are important but if they're going to erode your user base you need to decide which is most beneficial to you as the owner of the site. Strictly from a user perspective, these info links and advertisements are a real irritation.

[NJSquatch]

The user experience on the phone is terrible. The ads are always in the way and are blocking content. The opt out isn’t going to work unless you have third party cookies enabled. This is disabled by default in most browsers and is not a good practice because of privacy concerns.

Gerry.

There has to be way to embed the ads in the page and not hover on top. I have seen this on other message boards and it is much less intrusive. As Tom has said I get the need for generating revenue but if the user base that is providing the content goes away there won’t be visitors.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Trying to get a fix for the mobile experience from Infolinks. It's been challenging since people are out for the holidays...

Gerry your site, your rules. Just a thought. Since I'd guess a majority of your traffic comes from mobile devices, would it make more sense to have Infolinks shut the service off entirely until they have time to properly service the business you've worked effortlessly to develop over the years.

Why risk your business if a vendor can't meet your business needs.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Just shut them down until I can get some reasonable fixes, especially on mobile..

[Gerry Zagorski]

OK the fix is apparently live.... You should only see one ad per hour.

[NJ Dave]

For an Android, download the free add blocker app and run it thru there. The app has a red symbol like a stop sigh. I'd ad a photo but this site is too difficult to post pictures with.
I had the same problem with the adds a few weeks ago and this fixed it.