Tweaktown popup to disable adblocker?

[brandonwh64]

It's not supported by Adblock Plus. It's also not supported by Chrome.
If you want it to work, you need to use uBlock or uBlock Origin and a Firefox based browser.
More info here: Inline-script-tag-filtering

OK cool thanks man!

 

[cdawall]

I visit from my phone and it isn't bad.

 

[CamWilmot]

Hi folks,


My name is Cameron and I am the founder and owner of TweakTown. One of my reviewers alerted me to this thread, so I want to join in on the fun and post a couple of responses.

1) Regarding the comment about being pro AMD and/or anti NVIDIA. Yes, in previous years, we had huge issues with NVIDIA (and AMD as well, but to a bit of a lesser extent). Around about two years ago, those issues were resolved. We now have a great relationship with NVIDIA, as we have a great relationship with AMD. Both companies sample us, include us on all press calls, invite us to events, work with us on giveaways, and so on. There is no bitterness toward NVIDIA whatsoever - those days are long over and both sides have built bridges and got over it. The relationships with NVIDIA and AMD are stronger than they have ever been.

2) About our ad recovery system, it's new and there are some bugs we are working on fixing right as we speak. For the past few months, we have been forcing ad recovery. We are trying a new ad recovery system that asks ad blocking users to watch a short video every 24 hours. After watching the video, you get ad-free access to our content for 24 hours. Is this such a bad thing? We are completely anti subscription as we believe content on the internet should be free of charge, but we also need to pay our awesome reviewers and reporters. If you can't accept that, sorry, but no worries, don't visit TweakTown.


I'm happy to directly answer any questions anyone has here.

Thanks!

 

[dorsetknob]

I'm happy to directly answer any questions anyone has here.

Not a Question but a Comment

Internet users ARE SICK AND TIRED OF PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH MALWARE EMBEDDED ADS ECT

That and over intrusive pop up/pop under Ads not forgetting those Banner ads that drop Trojan's and virus's (so called drive by attacks).

THIS IS WHY THERE HAS BEEN A MASSIVE INCREASE IN ORDENERY PEOPLE USING NO SCRIPT/AD BLOCKERS ECT.

PC maintenance people now Generally recomend use of no Script and ad blockers to people because Because of the Virus/Trojan Risk
The Ad industry has caused this problem
the Ad industry Failed to Sort out its own problems ( to busy chasing bucks to realize their Revenue Stream was hemorrhaging ).
The Ad industry inspired and uses super cookies which invade peoples browsing privacy
Sites will Die because the Ad industry still fail's to deliver a product that is safe and non offensive and non Snooping.

PS Watch your Traffic probably Drop because of your AD policy ( less Traffic= less Revenue )

 

[newtekie1]

PS Watch your Traffic probably Drop because of your AD policy ( less Traffic= less Revenue )

If they aren't displaying the ads, then they aren't making revenue anyway.

If you like the site and appreciate the content, add it to your whitelist, or watch the freaking ad once a day so they can at least make a little money.

People just always want everything for free. Sorry, but people have to make a living.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Hi folks,


My name is Cameron and I am the founder and owner of TweakTown. One of my reviewers alerted me to this thread, so I want to join in on the fun and post a couple of responses.

1) Regarding the comment about being pro AMD and/or anti NVIDIA. Yes, in previous years, we had huge issues with NVIDIA (and AMD as well, but to a bit of a lesser extent). Around about two years ago, those issues were resolved. We now have a great relationship with NVIDIA, as we have a great relationship with AMD. Both companies sample us, include us on all press calls, invite us to events, work with us on giveaways, and so on. There is no bitterness toward NVIDIA whatsoever - those days are long over and both sides have built bridges and got over it. The relationships with NVIDIA and AMD are stronger than they have ever been.

2) About our ad recovery system, it's new and there are some bugs we are working on fixing right as we speak. For the past few months, we have been forcing ad recovery. We are trying a new ad recovery system that asks ad blocking users to watch a short video every 24 hours. After watching the video, you get ad-free access to our content for 24 hours. Is this such a bad thing? We are completely anti subscription as we believe content on the internet should be free of charge, but we also need to pay our awesome reviewers and reporters. If you can't accept that, sorry, but no worries, don't visit TweakTown.


I'm happy to directly answer any questions anyone has here.

Thanks!

Thanks for coming into the lion's den. I hope you'll be as civilly treated as you were by making yourself available.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I like when I can use adblock to block the annoying "we noticed you have adblock installed" crap. Sometimes that doesn't work.

What irritates me the most is when I'm following a story and it takes me to site that has the story visible, but it's blurred out and I get a message to disable adblock. There are two ways around this.

1) This is the nice and easy way - I reload the page and as soon as I see the story load I click on the STOP (X) so the page stops loading anymore info. Most of the time this work and I can read the story without issues. If it doesn't work....

2) I have to go into Inspect Elements (in Chrome, ctrl+shift+i OR right click on what I want to inspect), then I have to go through and delete out elements that are blocking data from displaying correctly (this works sometimes) or I actually need to edit the attributes and change settings: remove transparency, adjust font color and etc. This is more of a pain in the ass and not really worth my time. I only do this if I really, really want to read the story I'm following up on.

In the end, it depends on my determination of what I want to do.

 

[Beastie]

I run adblocker and noscript as normal, I only make exceptions in specific cases.

The reasons are simple, I don't like viruses and malware, and I don't want my screen cluttered up with ads for stuff that I would never be interested in.

I am happy with the advertising on TPU as it all seems to be legit and it is targeted at TPU's subject matter.

 

[dorsetknob]

If you like the site and appreciate the content, add it to your whitelist, or watch the freaking ad once a day so they can at least make a little money.

That once a day Ad just might be Contaminated with malware/Trojens or a Virus
you will not know untill its to late
as i Said people are sick to death of this Ad Russian roulette
The Advertising Industry needs to get its act together
CLEAN HOUSE AND KEEP IT CLEAN then maybe people will not be afraid of ads on sites

 

[CamWilmot]

That once a day Ad just might be Contaminated with malware/Trojens or a Virus
you will not know untill its to late
as i Said people are sick to death of this Ad Russian roulette
The Advertising Industry needs to get its act together
CLEAN HOUSE AND KEEP IT CLEAN then maybe people will not be afraid of ads on sites

Highly unlikely as we are just running a video with basic viewing tracking for stats.

 

[Maban]

I stopped visiting Tweaktown this year for this very reason. TT has always been one of the worst websites in regards to their advertising. I made a profile post about it back in June. I was going to make a forum post asking how to get around the block but I decided TT wasn't worth the effort. Ads everywhere is terrible practice. The only reason why I kept visiting TT until the block is because I had the ability to disable ads. Without that ability the site simply doesn't exist to me anymore. And what's ironic is that if TT would just use some common sense ad practices I would just disable ad blocking. I disable it for TPU and a few other sites because their ads don't annoy the crap out of me. (Though the occasional side margin ads and the new Newegg affiliate links do annoy me a little)

I haven't experienced it myself but I have heard of others being served with malware-laced ads from TT.

For me it wasn't a big loss though because I only really ever went there for Sneekypeet's case/heatsink reviews and some occasional news. I'm happy with my cases and heatsinks so I don't have a need for them anymore anyway.

 

[dorsetknob]

Highly unlikely as we are just running a video with basic viewing tracking for stats

The water has already been Tainted by the advertising industry its not your Fault
People see "please disable your ad blocking software and now they think twice before they do that"

Google will turn up the info and on a site that does not block the use of ad blocking software

 

[qubit]

@CamWilmot Respect for having the balls to come on here.

My take on ads is that I can't stand the animations as they're so annoyingly distracting, hence I'm forced to use an ad blocker.

Of course, pop-ups, pop-unders, autoplay videos with sound (which can't be paused or restart after a few seconds) etc just amplify the problem.

Give me static banner ads and I'll never block them. I'm happy to whitelist any site which does this and on tech websites actually make them more interesting for me as I enjoy looking at them and will likely click them too.

I appreciate your no subs / paywall view and am happy to watch the occasional compulsory video if It helps you out.

 

[Shihab]

I do whitelist websites I frequent too, except those with annoying ads. If they complained about adblocking though then it's an If/else scenario. If the content is worth the annoyance then I'll deal with it and whitelist them, else I'll simply find other content providers that I'm ok with.

TT was one of the websites I blacklisted (after trying -and failing- to bear with their ads for a while), when they implemented they anti-adblocking measures I did the weighing above and concluded that their articles aren't worth the trouble, so I stopped using their website and unfollowed their FB page.
I would criticize TT for their choice for ads, I wouldn't criticize them trying to defend their living-sources though.

No script

Site won't work with Jscript disabled.

Spoiler

 

[dorsetknob]

I would criticize TT for their choice for ads, I wouldn't criticize them trying to defend their living-sources though.

I'm pretty Certain Most Sites Do not get to choose their Ads they Get Served Ads from "Ad Companys and Agencys to Placement Slots on the Site.
Sometimes Ads Slide by that contain malware/virus's and other nasty's
They Get Served to Millions of people over thousands of Sites and these Agencys don't Seem to Care " they get paid "
You don't have to vist porn/pirate sites to be infected you can get infected from NBC.com BBC.co.uk MSM any fortune 500 company
and yes even TPU front page has had its moments so TT has also Suffered

but not TT

 

[TheMailMan78]

Hi folks,


My name is Cameron and I am the founder and owner of TweakTown. One of my reviewers alerted me to this thread, so I want to join in on the fun and post a couple of responses.

1) Regarding the comment about being pro AMD and/or anti NVIDIA. Yes, in previous years, we had huge issues with NVIDIA (and AMD as well, but to a bit of a lesser extent). Around about two years ago, those issues were resolved. We now have a great relationship with NVIDIA, as we have a great relationship with AMD. Both companies sample us, include us on all press calls, invite us to events, work with us on giveaways, and so on. There is no bitterness toward NVIDIA whatsoever - those days are long over and both sides have built bridges and got over it. The relationships with NVIDIA and AMD are stronger than they have ever been.

2) About our ad recovery system, it's new and there are some bugs we are working on fixing right as we speak. For the past few months, we have been forcing ad recovery. We are trying a new ad recovery system that asks ad blocking users to watch a short video every 24 hours. After watching the video, you get ad-free access to our content for 24 hours. Is this such a bad thing? We are completely anti subscription as we believe content on the internet should be free of charge, but we also need to pay our awesome reviewers and reporters. If you can't accept that, sorry, but no worries, don't visit TweakTown.


I'm happy to directly answer any questions anyone has here.

Thanks!

How about you just balance your website layout? As I said TPU is on my whitelist for a reason. Forcing me to watch a video is a sure way to lose my traffic.

Remember you are catering to the 1% of the computer world. We are high end neck beards. Those scripts you are running WILL be bypassed and people who are not smart enough will just stop going. Its a lose/lose for you. Refine your layout and ask your users kindly to whitelist you.......and stop with the Mexican storefront layout.

 

[INSTG8R]

Yep Noscript and Ghostery for me. I see what I want to see and they see what I want them to see. Here at TPU for example I don't see any trackers and frankly nothing to block(Well google analytics but they are just straight up blocked everywhere)Heck I even make a point to click the odd front page ad just to show I'm here. I won't comment on the amount of things that get blocked over at Tweaktown(Needless to say the first thing is a blocked redirect to tell me my Javascript is "hiding")So yeah no dice

 

[CamWilmot]

How about you just balance your website layout? As I said TPU is on my whitelist for a reason. Forcing me to watch a video is a sure way to lose my traffic.

Remember you are catering to the 1% of the computer world. We are high end neck beards. Those scripts you are running WILL be bypassed and people who are not smart enough will just stop going. Its a lose/lose for you. Refine your layout and ask your users kindly to whitelist you.......and stop with the Mexican storefront layout.

You are not the 1% of the world. You are 50% and sometimes higher. And if you are blocking ads, you are actually costing us money to serve your views. So, to be frank, I don't mind you not visiting.

Yep Noscript and Ghostery for me. I see what I want to see and they see what I want them to see. Here at TPU for example I don't see any trackers and frankly nothing to block(Well google analytics but they are just straight up blocked everywhere)Heck I even make a point to click the odd front page ad just to show I'm here. I won't comment on the amount of things that get blocked over at Tweaktown(Needless to say the first thing is a blocked redirect to tell me my Javascript is "hiding")So yeah no dice

Thanks for the feedback. We'll definitely look into getting Ghostery supported.

 

[jboydgolfer]

So, to be frank, I don't mind you not visiting.

respectfully,
I feel it would serve You( your site) better to Work with those who are unhappy with Your site, rather than prefer them to not visit it?

i understand that is no simple task, and is also vague....but specifically, as related to the way You replied to themailman...it comes off a Bit "undesirable"

 

[CamWilmot]

respectfully,
I feel it would serve You( your site) better to Work with those who are unhappy with Your site, rather than prefer them to not visit it?

Not really, because they are usually always 100% against any advertising. And will reject simple things even like watching a short video every 24 hours. So, we will use technology to control who views our content.

 

[jboydgolfer]

Not really, because they are usually always 100% against any advertising. And will reject simple things even like watching a short video every 24 hours. So, we will use technology to control who views our content.

so what Your saying is that the popup that asks adblockers to watch a video is a "Guard dog"? and its "weeding out" undesirables?


at the end of the day it's your site and you can do with it as you wish, but if I can be frank it doesn't come across too well as an outsider looking in. I have no negative or positive opinion of your site aside from what this thread consists of. I wish you all the best and good luck with your endeavor, also I respect the fact that you came in and responded to these comments. Good night

 

[TheMailMan78]

Not really, because they are usually always 100% against any advertising. And will reject simple things even like watching a short video every 24 hours. So, we will use technology to control who views our content.

As someone who works in marketing you couldn't be more wrong. I also hate to break it to you but its probably less that 1% of the population that are hardware enthusiast. You cater to a niche demographic and you are proceeding to push something they do not want AND pride themselves on being able to circumvent "The Man". Brilliant move. I'm sure its not going to cost you any viewers at all.

so what Your saying is that the popup that asks adblockers to watch a video is a "Guard dog"? and its "weeding out" undesirables?


at the end of the day it's your site and you can do with it as you wish, but if I can be frank it doesn't come across too well as an outsider looking in. I have no negative or positive opinion of your site aside from what this thread consists of. I wish you all the best and good luck with your endeavor, also I respect the fact that you came in and responded to these comments. Good night

He will end up taking it down. When his traffic drops off he will all of a sudden realize that people who visit his site apparently didn't want to be force fed garbage. It will be quiet and spontaneous. Nothing will be said and if someone brings it up it will be like it didn't happen.

 

[qubit]

I was right about ad blocker blocks spreading. Just tried going to XDA Developers from a Google search. I can browse the site ok until I try to view a thread. It displays for a couple of seconds and then disappears, showing just the background colour. There's no message, nothing, just a blank page. I think they should at least have the courtesy to display a message for the less clued up.

Turn off the ad blocker, refresh the page and the content miraculously remains. I'll bet virtually every site will block ad blockers soon. If only they'd stop with the annoying animations I'd be happy to view them with ads.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=961655

Note that the forum index displays just fine with the ad blocker on, so this is definitely deliberate.

 

[Static~Charge]

You are not the 1% of the world. You are 50% and sometimes higher. And if you are blocking ads, you are actually costing us money to serve your views. So, to be frank, I don't mind you not visiting.

You have the right to refuse ad-blocking users. Ad-blocking users have the right to boycott your web site. Either way, the net result is the same: ad-blocking users won't see your ads. It's a "heads I win, tails you lose" scenario.

So, to be frank, I don't mind not visiting your web site, either. I also won't recommend your site to anyone. Enjoy the declining revenue.

 

[newtekie1]

That once a day Ad just might be Contaminated with malware/Trojens or a Virus
you will not know untill its to late
as i Said people are sick to death of this Ad Russian roulette
The Advertising Industry needs to get its act together
CLEAN HOUSE AND KEEP IT CLEAN then maybe people will not be afraid of ads on sites

That's a pretty big stretch, and extremely unlikely on a single video ad. This used to really be a problem with Ad Choice, but they actually HAVE gone through and cleaned house. I've seen a drastic improvement in the ads on legit websites. The only sites I've had problems with malicious ads are the less than legit ones.

I do whitelist websites I frequent too, except those with annoying ads.

The Tweaktown ads aren't annoying. Yes, there are a few animated ones, but they aren't the annoying animated ones. Then are the slow changing ones with just a minor change. LIke some words changing, or a product available in multiple colors switching through the colors slowly. TPU has these types of ads too.

You have the right to refuse ad-blocking users. Ad-blocking users have the right to boycott your web site. Either way, the net result is the same: ad-blocking users won't see your ads. It's a "heads I win, tails you lose" scenario.

Actually, the net result isn't the same. If the ad-block users boycott the site, it actually saves them money. It is better for them to boycott the site then it is to visit the site without ads.