Would you opt-in to allow for CPU mining while visiting the forums for them to remain ad free?

[RejZoR]

But would you be willing to dedicate 1 thread from 4?
I'm sure even those here who have high-end CPUs, sometimes read the forum from something weaker: a cheaper desktop or a laptop/tablet.

So my question, assuming the opt-in variant (which I noticed, btw), is: will this be user-based or client-based? Because if it will only look at my login, then it's a no.
And if I would be welcomed with a huge dialogue window every time I open the forum saying "what's it going to be today: ads or mining?", then it's still a no.
And if each time I login to a different PC I'll have to go into settings and change this, it's also a no.

Then it's settled. NO. Like someone above said, he despises mining nonsense. And quite frankly, so do I.

 

[Apocalypsee]

I assume this would be CPU mining, not GPU. At least that's how current implementations work.

I would rather use my unused CPU cycles for folding

 

[Aquinus]

Absolutely not. If I want to contribute my spare CPU cycles to a project, then I'll crunch... oh wait, I have a machine dedicated for that right now. I don't want the browser clocking up my 3930k all the time when I'm browsing TPU. I would rather see ads or donate money than having something using my CPU time for profit revenue without my consent.

 

[64K]

I dont even mine, and I despise mining and miners. They ruin GPU market pricing and I really, REALLY dont want to be any part of it.

Miners are a problem in so many ways. The profit in mining fluctuates so when it's profitable like right now the miners buy up all the cards intended for gaming that they can get there hands on. Retailers recognizing the shortages caused by this mark up their cards for more profit. Some have a limit of only 1 with each order but obviously a person can just do multiple orders to get around that.

It affects the used card market too because when mining isn't profitable then miners dump their cards in the used market. So gamers that used to buy a new card and sell their old card pay more for their new card and probably get less for their old card. Also there's no way to know if a used card has been put to use in gaming or beaten to death in mining.

 

[Tatty_Two]

So for years it was not necessary to put ads on forum, and now mining here is needed to "cover cost", something wrong...
I don't mind seeing ads, since most of us having like 5-10 Mb/s unlimited connection or above, and ads on this site not taking 80% of page or annoying.

Whats probably wrong is that in the 14 years (or so) since this site was born everything has become more expensive, whether that be hardware, hosting, possibly paying some staff, my point was that none of us know what the actual costs of running this place is so I don't necessarily conclude that ANY income generation is about making profit.

 

[Jetster]

Not sure how it would work but I'm willing to help TPU anyway I can

 

[R-T-B]

The real issue is TPU wouldn't even make that much.

I've looked into it and seriously, it's pathetic what CPU coins make.

 

[ArbitraryAffection]

Uhhh. Please no.

Instead you could offer something like what the Tech Report does and do a Subscriber thing. I would be happy to donate to the cause once I get some spare money.

 

[EarthDog]

Whats probably wrong is that in the 14 years (or so) since this site was born everything has become more expensive, whether that be hardware, hosting, possibly paying some staff, my point was that none of us know what the actual costs of running this place is so I don't necessarily conclude that ANY income generation is about making profit.

id be willing to bet quite a bit of money says the site isnt bleeding cash....


Anyway, again, i love a subscriber model implemented or id be happy to donate.

 

[64K]

It could be that over the years so many people have taken up using Adblockers that conventional ads don't pay as well as they used to. If that's the case then it's probably affecting a lot of sites ability to pay the bills. I imagine if many sites take up using CPU cycles to generate income that someone will come up with a blocker for that too.

 

[yeeeeman]

Using adblock anyways so no need for mining

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I would quit using any website that does this, TPU included. If it becomes prolific, I would go back to forbidding the execution of JavaScript. Any website that is not usable without JavaScript, I would no longer visit.

I don't use an ad blocker. I refuse to go to sites with nasty ads or websites that break themselves with excessive scripting (mostly for ads I presume).

 

[cadaveca]

Patreon is a better option, IMHO, and I think most users would agree.

 

[Aquinus]

I would quit using any website that does this, TPU included. If it becomes prolific, I would go back to forbidding the execution of JavaScript. Any website that is not usable without JavaScript, I would no longer visit.

In this day and age, that's a ton of websites as a lot of web applications now employ technologies like React and Angular to do efficient client-side rendering. Have you tried to disable JavaScript lately? It's not typically pretty. Disabling JavaScript means no Facebook and no 2 Factor Auth at Google using your phone, and that's just for starters. JavaScript does a lot more than just handling ads.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Internet Explorer on my computer and server are set to high security which means no redirects, no applets, no JavaScript, no cookies, no nothing except basic HTML and CSS. It's a beautiful thing: everything is fast and responsive like it was a decade ago.

I don't use Facebook and don't use Google. DuckDuckGo works fine in a restricted environment, by the way. I do selectively approve websites (mostly websites that I download stuff from like Ubnt, Microsoft, Emby, AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, etc.).

 

[RejZoR]

It could be that over the years so many people have taken up using Adblockers that conventional ads don't pay as well as they used to. If that's the case then it's probably affecting a lot of sites ability to pay the bills. I imagine if many sites take up using CPU cycles to generate income that someone will come up with a blocker for that too.

uBlock already has "Abuse of resources" filter and Opera 50 is introducing Anti-Miner blocking as well out of the box.

 

[_UV_]

Whats probably wrong is that in the 14 years (or so) since this site was born everything has become more expensive, whether that be hardware, hosting, possibly paying some staff, my point was that none of us know what the actual costs of running this place is so I don't necessarily conclude that ANY income generation is about making profit.

In my own experience anything related to WEB going cheaper each year, with only 1 exception - salary is either same or higher. Let's compare typical hosting plans:
year 2003 - 1 site, 100MB space, 1GB traffic was like 30-40$ (CPU power around 1 core P3-600)
year 2006 - 1 site, 1GB space, 10 GB traffic was like 25$ and about 100$ for 5 GB and "unlimited" traffic (CPU power around 1 core P4-2000)
today year 2017 - 1 site 30GB unlim traffic - 3$, and FULL unlimited with 3-4 cores CPU power - 10$
monthly based prices

 

[rtwjunkie]

In my own experience anything related to WEB going cheaper each year, with only 1 exception - salary is either same or higher. Let's compare typical hosting plans:
year 2003 - 1 site, 100MB space, 1GB traffic was like 30-40$ (CPU power around 1 core P3-600)
year 2006 - 1 site, 1GB space, 10 GB traffic was like 25$ and about 100$ for 5 GB and "unlimited" traffic (CPU power around 1 core P4-2000)
today year 2017 - 1 site 30GB unlim traffic - 3$, and FULL unlimited with 3-4 cores CPU power - 10$
monthly based prices

So you run a lot of websites with worldwide membership and staff, and multiple servers?

 

[4x4n]

I have to say no. Would gladly pay a small yearly subscription instead.

 

[_UV_]

So you run a lot of websites with worldwide membership and staff, and multiple servers?

If you even try to actually read my post and understand it...

 

[Makaveli]

It would be like my wife charging me for sex.

lol you already pay for sex.

Buying her jewelry, vacations etc

 

[erixx]

Today I clicked for the first time for a long time on a banner here. The product doesn't interest me at all. Does this only give any money to TPU? Do just having banners on a "high traffic" site give money to TPU/W1izard? Really looking forward to the internals of this, I am not a webmaster.

 

[Mussels]

Should run mining competitions, have a 7 day competition with a TPU mining client (requires forum user name in client) - everyone who runs the client gets an entry into the draw (steam voucher or something)

as long as you get more mining than the prize(s) are worth, it'd math out and probably be popular

 

[Jism]

I say no. Because it will be a bad trend across the net in global. If you want to raise up the revenue of a techsite in general:

- Make it possible to get paid by company's who for you to make reviews for, but stay critical in your opinion.
- Consider refferal links for example on Summary page for products, as toms hardware is doing all over the place. Refferal links can deliver 5 up to 15% comission.
- Offer something valuable for 'paying members' on this forum. I.e extra priveledges, some storage space and all. If that's 15 $ a year that's already good.

 

[newtekie1]

Patreon is a better option, IMHO, and I think most users would agree.

I'd prefer just the un-obtrusive ads like what are on the main page over patreon. I really don't mind the ads on TPU. They are always related to tech, and aren't annoyingly animated.