Testing changes to JKB ads

[Ulysses]

6 minutes ago, john1951 said:

Bottom of the screen ads are back! Having been free of them for a week.

 

Are they in the way of the reply box and buttons?

[Never Let Them Forget]

6 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

 

Are they in the way of the reply box and buttons?

No they are not 👍🏼 far better than the existing set up 😎

[john1951]

20 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

 

Are they in the way of the reply box and buttons?

Not if I scroll up.

[john1951]

8 minutes ago, john1951 said:

Not if I scroll up.

Belay that, the ads cover the fresh replies button at the bottom which I can’t scroll away.

[Ulysses]

14 hours ago, john1951 said:

Belay that, the ads cover the fresh replies button at the bottom which I can’t scroll away.

 

Some people have said it's worse than last week, but better than what was there before we made any changes.

[Mikey1874]

It's different. I'd say less intrusive but more ads. 

[Le Chat]

1 minute ago, Ulysses said:

 

Some people have said it's worse than last week, but better than what was there before we made any changes.

 

Agree with that.  Nothing last week and only the wee ones at the bottom this week, rather than the massive ones that were prevalent a few weeks ago.

 

The wee ones still do obscure the 'new replies' box though.

 

[Ulysses]

A late bump for this.  We'll be finishing up our tests on Tuesday morning.  In the meantime, if you have any thoughts about the changes we made this week, or the different changes we had in place last week, please post here.

[Jambo-Fox]

21 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

A late bump for this.  We'll be finishing up our tests on Tuesday morning.  In the meantime, if you have any thoughts about the changes we made this week, or the different changes we had in place last week, please post here.

Feels like it’s already reverted to pre test status. However maybe this has been happening all along in test phase 2 

 

it’s not possible to click on new notification due to ad obscuring the link … managed to capture this earlier today …

[Roxy Hearts]

Annoying as ****

[kjc2006]

Feels like the latest test was how it was before.

[Wee Mikey]

16 minutes ago, kjc2006 said:

Feels like the latest test was how it was before.

 

Not quite, for myself anyway. At least the wee ads at the bottom close now; plus, it's possible (if being careful) to click the top of the new notifications alert even though it's usually still mostly obscured.

[Gorgierools]

Absolutely unusable for me on iPhone using Google. Worse than the original 

[Le Chat]

The first changes a fortnight ago were best for me.

[XB52]

The first change was great. The latest change is almost as bad as before the tests but you can get the wee ads to close 

[Wee Mikey]

50 minutes ago, XB52 said:

The first change was great. The latest change is almost as bad as before the tests but you can get the wee ads to close 

 

Definitely not so much 'jumping about', though.

 

Previously, the screen would randomly flick up and down whilst trying to type resulting in posting a half finished post or landing on someone's name by mistake.

 

So, trial #1 looking best thus far.

[Norm]

15 minutes ago, Wee Mikey said:

 

Definitely not so much 'jumping about', though.

 

Previously, the screen would randomly flick up and down whilst trying to type resulting in posting a half finished post or landing on someone's name by mistake.

 

So, trial #1 looking best thus far.

Agreed

[Pans Jambo]

When you are nearing the end of a thread and the “show now” option pops up for new posts, the ads cover that button (iPhone Safari). Annoying. 

[Macros]

Noticed a big improvement a couple of weeks ago, now back to being annoying again. 

[Morgan]

After a very good fortnight or so, the ads. are back all over my phone.

 

Android.

 

Sometimes there is one on top of another along the bottom, which makes replying and quoting very difficult.

[Morgan]

7 hours ago, Wee Mikey said:

 

 

 

So, trial #1 looking best thus far.

This bit. 👍

[Jack Torrance]

Yeah latest ads still obscuring the buttons at the footer, but they're easier to close. Earlier test was better.

 

 

[Morgan]

1 minute ago, Jack Torrance said:

Yeah latest ads still obscuring the buttons at the footer, but they're easier to close. Earlier test was better.

 

 

I meant to add that too. 👍

[Jack Torrance]

6 minutes ago, Morgan said:

I meant to add that too. 👍

Be good if the mods could make it harder for the scummy Hobo infiltrators to close the ads, but sort it for everyone else.

[Morgan]

Just now, Jack Torrance said:

Be good if the mods could make it harder for the scummy Hobo infiltrators to close the ads, but sort it for everyone else.

[kingantti1874]

Understand the need for the ad sales.  Is it not possible to have an ad free paid version as an option? Give people the choice.? 

 

[Morgan]

Just now, kingantti1874 said:

Understand the need for the ad sales.  Is it not possible to have an ad free paid version as an option? Give people the choice.? 

 

Good one, KA. 👍

 

I’d certainly go for that option.

[Shipwrecked]

14 hours ago, Le Chat said:

The first changes a fortnight ago were best for me.

Agree with this. Latest changes seem close  to how it was before the trial. 

[tian447]

Just had a full page advert load up when trying to go back to the Terrace from a thread, that had no option to close or minimise, which wanted me to answer a question before it would let me proceed. 

 

Needless to say, that tab was closed and a new one opened, but that is a brutal one if that's going to appear more often. 

[tian447]

Adverts are back to covering the lower half of the screen, and over the reply box again for me as well. 

[Ulysses]

We've finished our testing, and we're going to analyse the results and decide what to do next.  Hopefully that won't take too long; that's the plan at any rate.

 

The general view seems to be that week one testing was better than week two, and that both were better than what we had before and since the tests.  

[Ministryofdad]

Much better for ads. Easier to close and reply. Seems to have done the trick. 

[Ministryofdad]

Just need to implement dark mode as standard option for everyone in settings 

[Ulysses]

On 24/07/2025 at 04:57, Ministryofdad said:

Just need to implement dark mode as standard option for everyone in settings 

 

We'll see if we can do that as part of our upgrade to v5 later in the summer. 

[Ulysses]

Update

 

Thanks to everyone who gave us feedback on our efforts to test changes to our ad setup on the forum over the last couple of weeks.

 

In summary, we did two tests. 

 

For the first week, we made changes that (1) significantly reduced or eliminated the ads at the bottom of pages, (2) were minor or negligible in terms of ad displays elsewhere, and (3) were designed to affect paid members rather than any other group. 

 

For the second week, we made changes that (1) put ads back in at the bottom of pages, but at a lower intensity than usual, (2) made bigger reductions to the intensity of ads elsewhere on screens, and (3) were designed to affect all users, paid, registered and guests.

 

Based on the responses we've had from members, it's clear that both tests were better received than the way things were before, and the first test was better received than the second.  

 

It's also evident that most of the benefit of the first test was felt by members who have paid subscriptions. While we are trying to improve the user experience for everybody, it is fair to say that we are particularly concerned about the effects of our changes on members who have made a direct contribution to JKB's running costs.

 

So we have decided to reinstate what was our first test and operate it as the default for ads in the future, at least for the time being.  It isn't perfect, but as far as we can see it's a decent compromise.  That change was installed a while ago.  You might need to log out and back in or clear your cache to notice the effects, but it's been in place since earlier this evening.

 

There are a couple of other points and issues around advertising we want to think about and improve and would be happy to discuss.  But for now, hopefully this change will make things a bit better, especially for subscribed members.

 

Thanks again for everyone's comments.

[Jambo-Fox]

Great news! Paid members first …

[jambo1998]

2 minutes ago, Jambo-Fox said:

Great news! Paid members first …

Definitely 

[XB52]

Great

[Le Chat]

[hughesie27]

Lovely business.

[Morgan]

Magic!

 

Thanks, Uly. 

[Mikey1874]

Something totally new just happened on my Amazon Pad. Siemens Energy just took over the screen. Can't get passed it. Refreshing the screen got rid of it.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2025 by Mikey1874

[Ulysses]

58 minutes ago, Mikey1874 said:

Something totally new just happened on my Amazon Pad. Siemens Energy just took over the screen. Can't get passed it. Refreshing the screen got rid of it.

 

 

 

Thanks.  Can you let us know if/when something like that happens again?

[Captain Lithuania]

Ripping the absolute pish now.

 

 

Anywhere you click you get bounced to the Tui site.

[GlasgoJambo]

Started about two weeks ago for me - whole site’s gone glitchy. 
iPhone on Safari.

[Jack Torrance]

I noticed recently some adverts opening when I hadn't clicked on them.

 

I've now discovered the ad at the top runs wider than the mobile screen and when I click to quote a post, or want to access notifications, I need to scroll across far to the right to find part of the page and menus.

 

So the page isn't fixed to the mobile browser screen anymore (Chrome). Something's changed but I don't know if it's a setting in my phone that I've changed by mistake, or a change to the JKB site.

[Dean Winchester]

Just now, Jack Torrance said:

I've now discovered the ad at the top runs wider than the mobile screen and when I click to quote a post, or want to access notifications, I need to scroll across far to the right to find part of the page and menus.

 

So the page isn't fixed to the mobile browser screen anymore (Chrome). Something's changed but I don't know if it's a setting in my phone that I've changed by mistake, or a change to the JKB site.

Happening with me too. Assumed normal ads have sneaked through to the Mobile site. Really quite annoying, can this be sorted?

 

 

[RustyRightPeg]

Never had any ads at all since I switched to the Brave browser on my phone. 
 

Thank god as well because that looks like hell. 

[Jambo-Fox]

Never normally see any ads anywhere BUT over last 3 to 4 weeks I’ve seen the odd one (very rare) appearing randomly usually (I think) when I click on the lhs on a maroon circle or star. It’s very rare and pressing back button soon resolves matter.

[Ex member of the SaS]

Being an old fart I am still using a PC and the ads are a pain. All along the bottom and sometimes huge block ads that cover the bottom left of the page.