Changes to ads on our forums

[Brock Beauchamp]

4 minutes ago, mul21 said:

It seems related to the "enter your email" pop up.  That only comes up all the way if I click on my other screen when it's in the shaded part of the flashing.  Otherwise, it just alternates the fully bright and shaded screens about every second.  

Ahhhh, that's helpful. Thanks. I didn't write the email popup, that's a template provided by Mailchimp.

[javy knows my name]

It's happening agaiiiiin

[Brock Beauchamp]

On 11/6/2025 at 10:03 PM, javy knows my name said:

It's happening agaiiiiin

Homes.com? Again?

[javy knows my name]

I couldn't tell the ad, but one of them is obliterating the margins on chrome mobile, which admittedly hasn't been a problem in a while

[Derwood]

There’s a new pop up ad (on mobile) that exactly covers the area where you’re typing. 

[Outshined_One]

On 12/20/2025 at 1:04 PM, Derwood said:

There’s a new pop up ad (on mobile) that exactly covers the area where you’re typing. 

I've been really PO'd with the mobile ads lately.  They not only cover up what you're typing, but they'll do crap like jump-cover the Submit Reply Button or page numbers at random intervals to get you to mistakenly click on the ads.

[javy knows my name]

15 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

I've been really PO'd with the mobile ads lately.  They not only cover up what you're typing, but they'll do crap like jump-cover the Submit Reply Button or page numbers at random intervals to get you to mistakenly click on the ads.

My favorite is the Amazon one that sits at the bottom just below the page up button but is actually covering it imperceptibly.

Am I pirating a football game or browsing a message board that I'm a member of?

[javy knows my name]

There's now a strobing effect from some ad that's trying to load on mobile

[javy knows my name]

I think it's the newsletter sign up that slides up from the bottom. This is horrible.

[Brock Beauchamp]

On 12/24/2025 at 9:05 AM, javy knows my name said:

I think it's the newsletter sign up that slides up from the bottom. This is horrible.

It took me forever to track down this problem, it should be resolved now.

[javy knows my name]

6 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

It took me forever to track down this problem, it should be resolved now.

Thanks! I had to clear my cache a couple of times to get it to go away. Clearly few others experienced this issue or I would have posted an update. 

That was a weird one

Edited January 9 by javy knows my name

[squally1313]

Very annoying full screen pop up that seemingly can’t be Xed out popping up every few pages 

 

[CubinNY]

I have a VPN (don't judge) with an ad blocker, and the site won't open for me on Safari. I'm not sure if that is by design or not, but it's going to limit how much I interact with NSB(B) if it is intentional. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

On 3/26/2026 at 10:20 AM, CubinNY said:

I have a VPN (don't judge) with an ad blocker, and the site won't open for me on Safari. I'm not sure if that is by design or not, but it's going to limit how much I interact with NSB(B) if it is intentional. 

No, we don't block anyone running an ad blocker, even if I strongly disagree with their use.

Is anyone else having issues with Safari? It's working fine for me.

[Stratos]

On 3/27/2026 at 8:37 PM, Brock Beauchamp said:

No, we don't block anyone running an ad blocker, even if I strongly disagree with their use.

Below is my ad experience here on Firefox desktop.  Having some low-intrusion ads doesn't bother me much, sometimes I even turn off the ad blocker on smaller websites to help them out, but this is obnoxious-level.  If I didn't have an ad blocker I likely wouldn't bother coming here.  Just some honest feedback for you.

On the other hand, i'll be going to Metro tomorrow to buy some raspberries... 

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 hour ago, Stratos said:

Below is my ad experience here on Firefox desktop.  Having some low-intrusion ads doesn't bother me much, sometimes I even turn off the ad blocker on smaller websites to help them out, but this is obnoxious-level.  If I didn't have an ad blocker I likely wouldn't bother coming here.  Just some honest feedback for you.

On the other hand, i'll be going to Metro tomorrow to buy some raspberries... 

That happens occasionally, yes. And you had to scroll to find that specific scenario. I've actually cut back on ad fills multiple times over the years, and routinely battle for fewer ads.

But the reality is that ads pay the bills, and it's likely we're going to have to start paywalling in part because of ad blockers. That's where ad blockers ultimately take the internet; back to a world where every piece of worthwhile content needs to be paid for to access.

[Sammy Sofa]

11 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

But the reality is that ads pay the bills, and it's likely we're going to have to start paywalling in part because of ad blockers. That's where ad blockers ultimately take the internet; back to a world where every piece of worthwhile content needs to be paid for to access.

[soccer10k]

On 3/29/2026 at 5:52 PM, Brock Beauchamp said:

That happens occasionally, yes. And you had to scroll to find that specific scenario. I've actually cut back on ad fills multiple times over the years, and routinely battle for fewer ads.

It's not really occasionally. I just reloaded this page with no ad blocker. I get a full width ad at the bottom plus a small video ad on the bottom right side. Along the right hand side under "Recent News", "Notes and Rumors" and "Recent Blogs", I get 10 different ads as I scroll. In between posts on this page, I counted 13 different ads as I scroll down.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Listen, I'm actually somewhat sympathetic to the ad situation, which is why I'm always the one arguing for fewer ads. But here's the reality of the situation.

1. Ad rates plummeted last year, to the point where I'm working for virtually nothing, and have been for quite some time. I'm well below minimum wage, all while working 50+ hours a week. I did this because, thankfully, I can manage for awhile, but also to not cut the pay rate to a single contributor on our sites.

2. Couple with that, we just offered an ad-free caretaker sale for $2.50 a month, and not a single forum user signed up for it.

So it's not really about the ads, is it?

[Sammy Sofa]

Right, nobody wants to pay for a message board.

Pretty much the only realistic option to run one at cost AND to not turn into a subscription/ad/slop service is to either have the personal finances to do it for the love of the game, or sell it to someone or a group who can/want to do that. Anything else sucks, and just makes coming here an unpleasant experience (IMO).

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 hour ago, Sammy Sofa said:

Right, nobody wants to pay for a message board.

Pretty much the only realistic option to run one at cost AND to not turn into a subscription/ad/slop service is to either have the personal finances to do it for the love of the game, or sell it to someone or a group who can/want to do that. Anything else sucks, and just makes coming here an unpleasant experience (IMO).

And we all wonder why there are no independent message boards left, and Reddit rules the internet, selling your data to whomever they please, mistreating their moderators, and generally being abusive dicks in the name of shareholders.

If your rebuttal is that someone else has to do the lifting for "the love of the game", your logic is beyond flawed, it's broken. It's the very definition of entitlement; expecting others to spend time and capital to provide an experience for your enjoyment.

There used to be multiple independent forums for every MLB team. Now fewer than half of MLB teams have an independent forum. Wonder why.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I have to say that for a bunch of socialists and liberals, this conversation is beyond disappointing. I've said my piece; I'm out.

[Sammy Sofa]

6 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

And we all wonder why there are no independent message boards left, and Reddit rules the internet, selling your data to whomever they please, mistreating their moderators, and generally being abusive dicks in the name of shareholders.

If your rebuttal is that someone else has to do the lifting for "the love of the game", your logic is beyond flawed, it's broken. It's the very definition of entitlement; expecting others to spend time and capital to provide an experience for your enjoyment.

There used to be multiple independent forums for every MLB team. Now fewer than half of MLB teams have an independent forum. Wonder why.

I mean, you're right that something is broken, and it's that nothing can last without inevitable enshittifaction in for the sake of maximizing moneymaking.

It's really simple: message boards are just a really basic thing where people want to talk to/at each other at a less frantic pace than a chat room, and the reality is that if they're left at that and just that basic thing, they're never going to make much money, if at all.

Making money off of them inherently requires turning/growing them into something beyond a basic message board. It requires ads, a bunch of additional features, articles, "pivots to video," social media, etc., etc.. So you basically have to turn it into something that doesn't appeal to most of the original user base, likely driving them away in the end, and you're trying to play catch up with the myriad of other time sucks out there that already more appealing to begin with. It's a lose-lose proposition.

Like, some things just don't make money. This place will likely never make money in anything even remotely resembling its current or previous forms. That's just how it is. If that doesn't work for you, you should either sell it or fold it, instead of trying to turn it into something it's not.

[Brock Beauchamp]

15 minutes ago, Sammy Sofa said:

I mean, you're right that something is broken, and it's that nothing can last without inevitable enshittifaction in for the sake of maximizing moneymaking.

It's really simple: message boards are just a really basic thing where people want to talk to/at each other at a less frantic pace than a chat room, and the reality is that if they're left at that and just that basic thing, they're never going to make much money, if at all.

Making money off of them inherently requires turning/growing them into something beyond a basic message board. It requires ads, a bunch of additional features, articles, "pivots to video," social media, etc., etc.. So you basically have to turn it into something that doesn't appeal to most of the original user base, likely driving them away in the end, and you're trying to play catch up with the myriad of other time sucks out there that already more appealing to begin with. It's a lose-lose proposition.

Like, some things just don't make money. This place will likely never make money in anything even remotely resembling its current or previous forms. That's just how it is. If that doesn't work for you, you should either sell it or fold it, instead of trying to turn it into something it's not.

My point is that this thinking is why there aren't independent message boards anymore. I don't need to make a ton of money from this one site; I take a lot of pride in maintaining a legacy community. But at the end of the day, that wick burns out. I've dealt with a half-dozen forum owners firsthand over this very subject; there probably aren't many more experts on this feeling than myself. I literally took over a Mets forum a month ago because out of the entire userbase, not one person was interested in maintaining it or even lifting a finger to support its continued existence. But many complained about the fact that ads will be on the new site.

"Why Is Everything So Sh!tty Now, Complains Man Who Contributes Nothing" is such a real headline I deal with on a near-daily basis.

[Sammy Sofa]

15 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

My point is that this thinking is why there aren't independent message boards anymore. I don't need to make a ton of money from this one site; I take a lot of pride in maintaining a legacy community. But at the end of the day, that wick burns out. I've dealt with a half-dozen forum owners firsthand over this very subject; there probably aren't many more experts on this feeling than myself. I literally took over a Mets forum a month ago because out of the entire userbase, not one person was interested in maintaining it or even lifting a finger to support its continued existence. But many complained about the fact that ads will be on the new site.

"Why Is Everything So Sh!tty Now, Complains Man Who Contributes Nothing" is such a real headline I deal with on a near-daily basis.

All I said is that if it gets ****** enough I'll bounce. There's nothing to be gained by sticking around a place I don't enjoy coming to.

The reality is this place is holdover from ye olden internet times where, yes, users could expect to have access to a message board or forum where they didn't have do much of anything beyond signing up.

And yeah, it sucks that that's not a very common thing these days, but the answer to keeping that around isn't charging people for access, or adding a bunch of features that stray way away from that. That's not preserving that; that's making it a whole different thing! And hey, more power to you if that's what you want to do and if it can work out, but trying to sell it as "trying to maintain a legacy community" is, quite frankly, a crock of horsefeathers, as is acting like any longtime members who wouldn't like that are just a bunch of whiny ingrates.

Just recognize it for what it is and don't try to dress it up as something altruistic, or to try and guilt people with some "woe is me, I bought a message board" spiel. Again, if the money is an insurmountable issue, then sell it or shut it down. Don't actively make it worse (IMO) or into something different and pretend like you didn't have any other choice.

Edited March 31 by Sammy Sofa