Sneaky new MR pop up ad

Past surveys have shown that most Forum users are not subscribers.

As for the content of the ads, you as users have more control over those than we do. The ads for Kalmbach products (MRVP, books, etc.), we place, obviously. Model railroad-related ads are likewise sold by us. But if the ad is for something not train-related, that comes from a service (such as Google Ads) that serves you ads based on your own search, browser, and ad-clicking history. These companies serve you ads it thinks you will respond to based on your own history.

Mr Otte

I’m a long time subscriber but comparatively short time Forum Member and I think Kalmbach is very generous keeping this Forum up and running. Kudos to you and your IT guys, as far as I’m concerned this Forum is the best Forum on the internet. Do what you need to keep it going in the future.

All the members involved with this Forum are great for keeping it going. Kudos to the members too! I’ve learned more from this Forum than I could hitting every other source on the Internet 24/7.

I have a Mac and never get pop-ups of any kind, However as soon as I go on my son’s really pricey gaming computer that loads MMR pages at warp speed, WATCH OUT! Ads galore. Also, my two kids would get new laptops from school every two years and all the old ones are laying about the house. If I grab one of those and log in, it’s a minefield of colour wanting to separate me from my easily earned money.[(-D] Moral of the story is buy a MAC.[(-D]

I am not a subscriber, however, I buy off the newsstand. I guess I am a second class MRR patron as I don’t get subscriber benefits. I wrote the magazine and suggested they put a scratch to uncover number that would allow us access to subscriber benefits for the month of the magazine issue, however, I never heard back, so I guess it wasn’t a good idea.[(-D]

I have no issues with ads when I do have to deal with them, and do not feel I have the right to complain when something is free. I lent my Brother-in-law my pressure washer once and he seemed to think it was my responsibility to supply the gas and pump oil as well.[:S]

If most Forum users are not subscribers, I suspect that limiting Forum participation to subscribers would conceivably reduce the potential pool of information from those people. And I also suspect that not enough of them would subscribe just to be able to participate here.

Finally, I have never gotten any malware from this site. I have gotten malware, or at least that message about your computer is infected and click here, from a couple of politically based sites that I occasionally follow, but not from here.

I believe that this is a case of being better off with the devil you know rather than the one you dont. I think we can all agree that our own pleasure in the hobby is at least partially due to the ideas and comments and give-and-take that are these Forums.

No popups but I do get the “virus warning” and “free gift” redirects all the time on this site also my browser says my connection to the site is not secure.

I don’t mind the pop-up, as I probably could avoid it by staying logged in, but I have my browser set to delete everything when I go off line. No big deal. As I mentioned earlier, I get zero ads on the side bar.

The only forum I belong to that has a yearly fee, to see and ad photos, and see the full content of manuals, instructions, etc., etc., is a garden tractor site/forum. It’s $10. a year. For as much valuable info I have gotten from it, for my summer time hobbie, it’s no big deal at all.

I am a subscriber to Trains, and MR, along with the digital archives.

Well put, Bearman.

Mike.

I don’t know what browser you are using, but the forum website has HTTPS turned on so none of my browsers report that the connection is unsecure. ANd I have never seen one of those fake “you computer is infected” ads from here. The link I use is mrr.trains.com.

Only way you might get a site is not secure is if you have a proxy in you data stream from your ISP to your computer which is actually opening up SSL and rewriting the certificates. If you have no such thing, scan your machine for malware.

–Randy

Randy,

The “You’ve been infected”, “Amazon Gift Card”, and “You have Won!” are all in the DoubleClick.Net rotation - they seem to go through spurts when they are in active rotation, and then they seem to go away once they’ve been reported as naughty enough times.

HTTPS isn’t always served from the Trains.Com web server; I’m browsing right now on an instance that’s not using HTTPS. It seems dependant on which login portal you use, which Magazine you start from, and which “Community” link you use from them.

The HTTP system obviously doesn’t report as secure because it’s well, not. It also does not report the certificates, which is normal by nature.

Personally the adds don’t bother me a bit. But if they are video ads, then if you are not in an area with good service, it slows things down and for some people, enough to make the site unusable. Videos are fine if they are the click to start type.

Though I haven’t been inundated with such things yet, this is a free to us forum and the host needs something to cover the costs. I probably wouldn’t give them much notice and just click them away. Who knows, I might see something interesting. I look at them as an unpleasant fact of life.

Have fun,

Richard

The costs are covered, all or in part, by the PR benefits of hosting a forum, plus ads for Kalmbach being free. For Kalmbach.

Including the above with the profits of selling ad space either puts the project in the profit or loss column. And such information is unlikely to be revealed here.

And whether allowing “irritating” ads changes it from one to the other is also unlikely to be revealed here.

Ed

I don;t see any ads from doubleclick on any websites - adblock does a good job of killing them. I do get them using the Facebook app on my iPad though, always the “You’ve won a free iphone” one. I don’t remember any more, I may have pointed the various doubleclick sites to 127.0.0.1 in my hosts file.

I do see ones the Kalmbach puts up, right now it’s the one to enter the Play It Forward sweepstakes. The rest are static ads on the main page. Like I said, I come in with mrr.trains.com and avoid a lot of stuff.

–Randy

In the last couple months or so there has been a pop up every time I open a thread. Sorry, but thats annoying and nobody likes pop ups. I dont understand the concept of annoying somebody to get them to buy something? Maybe its just me.

I dont see any other advertizing (other than the subscription ad on the top banner and the e newsletter on the side bar). There is a lot of empty space on the side bar that I would think would be a great place for advertizing. Maybe its a coding issue but if it were me, I would sell ad space on the side bar where the users online box is. Every time a new page is opened, I would rotate a clickable static ad there. This way the ad does not get stale, but not intrusive. I’m not annoyed and much more likely to click on it. Too much is a bad thing if it gets too busy over there, the ads wont get noticed.

The MR (and Kalmbach) ads don’t bother me. Nor do the others relating to model railroading - sometimes I see something interesting I didn’t know about. Easy enough to close when I want to move on. I don’t even mind the ad emails I get, in fact I find some very interesting.

I am a subscriber and long time member of the forum. I hope both last a long time.

Paul

Thank you for sharing your points of view.

I recognize that Kalmbach has to recoup its costs through advertizing. However, as has been suggested by several posters, there are ‘good’ ads and ‘not so good’ ads. I read lots of ads but not the ones where they are shoved in my face. My point with starting this thread is that the mid sign-in pop up really irritates me. Please at least let me sign in before the ads start.

Part of my problem is that for reasons unknown my browser has stopped keeping me signed in to most of my popular websites. I haven’t sorted that out just yet so I am having to constantly sign back in to the sites. That is annoying enough without having to wade through pop ups every time I sign in. MR is the only site where I get the mid sign-in pop ups by the way.

Dave

Earlier the “Users online” section had a member by the name of “Credit Repair Austin TX” online.

Users Online

Credit Repair Austin TX

see all »

Those have been cropping up for at least a year now. Usually between midnight and 5 AM eastern time.

Here’s another example:

There was some discussion about them in the Diner a few days ago. Some of us thought this was the reason that the right-side panes disappeared for a while.

At the moment there is a “User” by the name of Bay Area Footcare!

Our doctors are substantially trained in all aspects of foot and ankle surgery including common foot problems such as bunions, hammertoes, heel spurs, ingrown toenails, plantar fasciitis and shin splints.

Address : 2299 Post St, San Francisco, CA 94115

Phone: 415-292-0638

Hours: Mon - Fri 08:00 AM to 05:00 PM, Sat - Sun - Closed

website: https://bayareafootcare.com/

Might be a good excuse for me to take a little vacation to the SF Bay area and get my toenails trimmed [:-^]

Regards, Ed

My sense, from the number of views on some threads, is that not only are most forum users not subscribers, but most forum viewers are probably not even registered forum members.

Rich

It’s a pretty simple question: Running the forum costs money. Who would you rather have pay for it; you or advertisers?

The pop up ads are a PITA and a poor reflection on MR. Annoying your customers is not good business.