Resolved Gone for a couple weeks and WOW

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I have Paypal but it is linked only to an account with little money in it. When I want to buy something, I do an online transfer to the account. That way I feel insulated from any large financial risk. Also, I've used Paypal for as long as I can remember and have only had good experiences with them.

Also, please support this site by becoming a member! Well worth it in my opinion.
 
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Sorry I'm not going to pay money to eliminate an annoyance.

The site has some interesting stuff. I did get some great help from an individual that has specialized in vfd's. But all that is not unique to this site.

Imagine shopping at a store that played annoying music. When you ask about it they say, they pay us to play it. but here, buy these headphones and you won't have to listen to it. I say no thanx there is another store down the road, I might drop in on occasion but won't frequent that store.
 
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Scott-ak said:
Sorry I'm not going to pay money to eliminate an annoyance.

The site has some interesting stuff. I did get some great help from an individual that has specialized in vfd's. But all that is not unique to this site.

Imagine shopping at a store that played annoying music. When you ask about it they say, they pay us to play it. but here, buy these headphones and you won't have to listen to it. I say no thanx there is another store down the road, I might drop in on occasion but won't frequent that store.
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The adds pay for the site I guess , it is a community of mostly hobbyist people , it's good that it's been here so long and manages to survive in a world where hosting costs and DDOS protection all costs something.

I find the adds vary in amount sometimes , the ones in line with threads are the ones I least like but it's only an annoyance on the phone for me where they format less well.

Stu
 
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Scott-ak said:
Sorry I'm not going to pay money to eliminate an annoyance.

The site has some interesting stuff. I did get some great help from an individual that has specialized in vfd's. But all that is not unique to this site.

Imagine shopping at a store that played annoying music. When you ask about it they say, they pay us to play it. but here, buy these headphones and you won't have to listen to it. I say no thanx there is another store down the road, I might drop in on occasion but won't frequent that store.
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On the internet you're either the customer, or the product. There is real costs involved with running a site, and somewhere there's a real computer, in a climate controlled room, powered and connected to the internet, and fees associated with all of that. They've gotta make their rent somehow.

I view the membership the same way I do the books I purchase. Sure, I could check them out of the library, and have to deal with some inconvenience of due dates and sharing, or purchase it and use it as needed.

It's also a way I felt like I could contribute right now, as a relative newcomer, who's mostly bringing questions to discussions.

To each their own, but there's plenty of reasons to consider contributing.
 
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Scott-ak said:
attached is a screen shot of what I get. It is zoomed out so you get the idea
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OK, OK. I see what you are referring to. I'll dig into this. That is excessive. However, it is worth pointing out how ads work. I've done this elsewhere in other threads for the same reasons as I'm doing now, so I will be brief.

1) We have over 40,000 members but the vast majority of members are not donating members. At last check somewhere around 5% of the membership are donating members. That groups donations pay for the majority of the site expenses. This is a non-profit site, so nobody is making a profit here. Admins (me and Dabbler) and the moderators do not get paid for our volunteering to keep the site moving with your cooperation.

2) That means the vast majority of members help pay for this site through ad placements. This monthly revenue is steady and pays for less than the majority of expenses. That means the share of your individual ad placements through what is arguably aggravating is infinitesimally small when you consider how little the Google Ads revenue fetches the site.

3) I won't repeat how quickly a $10 or $25 annual donation pays off in terms of ease of access to thousands of downloads, and other permissions such as access for sale privileges.

4) The content of the Google Ads is not specified by Hobby Machinist. That is specified by the advertiser and is 100% dependent on your search history and algorithms that history signals to Google Adsense.

We specify where Google Ads are placed on the forum. So off hand, we have ads placed heavily for guests, less for Registered members and in that permission level, top of pages and in sub-forum content. The site is so large and there are so many pages at this stage of the site history that there are pages that may be laden with ads. This requires intervention on my behalf to rectify that situation so as to not burden the membership with what looks like spam. That is what your page looks like to me and I'm going to see if something is broken in that page - pulling extra ad placements for some strange reason unknown to me.

For those who have followed along this far, thanks. The key point here is please post screen shots. Stating that there are too many ads is one thing, showing me what you are seeing tells the real story. Too many members think one ad is too many. I won't continue to flog that horse because we have to have some ads to help pay for the site.

Thanks, I've reopened this ticket and will report back with what I can find.
 
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