Advertising on Railroad.net

[scottychaos]

Woo Hoo!
thanks Jeff! (and site owner)
much appreciated!


Scot

[charlie6017]

Thanks Jeff!!

Awesome choice and thanks to everyone!

Charlie

[Eliphaz]

that's a blessed relief, like a headache that lasted for months finally went away

[MEC407]

Jeff, do you know if the owners have added pop-up ads to the site? I use Firefox, which has a built-in pop-up blocker, but some sites (such as railpictures.net) are able to defeat it... and as of yesterday, I've started occasionally getting pop-up ads here at RAILROAD.NET. Has anyone else experienced this?

[Jeff Smith]

I did get a pop-up I think earlier today; very unusual. I'll inquire.

[charlie6017]

Please let us know, Jeff.

I use firefox, but I checked it with IE and yeah, I got a pop-up first thing.

Wonderful.

Charlie

[Jeff Smith]

It hasn't recurred for me in IE. Not sure what's up.

[MEC407]

It happened to me again this morning. It only seems to happen once or twice a day at the most. Yesterday and the day before, the popups were from "LowerYourBills" or something like that; this morning it was a Netflix popup.

[charlie6017]

And just now for me it was a mini pop-up for "screen-savers"........on the IE browser.

I'm going to refrain from saying anything else at this point.

Charlie

[rslitman]

I'm getting these pop-ups on my Android smartphone.

This is my first time on my "real" computer, using IE 8 under Windows XP, since I started seeing them on the smartphone. I haven't seen a pop-up yet on this site in this session, but then I haven't been on long. If it's a once- or twice-a-day thing, I may have already seen my daily one if it's controlled by logon ID. If it's controlled by cookies, I may still see it while on with IE 8.

I hope the pop-ups won't be around for long. If it's a matter of keeping the revenue flowing, and we have any say in the matter, the little ads under posted pictures that we had here for a while are the lesser of the two evils for me.

I have a pop-up blocker on Internet Explorer, but it's less than useless. Ditto for IE 7 at work. I also block pop-ups on the Android device, and this was the first time I noticed it not working in 5 1/2 months of using it.

[MEC407]

And just now for me it was a mini pop-up for "screen-savers"........on the IE browser.

Ouch. I hope people will be extra careful of anything that offers to install a screen saver... a lot of those are rife with spyware and other unpleasant things.

[marco]

It's TRUE! Everyone must make a living, even people who purchase a "hobby website" like railroad.net.

It's ALSO TRUE! Advertising is every where. When I watch my cable channel, I see "pop ups" about other shows.

What to do?

Bid UP! Speaking personally, I wouldn't mind paying a "fair amount" for the information obtained from these pages, the friendships that can be formed from a distance with similar interests.

So, perhaps if the board offered a "paid subscription", (as other web sites I've used), the popup ads would be removed. This way, the NEW BOARD OWNERS (oh! the Mystery)
would be able to "double dip", by selling subscriptions to the faithful, and selling ads to the hopeful, as yet unsubscribed.

Now, of course, the discussion moves to "what is a fair amount?"

Hey! Just my $00.02.

Thanks!
M.

[charlie6017]

Marco, sounds great but I have said the same thing for years, to no avail.

I would also be willing to pony up.

Charlie

[MEC407]

I'm not so much against advertising as much as I'm against advertising that interferes with the normal use/enjoyment of my computer or mobile device. Pop-ups are flat-out annoying and I would NEVER, EVER click on a pop-up ad. On the other hand, I've occasionally clicked on tasteful banner ads or text-based ads... which, I assume, results in RAILROAD.NET actually getting some revenue. They're not going to get revenue if people block the pop-ups and/or refuse to click on them. It's in their best interest to advertise in a way that isn't going to turn people off.

Just today I was on another site and saw an ad for Nokia's newest smartphone. It looked interesting, so I clicked on it. If it had been a pop-up ad, there's no way I would've clicked on it... and it would've lowered my opinion of that site.

[Jeff Smith]

It hasn't repeated for me, but I check the box to stay logged in. I use IE9. I understand the frustration, though. Still waiting on an answer.