Bitcoin Forum

The latest version of the EasyList filter subscription for AdBlock Plus is blocking the ads on this forum. This is the filter in question:
So if anyone using AdBlock Plus is wondering what happened to the ads, now you know. And knowing is half the battle. (The other half is disabling that filter because I don't think the ads here are that annoying.)

Awesome, right after I bid for ad slots..

Not anymore. ;)

They tried this once before with the same simple blocking method. I have a bunch of obfuscation techniques in mind if they try anything more fancy. It's much more difficult for them to block the forum's ads because they're 100% inline and not images.

Yeah, last October.

Inserting a space stopped the filter from applying, lol

Sorry theymos. I don't agree on being forced to see something, I think the users should have a decision.

If you like to block them again, add


to your addon.

If you disagree, remove this post. And hope you don't ban me for this.

But you're happy to use the service for free?  Ads are how you "pay" for using the forums.

So are you saying this is mandatory?

What about all the the donator's and VIP members that pay up to $6,000 for a line of text?

I'm just playing devil's advocate.  I can understand using adblock for things that get in the way, but seems a little silly to use it here where the ads aren't big and flashy.

The ads are actually bearable here + the blazing fast loading times of the forum.

Is someone holding a gun to your head and making you look at the ads? :P I'm free to send you whatever data I want when you request a page, and you can interpret it however you want.

That's the great thing about freedom of speech. I'm glad you didn't ban me. Just let me know if I am treading in thin water with you.

Personally I think the ads are very reasonable. No more distracting than a signature. Anything that helps to keep the forums free and ensures longevity while being nothing more than minor disturbance is more than fair. When I think about it though I prefer to have the ads as they display some interesting businesses and often some cool quotes/tips.

Bump, ads are now reblocked.

Fixed.

what do you mean by fixed? they are blocked as of last easylist update.

It looks like Bitcoin Forum has annoyed the Temple of Adless's priests, who view it as their holy commitment to block bitcointalk ads. :D

Let's see 'em block this. There's now a random number of invisible "posts" before and after the ad, and they're all (I think) indistinguishable from real posts if you're limited to just CSS selectors. Hopefully the filter maintainers aren't careless or they'll end up blocking random posts.

If you just posted simple text based ads or ads that don't flash and annoy the fuck out of me then I wouldn't even need adblock, I actually quite like most Bitcoin sites because they seem to have gotten the idea.

Isn't this what they are?  I don't think I've ever seen anything flash, it's just colored background/text in some of them.

Yeah, on this site they're okay, but either way they shouldn't just restrict people or get angry over them at blocking them, but the point is if you have adblock on and click onto other sites from here they can be easily blocked too. The problem is there are people out there ( mainly people who rely entirely on ad income because they're useless ) that absolutely hate adblock and even rig their sites to complain whenever you have it turned on, of course I don't visit those sites at all.

I think the problem stems from these pay per click/ pay per impression payment systems, ad people get far too obsessed over silly statistics like that, this is why I like the idea of anonymous ads and sites like it, since the publishers have to pay you first before they can put up the ads.

why are you so dedicated to preserving ads?

..because people are paying for them?  ::)

Is it possible to make ads optional for donators/VIPs?

I am pretty much done here until they are blocked again. I refuse to use bitcointalk any longer.

Good job theymos. Looks like you will no longer be free to send me shit cause I will no longer request your pages that send scammer ads.

Bye  ;D

Ads being unblocked shouldn't be such a big deal.

Possible, but do they really bother you that much? I read the forum more than most, and I hardly notice the ads. I'm afraid that if I give people the option, many people will hide ads even when they don't really care whether they see ads or not, just because they can.

I'll add an option next week allowing hero members, Donators, and VIPs to disable advertisements.

That's generous, I hope Hero Members aren't responsible for too large a share of the page views.

Thank you. While the ads really aren't anywhere near as annoying as conventional ones, it just gets kind of old to me seeing the same things again and again. Who knows, maybe I will actually want to bring them back because I want to see what's going on in Bitcoin world. :D

Hero members?.. That's going to be a large chunk. Maybe make it people with 2,000+ posts? It's just hero member is basically what Full Member was a few months ago.

You can already block ads by switching to a different theme.. Anyone can do it (but they do miss some other features too).

More ad variety would be cool through.

Not blocked for me atm.

yeah, really messed up everything here, topics were shown empty!

open your filters and delete this one:

I lost my temper on this big time, theymos. Which I would like to apologize to you for this immature response I made. And hope to see that you forgive me. I will leave that at that, and hope this can be water under the bridge.


That's a good idea, and I don't want you pressured into this over my comment. Like I said, I hope you can forgive me for my comment. And only thing I may suggest is atleast try the non-intrusive way as well.

I like the ads, actually I would like to see more, it's not possible to follow up on every new Bitcoin business, so the ads are a way for me to know what's going on in the economy.

anyone has been able to disable the ads since day one by changing the forum theme to "SMF Default Theme - Core" granted we don't see self moderated post headders either(is that new?)

Yeah, the ads are interesting and unobtrusive. I may be wrong but I think they are blocked again. They are when I re-enable Ad Block on this site anyway.

Some of the ads are getting blocked by ABP's EasyList. Currently, it affects only the ads with a background.