OZgolf Negative Cash Flow :(

[AndyP]

Hi OZgolfers

Unfortunately, the forum is currently running at a loss, where the amount of revenue gained from the Google Ads (Tapatalk ad revenue is negligible) does not cover the cost of hosting the forum on a monthly basis. There are a few other yearly costs, but the hosting fees are the main expense. The past few years saw a healthy bank balance for the forum which allowed me to donate money to charity with the extra gained. I always kept a few months of fees in reserve, but this has gone now. With significantly reduced payments from Google, and the weak Aussie dollar against the US, the forum can no longer afford the hosting fees on its own. At the moment, the gap is about $20 per month. Things may pick up again, as there have been drop offs before, but it may not, and I wouldn't count on it, asand it has never dipped to this extent.

I don't want to shut the place down, like another forum that I frequent is proposing to do, so I have been considering options to keep the place running.

The first, but not necessarily preferred, option that I have been looking at is having the forum hosted by Tapatalk; this would have no hosting fees, and be accessible via the Tapatalk app and via browser, just as it is now. I am currently in communication with Tapatalk about a preview. This has mostly finished, but I need to do a full review of it. The appearance would change, and I would assume some functionality would be lost, however all of our post history, members, and private messages would be retained.

Other options that I need to look into include tweaking Google Ad settings, and maybe finding a hosting package or different provider with lower costs.

What can you do? Well a donation would certainly be appreciated to keep things running in the meantime: https://www.ozgolf.net/misc.php?do=donate . Many years ago, we used to rely on member donations, but once I set up the Google Ads, the forum could look after itself.
Also, if you have an ad blocker for this website, perhaps you could ad us to your whitelist to allow ads through. Any little bit helps.

Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know what was going on, in fact I wanted to do it earlier, but you know, life and stuff. I'll keep you up to date on any other changes, and if the Tapatalk migration preview is fit for public consumption, I will provide a link.

Thanks everyone
Andy

[Dotty]

Donation made to Andy's drinking account (ends in 739).

[AndyP]

Thanks muchly, Dotty, although that won't buy me too many craft beers.

[Ron Burgundy]

I�ve just thrown a little in. Could maybe direct some champs Calcutta proceeds at it in Feb to buy some time to sort out other options also.

[AndyP]

Thanks Ron. I'd like as much as possible to go to charity, but let's see how we go.

[Dotty]

Thanks muchly, Dotty, although that won't buy me too many craft beers.
Many years of OzGolf donations to Beyond Blue and Toowoomba Oncology Ward would have already dented the beer budget.

Remembered and appreciated.

[backintheswing]

Do we need to start up a 2020 punters club to redirect funds into hosting the forum?

[markTHEblake]

Out of curiousity, how much you paying per month?

[Toxic]

Do we need to start up a 2020 punters club to redirect funds into hosting the forum? I'd be in

[Grumpy8]

Just added a couple of $s to the fund

[AndyP]

Thanks for kicking in, guys. There is definitely a bit more breathing space now., if current revenue stays the same.


Out of curiousity, how much you paying per month?
The hosting fees are US$49.45 per month with Hostgator, which is over AU$75 at the moment.
This time last year, Google revenue was regularly over $100 per month, but it has nearly halved since then.

[mrbluu]

@ANDY can you PM the banking details and I'll throw in few $$'s.

Thanks

[AndyP]

Here are the OZgolf bank account details:

BSB: 064183
Account number: 10264739

[mrbluu]

Here are the OZgolf bank account details:

BSB: 064183
Account number: 10264739Thanks mate.

[chappy1970]

Have deposited some cash Andy, will have the notation of Chappy

[AndyP]

Have deposited some cash Andy, will have the notation of Chappy
Got it, Chappy. Thank you.

[Coopers Country]

I'd be in

I would be interested in this , Boots would be as well I think

[thecollective]

Morning Andy,

On behalf of Ozgolf SA Christmas Cup we have decided to donate our winnings plus an extra cherry to the Ozgolf cause, keeping this forum alive and kicking.

$200 coming your way today. Please confirm when you have received it.

Yours sincerely

Ozgolf SA


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[AndyP]

Thanks so much, guys. That is very kind of you.

Due to the donations that we have received, we now have 7-8 months of hosting fees locked away, and that is without earning any money from Google.

As a result, I have notified Tapatalk that we won't be going ahead with a migration to their platform at this stage. As far as the app goes, the trial migration looked pretty much the same as now. The browser looked a bit messy, and I didn't have the chance to see what controls I still had as an admin, but I think it is a viable option in the future, but not preferred.

I've started doing some analysis on the Google earnings, and I think there might be a correlation between user visits and earnings. I'll have a look at it in more detail soon. The fact is, the forum doesn't earn any money via mobile browsing using Tapatalk at the moment, and only via browsing on a web page, so this may be something that I need to look at.

[BUSHY]

Andy, how much impact does using Tapatalk have on our income from Google ads?

Is it more beneficial for bulk usage to be via the webpage?

(I think I�ve asked this question before [emoji15])

[AndyP]

Andy, how much impact does using Tapatalk have on our income from Google ads?

Is it more beneficial for bulk usage to be via the webpage?

(I think I�ve asked this question before [emoji15])
Essentially zero dollars from Tapatalk use, because they control the ads on the app. All income for the forum now comes from webpage viewing / ad clicking.

[BUSHY]

Essentially zero dollars from Tapatalk use, because they control the ads on the app. All income for the forum now comes from webpage viewing / ad clicking.

No worries mate, I�ll adjust my usage to suit.

[Ron Burgundy]

Essentially zero dollars from Tapatalk use, because they control the ads on the app. All income for the forum now comes from webpage viewing / ad clicking. How much difference does ad clicking make? Happy to start clicking on them if it�s worth our while.

[AndyP]

How much difference does ad clicking make? Happy to start clicking on them if it�s worth our while.
Click if you are interested. Averaging between 40 to 50 cents per click at the moment.

Google policy


Invalid clicks and impressions
Publishers may not click their own ads or use any means to inflate impressions and/or clicks artificially, including manual methods.

Clicks on Google ads must result from genuine user interest. Any method that artificially generates clicks or impressions on your Google ads is strictly prohibited. These prohibited methods include, but are not limited to, repeated manual clicks or impressions, automated click and impression generating tools and the use of robots or deceptive software. Please note that clicking your own ads for any reason is prohibited.

Encouraging clicks or views (non-rewarded inventory)
Except for rewarded inventory, publishers may not ask others to click or view their ads or use deceptive implementation methods to obtain clicks or views. This includes, but is not limited to, offering compensation to users for viewing ads or performing searches, promising to raise money for third parties for such behavior or placing images next to individual ads.

To ensure a good experience for users and advertisers, publishers participating in the AdSense program may not:

Compensate users for viewing ads or performing searches, or promise compensation to a third party for such behavior.
Encourage users to click the Google ads using phrases such as "click the ads", "support us", "visit these links" or other similar language.
Direct user attention to the ads using arrows or other graphical gimmicks.
Place misleading images alongside individual ads.
Place ads in a floating box script.
Format ads so that they become indistinguishable from other content on that page.
Format site content so that it is difficult to distinguish it from ads.
Place misleading labels above Google ad units. For instance, ads may be labelled "Sponsored Links" or "Advertisements", but not "Favorite Sites" or "Today's Top Offers"

[Greeny]

Seems pricey but I know how these things can be expensive. As well as being a nightmare to switch to a different server. Perhaps worth looking into changing though?

[AndyP]

Seems pricey but I know how these things can be expensive. As well as being a nightmare to switch to a different server. Perhaps worth looking into changing though?It might be more expensive because it is a VPS hosting plan, and not a shared host, like we had in the early days. I'm not sure if we could downgrade to shared again, or if it would be too slow.

There is also a risk that if we did move, the new host could be a dud. Until now, it has always been "better the devil you know". Happy to hear of host recommendations, if anyone has them.

[Pickles]

It might be more expensive because it is a VPS hosting plan, and not a shared host, like we had in the early days. I'm not sure if we could downgrade to shared again, or if it would be too slow.

There is also a risk that if we did move, the new host could be a dud. Until now, it has always been "better the devil you know". Happy to hear of host recommendations, if anyone has them.
A site this size could comfortably run on shared hosting I'd imagine. Sure you might not have the same reliability but if you go with a reputable host you would have to be unlucky to have a really bad experience.

As for speed I think as long as the servers are in Australia and the hosting company gives a shit about how the shared servers run you should be fine there too.

I haven't had heaps of personal experience with VentraIP but the experience i have had has been positive. A client of mind has a shared hosting account with them and one of his sites was using way to much CPU so the host temporarily suspended the account until the issue could be resolved. Which shows that they at least care about the other people sharing the same server as them.

https://ventraip.com.au/

[chappy1970]

We have have all enjoyed being members of Ozgolf; most for many years, for no cost.

I think an annual $ raising exercise is not unreasonable to keep the site viable.

[markTHEblake]

Happy to hear of host recommendations, if anyone has them.I manage 2 VPS and 1 Shared, across 3 providers so i know a few. How much disk space we using? Whats the monthly traffic? I saw the plan that you are obviously on now, and thats paying for a truckload of the above

[Coopers Country]

We have have all enjoyed being members of Ozgolf; most for many years, for no cost.

I think an annual $ raising exercise is not unreasonable to keep the site viable.

I am with you Chappy plenty of people have profited from OzGolf be it from buying clubs at reduced prices , selling clubs for more than you would get as a trade in , playing on courses that as an individual you might not get on , or at a reduced price
I am sure if we had an auction, or a donation sale we would keep the site running easily

[BenM]

Andy, how much disk space and bandwidth is the site currently using, and what specs is the VPS?

I could possibly assist with hosting - although it would be shared hosting - it would be hosted in Australia with a reputable company and I would be able to allocate additional CPU/memory to ensure performance was OK. I'm fairly sure that it would work out a lot cheaper than your VPS and perform just as well.

[AndyP]

Thanks guys. I'm not ignoring the above, I just haven't had the chance to collect all of the information that you need yet, particularly the amount of bandwidth being used. I will get back to you.

[BenM]

Thanks guys. I'm not ignoring the above, I just haven't had the chance to collect all of the information that you need yet, particularly the amount of bandwidth being used. I will get back to you.

All good. The plans I can get all have unlimited bandwidth anyway so that part probably isn't a major drama. Mostly wondering about memory/disk space. But just to give you an idea, a plan with 4gb memory and 5gb disk space still costs under $10 a month.

[markTHEblake]

All good. The plans I can get all have unlimited bandwidth anyway so that part probably isn't a major drama. Mostly wondering about memory/disk space. But just to give you an idea, a plan with 4gb memory and 5gb disk space still costs under $10 a month.
thats as disparate a plan as I have ever seen, high data, high mem, and low space :)
Obviously you know your stuff, who is that provider?
I am a fan of Binary Lane, their parent Mammoth Cloud, and Future Hosting. Key differences between all of those is the level of VPS support.

I suspect our evil dictator :wink: might not want to opt for an unmanaged server to reduce costs, even with the support of capable ozgolf minions to do some hard stuff. Personally I could do it, but I dont even choose unmanaged for my employers ecommerce site.

[BenM]

thats as disparate a plan as I have ever seen, high data, high mem, and low space :)
Obviously you know your stuff, who is that provider?
I am a fan of Binary Lane, their parent Mammoth Cloud, and Future Hosting. Key differences between all of those is the level of VPS support.

I suspect our evil dictator :wink: might not want to opt for an unmanaged server to reduce costs, even with the support of capable ozgolf minions to do some hard stuff. Personally I could do it, but I dont even choose unmanaged for my employers ecommerce site.

I've got a reseller account with Synergy Wholesale (owned by VentraIP). The plans are customisable, I was just giving that as an example. But it's shared hosting not a VPS so the underlying web server/CPanel platform is managed but nothing else is. Is OZGolf paying for a managed VPS now? He didn't say, unless I missed it.

Realistically I don't mind either way, and I can understand if Andy wants to keep it where it is or chooses to move it to someone other than Synergy. But I do think the VPS might be overkill - if I remember correctly we were pushed that way because Hostgator were complaining of resource usage on their shared hosting weren't they? Or perhaps I'm confused with another forum I'm on which is also coincidentally on Hostgator (shared hosting) and had some performance issues last year.

Years ago I used to run a forum that was at least this size (although it was Invision Board) on shared hosting and it performed just fine. So anyway, I just think there's definitely some possible savings there if necessary. No disrespect but OzGolf, great as it is, isn't THAT big a site.

[markTHEblake]

Is OZGolf paying for a managed VPS now? He didn't say, unless I missed it.
It is a VPS, and he didnt say but it would have to be at that price.


Years ago I used to run a forum that was at least this size
are you Ben? :lol:

I agree its not a big site, but AP is paying for a high volume plan, either its huge data or space needed. Worth checking out whether thats the overkill (and he says he will)

[AndyP]

Now that I'm looking into it, I regret not doing it earlier. Our managed VPS plan is pretty old, so even Hostgator offers better deals now in terms of resources.

We changed plans back in 2011. The last reason I received from hostgator was because we were struggling due to an SQL connection limit that was on the shared servers.

Server Upgrade thread: https://www.ozgolf.net/showthread.php/26171-What-!-More-down-time-!-FFS!-Server-Upgrade
Page Hang thread: https://www.ozgolf.net/showthread.php/24713-Page-Hangs/page5


How much disk space we using?
27.2GB


Whats the monthly traffic?
Month In Out
Oct 4.84 29.59
Nov 5.19 33.54
Dec 4.88 39.30

The highest I could find was in 2014 with about 70GB. Last month was the highest for the last couple of years.


what specs is the VPS?
https://web.archive.org/web/20111110104449/https://www.hostgator.com/vps-hosting
CPU - 1.13GHz
RAM - 768MB (It seems to be 1GB now, and we use less than 50%)
Disk Space - 30GB (Seems to be 60GB now)
Bandwidth - 500GB
Current costs are $43.95 hosting + $5.50 Plesk Licence per month. It has 24/7 support.

[markTHEblake]

Thats USD right?
I think you might struggle to beat that if includes Full support.

I pay USD30 for this
Https://www.futurehosting.com/vps-hosting/
Their support will do anything.

[BenM]

Thanks Andy

Is the site itself using 27gb? That seems like a lot to me. The forum files and database are likely nowhere near that, unless there is a massive archive of images or backup files or something I don't know about.

And ohhhh... it's Plesk. I haven't played with that in ages but that is so uncommon nowadays. I actually used to have a Plesk reseller account up until a couple of years ago but my web host encouraged me to move away as they really didn't want to support it any more... it shouldn't be terribly difficult to migrate a Plesk site to Cpanel though.

[AndyP]

The above costs were USD. The only reason Plesk is used is because it was free on signup, and for the first twelve months, or something like that. I'm not particularly attached to it. I don't use it very often anyway, and have rarely contacted support for anything.

Further details on disk space that are more site specific, if I drill down:

Total - 18.3 GB
Web - 3.73 GB
Mail - 1.50 GB (probably nearly all spam, and it wouldn't worry me if it wasn't migrated
Databases - 1.64 GB (I thought it was more than this at around 4.3, but the primary database, which is the only one needed for migration would be about this)
Other - 11.5 GB
However, if I go to the file manager for the site and calculate the size, it looks to be 3.73 GB for the files used. This is pretty much made up of files to run the forum (648MB) and attachments (3.09GB :shock:).

I actually looked into the attachments a few weeks ago, to consider doing a cull. There are some interesting stats in the forums attachment manager.

The vbulletin panel says there are 2.44GB of attachments.
There are over 42,000 attachments, and over 1.1 million downloads
Hutchy posted all of the five largest attachments
petethepilot takes up the most space (only 75MB though)
The most popular attachments are two Sydney Open Day files posted by Grunt
Anyway, I have digressed. Here is the Data Transfer for Dec 2019:

Service Used In Out
FTP 1.16 MB 1.16 MB 0.00 MB
HTTP 39 829.68 MB 0.00 MB 39 829.68 MB
POP3/IMAP 6.95 MB 0.10 MB 6.85 MB
SMTP 2.23 MB 2.23 MB 0.00 MB

[BenM]

Cool, thanks Andy.

That kinda confirms what I thought - it'd be unusual for a site like this to need near enough to 30gb of data. A lot of that is probably the OS and stuff which doesn't actually get factored in when you're looking at a shared hosting package. That said, if you did consider moving to shared hosting you really wouldn't want to look at at anything less than 10gb disk space to give you some room to grow.

I just specced up a plan with 15gb of disk space in my reseller account and it's still way cheaper than the VPS. Or look at the Freedom plan from their parent company for $18.95 per month - https://ventraip.com.au/web-hosting/shared/ and you can use the coupon code SHARED30 to get 30% off that price too....

If you really wanted to stick with a VPS, you could look at something like Binary Lane's base plan for $36/mth which is also a significant saving - https://www.binarylane.com.au/vps-hosting/cpanel-vps - although it only has 2000gb of data transfer, that'd be plenty based on December's logs.

Edit: just to be clear, I can understand if you didn't want to move the site, it's a bit of hassle and work. But I kinda hate HostGator for various reasons, and while offshore hosting is usually more cost effective, it kinda makes sense to have websites located geographically close to the target audience for performance reasons (and it makes things easier when trying to get support as well).

[AndyP]

Thanks Ben.

Wouldn't those shared packages be fine in terms of support?

It looks like both companies would do the migration for me, so that's good to know.

I have no great attachment to Hostgator, it was just easy to stay there while the site had plenty of money coming in. I had always thought that being with an Australian host would be better though.

One concern I have is the SQL connection limit that we had an issue with previously on a shared plan with Hostgator. A restriction doesn't appear to be listed on those companies' sites though.

[BenM]

Thanks Ben.

Wouldn't those shared packages be fine in terms of support?

It looks like both companies would do the migration for me, so that's good to know.

I have no great attachment to Hostgator, it was just easy to stay there while the site had plenty of money coming in. I had always thought that being with an Australian host would be better though.

One concern I have is the SQL connection limit that we had an issue with previously on a shared plan with Hostgator. A restriction doesn't appear to be listed on those companies' sites though.

Yeah, support wise.. I have only needed to contact them (VentraIP) once but they were very prompt and easy to deal with, so I have zero complaints, but that's just my n=1. They've been around a fair while though, and are pretty active on places like Whirlpool so it's good to see what others think too.

As far as a SQL connection limit, I'm sure you could flick them an email and ask before signing up if you want to be sure. Might be a good way to see how they respond to email communication.

I actually forgot that they offered migration services too - that's win win if you don't have to do it :)

[HOPHEAD]

Do we need to start up a 2020 punters club to redirect funds into hosting the forum? I would also be in this. Donated a few $ as well.

[markTHEblake]

Be aware Cpanel pricing might increase, as Cpanel changed their licensing model from per machine to per user very recently. My VPS host is increasing by about $5pm.

[AndyP]

It's hard to go past VentraIP, with recommendations here, and not much in the way of bad reports elsewhere. When I gave them our specs, they recommended the Starter Plan. If that is suitable, that would be great and much cheaper than now, but I'm checking that it really is enough disk space. If not the Starter, then the Freedom should be fine.

[AndyP]

Thanks again to all of the donations that came in to give the place a funding boost. I have paid our hosting fees three years in advance (30% discount), so we'll be around for a while yet.

[mrbluu]

Thanks again to all of the donations that came in to give the place a funding boost. I have paid our hosting fees three years in advance (30% discount), so we'll be around for a while yet. Well done AP and all the guys who chipped in to help!!!

[coalesce]

Thanks again to all of the donations that came in to give the place a funding boost. I have paid our hosting fees three years in advance (30% discount), so we'll be around for a while yet.

Does that mean there�s enough money for a like button? If so, I�d use it on this :)

[AndyP]

Those things are crazy expensive.

[mrbluu]

Does that mean there�s enough money for a like button? If so, I�d use it on this :)Bwhaha

[AndyP]

The domain name has been paid up for the next three years now also, which means there will be no ongoing expenses until 2023. Sweet!

[Captain Nemo]

Well done bud!

[chappy1970]

Great news

[Jarro]

Fabulous!

[BUSHY]

The domain name has been paid up for the next three years now also, which means there will be no ongoing expenses until 2023. Sweet!

Awesome!!

[PerryGroves]

AndyP, has something changed with Google ads? I normally get a small ad, but now I'm getting a banner pop up at the bottom of the page.

[AndyP]

AndyP, has something changed with Google ads? I normally get a small ad, but now I'm getting a banner pop up at the bottom of the page.
I didn't change anything, but Google were sending messages about some automation of ad sizes. I don't see it from my normal work web browser, but just had a quick look on Chrome. I did see one that popped up across the bottom of the page, that I could minimise with the down arrow, and then it didn't appear again during that session. Is it annoying? The ones in the middle of threads seem a bit more annoying than that one, but I can see if I can make changes, if I get negative feedback.

[PerryGroves]

One man's opinion: I'm accustomed to the other ads, the banner is annoying me, but unless others care, I wouldn't worry.

[Dotty]

I didn't notice them.

But I've had years of practice looking through the neighbour's venetian blinds.

[goughy]

I hope your neighbour doesn't catch you looking at him!!

[dowdsy]

I hope your neighbour doesn't catch you looking at him!!
:lol:

[virge666]

I would be happy to host the site for free on local SSD servers. I run 3 VPS CPanel servers on TPP.

just say the word.

[AndyP]

I would be happy to host the site for free on local SSD servers. I run 3 VPS CPanel servers on TPP.

just say the word.
Thanks Virge. It is prepaid for a fair while yet.

[Sydney Hacker]

Anyone else getting “pop up” ads on the iPhone now?

[Captain Nemo]

Yep….

[AndyP]

Yep….Should I interpret that ellipsis in a bad way?

[Webster]

The pop ups are shit Andy, pls get rid of them!!

[Captain Nemo]

What Jack, you don’t want to learn how to trade crypto, make some cash to buy shit off the dark web, lol….

[Sookie1]

These ads are shit.

[markTHEblake]

Fair go. Andyp needs new clubs;-)

[backintheswing]

Fair go. Andyp needs new clubs;-)Nothing wrong with the raven's

[markTHEblake]

What? He got new clubs!

[AndyP]

What pop-ups? Mobile or Desktop?

[Toxic]

What pop-ups? Mobile or Desktop? No popups on Android

[BobsYourUncle]

I've had popups on Android mobile, Chrome. Only just started.

[markTHEblake]

I just saw a popup for Raven irons?

[Flavzz]

I've had popups on Android mobile, Chrome. Only just started. Same

[AndyP]

A pop up that takes the whole screen?

[Flavzz]

A pop up that takes the whole screen? Yes.

[Sydney Hacker]

Yes. I just sent you an example, that was sent through Tapatalk but that is not the way I am usually accessing the forum.

[LeftyHoges]

A pop up that takes the whole screen?

Correct, I just had one for Kogan. On Chrome desktop.

[backintheswing]

Nothing on Tapatalk

[goughy]

No popups on Android

They started for me on my Android phone, I think yesterday. When I hit the "new posts" button it comes up. But not every time. Only twice so far, and I think I only first noticed it yesterday.

[AndyP]

Google Ads is automatic in layout, and it experiments to see what gets clicks/money. I'll look to see if there is an option to turn the full screen pop-up off. Thanks for those that provided some details.

Whether the ad is for Kogan or for crypto-currency, that's on you and your browsing behaviour.

And don't listen to Blakey, I don't spend any OZgolf money on myself, and I have been using the same Raven iron heads for 16 years (with a one year break).

[Dotty]

For the past couple of days, I've been getting a pop-up with Microsoft Edge on Windows 10.

It seems to be about every dozen'ish new page.

[markTHEblake]

And don't listen to Blakey Who even does?

[LeftyHoges]

Whether the ad is for Kogan or for crypto-currency, that's on you and your browsing behaviour.

Which is interesting (and yes, I know that's why), because I haven't been on Kogan in MONTHS. For some reason their ads just keep appearing for me regardless.

I mean, I've been on bigtittedlesbians.com at least 3 times since I've been on Kogan, but I don't get their ads... [emoji22]

[Steve57]

Full page pop ups on Tapatalk also.

[AndyP]

I mean, I've been on bigtittedlesbians.com at least 3 times since I've been on Kogan, but I don't get their ads... [emoji22]
Sorry, I have that category blocked.


Full page pop ups on Tapatalk also.
Tapatalk sucks.

[Yossarian]

I keep getting full screen ads for full bananas.

[LeftyHoges]

sorry, i have that category blocked.

Give the people what they want, Man!!!!!

EDIT: Interesting, if you do a post in full caps it automatically puts everything in lower case.

THAT'S DISAPPOINT!

[AndyP]

EDIT: Interesting, if you do a post in full caps it automatically puts everything in lower case.
Automatic text shout reduction is a great feature.

[3Puttpete]

Which is interesting (and yes, I know that's why), because I haven't been on Kogan in MONTHS. For some reason their ads just keep appearing for me regardless.

I mean, I've been on bigtittedlesbians.com at least 3 times since I've been on Kogan, but I don't get their ads... [emoji22]

Is that a dark web thing? Everything I try says that’s not even a website.

[Ron Burgundy]

Which is interesting (and yes, I know that's why), because I haven't been on Kogan in MONTHS. For some reason their ads just keep appearing for me regardless. I mean, I've been on bigtittedlesbians.com at least 3 times since I've been on Kogan, but I don't get their ads... [emoji22] You don’t need to have visited the Kogan website. Google will have figured out a link based on knowing everything about your life, your family, your location etc. Still a shame about the other website though.

[Ron Burgundy]

And yeah, the pop ups are annoying. Particularly the full screen ones with the X at the top right, directly over the log out button. I’ve accidentally logged out a couple of times.

[LeftyHoges]

You don’t need to have visited the Kogan website. Google will have figured out a link based on knowing everything about your life, your family, your location etc. Still a shame about the other website though.

So sadly true, bless their little cotton, privacy-invading socks.


Is that a dark web thing? Everything I try says that’s not even a website.

There's a secret password, but you don't wanna know what it is...


Automatic text shout reduction is a great feature.

The shouty ones amongst us would argue not. And now we have to do it in lower case.

Oppression.

[Kelsey86]

I just got a pop up ad for a Hastings Deering CAT mini excavator, of all things 😂🤔

[markTHEblake]

I got a popup for a brisbane city boxing gym, which was so obviously learned from my browing history...

[Yossarian]

I got a popup for a brisbane city boxing gym, which was so obviously learned from my browing history... Probably people searching how to punch mark the blake.

[markTHEblake]

Probably people searching how to punch mark the blake. I do understand the effect on some peoples feelings

[AndyP]

I've looked into these full screen ads, which Google calls Vignette ads. As I said, I have Google Ads set to automatically experiment with ads, to produce the best revenue. In this case, it tested the vignette ads on 50% of users over Sept 13 and 14, for at 149% revenue uplift. Because of this Google Ads applies the change.

I've now rejected the automatic change, so these type of ads should not be appearing anymore.

[Flavzz]

I've looked into these full screen ads, which Google calls Vignette ads. As I said, I have Google Ads set to automatically experiment with ads, to produce the best revenue. In this case, it tested the vignette ads on 50% of users over Sept 13 and 14, for at 149% revenue uplift. Because of this Google Ads applies the change.I've now rejected the automatic change, so these type of ads should not be appearing anymore. It was getting a little invasive on the mobile. Felt like every 6 or so clicks and almost always on the first click back when refreshing the page after a short break.

[virge666]

Do you need some hosting yet ?

[AndyP]

Do you need some hosting yet ?
No thanks. Paid up for a fair while yet.

[virge666]

When is this due next - I am happy to donate hosting.

[AndyP]

When is this due next - I am happy to donate hosting.
516 days. It's not much money in the scheme of things.

[chappy1970]

Also happy to contribute to the running costs Andy

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[virge666]

516 days. It's not much money in the scheme of things.

Righto then,
offer stands when required. :)

[idgolfguy]

Likewise as required.


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