[sort of off topic] Bladeforums ad system a bit intrusive

I know they want me to get that Barrett 98B. :D
Miss a lot of the ads, on a Mac and don't have the plugins.
The ads don't bother me. :)

Doug
 
You got that right! I bought my daughter a gift certificate for Victorias Secret for Christmas. Now im getting Bushmaster, Brownell adds and Victorias Secret ads telling me how sexy I am? Google's more invasive than a snakehead on crack!

Esav Benyamin said:
I find the tailoring laughable, wherever I encounter it. Why would they waste my time showing items and dealers with which they know I'm already familiar. Precisely the ads I don't need. Show me something new and amusing.

I spent a lot time walking miles on Madison Avenue in NYC, that paradigm of the ad industry. Walking home from work, window shopping, dining. Mostly though, a stuffy, overpriced district. I much preferred Second and Third and Lexington Avenues. :D
Click to expand...
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Guys, we have been discussing this in the proper place, Tech Support. If you don't check there, you don't get to read about website specific concerns. Spark is very aware, in fact:

Testing Banner Ads - it's not a bug, it's me screwing things up
Started by Spark, 01-07-2014 11:02 PM
1234567...8

You don't need to read all that. Here's the short form. We had ads for non-paying members. The ad program was not great. Malware, sometimes. Spark shut it down. Recently he has been testing a new ad program, and the final test phase included everyone seeing the ads -- but once it goes live, again only non-paying members will be exposed to them. He had hoped to wrap this up before leaving for SHOT, but could not get it done. I would guess by the weekend, we'll be OK. Then he'll be able to address some other glitches, like slow loading.

Incidentally, if you go to the H.I.Cantina Forum Page, look at the top Announcement: Banner Ad testing 1/7 through 1/20
Click to expand...

This probably also explains why I've been getting "potential cross-site posting attempt" warning messages from my NoScript browser add-on.

I've been meaning to upgrade to Gold membership for a long time, but -- although it might be hard to believe -- Bladeforums is not a simple site to navigate. If someone can post the URL for the page that allows one to upgrade and pay (I assume Paypal works), I'll be happy to do so. I did try some of the obvious stuff but never quite got to the right place.

Thanks.
 
I did it, if I can do it anybody can do it. You go in an pay but then you have to go to the membership options and click on whatever membership you chose. It doesn't do it for you automatically. Karda taught me and a couple others that.
You get all the benefits but it doesn't show on your post until you tell it too.

Not hard, even this cave man did it. Go for the gold.
 
LOL, well at least you weren't one of those posters who complain about all the XXX ads being posted on forums, not realizing that the ad content is tailored to their own browsing history.
 
Hmm in LinkedIn I saw an anti terror school ad next to one of my MBA contacts who was born in the Middle East. Still have a screenshot of that.
 
tedwca said:
LOL, well at least you weren't one of those posters who complain about all the XXX ads being posted on forums, not realizing that the ad content is tailored to their own browsing history.
Click to expand...

Those are my favorite gripe threads in the Tech Support Forum. "Why am I seeing these ads for smut on my computer!? What if my 13 year old son who browses the forum saw them!?!?":p
 
Bawanna said:
I did it, if I can do it anybody can do it. You go in an pay but then you have to go to the membership options and click on whatever membership you chose. It doesn't do it for you automatically. Karda taught me and a couple others that.
You get all the benefits but it doesn't show on your post until you tell it too.

Not hard, even this cave man did it. Go for the gold.
Click to expand...

I'm sure anybody can do it, but apparently I can't.

I found the place to pay, and I paid with Paypal. Now I can't find the place to change my membership option.

The payment page says this: "After you've paid for your subscription REMEMBER TO CHANGE YOUR USERGROUP in the control panel by clicking on the Group Memberships link."

That seems simple enough. But what exactly is the "control panel" and how do you get there? I tried the links at the top of the page labeled "My Profile" and "Settings," but neither of those pages have a link labeled "Group Memberships." There are two links for "Groups" and "Permission Groups" but neither of them shows any choices when I click them.

Is "Permission Groups" the same as "USERGROUP"? The payment screen said something about a 72 hour delay after paying. Should I expect the "Gold" option to show up under "Permission Groups" after 72 hours, or am I fishing in the wrong pond?

I imagine this is a no-brainer after one does it, but at the moment it's as frustrating as the 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle that I've been trying to piece together, on and off, for the past three days.
 
Yup, ya just click on Paid Subscriptions on that bar at the top, that opens your account area and click on paid subscriptions on that page and then you get what philllll just linked to. Just pick Gold and it happens mui pronto.
Answered my question too. I couldn't remember when I signed up for Gold, on that same page it tells you when your annual membership expires. I happy to report I'm good to go until August.
 
You're on track, David. Spark has to input the PayPal manually and he's been at SHOT all week so he will clear those now that he's back.

"control panel" is now "Settings," and "User Groups" is now "Permission Groups". A listing for Gold membership will show up when Spark inputs your payment.
 
philllll said:
Here ya go David. You were right, it's the "permission groups" tab.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/profile.php?do=editusergroups
Click to expand...

Thanks, Phillllllll:

Right now I get the message "There are currently no public usergroups available for you to join." So I guess I have to wait a while for the payment to be processed.

It seems that the people who already know these things refer to "Control Panel" and "Usergroups", but the actual headings and labels on the web site are different. I suppose it's a minor matter, since one only has to do it once. Except for renewals.

I wonder what happens when the year is up? Does your account revert to Registered User? Do you get a notice of some kind? Emails from the moderators? I don't normally go looking for Bladeforums PMs, so a message sent there might go unnoticed for weeks.
 
I was told when your year is up it doesn't automatically put you back to Registered User and many neglect to renew but still show as Gold or whatever.

I found looking at it in my feeble attempt to help that it does in fact show an expiration date. Must be a real chore if they have to set folks back manually. But maybe that's the case since he process's the payment manually.

Most of this control panel / user group wi fi, gigabyte talk is way way way over my head. I'm still grasping reboot.
 
You get a message to renew and if you don't you are reverted to registered user status. Ask me how I know. ;-)
 
Didn't look like that. Looked it was based on what I looked at at this particular moment. Never seen the same AntiTerror add next to any other of my Linkedin contacts but a few times next to the guy with a middle eastern background.
Funny coincidence?
 
davidf99 said:
Thanks, Phillllllll:

Right now I get the message "There are currently no public usergroups available for you to join." So I guess I have to wait a while for the payment to be processed.

It seems that the people who already know these things refer to "Control Panel" and "Usergroups", but the actual headings and labels on the web site are different. I suppose it's a minor matter, since one only has to do it once. Except for renewals.

I wonder what happens when the year is up? Does your account revert to Registered User? Do you get a notice of some kind? Emails from the moderators? I don't normally go looking for Bladeforums PMs, so a message sent there might go unnoticed for weeks.
Click to expand...

Settings (upper left) > My Settings > My Account > General Settings:
Messaging & Notification: be sure to enable all messages from administrators.

Your subscription renewal notice will be sent by email.

The reason the terms we often use don't match the current labels is that vBulletin software likes to make unnecessary changes in terminology, and it's hard enough for Spark to keep functionality and appearance working right after some of these changes to catch up on all the old terms used in the FAQ.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top