Video Ads

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On some threads it’s almost impossible to read actual posts on my iPhone. The ads take up 80% of the screen and I can’t x them out and if I scroll past, they just reappear. Maybe this will finally break my dcum habit.

+1. Having to x out constantly is annoying. Main reason I stay away from other sites that have it. Plus, the video Ad and the X pop up ad take up almost the entire space on the iPhone. I get why you need it, but I’ll probably be moving on if it remains. 🤷‍♀️

[Anonymous]

I also am desperately curious who is paying you to make sure I know it’s Keanu Reeves’s birthday. Whoever is was — mission accomplished! Happy Birthday Keanu!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe people are being so mean...just saying they don't care if site is shut down because they are slightly inconvenienced.

No one said that.

+1. Agree, no one said that. This is how capitalism works. If a business cannot generate enough revenue to earn a profit, then eventually that business goes under. It sounds like Jeff is trying to make changes that will grow his ad revenue. But, being down over 50% is tough and doesn’t put food on the table for a family.

Agreed. If the page was entirely ads, no one would visit. If it was just 1 ad, that probably wouldn't turn everyone off. Just there's some number of ads/page where eventually it starts to cause people to leave. It's a tough balance because those ads are vital to covering the expenses to keep the site up.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Are you going to give us a warning before you shut down completely? Or, just go cold turkey?

2. What percentage is the decrease in your revenues? 5%? 25%? 50%

3. To what do you attribute the decrease in revenues? Majority of regular posters on DCUM are rich liberals who say they are doing great in this economy. Curious why your business is struggling….

Our revenue is linked to display advertising which has suffered decreases across the board. We started to see a decrease about a year ago. That main reason I started writing the blog on the home age was because I thought the stagnant content there might be hurting us with our Google ranking. Ad revenues dropped again in March of this year and that's what led me to introduce the new design. Again, because Google was penalizing us for not having a mobile site. Also, all of the ad networks we work with kept saying that mobile ads would earn more. It turns out they don't. But, these efforts have helped with Google and our number of monthly users is going up at a rate of between 10-12 percent per month. But, CPMs for display ads are still very low. Overall, revenue is less than 50% what it was.

The wealth of our users is of no importance. We don't require logins so we can't do much tracking of users. Ad networks used to use cookies, but Apple and other browsers have made that impossible. If ad networks can't track you, they aren't wiling to pay very much to server you ads. That's probably the main reason that advertisers are unwilling to pay much for display ads.

Will it help at all if regular users make a point of clicking on X number of ads per day or per visit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also am desperately curious who is paying you to make sure I know it’s Keanu Reeves’s birthday. Whoever is was — mission accomplished! Happy Birthday Keanu!

It was yesterday!!

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Are you going to give us a warning before you shut down completely? Or, just go cold turkey?

2. What percentage is the decrease in your revenues? 5%? 25%? 50%

3. To what do you attribute the decrease in revenues? Majority of regular posters on DCUM are rich liberals who say they are doing great in this economy. Curious why your business is struggling….

Our revenue is linked to display advertising which has suffered decreases across the board. We started to see a decrease about a year ago. That main reason I started writing the blog on the home age was because I thought the stagnant content there might be hurting us with our Google ranking. Ad revenues dropped again in March of this year and that's what led me to introduce the new design. Again, because Google was penalizing us for not having a mobile site. Also, all of the ad networks we work with kept saying that mobile ads would earn more. It turns out they don't. But, these efforts have helped with Google and our number of monthly users is going up at a rate of between 10-12 percent per month. But, CPMs for display ads are still very low. Overall, revenue is less than 50% what it was.

The wealth of our users is of no importance. We don't require logins so we can't do much tracking of users. Ad networks used to use cookies, but Apple and other browsers have made that impossible. If ad networks can't track you, they aren't wiling to pay very much to server you ads. That's probably the main reason that advertisers are unwilling to pay much for display ads.

Will it help at all if regular users make a point of clicking on X number of ads per day or per visit?

Nobody should ever click on an ad that doesn't interest them.

[Anonymous]

I hate them!

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Are you going to give us a warning before you shut down completely? Or, just go cold turkey?

2. What percentage is the decrease in your revenues? 5%? 25%? 50%

3. To what do you attribute the decrease in revenues? Majority of regular posters on DCUM are rich liberals who say they are doing great in this economy. Curious why your business is struggling….

Our revenue is linked to display advertising which has suffered decreases across the board. We started to see a decrease about a year ago. That main reason I started writing the blog on the home age was because I thought the stagnant content there might be hurting us with our Google ranking. Ad revenues dropped again in March of this year and that's what led me to introduce the new design. Again, because Google was penalizing us for not having a mobile site. Also, all of the ad networks we work with kept saying that mobile ads would earn more. It turns out they don't. But, these efforts have helped with Google and our number of monthly users is going up at a rate of between 10-12 percent per month. But, CPMs for display ads are still very low. Overall, revenue is less than 50% what it was.

The wealth of our users is of no importance. We don't require logins so we can't do much tracking of users. Ad networks used to use cookies, but Apple and other browsers have made that impossible. If ad networks can't track you, they aren't wiling to pay very much to server you ads. That's probably the main reason that advertisers are unwilling to pay much for display ads.

Will it help at all if regular users make a point of clicking on X number of ads per day or per visit?

Nobody should ever click on an ad that doesn't interest them.

Why not? I watch ads on Youtube and Hulu that don't interest me for the sake of the main content.

[Anonymous]

I would never come with pitchforks to burn down your house, Jeff, but there's only so many times I can watch Keanu Reeves having a birthday: even when I really don't want to watch, it's right there. And I like Keanu Reeves! Imagine what it would be like with content I actively dislike.

If you can at all avoid this, I would greatly appreciate it. But of course I don't want to beggar you and your family.

[Anonymous]

Horrible. Like something shouting at my eyes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually was coming to see if there was a post about this. I find them extremely distracting and annoying. I’m probably in the 4 camp. 4.5 if I was in a bad mood!

I agree with this!

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh boy...these pop up ads might finally cure me of my DCUM time. If these new ads stay, I don't think I can.
Sorry, Jeff.

I am sorry to say it but it doesn't really mater. Either DCUM dies because users go away or DCUM dies because it is not worth our while to run it at current revenue levels.

I do not want to see DCUM go away. What I'm going to do, and I hope it helps you somehow, is I am going to start actually looking at the ads and if they interest me at all I'll click on them. Up until now I have literally never done that once, I am very good at ignoring ads completely. Well, there was that one TEMU ad with the men's underwear with a huge penis pocket on the front, I found that hard to ignore.

I'm not really sure how these ads make money for anyone though because I assume everybody just ignores them all. Am I wrong about that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get migraines and can’t handle these video ads. I’m going to take a break from this site site for a week and then come back to see if you have stopped the video ads

+1. I was just coming here to say this. I get migraines that can have epilepsy type triggers. Keanu Reeves flashing on my screen makes me literally feel like throwing up. I can’t process it and it makes the site unusually.


First the Site Formerly Known as Twitter. Now DCUM. I could probably top world hunger in the time I will no spending on the internet because my happy paces are being make unusable.

But to be fair, I was a heavy user of FCPS, AAP and the age appropriate parenting forums. Then the colleges forum. Now I, too, have 2 kids in college and am past the colleges forum and young adult isn’t that great. And politics is so overrun with trolls it’s become unusable. So my DCUM usage has really slowed down recently anyway.

Off to solve work hunger. Or figure out Reddit. Or wait for Threads to have decent features.

PS— I get decently moderated content has value. I would pay some amount— maybe $25-30 a year— for an ad free version of DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for willing to pay a fee to avoid ads. I found this site in 2009 when I was pregnant the first time and have used it regularly since.

Jeff, do you have any idea what kind of subscription model would be sustainable?

In a post above I discussed the infrastructure challenges. Quite a bit of development and administrative overhead would be required.

About the only workable idea I have now is to create a Patreon account and ask for donations in return for stopping the video ads. It wouldn't really be a fair system because I can't offer anything beyond stopping the video ads in return for donations. Also, those who pay would be footing the bill for those who don't. But this wouldn't requite any development.

You have a lot of well off folks addicted to this site. Set a target to raise to get rid of the ads and put it out there. You’ll raise that money in no time. Seriously.

I’m the PP who said he should go the Patreon route. I have no idea how any of this works. How often would Jeff need to solicit donations? Monthly? Annually? Only once?

Wikipedia does annual drives. I’d be fine with that

You are being so disrespectful, instead of Jeff generating income, you want him to have to continually beg for money?

I’m fine with Jeff generating income. Decent content moderation is hard to come by and IMO he works hard to provide a service that has value. He should be able to make a decent living. But these awful video ads would be my dead last choice for monetizing that value. I’d much rather pay a few buck a month for no ads.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh boy...these pop up ads might finally cure me of my DCUM time. If these new ads stay, I don't think I can.
Sorry, Jeff.

I am sorry to say it but it doesn't really mater. Either DCUM dies because users go away or DCUM dies because it is not worth our while to run it at current revenue levels.

I get it. I have two kids in college too. And ouch. $$$$. I haven’t read the whole thread, but is a subscription to remove ads model not feasible? Certainly there is a way to let paid subscribers log in but still post anonymously? I mean, you have my IP address. I’m assuming if you wanted to find out who I am, you could. I trust you. I just don’t want to be doxxed by a crazy.