Don't You Just Love the Enormous Video Ads?

[thennen]

So many recommend ad blockers. If I have to do that to overcome the site owner's desire to clog the site with ads, it seems to me they're more interested in the ads than they are in having members who view them. I just visit much less often. There doesn't seem to be nearly as much activity as when I joined, anyway.

 

[Pyral]

I didn't realize how bad it's become, that's awful. There has to be a balance, this is porn site levels of ads, it makes it look more sketchy.

I'm not against ads on small enthusiast run sites like this to support the hosting costs, but these ads crowd out the information and make it harder to use.

On mobile the video ads are even more annoying because they eat up data which is infuriating because it's using a lot more data I pay for to show me shit I didn't ask for.

I think at this point your squeezing water from stone, people who don't resort to adblockers will leave altogether. 4runners.com exists and it has much better UI and no ads, but it has less information on older generations. Even more go to facebook groups. I think this might be why there is less activity, which sucks because forums are the optimal way to go.

 

[sugjavier]

Yea I hate ads lol so firefox + ublock origin is best.
Can even right click certain elements it may missed (depending on what filters you use) and block it

google chrome blocked ublock origin so you have to use i think the lite version or some other adblocker

 

[Endlessblockades]

So many recommend ad blockers. If I have to do that to overcome the site owner's desire to clog the site with ads, it seems to me they're more interested in the ads than they are in having members who view them. I just visit much less often. There doesn't seem to be nearly as much activity as when I joined, anyway.

Yep the model appears to be to (recoup the purchase price and) collect ad revenue until the the lack of eyeballs reduces revenue to below the threshold of the annual software licensing and maintenance fees and it's kaput.

I wish a crypto-bro Yotafan with millions would just toss a few coins (buy the site) at the current owner and run this site as an ad-free charity in perpetuity. LOL

 

[Ripper238]

I rarely post here anymore, much better run 4Rrunner forums out there without the lag and without the huge ads.

I stop in to see this dumpster fire burn. :flamethrwoer2:

 

[FD7683]

WOW never thought about using an ad blocker until now to scroll through this forum which i'm rarely on because of the irritating ads. uBlock works great on Chrome!

 

[mtbtim]

I didn't realize how bad it's become, that's awful. There has to be a balance, this is porn site levels of ads, it makes it look more sketchy.

I'm not against ads on small enthusiast run sites like this to support the hosting costs, but these ads crowd out the information and make it harder to use.

On mobile the video ads are even more annoying because they eat up data which is infuriating because it's using a lot more data I pay for to show me shit I didn't ask for.

I think at this point your squeezing water from stone, people who don't resort to adblockers will leave altogether. 4runners.com exists and it has much better UI and no ads, but it has less information on older generations. Even more go to facebook groups. I think this might be why there is less activity, which sucks because forums are the optimal way to go.

By the way, 4runners.com is ran by the same people who own Tacoma World and Tundras.com. They're not good people. I was permanently banned from all 3 sites. What's my crime? I did blast some douche on Tacoma World that copies my videos and repackages them as write-ups, and for the most part, claims it as his own original work. A day later, I received a permanent ban and the reason given was "Self-Promotion" and "Spam" because I post videos related to the vehicle model and generation people on the forum own.

Since the ban from Tacoma World, I joined Tundras.com and was contributing. It had the same look as Tacoma World so I was curious if it was owned by the same people. I found out it was when I banned from that site. Some long time member was being really rude to me, so I gave it right back to him and then a day later, I'm banned and the reason given was again "Self-Promotion" and "Spam".

Then I found 4runners.com because I was looking for another 4runner forum to contribute to since this forum is dying. Again, it had the same looks as Tacoma World and Tundras.com So, I figured it was owned by the same people but gave it a shot. I was contributing, answering people's questions, posting videos and everything was good. Then I get the idea that maybe since I haven't been kicked off 4runners.com just yet, that maybe I could re-join Tundras.com and Tacoma World. So, I do that and start a conversation with one of the moderators asking about the rules and if my videos are welcome on their sites. This is where it gets interesting. The moderator told me they don't like me posting videos because my video posts will direct people away from their site and THEY ARE A BUSINESS. So, there was the honest admission which blew me away he even shared that with me. Even though my videos are a direct benefit to the members, they don't give shit about that. What they give a shit about is keeping people on their site so their numbers look better to potential advertisers. They're not about helping people. They are about making money. There's nothing wrong about making money if you do it with integrity. Banning a member like myself who has helped out hundreds of thousands of people with my videos is so self-serving for them to do.

So, I was told my DIY videos weren't welcome on their sites. I decided to stay and contribute anyways and just told people they could look up a certain video title on my YouTube channel when there was a topic I knew one of my videos would help with. I lasted a couple days and some douche moderator, probably the same guy who originally banned me from Tacoma World, banned me from all three sites again stating the reason "Self-Promotion and "Spam". His message to me was, "This isn't going to work, Toodles."

So, just letting you know the quality of character of the people running 4runners.com. They don't fit the definition of "Good People" but rather "Self-Serving and Petty".

 

[Sparky 97Runner]

[MENTION=120071]mtbtim[/MENTION] A while ago I got dinged for posting a link to one of your 5VZE related videos while trying to help a guy out. I think it was on Tacoma World 1st Gen site. Love it or hate it I guess it's their business and their rules and we can take it or leave it. It's definitely not how I'd run a business based on something I love. Check out this Tacoma World thread reply #9. The moderator and also member #1 tried to buy T4R.ORG and never got a reply to the offer. Your videos would have been banned here as well. There's some interesting comments in that thread. Like "That t4r forum might have a ton of info but is unreadable imo. Its more ads than info".
Opinion on the best 4runner forum? | Tacoma World

 

[Mighty Buffalo]

My god has this forum become quite the dumpster fire. These new massive video ads at the beginning of each thread are so wrong. T4R went from being a treasure trove of contributors with great information shared to something I don't even recognize. Whoever owns this forum is a moron, because I think they just dealt the final blow to kill this forum for good.

It's all about making a buck, and they're going to squeeze every last penny out of it before it dies, which it will with the amount of ads people have to deal with.

I had no idea what you were talking about until I turned off adblock.

The site is unusable. This is becoming the dead internet made of AI bots that sell to other AI bots, and there won't be any real people left on the internet.

 

[frank_socal]

Yes, uBlock origin on firefox got rid of the ads.

uBlock origin works well for me. I'm using a macbook and firefox.
uBlock Origin - Free, open-source ad content blocker.

On my chrome browser I've been using Adblock Plus, for no particular reason.
Adblock Plus

Sad thing is that most of us are OK with a few mild ads (ie. static, silent, small, around perimeter, etc). These mild ads provide reasonable exposure for the advertiser and revenue for sites.

Oh, but that's not good enough for the advertisers. They want intrusive ads that command your attention (ie. beepy, flashy, loud, motion, large, in-your-face, pop-up, etc). At best these are annoying, and at worst will cause many of us to actively boycott anything associated with that advertiser.

So, users (like me) resort to ad-blockers. Thus depriving exposure for the advertisers, and revenue for the site owners. And, it kills all ads, even for the well behaved advertisers. Just sad the offenders ruin it for everyone.

 

[blarchitect]

What's the hardship? Just scroll past or use an adblocker. We will will all cry if site is taken down and the years of experience and tips is gone forever. Yes, you use the Wayback machine if it did go, but the search is sketchy and there will no pics or attachments.
Hosting a website is quite expensive these days. Would you rather pay to use the site?

 

[Sparky 97Runner]

What's the hardship? Just scroll past or use an adblocker. We will will all cry if site is taken down and the years of experience and tips is gone forever. Yes, you use the Wayback machine if it did go, but the search is sketchy and there will no pics or attachments.
Hosting a website is quite expensive these days. Would you rather pay to use the site?

Turn off your add blocker and compare this site to other successfully run websites and you'll understand what everyone is talking about here. The difference is huge.

 

[mtbtim]

What's the hardship? Just scroll past or use an adblocker. We will will all cry if site is taken down and the years of experience and tips is gone forever. Yes, you use the Wayback machine if it did go, but the search is sketchy and there will no pics or attachments.
Hosting a website is quite expensive these days. Would you rather pay to use the site?

You make a valid point and thank god for adblocker programs. Without them, I think most people couldn't tolerate the ads on this forum. Kind of sad that people have to resort to using adblockers because the owner of the site is greedy. There is a point at which most people would agree the site owner has stepped over the line of what is reasonable with ad placement and the owner of T4R has definitely done a long jump over the line.

I allow ads on my YouTube videos, and yes they are annoying to deal with, but people can pay for YouTube premium for an ad-free experience. But, with our channel, my buddy Sean and I are putting in ALL the work so we should be compensated for our time, and the ad revenue and affiliate marketing is all we have, which is absolute crap money for the time we put in. Luckily our prime motivation isn't making money, it's helping people. But, the money we make helps, so it's better than nothing.

For the website owner, yes, they are paying for the management of the site and thus have bills to pay. But, the people doing the real work to keep the forum flourishing isn't the owner, it's the membership. If you scare away the membership, you don't have a forum anymore. This is what the site owner is forgetting. If they make the forum so unpleasant to use, they will kill it in due course. It's sad that we have to resort to adblocker programs in order to use the forum. It hasn't been until the recent past that I felt the need to use an adblocker program to use T4R.

This is the point I'm trying to make. The ads are too much and people shouldn't be forced to run an adblocker program to use a website. If the site owner gave a shit, they would try to encourage membership rather than chasing it away.

 

[Robb235]

So what’s the trick to making this site usable on my phone? iPhone using Google Chrome browser. I used to use Tapatalk, but doesn’t look like this site supports that anymore.

 

[Endlessblockades]

Daaaaang I just opened this site without an ad blocker LOL!!!!! I don't believe I have EVER seen this many ads on a site and I have been online pre-standalone browser. Insane! LOL :brick:

 

[Zhehan]

So what’s the trick to making this site usable on my phone? iPhone using Google Chrome browser. I used to use Tapatalk, but doesn’t look like this site supports that anymore.

AdBlock for Mobile on the App Store