Google survey to read threads: Ad Blocker Plus does not work on it

I have tried deleting them from the page (right-click "inspect element" in Firefox) which gets rid of them, except the rest of the thread beyond where they were doesn't load. Apparently that data doesn't get sent until the google-survey code runs its course. So adblock would be useless, you'd just get partial threads.

Another sneaky, no-good, google dirty trick.

Provide false answers to the survey questions. Problem solved.

Solved until you start getting ads for the stuff you falsely expressed interest in.

What part of "Ad Blocker Plus" did you not understand?

Here is the deal with surveys. We're testing them out. The surveys show on old threads and article pages. They do not show up on recent threads. You can skip the survey and still get access to whateveer you are after. There is a skip button.

However, if you answer one question you won't see a survey again for 7 days, if you answer multiple questions you get access for 14 days.

I may double those values but that is what we are testing with.

I appreciate all of you who support the site and answer the questions.

We do not get access to the survey data. People pay google to conduct the surveys.

FYI some point down the road we may making portions of the site inaccessible to people who use adblockers. If we did that we'd likely make it so you could opt out of the video ads and we'd have a way for people to pay to view the site without ads at all, but ads our what enable us to keep the site going.

How about paying for a limited access board where you can talk about training and running without every thread getting ruined by trolls who think they're hilarious?

Make that $, Brosjo. No complaints here.

Your limited board would turn into a cluster-fff real fast. The 3-5 payees would argue and have their way with each other. It would not be a pretty site: skinny runners, biotch-slapping each other silly.

wejo wrote:

FYI some point down the road we may making portions of the site inaccessible to people who use adblockers

Good luck with that...we'll just write a better script. We're leagues ahead of scorecardresearch, taboola, and doubleclick. What chance does your '90s-technology website have?

readthesubjectlinedude wrote:

What part of "Ad Blocker Plus" did you not understand?

are you really too dumb to understand that "adblock would be useless" applies to adblock plus too? It doesn't matter what gets blocked, the page stops loading.

Wants to talk running wrote:

How about paying for a limited access board where you can talk about training and running without every thread getting ruined by trolls who think they're hilarious?

You pay to just see running threads? Good idea.

I actually thought of doing that on April Fools day. Many people like seeing the random non-running threads but I bet some would pay not to see them.

WoJo, in my opinion "old articles" are not yesterdays news on the CAS hearing. I really dislike the surveys and am not willing to answer them accurately. I am happy to pay a small subscription to RunningAhead for their ad-free platform, and to be honest, I'd be happy to pay the same for ad-free LRC. I use adblocker on my PC and laptop to access to LRC, but let the ads show on my iPad and phone. I realize LRC is not a charity and I'm cool with ya making money. I just don't want to answer the surveys.

So, just to let your advertisers know: I lie on the surveys. I try to pick the strangest answer possible. I dont feel like giving my personal info away with no clue as to who/what it is happening to it, and no, the link to Google's privacy page doesn't help answer that.

There are enough cookies on my machine (Though I try to clear them often) ... try the ad-free version subscription model. You may be surprised how many folks are willing to chip in a few bucks.

Thanks for the suggestions.

It takes about 5 seconds to answer one survey question.

But if you don't want to answer you can always skip the survey and still see the page in question.

I get "malicious" site popups when I access the site on my Android. I think this may be describing the posters, rather than the pages themselves. But I genuinely do. I use Norton.

The Brojos still don't understand the web 3.0.

The times I try to access LRC without ad blocker, my fan speeds up and my logicboard gets warm. It's way out of control. In the end, they probably hardly make any money on it.

I've said it before, sponsored stories and affiliate links (runningwarehouse, amazon, etc.) is the way to go.

wejo wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions.

It takes about 5 seconds to answer one survey question.

But if you don't want to answer you can always skip the survey and still see the page in question.

The 5 seconds are not the issue here, why is that so hard to understand?

I, ilke I guess most other visitors, come here for a mix of running news, discussion and some goofy non-running related stuff on the side. Though I hate advertisements, I understand that they are a necessity. I don't use an ad blocker because of that.

I do however feel websites should try to keep the interests of their readers in mind all the time. Sure, websites like these can't survive without ads, but go too far with the ads, make them too anoying and visitors will leave, and websites like these surely can't survive without visitors…

It's not the 5 seconds, the answers to those questions are just none of your business, simple as that. Bothering your visitors with them is NOT okay however you spin it. Make a paywall, show more ads, whatever, it's not up to me to give you the answers as to how to keep this site profittable, but make your ads too annoying/intrusive and you will shoot yourselve in the foot. And these questionairs cross that line by a wide margin.

I've seen the questionairs a few times, went to the settings of the business that handles them and opted out, and luckily I haven't see them anymore lately. If the do start popping up again I will get my dose of (non)running related news/fun elsewhere, simple as that.

To clarify on my former post. Without an adblocker LRC looks much like GQ magazine. 150 pages thick, but the first 50 pages are only ads. On top of that, after page 50, every 2nd page is an ad. So overall, we're talking about an ad/content ratio of 67%.

Randy Oldman wrote:

I get "malicious" site popups when I access the site on my Android. I think this may be describing the posters, rather than the pages themselves. But I genuinely do. I use Norton.

I have seen this from time-to-time as well. CLick on threads and get redirected to a site explaining I have 29 viruses on my device (I dont) and then re-redirecting to a google play app they want you to down load to fix it....

Its ad-malware basically. I blame google for not doing anything to block it, its not really the fault of lrc, some 3rd party places the ads presumably.

Wejo, you could complain though, its really irritating.

Exactly!

Precisely! And to be honest, if the questions were running related and LRC was going to use them, I might play along.But they're about my financial planning, etc, and LRC won't see them (I don't think?) but Google will and they'll sell them. Ads are invasive but ignorable, every now and then I click on 'em for sites I like to support to throw a few cents to sites I like.

How!? I went to the page with the "how do we use this" info and it was uselessly vague, but I didn't see an opt out option.