I presume this comes with the forum's ad-based software, but it is such an annoyance. Randomly clicking on a link or forum topic brings up an opaque, grey screen that blurs everything out for 15 seconds or so (if you leave it alone) and then sends you (me) back to where I started.

Ad Block or no, it never works, and is annoying to anticipate it, see it, and have to use the Go Back arrow to clear it and re-select the chosen link.

Probably time to just disable that part of the script? Unless the .001% of a penny's worth of click is worth it for a random, blurry, grey screen?

There are a lot of annoying things in this world. I find commercials to be an annoyance, but I understand they are needed to keep programming on the air.

These Google AdSense vignette ads are capped, so I don't think they would appear more than once per session unless you are viewing 50+ pages. They should be easy to skip and exit by clicking the X in most cases. They are also some of the highest paying ads (about 4 or 5 times more than the traditional ads), so I would be reluctant to turn them off. They are keeping the site afloat.

I think the in-between page ads are far less annoying than the "sticky" anchor ads that stretch across the top or bottom of the screen. I turned off the anchor ads for desktop/wide screen. I want people to have a good user experience.

We already have far fewer paid page views in recent years due to declining traffic and more and more people using ad blockers. I wouldn't want to block the ad blockers like many news sites do, so hopefully people can tolerate them and whitelist our domain.

Glad the ads are keeping the site afloat!

Glad the ads are keeping the site afloat!

It costs money to keep all these fictional networks online. :)

You know what's annoying? When sites shut down because they can no longer afford to pay their bills. The ads are a necessary evil unless you have the user base to give donations.

TJ, have you considered an annual Kickstarter/GoFundMe?

I've never thought about that. The ads are usually enough to cover everything. The last year was a bit of a struggle with the pandemic. Advertising rates were way down. Maybe a PayPal donation link could be an option if there was ever an issue.

We asked for donations one time years ago. One of things bought with the money raised was the Photopost software, which we are still using to this day.

Photopost software? Is that the plugin that makes the galleries possible?

If you start getting behind, please do make an announcement. Even a Paypal link would allow the members here to contribute to a well-loved and long-lived site.

The Photopost software uses the forum registration system.

I would look to move it to a more affordable server before I ever asked for donations again.

Understood, and valid points. But, even with 2 browsers I use that have no adblock installed, Opera and Edge, I get the grey screen (often, just a blank, white page with Opera), no ad, no X, nothing of the kind. Must be something on my end, then?

There are a lot of annoying things in this world. I find commercials to be an annoyance, but I understand they are needed to keep programming on the air.

These Google AdSense vignette ads are capped, so I don't think they would appear more than once per session unless you are viewing 50+ pages. They should be easy to skip and exit by clicking the X in most cases. They are also some of the highest paying ads (about 4 or 5 times more than the traditional ads), so I would be reluctant to turn them off. They are keeping the site afloat.

I think the in-between page ads are far less annoying than the "sticky" anchor ads that stretch across the top or bottom of the screen. I turned off the anchor ads for desktop/wide screen. I want people to have a good user experience.

We already have far fewer paid page views in recent years due to declining traffic and more and more people using ad blockers. I wouldn't want to block the ad blockers like many news sites do, so hopefully people can tolerate them and whitelist our domain.

Understood, and valid points. But, even with 2 browsers I use that have no adblock installed, Opera and Edge, I get the grey screen (often, just a blank, white page with Opera), no ad, no X, nothing of the kind. Must be something on my end, then?

I don't have Opera installed. I've not seen it happen with Edge. It could be a browser or ads issue. A blank/grey screen could be a temporary server/connection issue. It's difficult to pinpoint. I'm sorry if it's an inconvenience and an annoyance if you have to make a few extra clicks or refresh a page while navigating around the forums. Reloading the page should remove the issue.

This seems to be a known issue. Hopefully Google can fix it since it's in their best interests to display the ads. Their vignette ads are still rather new when it comes to desktop/wide screen. They must still be experimenting with it because they've changed the layout several times.

https://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adsense/5027483.htm
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adsense/5046245.htm

If you start getting behind, please do make an announcement. Even a Paypal link would allow the members here to contribute to a well-loved and long-lived site.

Agree--Let us know!