I’ll address a few individually concerns below, but here are the main points for anyone experiencing ad issues tonight:
There was an issue with the video ad unit causing it to appear on every page. I use the ad-supported version of the site, too, and the situation was clearly unacceptable. This issue was reported to our current ad partner and the player has been disabled entirely until it can be resolved.
If you’re still seeing these, close your current tab and open a new one.
Any ad concerns are best expressed in a separate thread, like those in the site feedback or
bug reports forums.
This is probably best handled as a separate thread in the
bug reports forum.
I’d be curious to know what device you’re using, as it’s possible the issue isn’t actually the page reloading, but the tab crashing due to insufficient memory.
Although the video ads are muted by default, they can still interfere with multitask streaming on iOS. Again, the videos are intended to show only once per user per session, for those on ad supported accounts, so this should be less of an issue moving forward.
I appreciate his desire to help. Feel free to ask him about our conversation.
Nelson and I have received quite a few credible offers over the years - all of which would’ve left NikeTalk worse off had we literally sold out. The last such offer was from a company that laid off nearly a quarter of its workforce this year.
Times are tough for ad-supported websites.
Visiting NikeTalk and contributing content makes you “complicit” in supporting the site.
Supporter subscriptions wouldn’t keep NikeTalk online for more than a month or two. We rely primarily on ad revenue to cover expenses and have thus been donating all of the supporter fees (less whatever gets deducted by PayPal) to charities like Doctors Without Borders.
Is that supposed to be a threat? We’ve all seen your arms.
You’re “talking to each other” through an online platform that needs to safely support hundreds of simultaneous users and host over two decades of content.
If you’re disappointed in your forum experience, then you share something in common with Nelson and myself. We were disappointed by the state of the unmoderated message board where sneaker fans like us would congregate in the late 90’s.
The difference is, we actually did something about it.
If you think that moderation isn’t a service of value, go give Elon Musk your $8 and enjoy the ride.
It isn’t just site hosting. That’s actually one of our
smaller recurring costs, if you’re talking about infrastructure and not hardware. NT also requires server administration and development support, among other expenses.
Many people are dependent on “free” services operated at a loss by VC-backed companies chasing IPO/acquisition money - which often harvest and monetize your personal data.
NikeTalk began on a service like that. It’s cheap and easy to get started, but you find out quickly how costly “free” services truly are.
I brought this up in a reply to similar issues, which some may find worth reading if they’re curious about why we’re in this situation:
Don’t be surprised if and when the other shoe drops for services like Discord,
which have yet to turn the corner on profitability.
Independence isn’t cheap.
