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On Safari, when I go to this website, after I get the ‘ad’, go to the ‘oops that page does not exist’ page, click on the little house, and then click on the forum topic, the website changes my web page to ‘reader’, which then needs to be changed back to continue.
It’s been almost a week since we heard that the forum folks were going to ‘look into this’…
I’ve had the same issue since last week. How nice you just got it. It’s annoying and makes me not want to visit the site.
Devil’s Advocate here…
We have paid zero dollars to have this forum for close to a decade now. Mods have worked for zero dollars. There has been plenty of drama, racists, people promoting alternate booking sites, spam, trolls and former members trying to destroy the forum completely.
I dislike the ads but they are a necessary evil. I, too, get frustrated with continually out of date software and other less than optimal performance hiccups.
Still, the value for dollar has been exceptional. I’ve made real world connections, and I’ve been “paid” by forum members who appreciate me in many ways. It’s been worth every glitch, troll and complaint.
I’m wondering what the point of this new thread is? You haven’t tagged any “forum folks” and you should know by now that the forum owners are, in effect, absentee landlords. To be clear, they don’t read the forum, keep up with what is going on, or know anyone here. They respond to complaints, do the best they can to support those of us moderating, and are now, after years of providing this free service, trying to get some return on their investment.
I’ll offer you the same remedy I offered “Odenwald” last week: a refund of payments made.
Considering that it often takes Airbnb weeks to deal with their glitches, I’m just being patient here. I too appreciate this forum and that the owners and mods provide and keep the forum running for free.
The glitches are strange, though. For me, sometimes they happen and sometimes they don’t.
Sorry, I assumed that reporting these issues was a good thing - that they would be needed to debug and fix.
I am not familiar with who to tag or even how to do it.
Again, I am totally fine with ads.
Reporting that there were suddenly many glitches after the software update was indeed necessary, and that we are all experiencing them, so it’s evident that it isn’t an issue with an individual account or devices.
But the site owners are aware of the problem, and I imagine they will post when they have it fixed, asking to let them know if the problems persist.
There isn’t really any point in continuing to report all the various glitches- the software update obviously messed up a lot of stuff.
Not sure if ‘remaining silent until they fix everything’ is really helpful.
Oftentimes one ‘fix’ causes another ‘bug’ to reveal itself - and a developer coding in relative isolation does not know what has happened ‘in the real world’ simply because that particular combination of moves etc was unforeseen and not expected…
Software developers use folks to ‘beta test’ things so that real-world issues are reported and then resolved. I think that WE are unfortunately the unpaid beta testers - unfortunate because I think that the money being spent by the forum owners is not being spent in the right places by the software developers. Commerce grinding to a halt because a software ‘upgrade’ is left to potentially languish for weeks is amateurish and the owners and the participants deserve a better response.
This isn’t a forum owners’ issue; it’s a glitch in the forum software itself due to the ads being added. It’s a minor inconvenience for those of us who have, like @KCC, gained much from the folks here.
This is a free platform the owners used to create the forum. They aren’t out any money - the ads are so they can finally reap some financial rewards for the hosting fees they’ve paid for years. That and their time.
As a software developer, I understand the glitches here and the desire to point them out. Report them to the actual help desk of the software company if you want to see results.
discourse.org is the software platform, in case you couldn’t find it on the code.
This is correct. Remaining silent does nothing but let these “owners” know they can make any change they like, positive or negative, and the users will wear it.
They are collecting ad revenue from this site, they have changed the ad software in attempt to increase that revenue, all while continuing to take advantage of the users and mods who contribute to the site for nothing in return.
I can’t understand why these changes haven’t been backed out yet.
The owners of this site have paid for it out of their pockets for years. Ads, affiliate links and promoting of a couple of their business ventures are the only attempts they have made to monetize it. Mods and users are volunteers. Speaking for myself, no one “takes advantage” of me without my consent, or at least not for long.
In fact, the owners can make any changes they like and they have done many things I don’t like. I’m free to leave or do as the vast majority of users, read for years contributing nothing in return.
OTOH, there are a number of users who appear and quickly start complaining about this site, the mods, the owners, the software. This is not a public forum, it’s a private one and until and unless the law changes in the US, the owners are free to do as they please in terms of monetizing it and limiting speech here.
“Freedom of speech,” doesn’t apply here. People who don’t find that the forum is meeting their expectations are free to leave. No refunds though.
I can’t help but feel that the owners are trying to get out of supporting this website. Why else would you make big changes that totally make the site not workable. If they think they’re going to be earning some money from the ads, better think twice as posters retreat.
I have now tried to post about 4 messages since this started and have not been able to do so because the “reply” button is hidden behind an ad that I can’t get rid of. I’m on a Mac with Safari.
Again I say - the issue isn’t about the ads. The issue is a glitchy, unfriendly interface from the ad folks who make this site hard to use.
I cannot imagine that the forum owners prefer lower traffic, less eyeballs on the ads, due to a second rate implementation…
I don’t object to ads on a site that is free- a lot of the sites I visit have ads, but the glitchiness is really ridiculous.
Tom did apologize and say he’d be working on it last weekend and here it is almost 2 weeks later and nothing has changed.
Ads overlaid on reply buttons, getting the “oops” page almost every time I try to access a topic, etc., is, I’m sure, not something the site owners want, so I’m not sure why there has been no change.
When I try to log out, I get a full page ad, when I hit the “x” button on it, it reverts to the “oops” page, then I have to click on “log out” again, the page takes a few seconds to refresh, then I get logged out. And clicking on the “replies and likes” from my profile circle menu always goes to the “oops” page.
I can’t imagine all this benefits the owners in any way and doesn’t happen on any other sites I use that have ads.
I’m no longer seeing the heart after posts or the top formatting bar over the text box. Is it just me?
Both of those are working for me. But still getting a full page ad when I try to navigate here and then when xing it out reverts to the “Oops” page.
Curious as to whether the site owners are still working on this, have given up, or whether the ad software has taken control of the site with no remedy.
@tom2 Any update on the glitches?
Hi muddy,
Sorry about the experience – we added a third party software to the forum and that’s been really giving us some headaches. We are trying to resolve it with them and if it doesn’t work out, we will just revert and that should address the issues. Let me circle back after I get more info.
Best
Thank you for the update.
Thanks for letting us know @tom. We’re all missing the forum and looking forward to its ‘speedy recovery’! 
I see an occasional ad when on my mobile, but no ad on the iPad ….?
I’m now seeing the hearts and the formatting bar. 