Nothing comes close to omegaforums in terms of ease of use and design. We really have a special thing here.

 

In today's world of ad blockers, I wonder if there's a up-to-date hosts file out there anymore. It works because operating systems have a hierarchy of sources for a DNS lookup; that's the action that turns www.omegaforums.net into 52.117.236.83. One of the first things that it examines is the hosts file, which is usually empty or just has comments. The format is ipaddr(whitespace)url less the parens.

So as ad slinging infiltrated the early internet, various people would identify the source url, which was [almost] always different than the page you were visiting. The file contained as many urls as the community could identify but the ipaddr for each was set to 127.0.0.1, the local box. Since your local box doesn't serve ads, nothing would show up in the space reserved for the ads.

I find Adblock Plus to be an effective alternative except on my iDevices. Oh, it looks like it's available in the apple store now so that's even better.

If you really want a hosts file, you can probably find one and I have installed them on a modern version of windows but I remember it's a bit of a permissions nightmare and an adblocker does pretty much the same thing. I'd only consider going down that path on a box that doesn't support an adblocker (maybe some old professional versions of Unix). But it's just a file in the correct place in the filesystem, nothing more complicated.

The advantage to using an adblocker is that someone else maintains the blocking list. In the bad old days it was a game of cat and mouse, seeing an ad show up and examining the logs to see where it came from.

 

BTW, it's clear that WUS and Omegaforums are running on the same platform, just based on many similar behaviors. Their Admin who's working the crowd told me that OF wasn't part of the Verticalscope world, at least to his knowledge. It appears both sites use a platform called XenForo (I'd never heard of it before today). It clearly is highly customizable, just due to the differences between the two sites.

 

........um.......err.......yeah!

 

^^Well, he did ask.

 

I can do this


That’s about the extent of my programming prowess.

 

Based on my experience at another VerticalScope owned forum, the site admins get very little control over how the site looks and it features.
One example is the imposition of a limit on the number of edits you can make in a month (10). If you're selling multiple items this can be a problem If you need to make a correction or change the status to sold.
The abolition of the previous minimum post count before you can send PMs has resulted in a big increase in scam accounts contacting sellers moments after they're created and requesting the seller to contact their "friend" at an email address.
The Admins ability to request changes appears to be very limited.

 

In all sincerity, the thing I like best about this forum is this kind of expertise, on whatever topic, is so often shared in this manner, lucidly explained and without posturing or tendentiousness.

 

The only one I am aware of (and can confirm as working) is "AdAway" for rooted Android devices.
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.adaway/
Great stuff for the browser and for the apps overloaded with adds.

I do agree that browser-based ad-blocker is sufficiently effective on boxes. Adblock Plus/uBlock/Ghostery are my favourites.

 

I agree - it's odd. It appears many people like you and I max out on "rewards" as soon as the site was updated, so I'm not sure how much effect it will really have - I guess more for newer members than longer term members perhaps.

 

Aha, I misunderstood that all that garbage is generated based on your “likes” and whatnot. Well, it’s certainly dumb as hell, but maybe not so sinister.

I’m probably bent out of shape because the lousy Scrabble app I paid ten bucks for some years ago went dark and was replaced by an abomination that blasts noisy ads at you after every other move, making it impossible to play on public transportation, in bed with a sleeping spouse, furtively during meetings, etc.—basically any time you’d want to play Scrabble—and larded it up with inane rewards and paid level-ups, with an option to turn off the ads for nearly $60 per year. The owners of Scrabble (Hasbro in N. America) have striven for years to make people hate their all-time most successful board game, and every year they get closer to making me give up.

Well, pardon that outburst. I’ve enjoyed WUS for years, though I've barely used the site for some time. It would be a shame if it goes the route of Tapatalk and tries to torment users into paying just to make the site bearable to use. I hope that doesn’t happen.

 

It certainly has that potential. I forked over the fee because I think it's a great place for fun and banter, not because I wanted any upgraded capabilities. If they had asked $100/y instead of $20, I probably would have given it a second thought. But there is a saying about boiling a frog.

I hope that doesn't come to pass.

Regarding the carrots, I see it as something someone wrote in the spec because they see it in other popular sites. I know feedback really fluffs up my wife on facebook so it's been successful for some sites. I also see it's implementation as having been done by an intern at the last minute. I got all 113 points the minute they switched and I'm fairly new around town.

 

Buy a Raspberry-Pi (or use Docker), install Pi-Hole, point your wi-fi routers DNS to the raspberry-pi/docker-container running Pi-Hole, and have an ad-free network for all your devices. Much simpler and further reaching solution

Edit : https://pi-hole.net/

 

I do this too!