Ad blockers Advice
-
Hey All,
I wanted to ask your opinion for something we are discussing internally.
We are having a problem with users who have ad blockers in place with our portal. There are 3 principle problems:
-
Recording Errors - our portal and sign up app are both javascript applications. This means when you log into our portal, the Javascript for our portal is downloaded into the cache of your browser and runs as a local application (this makes our app feel snappy). It then interacts with a remote PHP API. Right now, when a user gets an error in that javascript, we log it. However, when that error happens with users who are using ad blockers, we are unable to log it and so we cannot fix it.
-
Unexpected Bugs - Users who have ad blockers in place may experience bugs that other users won't. This is because Ad Blockers are a little aggressive in what elements they are blocking. This is especially true of any attribute of our portal that has any form of analytics. For example - we use a lot of heat mapping to understand how big we should make buttons, how readable text is, etc. If we build an element that does not have a failback to support ad blockers, that button won't load.
-
Non Reproducible Problems - this is probably the biggest issue we are having. When a user experiences a bug that we cannot reproduce, its excruciating for both our customer and our support department. Each ad blocker works differently, and have their own standards to work around. So while one element will work for one user, it may not work for the other simply because they have different ad blockers.
Because of these three problems, we are considering creating a pop up that either asks users to disable their ad blockers or won't let them continue until they do. We don't want our users to be discouraged from using our portal obviously... but we're also not serving any ads either.
I'm curious what you guys think. Should we create a warning? let users have a poor experience? force users to whitelist us?
-
-
@Skyetel said in Ad blockers Advice:
Hey All,
I wanted to ask your opinion for something we are discussing internally.
We are having a problem with users who have ad blockers in place with our portal. There are 3 principle problems:
-
Recording Errors - our portal and sign up app are both javascript applications. This means when you log into our portal, the Javascript for our portal is downloaded into the cache of your browser and runs as a local application (this makes our app feel snappy). It then interacts with a remote PHP API. Right now, when a user gets an error in that javascript, we log it. However, when that error happens with users who are using ad blockers, we are unable to log it and so we cannot fix it.
-
Unexpected Bugs - Users who have ad blockers in place may experience bugs that other users won't. This is because Ad Blockers are a little aggressive in what elements they are blocking. This is especially true of any attribute of our portal that has any form of analytics. For example - we use a lot of heat mapping to understand how big we should make buttons, how readable text is, etc. If we build an element that does not have a failback to support ad blockers, that button won't load.
-
Non Reproducible Problems - this is probably the biggest issue we are having. When a user experiences a bug that we cannot reproduce, its excruciating for both our customer and our support department. Each ad blocker works differently, and have their own standards to work around. So while one element will work for one user, it may not work for the other simply because they have different ad blockers.
Because of these three problems, we are considering creating a pop up that either asks users to disable their ad blockers or won't let them continue until they do. We don't want our users to be discouraged from using our portal obviously... but we're also not serving any ads either.
I'm curious what you guys think. Should we create a warning? let users have a poor experience? force users to whitelist us?
Creating a warning is probably best approach. I don't think the user should be forced, but a pop-up saying certain features won't work and they could have unexpected behavior across the board.
-
-
While I understand your issue, I almost certainly will never disable an ad blocker just to let a website work I will stop using said website.
-
For me personally, "force user to whitelist" = I generally have no further interest in your product or service. I have had to whitelist (temporarily) certain sites to get forms to work, but I will only do that when absolutely necessary. If I encounter this looking for something new, that company/site gets shuffled to the bottom of the list.
-
This does make me a little bit curious as to what issues people have. Because my use of your website has had no issues except for the one that I reported over the weekend. That issue is something that most people only ever happened once.
-
Forceful white-listing means all desire for said products or services is immediately lost without a second thought, no matter how dire the need.
However, I do understand the issue. But that's on your developers to figure out, because you aren't the only website operator who uses telemetry to improve web experience and other services.
-
Super helpful feedback guys!. I didn't realize how big of a deal a notice would be. We'll avoid that
-
@Skyetel said in Ad blockers Advice:
Super helpful feedback guys!. I didn't realize how big of a deal a notice would be. We'll avoid that
A warning notice that ad blockers have been known to cause issues and you’re currently working on it is much different then a required notice.
-
@JaredBusch said in Ad blockers Advice:
@Skyetel said in Ad blockers Advice:
Super helpful feedback guys!. I didn't realize how big of a deal a notice would be. We'll avoid that
A warning notice that ad blockers have been known to cause issues and you’re currently working on it is much different then a required notice.
This.
-
What about something like:
"We noticed you are using an Ad Blocker - We hate ads too - and don't worry, we don't have any on our portal. However, Ad Blockers can cause issues with our portal. Please whitelist us, there's no ads here :D"
We try and keep notices like this friendly.
-
@Skyetel said in Ad blockers Advice:
Super helpful feedback guys!. I didn't realize how big of a deal a notice would be. We'll avoid that
Notice is fine. Just don't create artificial problems. Stating that ad blockers may creates issues and to consider disabling if an issue arrises is fine.
-
@Skyetel said in Ad blockers Advice:
What about something like:
"We noticed you are using an Ad Blocker - We hate ads too - and don't worry, we don't have any on our portal. However, Ad Blockers can cause issues with our portal. Please whitelist us, there's no ads here :D"
We try and keep notices like this friendly.
You aren't running ads. So it might be better to say "Hey, we see you are running an ad blocker. Your Skyetel Portal is ad-free. Some ad blockers have been known to cause issues with the portal. Should you experience any issues, it is possible that your ad blocker may be interacting with some of the portal components."
-
And gods, don’t make it pop back up after I dismiss it.
-
@scottalanmiller said in Ad blockers Advice:
@Skyetel said in Ad blockers Advice:
What about something like:
"We noticed you are using an Ad Blocker - We hate ads too - and don't worry, we don't have any on our portal. However, Ad Blockers can cause issues with our portal. Please whitelist us, there's no ads here :D"
We try and keep notices like this friendly.
You aren't running ads. So it might be better to say "Hey, we see you are running an ad blocker. Your Skyetel Portal is ad-free. Some ad blockers have been known to cause issues with the portal. Should you experience any issues, it is possible that your ad blocker may be interacting with some of the portal components."
Looks good to me!
-
@Obsolesce said in Ad blockers Advice:
@scottalanmiller said in Ad blockers Advice:
@Skyetel said in Ad blockers Advice:
What about something like:
"We noticed you are using an Ad Blocker - We hate ads too - and don't worry, we don't have any on our portal. However, Ad Blockers can cause issues with our portal. Please whitelist us, there's no ads here :D"
We try and keep notices like this friendly.
You aren't running ads. So it might be better to say "Hey, we see you are running an ad blocker. Your Skyetel Portal is ad-free. Some ad blockers have been known to cause issues with the portal. Should you experience any issues, it is possible that your ad blocker may be interacting with some of the portal components."
Looks good to me!
I like this too
