[mgiurgeu]

I totally understand the need for BBO to put ads on the playing site, they need revenue to keep the site free. But having ads that are flashing in different colors, have tons of animation or other distracting features is a deterrent for a lot of people to play on BBO. I know I can't stand them and would rather not play than having to put up with that sort of garbage. BBO should consider offering paid membership where ads are disabled. I'm sure there would be a lot of subscribers if the fees are reasonable. You could certainly count me in.

[1eyedjack]

Would you be prepared to pay $0.25 per day, limited to $0.00 for days on which you do not play at all? (For the privilege of ditching the adverts, that is)

[mgiurgeu]

absolutely! that's less than $100/year. make it $75/year and I'm sure there would be a lot of people choosing this option.

[1eyedjack]

Then the solution is already provided for you.

Deposit a modest amount in a BB$ account (I think that by default it asks for $20, but I am sure that you can deposit less).

Then, on a day that you wish to play, register early on for (say) a robot "instant" tournament. You do not even have to play in it. Just pay your $0.25 out of that account to play.

And voila. For the remainder of the day, sit where you like and play advert-free.

[diana_eva]

mgiurgeu, on 2015-June-07, 09:40, said:

absolutely! that's less than $100/year. make it $75/year and I'm sure there would be a lot of people choosing this option.

Ads disappear as soon as you engage in pay-to-play activity. So while there is no pay membership option, what you can do is play a 25 cent tourney, or just register to play one and then withdraw from it if you don't want to play it. This will hide ads for the next 24 hours.

Here's a similar thread where ads and how to get rid of them was discussed before:
http://bridgebase.co...remove-adverts/

[Bbradley62]

Can you register for a $0.25 tournament then withdraw before it starts to avoid having your TCR hurt?

[diana_eva]

Bbradley62, on 2015-June-07, 11:15, said:

Can you register for a $0.25 tournament then withdraw before it starts to avoid having your TCR hurt?

No. And withdrawing from a robot tourney will not hurt your TCR.

Here's how it works, more exactly:

- withdraw from any tourney has no impact on your TCR
- log off without withdrawing from duplicate style tourney counts as -1. Completing a duplicate tourney counts as +1
- in Instant Tournaments, it doesn't matter whether you withdraw, log off, complete the tourney. TCR is not affected either way
- in Robot Race style tourneys (the total points ones) all tourneys count as +1

[JRG]

I came to theForums for the first time in years, specifically to look for this topic (or similar). When I use the Android app on my smart phone, the ads use up valuable screen real estate (but I can live with that, like theoriginal poster). What I cannot stand is the constant, distracting flashing and animations. They are particularly irritating when displayed in vivid colors,which appears to be most of the time.

Additionally, with the introduction of ads to the Android app, chat appears to be broken -- I've been unable to chat for the past few days.

I usually do not usethe Android appas I much prefer the browser version of BBO, but we are on holiday and I have no other choice.

Oh, workarounds (registering for paid tournaments) may be alright, but the workaround is as bad as the original problem. I personally feel a 1-year paid subscription is a far superior option.

...John

[diana_eva]

JRG, on 2015-June-07, 14:24, said:

I came to theForums for the first time in years, specifically to look for this topic (or similar). When I use the Android app on my smart phone, the ads use up valuable screen real estate (but I can live with that, like theoriginal poster). What I cannot stand is the constant, distracting flashing and animations. They are particularly irritating when displayed in vivid colors,which appears to be most of the time.

Additionally, with the introduction of ads to the Android app, chat appears to be broken -- I've been unable to chat for the past few days.

I usually do not usethe Android appas I much prefer the browser version of BBO, but we are on holiday and I have no other choice.

...John

Chat broken sounds like a bug. Can you email fred@bridgebase.com or rain@bridgebase.com and tell them what device and OS you are using? Chat should work.

As for ads, they are hidden as soon as you have pay activity, similar to how it works on the regular version of BBO.

[bshumate]

As a senior on a fixed income, keeping BBO free is important to me. Even a small fee of $100.00 per year is something I would have to think about, and I am not sure that wouheld come anywhere close to meeting BB0's needs if advertising was pulled out. I'm happy the way it is.

[mgiurgeu]

How about offering a $100/year subscription where you can play all the instant robot tournaments you want (and more importantly to me, not see the ads)? It would save you from having to register for such a tourney every day you don't want to see the ads. You can call it Yearly Pre-paid Instant Tournament fee to make it clear that it's not mandatory.

[1eyedjack]

mgiurgeu, on 2015-June-18, 03:12, said:

How about offering a $100/year subscription where you can play all the instant robot tournaments you want (and more importantly to me, not see the ads)? It would save you from having to register for such a tourney every day you don't want to see the ads. You can call it Yearly Pre-paid Instant Tournament fee to make it clear that it's not mandatory.

I would certainly take up that offer. It would cost BBO about $150.

[mgiurgeu]

$0.25 x 365 == $91.25, so BBO would make more than me paying 25 cents every day to get rid of the annoying ads. I wouldn't have to sign up for a tourney than wait for it to start and then withdraw. It should be made clear that this is not membership. Uday/Fred, please consider it.

[1eyedjack]

As I read your earlier proposal in the thread, there was an additional component to the proposed deal: that having paid your $91.25 you would then, in addition to getting an ad-free experience, also get a cost-free entry to unlimited tournaments that would otherwise cost $0.25 each. You may have no intention of participating in such events, so in your case the equation is simple. There is still a theoretical adjustment required to advertising revenue foregone, as revenue tends to be proportional to the population exposed to the advertising, but for simplicity let's discount that effect as trivial.

It is quite possible that you would never avail yourself of the tournaments, and for an individual such as you the economics are as simple as you set out. But BBO would not be able to distinguish between those such as yourself and others who pay the $91.25 with every intention of playing in 5 tournaments per day throughout the year.

Perhaps a workable amendment might be for the $100 to be used as a non-refundable prepayment for paid tourneys,You get free tourneys until such time as the cumulative cost of the tournaments exhausts the $100 prepayment (or if earlier the expiry of the anniversary of the deposit), and thereafter you are invited either to pay another $100 to restart the "clock", or revert to $0.25 per tournament with daily ads on unpaid days as with the current arrangement.

Come to think of it, as BB$ deposits are non-refundable anyway, there seems to be no compelling reason for the consumption of those deposits in paid games to be a requirement to qualify you for ad-free experience. The mere act of depositing funds should be sufficient, of at least a minimum amount per year, which minimum I suspect could be set at a level well below $100 and still be viable. Prize winnings would rank pari passu with other cash deposits for this purpose, to protect those few elite players who currently manage to fund their entire (paid) tournament experience through prize money.

[mgiurgeu]

Yes, you are absolutely right.

I think it can be refined even further. Users should have the option of chosing an "add-free game experience" at login, similar to Invisible. If they do this, $0.25 comes off their account for the day. Further logins for the next 24 hours will have this option disabled. They will not choose this if they know they will play in a tourney or if they really want the adds (anyone?).

[thing1]

I'm sorry, can someone explain to me what is going on here ? I have been playing on BBO for years and always free unless playing in a tourney ACBL etc.
I thought the purchase of BBO$ pain for the site. Before playing here I played on OKBRIDGE which I paid for.

Like many bridge players , I am now retired and on a fixed ( declining in value ) income. To go from $0 to $100 a year is ridiculous. Furthermore there are many players here from third world countries that cannot possibly afford such a fee. One of the beauties of Bridge is that it cuts across religeous, national and language barriers allowing people from Indonesia to play with people say from Chile . At $100 you will put a stop to the harmony of 24 hour Bridge played by people on all continents.

Perhaps you might try asking for donations to keep the site free , and free of adverts. Failing that I for one will consider leaving. I cannot play with the flashing distraction of these horrible adverts.

What changed to start the adverts ? Is this just Greed ? I thought all the TDs and moderators were volunteers.

[1eyedjack]

Believe it or not, there is a cost to running the site even if some volunteers provide their time for free, and even if BBO made the (poor) decision not to invest in improvements to the software and site. In fact the organisation has some paid employees and the server hosting does not come cheap.

I don't have access to the figures, but I seriously doubt that greed enters into it.

*IF* BBO ever started to provide an option to subscribe (separately from entry fees) in order to cut out the adverts, then (a) it would still remain an option only (ie you could elect to be stuck with the adverts), or so it is suggested, and (b) I seriously doubt that the amount would be anything close to $100, although that is pure speculation on my part. The only reference to $100 in this thread is a speculative amount equivalent (broadly) to how much you would currently have to pay over the course of a year in order to play every day without adverts (in non-prize-money events). But that is a somewhat arbitrary yardstick. And for that price you get a lot more than just an advert free experience, ie you also get entry to 365 non-free tournaments.

And then, if you feel that you can morally justify it to yourself, you could block the adverts pretty effectively anyway (not sure how easy that is on a mobile device).

[barmar]

thing1, on 2015-June-23, 05:17, said:

What changed to start the adverts ? Is this just Greed ? I thought all the TDs and moderators were volunteers.

TDs are not volunteers (except the users who run their own, free tournaments). BBO pays the TDs of ACBL tournaments.

We have been showing ads for years, but we only showed ads in the mobile version when you played anonymously. The last update added ads to the mobile version, so it's just like the web and download versions.

[sakuragi]

Are the ads provided by google?

[diana_eva]

sakuragi, on 2015-June-27, 22:38, said:

Are the ads provided by google?

On android they're google's AdMob. On ipad they're Apple's iAd. On the web version of BBO, they're mostly google ads but filtered through a marketplace that allows us to tone them down significantly more than AdMob and iAd allow.