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Mobile Devices and Moribund Threads


HoggyDog

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Three issues/comments:

 

1. Mobile Devices

I sent a Facebook friend of mine, whom I'm hoping to interest in flight simming in general and this site in particular, a link to a couple of FlightSim threads with YouTube videos. He posted back that he couldn't access the site OR the videos due to some screen-filling ad that blocked the site completely and implied that he needed to download the app in order to view the content here. So I grabbed my smartphone (Android) and tried to follow my own link (the one that I had posted on his FB page). I got a ginormous Tapatalk ad, and although it didn't explicitly say so, the strong implication was that I had to install Tapatalk to access this website on my mobile device.

 

So I clicked X to close the Tapatalk ad, and there was the forum post I had sent him to! YAY! Only one problem: where the YouTube video was supposed to be, there was nothing but a large white space. No Youtube icon, no video thumbnail- nothing! No way whatsoever to access the video from here. So I just sent him a direct link to the vid on YouTube. :(

 

Then I researched Tapatalk on the Google Play store. Overall, horrible reviews, all saying the latest version had "fixed a lot of stuff that wasn't broken" and "ruined the interface" and "uninstalling Tapatalk until you go back to version (3 or 4 versions ago) when all of this worked and was easy to use." Sadly, there wasn't a word about WTF Tapatalk is, or what it does, or why one would need it to access a forum on a website.

 

So: Is Tapatalk really required to access this website's forum threads with YouTube videos from a mobile device? The timing and presentation of the Tapatalk ad strongly suggests/implies that it is.

 

2. Moribund threads

In the screenshots forum, at the bottom, there is always a "similar threads" frame, which seems to be selecting older threads on the basis of the words contained in the current thread's title. Many of the suggested threads are ten years or more old, and most of them are completely devoid of pictures- they contain only identical generic image placeholders which, when clicked, display some error message about the image having been removed, or dying of natural causes :p or whatever.

 

Some examples:

Moribund thread with dead FlightSim links to non-existent images:

MoribundScreenshotThread.jpg

 

Clicking a dead image link in above thread displays 404 error:

MissingImage404.jpg

 

Moribund thread with generic Image Shack "image not found" icon:

MissingImageGenericImageShack.jpg

 

A screenshot thread without any actual images is pretty useless. Is there some automated way that some kind of Bot could comb through the Screenshot forum(s) every year or so and zap these moribund threads? I imagine that a not-insignificant amount of server storage space could thus be recovered.

 

3. Ad Blockers

I use AdBlock Plus. I realize that this website is ad-supported and want to do my part to help. However, reading the Adblock Plus website, I see the following:

 

  • Can block tracking, malware domains, banners, pop-ups and video ads - even on Facebook and YouTube
  • Unobtrusive ads aren't being blocked in order to support websites

 

I haven't "configured" any Adblock Plus behavior other than the reasonably-permissive default blocking behavior. So, I'm assuming that whatever ads are being blocked from my view fall under the "Obtrusive" (objectionable) umbrella. I know that I do see some ads here, primarily for Virtavia products and the Flightsim store, but none from Yahoo or other ad providers- nothing at all like the number and scope of ads complained about in another thread in this forum. So obviously, my Adblock Plus is blocking them, which means that they are not compliant with Adblock Plus's internal "objectionable" filter. I guess I could try disabling Adblock Plus and see what I'm missing... :confused:

 

Is there some way to select the type of ads that Yahoo and others foist upon this website? Do they have an "Unobtrusive Ads" plan that we can subscribe to so that discriminating ad blockers will allow them through? There is a more detailed description of what Adblock Plus doesn't block on their website.

i7-10700K @3.8-5.1GHz, 32GB DDR4-2666 SDRAM, GTR-2060 Super 8GB, 2x SSDs
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I do use my brother-in-law's IPad from time to time when I'm visiting down in SoCal. The first time I logged into Flightsim.com I got all of that Tapatalk stuff and I ignored it. It works fine for me. I don't really check out videos and not many screenshots when I use it.

 

Checking out old screenshots from years ago, it could be that the OP went into his/her settings and deleted all of their attachments thus eliminating the pictures.

 

I also use Adblock Plus and I get absolutely ZERO ads of any kind. I suspect the absence of the Yahoo Ads that were in the upper right corner, that were clickable, are now eliminated from the site.

Still thinking about a new flightsim only computer!  ✈️

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Lately on many forums and on Farcebook I see "sent from android via Tapatalk" (or iphone or Star Trek communicator or whatever) as a signature; to which many have started responding with "sent from PC via keyboard" at the end of their responses. But i doubt Tapatalk is necessary to access any site.

 

You can configure AdBlock to allow some ads globally or configure to allow some or all on specific sites; it's a one-click option to "allow all this site". What I find egregiously unacceptable are those sites which block or limit access if they detect AdBlock (there is an Anti-AdBlock blocker for Firefox, but it doesn't always work).

 

Youtube has recently done some behind-the-scenes tinkering which has proven problematic for some software. For years I've used Flashgot for downloading videos; it still works fine but no longer on Youtube, instead of a list of optional formats and resolutions there's only the choice of video.mp4 or audio.mp4 ...which are just that, an audio track or a video with no sound (or resolution options). So I now use WinX on Youtube (a kludge since it is a standalone program, not integrated with the browser) and Flashgot everywhere else.

 

As for missing images, I imagine some disappeared with the forum update years ago (when many of us had to reregister - I've been here since '98 but had to register again in '07), and some may have been hosted off-site and the account there expired or the site itself disappeared.

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