Is this coercion?

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JanR

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A few minutes ago, the forum went dark and a notice came up saying they see I have an ad blocker and to disable it in order to continue seeing the forum, and if I wanted to do so, I should help defray expenses, or words to that effect. In other words, become a patron. There was no way to close that message window. I had to close my browser completely, then reopen it and go back to this forum to continue.

First, I don’t have an ad blocker that blocks all ads. My browser does have some ad blocking capabilities and it automatically blocks some ads. But not all of them, by any means. And I haven’t the slightest idea of how to disable it.

Second, I shouldn’t be denied access to this forum just because I’m not a patron. The reason I don’t pay to be a patron is that I don’t do any financial transactions online. It’s not that I don’t wish to support CAF, it’s that I just don’t shop, bank, donate or anything else of a financial nature online.

I feel this was coercion. Fortunately, after I closed my browser and reopened it and came back, I am now able to access the forum again.

That message sounded very arbitrary and I don’t think that was right.

Flag if you want, but denying access to the forums “unless” is no way to get patrons. Nobody likes to feel they’re being forced.
 
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JanR said:
That message sounded very arbitrary and I don’t think that was right.

Flag if you want, but denying access to the forums “unless” is no way to get patrons. Nobody likes to feel they’re being forced.
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More like it’s likely a software bug. We (FYI I do not work for Discord nor this site) software developers are not perfect at coding things and errors crop up all the time. Please be understanding and patient.
 
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I donated several years ago by calling directly to
Catholic Answers and making a donation directing it
specifically to the forums.

Like you, I don’t like doing financial transactions online.
 
JanR said:
Flag if you want, but denying access to the forums “unless” is no way to get patrons. Nobody likes to feel they’re being forced.
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I really doubt that it was deliberate; I’m inclined to agree with Faulken that it’s a bug. I reported it in the patrons sub-forum.
 
JanR said:
Second, I shouldn’t be denied access to this forum just because I’m not a patron.
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Yeah I was wondering if something like this might be down the road when I saw the patron thing, Hope not. I sometimes donate to Catholic Answers and I buy their apologetic courses but the forum is too liberal for me to support it directly.
 
If you’re not going to donate to help us keep this going, then you’re going to have to disable your ad blockers and tolerate the ads. Running this is not free, and if we can’t make it break even, the forums go away. I’ve been telling you all this for a while now.
 
Yes. We get paid by impression. If you block the ad, we get nothing. I don’t know what the percentage increase is yet because we just started doing it.
 
Jon_Sorensen said:
If you’re not going to donate to help us keep this going, then you’re going to have to disable your ad blockers and tolerate the ads. Running this is not free, and if we can’t make it break even, the forums go away. I’ve been telling you all this for a while now.
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I don’t get why so many people think that the forums are some kind of public good, like a park, that they’re just entitled to access. There are costs associated with hosting a website, and it’s not weird for the owner to try to recoup those costs. Either be a patron or live with ads.

I highly doubt anyone is getting rich off of CAF.
 
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RolandThompsonGunner said:
I don’t get why so many people think that the forums are some kind of public good, like a park, that they’re just entitled to access. There are costs associated with hosting a website, and it’s not weird for the owner to try to recoup those costs. Either be a patron or live with ads.

I highly doubt anyone is getting rich off of CAF.
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This is spot on. In fact, after moderation, platform, hosting, and maintenance, we still have to put a few grand more per month into this than what we bring in through ad revenue and donations combined. I’m sorry if I sound short in my responses, but I don’t think the folks who frequent these forums and complain about what I’ve been doing here fully understand the gravity of the situation.
 
Honestly, I am not at all bothered by the ads. Maybe that’s because I use an iPad and not a phone, I don’t know. The internet is full of ads, that is a fact of life. They are everywhere. So why not on CAF. If it really bothers people, become a patron. I don’t understand the sense of entitlement that I am hearing.
Inappropriate ads should be reported to fine tune the site, but other than that, I just work around them.
 
Even if it were deliberate, it’s not coercion. Nothing is threatened except for access to something that we are not entitled to anyway. If terms become unacceptably redefined, we are free to walk. We are not owed a single thing.
 
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Funny thing just happened. I’ve been on CAF the better part of the day with the same settings on my browser. Just got a pop-up saying I was using an ad blocker and couldn’t access the forums. Closed the window, opened it again, no problem. Yeah, it’s a bug.
 
I would donate every now and then … I like the patron way of giving … it’s easy and I don’t have to worry about when I last gave.
 
Same thing happened to me the other day (I was on my iPad), so I swiped my browser “up” and went back on and didn’t have any further issues.

However, if CAF want to go to subscription-only, they do have the right to do so.
 
This happened to me on my phone tonight. I don’t have any ad blockers installed, though. It’s really quite annoying, and I find the tactic distasteful.
 
I have posted elsewhere about this problem and even emailed CA. I too do not have installed any ad blocking app on either my android phone or my android tablet. I have cleared my cookies and cache, uninstalled the CA app, installed new not before used web browsers, powered off and restarted my devices after each of these actions, checked my settings on each of my browsers including Google so ads are permitted.

yet still I get this pop up message which blocks almost the whole screen, and my only option is to close the site. Hitting the back button doesn’t work. Going to CA first and then through their link the to forums also doesn’t work. (I thought it might have something to do with my devices ID which CAF have noted the previous ad blocker app that used to be installed - but no longer is, and so is blocking my devices as their IDs have been previously identified as using ad block apps.

Currently on my PC, which I have never installed ad blocking apps or add-ons, and so don’t encounter this issue.

Therefore it seems to me to be that CAF has noted my android devices ID which previously had installed ad block - thus I continue to get this maddening pop up which denies me access to the forums on my device. It has to be this, because it can’t be my IP address that’s causing the problem, as on my PC (now) I don’t get the pop-up and have no trouble. So it has to be that CAF has blacklisted my device IDs. I honestly can’t think what else could be the issue.

I have no problem with viewing ads on CAF. Which is why I’ve uninstalled the ad block app that was on them. Yet still cannot access the forums - on my other device.
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Ad block problem Casual Discussion
Was on here and logged in about 3 hours ago on my tablet - no problems. Tried logging in on my tablet again about 5 mins ago an can’t see the forums just to read and certainly can’t log in due to the pop up "“Oops - we see you are using an adblocker” etc which blocks the whole screen!! Refreshing the page does nothing as after several seconds the pop-up reappears. I do not have an ad blocker even installed on my tablet anywhere or as part of another program. This is very frustrating and the …
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