BBO Discussion Forums: Adchoices - BBO Discussion Forums

I asked yellows this, posted this on the support forum, and really need this question answered.

How to I just get regular BBO ads to appear instead of Adchoices ads and how to stop getting Adchoices to appear on the ad side of the BBO screen? BBO runs very sluggishly on my computer when Adchoices ads appear (which is about 80% of the time), but just fine when the normal-looking BBO bridge ads appear.

On top of that, one of the Adchoice ads freeze, freezing not only BBO but also the flash player and requiring at least five to ten minutes just to get back on BBO. Other adchoice ads are just gross, or have moving annimations that seem to slow the servers, and most of them don't seem appropriate for a bridge website.

I'm fine with the normal bridge ads. I think it's great if/that BBO is having sponsors. But, I do have to have to put a stop to adchoices ads appearing on the ad screen instead.

Any advice and input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

You can put a stop to ads by periodically paying a trivial US$0.25.

Well, initially (and infrequently repeated, as the balance gets depleted) you would have to deposit a larger sum; just a few dollars (not sure of the minimum, I think it *prompts* US$20 but I think you can get under that) with BBO.

Then, out of that deposit, when you want to play without ads, register to play in (say) a $0.25 "Instant" robot tourney. Immediately withdraw from the tourney if you don't want to play it (but hey it is only 8 hands, why not give it a go? You just might find it fun. But if not, and you withdraw, this would not affect your tournament completion rate).

Then when you play elsewhere the ads will have gone. When they reappear (not sure of the frequency, maybe $0.25 just buys you a day; I think someone here suggested a week but my gut says that is too long) then just "rinse and repeat", as they say.

Someone on these forums once suggested that this was a "perverse" arrangement for killing the ads. "LOL" I think is the response to that. It works. It is cheap. It is trivial to do, and it has the massive benefit of your NOT paying to be ad-free on extended periods when you might not be visiting BBO for a while.

I think that this kills all ads. I am not aware of a solution that kills adchoice ads but allows BBO ads. Ad-blocker software with sophisticated options might be able to do that, but I would not recommend a solution that denies BBO its revenue.

Well, I deposited BB$, and without even playing in a tourney, the ads are gone! (They do still appear in the log-in screen, though.)

Maybe I just have to keep my BB$ account at/above a minimum amount.

Again, I do like seeing the BBO bridge ads as that sometimes can give good updates and it'd be nice to know whether BBO is getting sponsors, and it'd be nice to see if/that BBO is getting sponsors. I just can't run BBO with Adchoice ads on my computer.

Thanks!

AAr, on 2017-January-22, 03:27, said:

I am pretty sure this is wrong. More likely, the act of depositing BB$ is treated the same way as consuming them in a pay tourney. You get a temporary reprieve from ads. If you leave your BB$ account dormant then the ads will reappear however much you leave there.

1eyedjack, on 2017-January-22, 03:44, said:

I think quite a lot of people would be interested in this discussion. I'd certainly prefer my money to go direct to BBO rather than via the advertisers. Perhaps we could have some definite info on this, from the admins?

It has been discussed in this forum quite regularly. A thread like this pops up every couple of months or so.

These include complaints about specific ads or ad-providers, but I think that this is the first thread that I have seen which shows a positive tolerance for the BBO-specific ads, sufficient perhaps to justify a tiered approach to blocking them.

Bridge ads are direct ads that bridge organisations place on BBO straight through us, by sending us the banners and the landing page URL. They are typically very cheap (compared to what network ads pay), we give significant discounts to bridge advertisers. Some bridge initiatives get ads for free (eg bridge in schools, free tourneys aimed at promoting bridge will usually get a free ad on BBO as well).

BBO cannot show only bridge ads because there simply aren't enough bridge orgs to fill all the ad spaces BBO can sell.

Ads are hidden for one week after any commerce activity (purchase BB$, spend BB$). It used to be 24 hours, but we raised the time interval to one week to make the experience more pleasant for mobile users.

If you want to hide ads play something pay (an IT costs only 25 cents) whenever the ads appear again and this will keep you ad-free for a week.

For any ad related complaints, suggestions, requests you can email support or send me an email at diana@bridgebase.com.

hi - I was having the same problem. it was very annoying to have ads flashing at you. i solved the problem by downloading Mozilla Firefox. you can block the ads which is very useful, plus it also makes the playing area and right hand column area larger. a plus all around!

dottied, on 2017-January-23, 18:50, said:

Not much of a plus for BBO, the free platform that provides your bridge fix.

Follow-up.

I have no problem with making a contribution towards BBO . So I followed your advice: turned off Adblock, bought some BBO $, and lo and behold the ads were gone for a week! Then when the week was done and the ads popped in again, I followed the suggestion and enlisted in one of the Instant Robot tourneys. Another ad-free week! Assuming I keep this up, for 25c a week this is pretty good value - especially seeing as my local weekly U3A session costs £2 a throw (although for that I get a cup of tea and biscuit thrown in. I'm still waiting for BBO to to likewise ).

My only beef is, I played out the 'tourney' - and playing against three robots configured in 2/1 convention wasn't a lot of fun. I suppose I could one day learn a bit of 2/1 - it can't be that much harder than quantum mechanics or general relativity! But for the present I found myself stuck in a system I don't really understand. There doesn't seem to be any way of re-jigging the robots for Acol. Or is there?

Someone said above, if I just duck out of the tourney after paying my 25c, it won't mess up my TCR. How do I bring this about? There doesn't seem to be a 'leave' button and clicking on my own username doesn't work. Or can I just close the browser tab?

661_Pete, on 2017-February-26, 04:27, said:

Yes yes. I suggested this a few months ago and was accused of being perverse.

661_Pete, on 2017-February-26, 04:27, said:

There is a "Withdraw" button. Left hand side at the bottom of the playing window.

Personally I think that your enjoyment of these tournaments would improve if you stuck with them. And while the descriptions of bids are imperfect (and sometimes downright wrong), you can check on the meanings of all other bids at the table and (before committing) to your own. It is a slow process if you have no knowledge at all of 2/1 (and the version of 2/1 played by GIB can hardly be regarded as standard in many respects). But over time .... and having paid for the tourney ...

Maybe it would be a nice idea to make the Bridge ads available with a special link from the homepage or in the news area?

661_Pete, on 2017-February-26, 04:27, said:

Pete, thanks for contributing to BBO. Glad this solved the problem with ads for you, but you should also get something you like for the $ invested besides "no ads".

If you don't like the tournaments, you can rent robots instead. They cost $1/week and you can use the robots at the table, including in the Acol Club. If you're short of a player and want to play, or if you want to practice with your partner they can be useful. To rent robots, click Robot World, then Robot rental (under the list of tournaments).

To place the robots at your table, you have to be the table host. Start a table and click the Robot button on the empty seats where you need to put a robot in.

This is more expensive than the 25 cent per week an instant tourney provides, so of course it's up to you.

Or, you can rent Bridge Master. It's 25 cents for 30 minutes of full access to all deals. This is without robots, a software that allows you to practice declarer play.

scarletv, on 2017-February-26, 05:54, said:

We are considering this, might experiment with bridge-related ads in newsfeed sometime in the future.

diana_eva, on 2017-February-26, 07:09, said:

Thanks, but no! I don't really like the idea of robots, I prefer to play with humans. That's what I come to BBO for. I've been along the path of playing with robots before, years ago (not on BBO, and not GIBs). Not much fun.

Regarding the ads - I don't really have any objection to the ads as such. The main problem has been that some of them are animated, and they auto-update even during play. This consumes bandwidth and slows down one's interaction with BBO - very annoying. Indeed, I suspect that sometimes, the nuisance of players losing connectivity with BBO in mid-hand, might be due to ads taking up the bandwidth. Only a guess!

Another update. When my week's 'grace' ran out I 'joined' another instant tourney, and immediately withdrew (as per advice above) since I didn't want to play it out. All worked fine and the ads are gone for another week!

Last night in the Acol Club there was quite a lively debate via the chatline, about the nuisance factor of the animated ads bar. Several players suggested using an Adblock. I put forward the method I've adopted, as a solution more 'friendly' towards BBO.

Did I do right? 25c per week doesn't seem like a lot of money, but if enough players do it......?

If the BBO guys agree, and if would generate enough revenue to keep an ad-free BBO in the black .... perhaps there should be introduced a simpler way of paying a subscription to BBO. After all other web service providers do something similar. I'm constantly being cajoled into upgrading my E-mail service to 'premium' and so get rid of the ads....

Just another idea....

Yes there is a particular individual who frequents the Acol club who has made it a personal crusade to drum up some sort of pressure group to inundate BBO with emails of complaint. And you can tell that he or she is pretty IT illiterate in speculating as to the causes of his or her various woes. When I happen to be in the neighbourhood on these occasions I try to post a bit of balance to the "club". Drop in the ocean, I fear. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

AAr, on 2017-January-22, 02:11, said:

Hi AAr,

maybe my response is a little late now but I just happened to read your forum post and I think it might be interesting for you to know that, when I was playing Bridge Master levels while I was connected to a VPN server (HMA! Pro VPN for Mac OS X), some countries (e.g. Saudi Arabia) did not allow adchoices ads [there might be some half-naked women in there lol] so that only the "normal bridge ads" were displayed as long as the server connection was established.

I think this is exactly what you wanted.

Of course you would have to purchase a VPN app suitable for your operating system and then just experiment with different countries and check for your desired results.

Happy BBO 'ading'!!