Advertising on AskWoody

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As many of you know, I’ve been operating AskWoody without advertising and without cookies (except for the open source avatar site) for several years.
[See the full post at: Advertising on AskWoody]

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I never say this – but do it, and I’ll make sure I click a few every time I visit.

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@Woody,

A quick comment about Ghacks — your link to where Martin said that his site was dying was written in February 2015,
and I have seen more recent comments made by Martin that imply that it’s going much better for the finances of the site, now that he uses Patreon —

see: http://www.ghacks.net/support/

“Patreon is a relatively new service that allows you to support us directly on a regular basis. It starts at $1 per month and helps us tremendously as it ensures that we are only answering to you when it comes to how the site is run and what we publish on it.

As a benefit, you get access to an activity feed that we use to communicate directly with you (and you with us).”

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don’t mind ads (as long as they are NOT for WinX) ha, ha…
maybe a lesson on how to do it on ie and firefox if not i’ll look it up
thank you Woodie

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Woody
I just wanted to comment on this. Do whatever you have to do to keep your site up and running and free.
I for one dont have have any problem with a few adds, as long as they don’t become intrusive.
The help and advice you give us is well worth the inconvenience of a few adds.
So thanks for all you do and keep up the good work.
Sam

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Woody,

Understood.

Speaking for myself, I would be more than willing to subscribe — or donate on a regular basis. But, as you explained, you’ve weighed the options and made the choice that you feel to be best for you, which I (and we) must respect.

At the end of the day, your site is simply too valuable to allow to fade to black.

Cheers,

AJ

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Though you still could include a paypal button in additional to a few ads, it wouldn’t harm. I’d chip in as i did with josh mayfield’s site because it has been a lifeline through the recent hell that has been microsoft’s windows strategy. I included askwoody.com into my adblock whitelist a while back and there it shall stay.

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Ad blocker removed, no problem

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I am absolutely willing to support you this way for all the valuable information you provide. However, I do want to point out an issue that may arise. I use Firefox with AdBlock Plus, Ghostery and NoScript. In AdBlockPlus and Ghostery it is relatively easy to whitelist a certain website, but NoScript may give some issues. My experience with another website that I wanted to whitelist is that many advertisements contain another domain name and not the website’s own domain. I would rather not whitelist that other domain name, because then these ads will be shown on whichever website that domain is used for an ad. There are other sites that do not have this issue (ATM I unfortunately do not remember which), so there should be a solution for this issue.

I hope this was helpful and I wish you success with raising your new baby!

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Thanks!

I have no idea how the ads are implemented. Let’s see what happens…

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Woody, I totally understand why you’re doing this. I have no problem with advertising as such.

But I do worry about malvertising. In fact, if my security applications are any guide, then ads that carry or lead to malware are my PC’s most frequent threat vector. (And I don’t even visit dodgy sites.) That’s the main reason I use ad blockers.

Do you know if your new ad broker will filter or scan the ads they serve?

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I saw the link to Patreon.

Hmmm…. Looks interesting. I’ll dig into it a bit further.

Thanks for the heads-up!

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You are one of the few sites that I will drop my ad blocker for. Now whitelisted.

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I’ve been assured they put a lot of effort into vetting the ads.

But if you ever, ever feel there’s something amiss, send me an email right away.

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+1

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I love patreon as a way to reward websites/people I use in a regular basis. Some of the people I patronize seem to be getting a real advantage from it.

Walt

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Go ahead with the adds, as long as they don’t become intrusive, there is not problem.

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No problem. Your up to the minute info on updates is worth it.

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I completely understand your situation, Woody, and will support you by ensuring your ads are not blocked by my browser. As you suggest, I will click through on any ads which I find of interest.

I’m sure all your readers would agree that your advice and knowledge needs to be compensated!! In the past 18 months, with Microsoft’s aggressive GWX campaign and now with Windows 7/8.1 “patchocalypse”, you’ve had to spend ever increasing amounts of time following and reporting on events in the Windows world (to which we all owe you a debt of gratitude!)

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⛑Woody Mate!
Trust yourself and your readers.
Advertising is fine just avoid the temptations of “Advertorial”.

Donations and Links are good too.
Check-out Ken Rockwell’s excellent photography website.
They both work for him.

“If you’ve found the time and expense I’ve incurred to research and share all this information for free, this website’s biggest source of support is when you use those links to it or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything is what helps me keep adding to this free website for everyone’s benefit — but I receive nothing for my efforts if you take the chance of buying elsewhere.
Thanks for helping me help you!
Ken Rockwell”

Live long & prosper!???
sainty????

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@Pim;
You could just temporarily allow all. There really shouldn’t be more than 2 or 3 scripts per page. The only one I see right now is Ask Woody.

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@Todd

“…we all owe you a debt of gratitude!”

Amen!!!!

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Am happy to whitelist your site and click on a few ads as long as they’re not distracting in any way.

Would prefer a subscription model say, $1/month or $10/year, annual payments preferred, and subscribers should get no ads.

For non-US subscribers you’ll need a payment method that doesn’t gouge with currency conversion fees. PayPal charges no conversion fees (at least to payers) though their exchange rate is biased a little in their favour. They offer recurring debits. Patreon doesn’t seem to offer annual payments, only monthly ones.

My 2 (Australian) cents…

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Using the Request Policy add-on for Firefox will enable you to control third-party sites.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/requestpolicy

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Much as I have railed against snooping and distractions here, I have no problem with advertising so long as it remains more or less unobtrusive and I more or less understand where it’s coming from.

That means” No big vainglorious projects to assemble a saleable profile on me. No constant attempts to grab me by the eyeballs.

Magazines long ago learned that the right kind of advertising helps to achieve the experience that targeted readers want. That is why they sometimes actively demarketed readers they didn’t “want,” a questionable strategy but one that makes my point.

Why can’t web sites learn this? I cannot emphasize this enough: The problem is not that the market is broken or whatever, but that we have been conditioned to accept schlock that 40 or 50 years ago would have been recognized on sight as too declasse for middle class consumers. The problem is that consumers have acquiesced in the lowering of standards, everywhere.

“It’s all relative,” right? Well no. Some things change over time, for the worse.

I accept advertising with Amazon and Google (even though they do not meet my requirements) because Amazon, for example, actually shows some smarts in what they put in front of me before I check out. Just like the old magazine strategy.

You know your readers, Woody, so you’ll know what to do.

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Whitelisting implemented. Your site is too helpful and informative to be spoiled by the occasional ad.

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Woody, there are very few sites that I white-list in my ad blocker. But you provide a truly valuable service here; with the time, effort, and money that you put into this. I’m retired now; and I can’t really afford multiple subscriptions to many different websites. But I have no problem with white-listing your site here if that will help keep you up and running. You’ve been un-blocked. Please keep up the good work!

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Whitelisted! 🙂

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you’re white-listed 🙂

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I trust you Woody, I don’t trust third party guys that put up ads with scripting. Too bad the ads can’t be embedded into the site.
I running Linux for years. I stopped reading ‘Windows Secrets’ when the pay-wall went up. I only come here to read how Microsoft is making the Windows users suffer.

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I recall that the last time I saw ads on infoworld.com they did NOT seem acceptable, but I didn’t take careful note.

My experience is that most ads on the internet are unmitigated junk at best. Since no advertiser cares, all ads are by strong default “very bad, block”. Or “we filtered for bad ads that run, now we are still using that same advertiser but the mal-ads are targeted away from those who complained, so there isn’t a problem anymore”.

If an advertiser runs unacceptable ads, drop them.

Ads should need no javascript, no html5 or video or flash, no plugins, and not be animated. Context (text) ads are unacceptable.

They should be in an iframe controlled by the site owner pointing towards the advertiser’s content(server side dynamic). This frame should have the “security attribute”: security=”restricted”.

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I disabled AdBlockPlus (Palemoon) for your site quite a while back. And it will definitely stay that way! My humble contribution will be by clicking the ads until I find a way to contribute otherwise as I don’t have a Paypal or other such account – I have a big problem with trusting them!

Someone, convince me that PayPal + credit card can’t/won’t be abused…

Thank you for all the time you take to publish to your site, moderate our comments and reply to them; I’m sure it must be quite time-consuming at times!

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Woody, do whatever you need to do to keep your web site up and rolling. It a valuable and totally trustworthy source of vital information.
Your site is white listed.

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Happy to make a block exception for your site Woody.

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Sorry Woody, I can’t whitelist your website because that means I would also have to remove my hosts file that I’ve been working on for years. Granted, my hosts file is probably rarely if ever used. I’m also using uBlock with the normal filters but I also use it to block most third-party iframes and third-party javascript. I could remove my hosts file and whitelist your website and then block ALL javascript but to be honest, I’m comfortable with my current setup as it is. Paranoid? Absolutely! But… I haven’t seen a single malware object or virus on any of my computers in many many years.

Please think about using a paypal button and/or patreon so that those of us who are ridiculously paranoid can contribute. I’ve been following you Woody since around ’08 and it’s been quite some time since I bought the last book so I just purchased the latest kindle edition of your Win 10 All-In-One even though I’m still rocking Win 7 Pro and Home. I really appreciate all the time and hard work you put into this. Thank You Woody!!!

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Add me to the list of those adding ads to their display here!

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I;m sure you will do what is the best for all of us.

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Thanks! Those book sales count – that’s my main source of income. Computer book sales, in general, are the pits. If I can convince folks to buy one as Christmas presents, it’ll really help.

I’m looking at Patreon now. I’d never heard of it before. Looks interesting. I’ll keep everybody posted.

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If you find the ads don’t follow your rules, then by all means block them!

As you can probably tell, I’m approaching this with some fear and trepidation.

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I thought about that, but….

Having ads removed for subscribers means I need to maintain a list of subscribers, they need to have ids, and they need to have passwords, and I need to store all of those.

I don’t want to store ids or passwords. The downside is too great.

So, much as it pains me, if I have some sort of donation implemented, it won’t be tied to “no ads.” Which may be a very good reason not to implement donations!

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Hmmm… I had never seen Ken Rockwell’s site.

Wow. Gorgeous.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/

I see he has monthly donations set up through PayPal.

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@Woody,

Whitelisted.

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FWIW, I wouldn’t support a subscription but I’m happy to see unobtrusive ads on the site and a Paypal donate button.

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Adblock disabled for askwoody.com. It’s well worth it. Thanks for the work!

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@Woody, I use Privacy Badger rather than the ‘usual’ ad-blockers because I don’t mind seeing ads but I DO mind being tracked. Privacy Badger only blocks ads which use tracking. Hopefully the ad broker you’ve found is selective about which ads it brokers.

Like @Rex, I’m fully Linux now, but with a small concession to Windows by way of a (rarely used) Win7 VirtualBox machine. Nevertheless, I still follow AskWoody to keep up to date with what’s happening in the Microshaft world. I’ll let you know how Privacy Badger reacts to the ads.

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Go for it Woody, see how it goes and if it doesn’t work, you decision is not irreversible.
I had ad-blocker turned off for your site for ages, about the same time when I disabled it on http://www.infoworld.com/blog/woody-on-windows/
Just a warning in relation to the nature of the adverts. The InfoWorld site is painfully slow and as you know I reported it a while ago. It is certainly due to the contents of the ads which is heavy. So please be aware of this behaviour which actually is more visible to the end-user than the opportunity for the advertiser to track the end-user.

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Woody, whatever it takes to keep your site going. We appreciate all you do for we Windows pawns !

You’re whitelisted ! 🙂

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I would much rather pay for access or donate. However I don’t trust that the company serving ads (any company serving ads!) and so I don’t turn off the ad-blocking at all.
Thanks!

Jim

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@Woody,

Regarding your comment of “I’m looking at Patreon now. I’d never heard of it before.”

But I *thought* I was telling you about Patreon earlier this year when I made a comment here — perhaps it was 4 to 8 months ago — listing some possible ways that your site might raise some funds,
and I pointed out the Ghacks “support” webpage.
That’s what I had meant for you to see there – Martin’s Patreon system!

Actually, I have written 2 comments along those lines on this site, one that was made a number of months back, and one that was made just a few months ago.
In addition to suggesting the Ghacks/Patreon idea, I suggested things like Amazon click-throughs, and creating a page where you sold all your books directly here at this site.

(In the later comment, I conjectured about whether there were a way to contribute on a one-off basis by sending you an Amazon gift card, and if that were possible without knowing someone’s personal Amazon-registered email address.)

Even with those different keywords to choose from and a pretty clear memory of what I had written, even when using an external search engine, I can’t find the links to either one of my prior comments now. Oh well, doesn’t matter.

—
If you are going to have ads as standard on your site, I do appreciate your point that it would be complicated to also have a simultaneous donation/subscription model, like Ghacks does with Patreon, and to permit only the subscribers to see your site WITHOUT ads, since you’d have to have log-ins and to keep a list of current subscribers and all that.

Therefore, I wish that you had tried the subscription/Patreon/Paypal model first, without introducing ads – maybe tried it for 4 months, just to see how that would go —
because I think there will be less incentive for people to subscribe if that doesn’t keep their experience of the site ad-free.

—
As you well know, unfortunately in terms of the success of having ads, your readers are more concerned about privacy than the norm, are less likely to extend their trust to any third party given the chance that a bad ad could fool the third party and sneak through, and are probably using various ad-blockers as well as some less typical systems they’ve devised for themselves which are not easy to turn off/don’t feature a whitelisting option.

hmmm… that’s a sticky wicket.

—
Last night when I was having quite a bit of trouble with the commenting function here, I wondered if there were something odd happening with IPs, because Peerblock was stopping an ads.Bing.com IP address, as well as what I think is your hosting company’s IP address, when I was on your site and on no other site, and there were times when I tried to “submit” a comment and it would just disappear, even my log-in name would go blank in the Name and Mail slots, and I’d open the Peerblock monitoring window and see the ads.Bing.com IP address knocking away at Peerblock’s door (and being turned away). I’m not sure if maybe your new ad company were testing your site last night, or maybe it was a normal activity that related to your WordPress site host and was not at all ad/tracker related, nor related to the glitches in my commenting experience.

—
You provide so much help to people and you have the respect and gratitude of many thousands.

I hope that you can find some really good ways to receive some compensatory financial benefit.
🙂

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Thank you for letting us know, and sharing concerns about bad ads. I hope the scheme works for you.

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My problem is, as much as I would like to defer to this type of request, I seem to be so well protected against ads that I cannot make them appear. I often have this type of problem with other blogs, too.

– Whitelisted you on Adblock Plus.

– Whitelisted you on NoScript.

– Whitelisted you on Disconnect.

And still no ads. That’s after uninstalling Ghostery, too. What else has to be done ? Is it necessary to whitelist on NoScript, even ?

That’s on my secured Firefox. I have an unsecured Opera which I fire up when fiddling with settings is not enough to enable a site’s features quickly. I still don’t see any ads on your blog under Opera. I have zero add-ons there. However, I did change some settings in the options. No third-party cookies, for instance.

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That would probably not work, because I usually have more tabs open. If I temporarily allow other scripts, they are allowed on all the open tabs and that is exactly the issue I want to avoid.

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Thanks, I will look into this add-on.

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I have serious doubts over ads as the advert networks simply do not care about any malware they publish as they are not held accountable for any damage they cause.

If you go down the Patreon, donation or subscription route I will be more than happy to donate as you provide such valuable information, but I have to draw the line at adverts as the risk is simply too great.

At present with ads it’s not a question of “if” but “when” an infection will occur.

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Oh, I haven’t started running the ads yet!

I wanted to give everyone fair warning, and see if anybody had an objection I hadn’t considered. Ads are a week or two away.

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I understand your concern. Please block my ads!

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Woody, I guess your first advertisers will be Apple, Google/Chrome and Linux, no?

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Searching this site is absolutely abysmal. I wish I had a good solution.

No idea how ads.Bing.com got in there. AskWoody shouldn’t have ANY hidden links. I haven’t started testing anything – I’ll let everyone know, so y’all can be extra cautious as the ads start rolling out.

I appreciate the suggestions. I’ve been using an Amazon affiliate link, and made about $5 so far.

I’m still weighing Patreon as an alternative. I see that Martin is making $223/month from 71 patrons on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/ghacks). That would just barely keep the lights on for AskWoody.

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Understood – and by all means, keep the ad block going.

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HA! Actually, I have no idea who the advertisers will be – and the ads you see will likely depend on your surfing history with the ad distributor, if you have one.

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Please keep me posted! I’m hoping for light and uncomplicated… the antithesis of the blackout ads on InfoWorld.

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Thanks!

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Hi Woody, you are now whitelisted.

The only ads I really, really hate are:
– Little videos running all the time, esp. with sound enabled.
– Very visually noisy scripted ads.

But the thing I hate most of all, which isn’t even an ad, are the sites that invite you to join their mailing list – even if you already do – at _every_ visit with a g***** overlay that blanks out the rest of the screen and you can’t block these in advance.

I have a plugin that removes overlays after the event, but nothing seems to prevent them

Slightly off-topic but I wonder if anyone else has solved that one?

By the way, if this works for you, please tell the Ghacks guy to do the same! 🙂

Brian

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Surely there are reputable ad providers? I have in the past had my tab hijacked by a warning that my system has been compromised and I have had to kill the tab in order to deal with it, but I don’t believe that was e.g. a google-supported ad.

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Here as on very few sites I’d donate via PayPal but I will never make an anti-ad exception. Besides using uBlockO I have a system-wide anti-ad, pro-privacy and pro-security configuration which means that making an exception with uBlockO wouldn’t be enough to allow a site to publish ads on my screen.

I’m aware it’s a debate, I know that a site is a cost in terms of work and in terms of money. From there on the debate shifts to a global approach on the ad business. Should it become honest (at least on the Web), with less and better, free of malvertisement, free of tracking, respectful of the user and of the product, replacing its obvious philosophy which is to force-feed with an approach of decency , subliminal trash with true information … that I’d start thinking about it. The problem right now is the advertisement warrior ant there lies responsibility, not among the users who refuse tracking and bulls. and who are too often accused of breaking sites. It’s the ad business which, by its intolerance is breaking the Web, not the users.

A 12$/year donation: yes.
A pixel of ad: no.

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Fair enough. Sounds like I need to give multiple options.

I’m not going to try to turn off ads for those who donate – too many things could go wrong. But I certainly understand why some folks aren’t comfortable with ads.

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I think my provider is more than reputable – their reputation is “stellar” but of course the proof’s in the pudding.

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Woody,
Go for it.

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I hate those sign-up popups, too! And I hit them all the time.

Man, it’s tough “monetizing” blogs.

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I’ll just echo the many other (well-deserved!) complimentary sentiments posted above. I certainly don’t want to see your site drop into the Wayback Machine; in fact, since I found your site back in June, it’s the first site I visit every morning, as well as several times during the day.

Your site, and the help & advice it provides to all of us, with the hive-mind thingy working, is awesome and close to indispensable for me.

Having said that, I really dislike ads, but I’ll certainly whitelist/unblock you, if that will help you keep the site up & running, with the caveat that if the ads start getting weird, I’d block the site again.

I’d also definitely consider a donation, but unfortunately, at this particular time, I’m cash-poor. That would have to wait a few months.

Again, thanks for all you and the other contributors & posters here do to help us keep our collective Windows sanity! 🙂

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Just wanted to say whatever way you choose is ok with me…… My adBlocker is already turned off. LT

“The wonderful things in life are the things you do, not the things you have.” Reinhold Messner

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I also say go for it.

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Turning ads off for those who donate would be and too complicated and an indecent demand, not to mention that it’s far easier to block ads than to participate to as site’s cost.

You mentioned Ghacks. Ghacks proposes multiple options, ads & PayPal & Patreon, and perhaps this may bring the best perspectives.

I don’t like ads, woody, for the reasons I mentioned, not by demagogy : bringing to light a product is as old as the world. It’s the way it’s done, the way it’s conducted, with that “always more” that truly bothers me. This said I’d be of those who’d assume more than a first general expressed feeling should askwoody ever face a disaster, that of disappearing. I and others would find a way, believe me, should it be by an exceptional donation plan. But it’ll always be, as far as i’m concerned, from me to askwoody, bypassing the ads’ business wallets. Always, unless the business demonstrates a farewell to arms.

We like your site, woody, we really do. That means what it means.

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Thanks! Very well put.

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YIKES! You quoted Rey Messner?????

I met him once in a bar in Kathmandu. Very strange guy.

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Woody,

I too would say “Go for it”. Even though I am on a VERY fixed income, I would be willing cough up a reasonable fee for the information and insight you have provided. Keep up the good work, and many thanks for all you do.

Dave

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Woody, the reasons I use noscipt and adblock are for privacy and because I have a slow internet connection. I very appreciate your site. For you, I will definitely turn off adblock. I would definitely consider donation .

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Well that would have been an experience and a half after reading about him and his achievements…. I thought there should be more of him around……. specially with his views and achievements in climbing
where he used minimal equipment which would have helped the environment. Not like the current assault on Everest…… which to me is totally detrimental.
I have a very soft spot for the Himalayas!!
Believe he was said to be grumpy! Guess he was his own man! LT

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I doubt it.

Malware has been found in ads on sites such as the BBC and the New York Times so I seriously doubt any ad network is reputable.

Here’s an interesting article on it https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/16/major-sites-new-york-times-bbc-ransomware-malvertising

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Grumpy is an understatement. But, man, could he climb! Not sure what he’s up to these days.

Man, I should start a thread about travel. I’ve been around the Himalayas quite a bit, met some interesting people.

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This could be achieved with creating accounts and logging in, really too much trouble at least now, in the early stages.

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Hello Woody,
I would much prefer that we avoided the adverts route if at all possible for all the reasons covered in the responses of others here. I prefer a direct contribution by inclination simply because it benefits only you and not the parasitic middlemen who are flourishing in the internet age making large sums out of other people’s knowledge/skill/creativity etc.

However I fully recognise that there are downsides to any approach including actually increasing your workload managing subscriptions securely and potential deductions involved in nonUSD payments.

But… the overriding point is that it is absolutely reasonable to look to ameliorate some of the costs involved in providing the quality and practical advice that you do. (is that your accountant that I can hear wailing about uncosted hours in the background?)

You have a signicant credibility balance Woody, hard earned, so implement something but please don’t give us as poor a user experience as Infoworld is.

Thanks again.

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Bear in mind that iframes containing ads are a well-known vector for infection.

Do you really want your site to turn into yet another way people can get online malware?

Also know that because of the above, people who choose to block ads are not doing so just out of a dislike for being accosted by distractions.

I suggest that if you’d like to try to get this site and your efforts to pay for itself, that you ONLY consider adding a paywall.

I also suggest trading site access credit to people who are willing contribute valuable/meaningful on-subject material to you.

-Noel

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I’ll try – and I’ll rely on you to keep me posted about anything that appears untoward.

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I have this giant nightmare where somebody hacks AskWoody.com and distributes logon ids and passwords. I won’t put people in that position – thus, I won’t collect or store ids or passwords.

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Woody, I have often thought of remuneration via paid subscription for everything you have on your website, however I just never mentioned it.

I do not have “Adblock”.

However I do not use the internet for ANY payment method, if I can avoid it, so for me, it would a huge help to be able to send a check to you at a P.O. Box address.

I would encourage you to have subscriptions as a means to generate income for all of the hard work you do, and continue to do for all of us!!
YOU ARE WELL WORTH IT!! 🙂 🙂

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What about a variation of crowdfunding or community giving page where the “crowd” or the “community” can be somehow restricted to your regular visitors here (or those of them that volunteer) and the nature of what is being funded is crystal clear. That this isn’t a charity drive, good cause etc for non-users and neither are investors, in any normal sense, being sought.

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Your time, your knowledge and your site have value. That is a given. We as the recipients of that need to give a little in return. I will be more than happy to donate a few dollars every year.

Some here have vowed to white-list your site and/or click on the ads to help you out. They trust you and in turn will trust the ad company you choose. For added security there are browser ad-blockers that allow ads that are deemed safe and non-intrusive.

On the other hand, canvas fingerprinting does not use cookies, it uses tracking scripts and some scripts build a profile on the user for targeted selling. Sorry Woody, but if your ad provider includes a third party web partner known for this, my script blocker will block your ad.

As others have suggested, do both. Go for that Donate Button so I can contribute too.

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Woody, I will find a way to whitelist your site in my Ghostery and Blur extensions. I hope just using Linux doesn’t make your ads fail to pay off.

This is a small price to pay for the aggravation and outright PC meltdowns which could have happened to me over the years if you and your colleagues from Brian’s Buzz to Infoworld to Windows Secrets to AskWoody and beyond had not been there for me and the many others who rely on your sage and timely advice.

Even as we speak I’m dealing with several Windows and Linux issues, and only the free to use sites and forums seem to be of much help. It would be a reall loss not to have these resources.

Free is not really free. Not even as in free beer. There’s a price to be paid for not paying a subscription fee.

Just don’t go hog-wild like the folks at Infoworld.com. They’re one of four reasons (all of them tech sites) why I even have ad-blockers in Linux. It’s not a security concern there as it is for Windows.
I hope you and whoever may be your successors, will always be here (or nearby) to save us Windows users from ourselves. (And occasionally from Microsoft.)

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You seem to me and extroverted and generous, Woody, which I believe are necessary conditions for creativity. Switching from technology to a far more precious area of adventures, those we’ve lived ourselves, especially with unusual backgrounds, can appear to be opening oneself to another dimension. Why not?!

No, I’m not a psy, simply giving free appreciations 🙂

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Please have a one-time donation option!

In August I was looking for a Donate button to thank you for saving me from Windows 10, but you didn’t have one. I figured it was worth donating to you at least the price of a purchased Windows 10 OS to be saved from the free one. And if everyone you saved from the Win10 upgrade donated the price of a purchased Win10 OS, I thought you might be able to retire! (But please not from AskWoody!)

I never do automatic withdrawals or automatic renewal subscriptions, nothing where my info is saved.

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Ann unusual background… yeah, that describes me pretty well. 🙂

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That sounds a lot like Patreon.

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Interesting that you should mention Messner. Coincidentally, in today’s Sunday Telegraph (UK national newspaper):

“20 reasons why Reinhold Messner is the world’s greatest living man”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/lists/reinhold-messner-tribute-quotes-facts/

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I do not understand why the companies spends money for advertising. Are they sure that people can’t think? Is there really so many people who believe in the ads? Thanks for this site!

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I have no problems with ads just as long as you don’t go with an advertiser that serves malware. That’s purely the only reason I block ads. Ads have become a massive security vulnerability. Even on a legit site.
Another option I think you could do is start a Patreon to pay for any server costs and whatnot. But I’m only okay with that as long as it goes towards your site. Like I see a lot of people starting Patreons if they’re a YouTuber and then I start paying for their rent and food? Yeah no thanks. But if it goes to maintaining your site which has proved to be very helpful to me in the past few months then it’s fine by me. But sadly I wouldn’t be able to donate because it would be economically feasible for me right now.
But whatever you choose.

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Wow. I mean, really, wow!

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Regarding Martin’s current income from Patreon, I saw that figure yesterday (when I allowed Patreon through my Peerblock for a moment), and I was surprised the total was so low, considering all the traffic his site seems to get.

However, that amount doesn’t include what he gets from his Paypal subscribers/supporters, and he also runs ads on his site.

People might feel more comfortable with Paypal than Patreon for various reasons, like the name recognition and the fact of already having an account set up there.

—
Where is your Amazon affiliate link on your site? I haven’t seen it.

—
It is possible that the ads.bing.com IP address I was having contact from/to while I was on your site, and only your site, the other day, was Microsoft nibbing around.

I have a lot of their “Microsoft”-labelled IP addresses permanently allowed on Peerblock, but if the external IP categorizer (which for me is different lists at http://www.iblocklist.com) has put an IP address into an “ads” category, I don’t let through.

—
I never go on Youtube, but have you ever thought about doing some kind of videos there?

Anything from basic how-tos in conjunction with your books, to more of an askwoody offshoot talking about the MS Windows updating changes.

You wouldn’t even have to appear if you didn’t want to, you could just narrate and show screen shots and things like that.

I hear some people on there get big bucks. I’m being serious.

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okay so mainly it’s young models making money on product placement,

but surely there are other ways people make money on youtube.

there’s that one woman who made a million dollars sheerly by showing videos of her hands opening new toys.

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she and her husband had been in the p..n video business, but the toy unboxing thing was more lucrative so she went into that.

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Walker and Woody,

I agree with Walker.

I have never paid a fee of any kind on the web. This site is the ONE I will support. Give me a PO box address and I will send a cheque. I would only do this because I trust you, Woody.

Your contribution to computing is beyond measurement. I honour it and admire you, Woody. Keep up the excellent work.

If you do the ads, please ensure that sound does not blare out of an ad on starting your web page. That is the single biggest annoyance to me.

Canadian Tech

CT

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Going forward, HOW/WHEN to update will be more important to me than WHAT to update…given that the new patching scheme has made the latter somewhat irrelevant. Accordingly, I will likely not renew my Windows Secrets subscription and would gladly redirect those funds to your site should you go to a subscription or donation model.

I can live with ads as long as they aren’t the in-your-face variety.

Whatever you decide, you have my support. You have guided me through a tough year with my W7 still intact.

In the meantime, I will continue to put a bow on your W10 books and give them to family members for Christmas gifts!

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The vast majority of people cant think sufficiently to comprehend the manipulation and control to whic they are increasingly subject. This is due to the collapse of education which was supposed to teach people how to think critically and independently. Its been replaced with job training and conformism. The result is an increasing gap between the ability to think and the sophistication of the manipulation tools. When its hard to think you avoid it and like that somebody help relieve from it. Voila an opening to tyranny.

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Thanks!

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+1 I HATE sound-on ads.

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YouTube’s a possibility. My Amazon affiliate id is AskWoody20-20.

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Ads are nice. I like ads. I would love to see ads for things I like and need. Especially if they are beautiful.

On special-interest sites such as this one, it should be easy to please everyone with good ads. Most people here presumably like high-tech gear, innovative software, fabulous new ideas for commercial websites…

Let me push the envelope a bit, and say that beautiful ads would actually enhance this site. It’s a bit austere right now.

Of course, I have barricaded myself behind a pile of anti-ad measures for all the reasons exposed here by others : malware, excessively nosy tracking, and horrible websites swamped with ads, crawling to a halt because of everybody trying to push and shove ad-related content on one’s screen, and sweeping actual content, in some cases, right out of the screen.

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Hello Woody,
I’m the family computer bandaider.
I don’t run Windows myself, but your site turns up
often in these days of MS apparent revocation
of home customer service and support for desktop
systems. In particular your open comments section
attracts some fine and sensible contributors and
I have no hesitation referring the family Windows
captives to your articles.

Donations should cover your costs very well if your
readership is as large as the site’s prominence in
Web stats indicates; we out here in reader land
are always happy to tip for good service.
Donation support is also a fairly reliable barometer
of your popularity; thus, if donations drop away, you can have a clear conscience about reducing or closing your service.

Ignore all the above if you’re looking at turning the site into a continuing business. In that case you should look forward to some real fun and games with ad companies. Best of luck either way.

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And now it begins.

Woody, I’ve lurked for a few months, and finally began “contributing” (aka asking, begging, hoping) for assistance in keeping Win 7 alive for a few more years. Skipping past my intransigence at the “offers” from Microsoft, I would like to make my transition to other OS opportunities at my own pace.

You make that seem possible. That occurs as much due to the inestimable assistance of your long-term fans and friends as it does your own knowledge and hard work.

I would absolutely be happy to contribute to the cause – and your continued efforts.

I too have Adblock and other services that allow me to pick and choose who gets to see my stuff (I almost said “junk”, but then that might get me in trouble).

I lean toward the idea of actual choice in contributing, but if the best solution for you is advertising (and not malvertising, as if you would allow that) I’d work with it.

I’ve been a paid subscriber to Windows Secrets since it was possible to buy a lifetime subscription to Brian Livingstons’ opus many years ago. It has since become a different product due to new ownership, but is still useful. God Bless Susan Bradley and her hard work, some of which ends up in WS, and eventually here.

Again, I would gladly pay you both to keep getting access to your knowledge and ideas.

I can always just send you a check. (Gee, does that make me seem as old as I really am?)

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Re: Noel Carboni

“… iframes containing ads are a well-known vector for infection.”

and you can’t even see them (0x0 pixel)

Sophos security video about iframe attacks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cBed6-ufIQ

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” I do not want a nation of thinkers. I want a nation of Workers”
– J.D. Rockefeller – primary funder of “modern” so-called education (read: ‘indoctrination’) systems

“Education should aim at destroying free will so that pupils thus schooled, will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished.”
– Bertrand Russell The Impact of Science on Society (Columbia U. Press, 1951)

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Hah! Just read that Telegraph article, always admired Messner. But I never met him when I was in Kathmandu – guess I didn’t go high enough 🙂

Currently listening to the Nobel Dylan, can we have a sub-blog about poetry as well?

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Ah, the Nobel noble Zimmerman…

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Woody:

If you’re going to run ads, I believe the best way to do it would be for you to contract directly with companies and people you personally know, then get their money and run their ads. This would be much better than using an ad agency, because you never know what you’ll get from the ad agencies.

Also, put a Paypal link on your site for donations. I’m guessing that you’ll get a lot of money from that alone, because there are a huge number of us who want you to succeed. Especially if you let people know that they can set up automatic payments to you via Paypal. In other words, once they set it up, they won’t have to do anything; they money will autotransfer each month.

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@Woody;

Re Clairvaux “…ads would actually enhance this site. It’s a bit austere right now.”

Maybe some nice lace curtains and an antimacassar or two as well.

Austere? No. Distraction and manipulation free? Yes.

“Just the facts sir/maam”

Give me a secure way to donate instead, please.

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Go for it man them bills dont pay themselves! besides ads are a small price to pay for the “scuttle” on the wacky world and machinations of Updating. The average user here can tell you put an inordinate amount of time and effort in to this page(s)and as such can not be expected not to derive some reward or recompense as a result. Youll still be gracing the “Favourites” links bookmarks and shortcuts for many years to come as a daily ritual. Especially on and around “Terrible Tuesdays” So ill raise a glass (or many) of “Singha” to your continued success 🙂

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Chai-yo!

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Er, Pismo Beach clams?

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Or Yanqui Dollars, machts nichts

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Please set up a PayPal account for yourself (a Business account) – and let us pay you using PayPal. That way, we’re safe and you don’t collect Credit Card numbers, Log-ins, etc.
When you receive money, PayPal just emails you a notice and credits it to your account (with them) which you then occasionally transfer into your own Bank account.
They clear funds in various currencies so global readers can be accommodated; and the only deduct a small amount of each payment as a service charge.
== It’s SECURE ==

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I have already white-listed the site.
I’ll leave it until something gives me cause for concern.
If a site can be kept clean, I suspect it will be this one.
That said, it’s getting uglier out there by the day and I don’t doubt even the most capable site operators will be unable to hold off the bad guys if the ad-network people don’t get a lot tighter…

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Workin’ on it even as we speak…

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Woody, provide a PO box address, and there will be a cheque in it soon.

CT

CT

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I second that. Please publish a PO Box or similar and I pledge to send a fat check.

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Please – if there is a fundraising goal to remain ad-free – – – please let us know. Fat check in the mail and/or PayPal Donation works for me.

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I’m just an old lady who doesn’t know that much about computers, but I’d be willing to do the donation thing. I’ve learned quite a bit by hanging around here. And if I have a problem or question regarding my computer I first look to see if you’ve addressed it. You’ve got my trust. That’s worth something to someone like me who’s not as computer savvy as most of you, and doesn’t always know which sites are legit.

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The Answers forum is a good place to get questions addressed too. http://www.answers.microsoft.com

Most of the “experts” there are NOT Microsoft employees but people with long pedigrees of Windows experience. I suspect a lot of people in this forum hang out there too.

CT

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The Microsoft answers forum might be a good place generally, but in the last 3 years I’ve asked 3 or 4 well-described questions there, and received no help – it was quite a disappointment to me and I probably wouldn’t use it again in the future (personally) to ask for help.

However, when I search for a computer topic on a search engine and some of the search results point to MS Answers forum threads, I will certainly click on those and read what other people had to say about the problem at hand.

Many times in the last year, when I’ve clicked on that kind of search result, I’ve seen someone’s decent description of my exact problem (that I was looking up in the search engine on that occasion), with a little notation of “5 people had the same question”, and no comments in the thread, or 15 comments by people who are just saying that they have the same question.

Sometimes of course, there is a workable solution given.

I appreciate that it’s a voluntary service.

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@Lizzytish,

Did you read about him in the Telegraph newspaper?

Just about 8 hours ago, I saw an article about him on their website’s “front page”.

(It was either there, or the Spectator’s website).

It had a photo of a crazy-looking guy and the headline said “greatest man ever” or something, so I clicked on it to see what his name was because I didn’t recognize the photo, and I think it was the same name that you and Woody have mentioned here and I think he was a mountain climber, but I didn’t read the actual article.

It was kinda coincidental to see him mentioned here just now!

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Yeah, that’s what I mentioned just above!

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This was the article I saw about her last year.

“Mystery woman behind the ‘richest hands on the internet’ revealed: Former p..nstar ‘makes $5m a year unwrapping Disney toys on YouTube’ ”

“DC Toys Collector was 2014’s most popular YouTube channel

…described as ‘crack for toddlers’ ”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2958242/Brazilian-former-porn-star-Diane-DeJesus-mystery-figure-5million-year-YouTube-sensation-DC-Toys-Collector.html

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She’s very good at what she does. When my son was 4 (two years ago) he was positively in rapture when watching the unwrappings.

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Rey’s every bit as crazy as he looks.

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Due to the nesting of these comments, the comment I made just above is located quite far from the comment it was in reply to,
and, standing here on its own, it sounds like I was trying to say that I had mentioned something “first”, but that’s not what I meant!
— the comment I was replying to was posted (in time) way before mine, but I was just glad to see that someone else had also seen the same Telegraph article that I had seen about the Messner fellow (since it was a coincidence that so many of us had seen it),
and had actually posted here the url of the article —
I had resolved to try to find it for Woody (after I read his comment about how he wondered what this guy was up to now), and I was glad to see that the link had already been posted.

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Yes……… saw the article in Telegraph when browsing…… rather inspirational I thought.
Love reading how people overcome odds and achieve
lifelong goals……. even tho’ they might be perceived as being ‘grumpy’….. had heard about him before so that’s why I read that article.

But it appears that a few of us here were attracted to that news item……
Great minds think alike and all that!!!! LT

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BTW Poohsticks…….. meant to mention before…… well it seems like ages ago……. hope you’ve got over your migraine……. you do know don’t you that this is the penalty for being brainy!!! (which you are!) Take care………. LT

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I totally agree with your comment(s) poohsticks. MS Answers was my “Go To” site for many years but for a long while now I visit very rarely.

I know there are quite a few “experts” from there who comment here (even if their handles are different here, it’s the way they express themselves that I know so well). Some MVP’s were becoming so patronising when leaving their replies I had enough and on one occasion I pulled one up on it. We all have to start somewhere and if asking so called “stupid” questions helps us to learn that’s a good thing.

I finally realised that any replies to the OP by a “Microsoft Employee” starting with “Hi” or “Hello”, with many methods and steps doesn’t seem to accomplish anything (except waste your time).

My AUD $0.02c worth!

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Found this interesting link on the Eset Forums about Adblock Plus selling ads:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/13/12890050/adblock-plus-now-sells-ads

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Helluvanote, ain’t it?

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You are so right about the Hi or Hello. I am one of the guys who tries to answer questions there. If I see a question that has an answer from one of those folks, I chime right in and provide what I think is a far better answer. However, if I see one of the really good guys answers, I usually leave it to that guy.

It can be frustrating for me because so many provide so little information, don’t describe their problem, and some are downright nasty and demanding.

I myself find the search engine within the Answers forum quite useless. I use Google with much more success and quite often find good answers.

I was originally drawn to the Answers forum because I found myself finding good solutions there more often than other places.

CT

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🙂

{hug}

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Where do you physically display your Amazon affiliate link (that a customer can click through to buy your books via this site, and thereby give you a small cut of the proceeds in the process)?

I don’t see it on your main page. My blocker may be preventing me from seeing it, but usually I can see that *something* is meant to be in a particular spot on a webpage, even if I can’t see the intended image —
for example, with your new Paypal box above, I can’t see the image/logo, but I can see the words “Paypal – the safer, easier way to pay online” and a little “x” in a black box to the left of those words.
I _can_ see the Patreon image/logo as it’s meant to be seen.

A. If it’s not already there, I think it would be good to have your Amazon affiliate clickthrough link in a little box on the righthand side on the *main* page, so that it’s noticeable to site visitors.

Make it easy for people to make the purchase while they are visiting here and while they are thinking about the subject matter.

B. Do you have affiliate links with other retailers? Such as other online bookstores, local bookstores, Powell’s, etc. Some people don’t wish to buy from Amazon, but are okay about buying from smaller online retailers.

http://www.powells.com/partner-program

(Here is an oldish NYT article on the wider subject:
“Online shoppers are rooting for the little guy”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/business/some-shoppers-rebel-against-giant-web-retailers.html )

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Good idea. Lemme put out the current fire and I’ll see what kind of trouble I can get into. 🙂

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Yes CT I know you have been very helpful over there for a long time! …and just by reading some of your posts to others it has helped me too.

I suppose CT, people with problems just want their computers back up and running and don’t realise that more info is better to work with. I know you must have the patience of a saint to deal with some.

You do have a good approach with users.

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Thank you very much. Your praise provides great satisfaction.

CT

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Well so many ads are so poorly supervised that I can’t spend the time to dig through the bad ads to find the good ones. I have many rules an systems to block ads (or reduce their functionality). Sometimes it is too hard to unblock them.

I’d like to see a page that serves example ads (as long as they are the same as normal ads, un-tampered).

For that matter I would intentionally review a group of ads (even render an opinion on them [like, dislike, no interest, bad/good, want to block/junk, don’t block] if that made you more money) rather than see a group of ads as part of the page. I would look at them quite a lot if they were good ads. Other ads usually get fully ignored on purpose as ads are by default bad.

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Thanks for the offer. I think I’ll continue with the way it’s set up, unless I get another barrage of truly awful ads. You’re most welcome to use an ad blocker…

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