Cookie popup query

[+wazzow]

This is not a technical issue as such, more something that I have wondered for a while and this is the first place I have been able to ask the question.

The cookie popup that shows for the site (I have just had one despite using the site on this device and browser for years, attached a screenshot of it) is the one that annoys me more than it should. There is no option to reject all so I have to scroll down and manually deselect all of the 'Legitimate Interest' toggles. I usually leave a site if they have this one as I hate not being able to click 'Reject all' with one click.

I guess my question is, is this something that can be beneficial to the site through extra ad income or is it maybe what is built in to the software? Keen to know if it is something website owners have control over as I get too worked up over it for my own good 

Sorry for my rambling and feel free to ignore this is you want to!

[Scotty]

To the best of my knowledge, that is not our popup. I have certainly not encountered it. That looks like something from your phone, phone provider or browser asking about your overall advertising preferences when using your browser or device. Our cookies popup looks like the image below. 

In terms of ads, if you choose to de-personalise these settings then it has little to no effect on us, you get a generic ad from google instead of one that is 'targeted' based on your browsing habits or recent google searches. Perhaps you are less likely to click on a generic ad, or maybe we would get a few cents extra from a targeted ad, but other than that, not much difference. 

Where we do see a difference is if someone blocks ads as that doesn't generate any income from google and - in the absence of a sponsor or benefactor - we need that income to run the site.  The biggest revenue generators currently are what they call "vignette ads" which are the ones that come up in between pages when moving around the site. Our users hate these with a passion so we have disabled them in favour of the normal boring banners and sidebars.  

 

This is our page when you browse to it in private mode (so no cookies retained) - click to view full size.  If you click on any of the underlined words in the disclaimer it will take you to the relevant page or setting. Other than that we set nothing. 

 

I also did a check on both Edge and Chrome and it bears no resemblance to your image. On Edge, I can see we set 37 cookies, most of which are session cookies meaning they expire when you close your browser. A few others, mostly relating to logins or account settings, and site features (like remembering what threads you have read or not) have expiry dates in the future. For example, your cookie accept policy as shown in the image above, stays active for 6 months and would then require you to accept cookies again and your login cookie allows you to stay logged in for 3 months at a time.

                 

You have the option to clear all these, or to logout of any machine you have logged into the site with from your profile settings page: https://caleythistleonline.com/settings/.

You can also change cookie settings on the cookies page, the link for which is at the bottom of every page. https://caleythistleonline.com/cookies/

 

[+DoofersDad]

I get the screen Wazzow has posted on a regular basis.  I had always assumed it was something to do with the site.  It is not something which comes up with any other site I use.  I get it on both my phone and PC, both of which are Apple devices.  I have the cookie settings set to essential only for the site.  I find the number of adverts on the site incredibly annoying and it impacts on the usability of the site.  I've always been happy to accept advertising if it brings revenue to the site, but if I am getting adverts which bring no revenue to the site, I would love to know how to stop them for good.

[Scotty]

the use of the word vendors makes me think it is a browser or account thing. i have not seen it before, its certainly not configured by me and i would be interested if someone does get it, to let me know what was shown in the "view details" link, or to tell me the steps they did to get it showing up! I have tried both Edge and Chrome on PC in normal mode as well as incognito mode and both with and without cookies and cache cleared and logged in and out. 

As for the ADs, will take a look as part of the upgrade to see if I can strike a better balance. The reality is that the site costs me personally about US$2000 per year to run. This includes domain name registrations, software maintenance and support, hosting fees and other expenses. We usually manage to scrape by on the revenue from the ads and a few people who pay for a modest site sponsor subscription each year, so it is mostly self-financing, but without ads there would be no site unless we have a major sponsor willing to drop the cash into the site on a yearly basis that would allow us to remove the ads completely !