@CR Team: Why adding ads to an ad free account?

Random Thoughts:

I've never paid the premium cost because: 1) I don't believe in paying extortionists. 2) I have no objection to reasonable advertising on websites. That is how they should be financed in my opinion. The problem with "ad free" options is that the shrinking ad revenue gets piled onto fewer and fewer users until sites because flooded with useless ads. CR is a great example of that. It's gotten so bad that the site now overlays ads on top of other ads, making even the ads unreadable.

My impression is that Craig sold the site, but continues as a contributor. Most likely because he is the one that confidential sources dealt with and it's difficult to transfer those relationships to new owners. But I could be wrong.

I don't understand the personal animosity towards Craig by some, but then again, I was totally confused by his "meltdown" several months ago. I'm sure there is a story there, but frankly I kind of don't care. The site doesn't seem to be any better or worse than it ever was.

I'm always skeptical of "deals" that are supposed to be limited or offer annual "gifts." Whenever there is a need for a new boost in revenue, the deals will get renewed and annual gifts have a way of disappearing after a year or two. The gifts are usually junk anyway.
 
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It would be good to get some reaction from either Craig or the new owners as to what the status of the site is. Advertising is just one aspect of that. I'm getting a (relatively unobtrusive) small banner d at the bottom, but obviously others are getting more, and 'non-Pro' users seem to be getting much more.

I value the site (and that is why I was happy to pay what I saw as a relatively small $ amount for the Pro membership to help fund it), but it would be good to know what the current status is.
 
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It would be good to get some reaction from either Craig or the new owners as to what the status of the site is. Advertising is just one aspect of that. I'm getting a (relatively unobtrusive) small banner d at the bottom, but obviously others are getting more, and 'non-Pro' users seem to be getting much more.

I value the site (and that is why I was happy to pay what I saw as a relatively small $ amount for the Pro membership to help fund it), but it would be good to know what the current status is.
Take a look at the cookies and cross site browser tracking it does.....
 
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As a Pro-user, I still see ads in my desktop Firefox browser (Except content of ads seems to be blocked by my Firefox´s Tracking Protection set to Strict mode). A banner at bottom of page and I guess some video to the right: just above banner

View attachment 204829

The banner at the bottom have disappeared for me now.
But the annoying video "popup" is still there. When scrolling down, it places itself just over the comments:

1658942539151.png
 
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This is on my phone. And the image you see is decidedly served by the website. So if there is a "Firefox problem" then it's the website that has it. FF renders fine.

Edit:just tried FF on the PC. Views fine there. Boggles the mind. @AlanF - just FYI.
Today's update of FF claims to prevent all tracking!
 
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I wrote CRGuy directly, and got the following answer today:

Canon Rumors switched Ad operations and we are waiting for the developers to update the code on the site to block the ads for you.

I hope that they can get this done this week.

We appologize for the inconvenience.

EDIT: Ups. The following is incorrect. Forgot I also had an adblocker installed in the browser I was using. I still see the video(placeholder) when my adblocker is disabled:

Meanwhile, the video are also gone for me now.

But I think it is "fixed" by update to the (Strict-mode) Enhanced Tracking Protection in latest Firefox-release (Firefox version 103 from yesterday). Because neither bottom-banner nor video are visible either if I open CR site in a "firefox private window" (not logged into CR).
 
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Just out of curiosity, which CR Guy did you write? The old CRGuy or the new ones?
As far as I know Craig is still owner of the site, and he handles the site with help from a couple of assistants while a sale is being prepared and arranged(?).
But if it actually was Craig himself who answered my message, or if it was one of the assistants (or a new owner)?,.. Well, I don't know.

I wrote message to Canon Rumors Guy.
 
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