Cookie Acceptance And Other Updates

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Dearest Members and Visitors of our little Fountain Pen Nut house on the digital prairie,

 

Over the past few weeks some silent changes have been made to the board, and 1 less silent one, namely the cookie acceptance add-on.

The latter has been activated a few moments ago, and it is something we unfortunately cannot escape, due to rules and regulations in the EU.

 

We have placed it as much as possible out of harm's way in case you decide not to click it, but it will overlap with the menu at the top.

We are only using cookies for functional reasons, IOW, for things like VNC (View New Content), and generally settings you have enabled or disabled yourself here as part of the forum software.

In short, no private information is stored with the cookies created by this site.

 

Other changes have been the different menus, which have been resized, some anyway, for some of the skins/themes, so that menu items don't wrap around to the next line.

All donation pages have been skinned, or themed if you prefer that term, now as well, so they do fit in better with the layout and structure of the entire site.

 

For the direct PayPal donations, we have also introduced the use of a different FPN PayPal account, due to the interference of the Store and IPN, the messaging system of PayPal to report back to our Store whether an item has been paid for. As it is a system which always sends messages when something gets paid into our account, it upset the Store, as it would not process the message in case of direct donations - it doesn't know about those after all. In turn PayPal would then get upset, and next make the system hang after a couple of days (and retries).

This solution solves that problem .

 

Finally, we will introduce a new message, which will pop up automatically if you are using ad blocking software when browsing FPN. The request is to switch this off for FPN, as a large part of our funding we receive through advertising. Effectively, by enabling adverts on FPN, you are supporting us.

If you prefer to not see any advertising here, please be so kind to consider supporting us differently, with an FPN Without Ads donation.

You can do so either on a monthly basis: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/store/product/134-fpn-without-ads-monthly-donation-subscription/

or yearly: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/store/product/122-fpn-without-ads-annual-donation-subscription/.

This will give you the option to completely get rid of any ads whatsoever, and still support FPN.

 

This message will pop up automatically from tomorrow, if you are using ad blocking software when visiting this site.

We are in the process of fine tuning the parameters and making sure it works properly with each skin/theme, and we expect to finish that some time later today.

 

Thank you all in advance!

 

Warm regards, Wim

On behalf of the FPN Moderator & Admin Team

[Abhik]

Any positive change is always welcome. Thank you Wimg and other Moderators.

[thudthwacker]

I'm a little confused; I'm already accepting cookies from FPN (witness the fact that my login session works, and I double-checked in my Preferences setup), but I still see the band at the top of the page. Is this just informational, to make sure everyone knows that FPN does use cookies? But, if it's only signalling my understanding that cookies are in use, I don't know why I would choose not to click on it.

[Rob G]

The annoying thing is seeing it every time I navigate to another thread.

[wimg]

I'm a little confused; I'm already accepting cookies from FPN (witness the fact that my login session works, and I double-checked in my Preferences setup), but I still see the band at the top of the page. Is this just informational, to make sure everyone knows that FPN does use cookies? But, if it's only signalling my understanding that cookies are in use, I don't know why I would choose not to click on it.

 

Obviously, yes, you do accept it. However, this is something rules and regulations require us to do, effectively making everybody aware that cookies are used here. Whether they are functional or used for other purposes, doesn't matter, just that there are slightly different requirements for just functional use, and other uses.

 

When you click the "I accept ..." button, it will disappear for a year, unless you decide to clear out your cookies completely.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

[wimg]

The annoying thing is seeing it every time I navigate to another thread.

 

Did you click the "I accept ..." button?

If so, check your cookie settings for FPN in your browser, and allow FPN to set cookies.

 

If not, do click it, and it will disappear for a year.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

[FarmBoy]

Are the cookies warm and do they come with milk?

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Nah, I normally serve them with tea or cappuccino .

Of course you are entirely free to serve them with milk, hot or cold, if you so prefer .

 

Warm regards, Wim

[RMN]

With hot cocoa, please...

 

 

D.ick

[blINK]

Do we have a choice of cookies. I like oatmeal raisin

[RMN]

After clicking the bar to accept the cookies, the button will be gone, but the bar still stays as a ghost over the text. If you refresh your page (F5 in most browsers) that will be gone too.

 

 

By the way: Ctrl-F5 completely reloads the page, always usefull in case you get really weird results. Please always try that before telling us something is broke.....

 

 

D.ick

[Starguard]

I had some odd problems, but they were all on my end. Some minor modifications on my browser and all is well.

[I.M.]

How much of the cookie data collected is shared with Google?

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How much of the cookie data collected is shared with Google?

 

The answer is simple: nothing.

 

We do have Google Analytics registration code embedded in our main page, which is used to generate general statistics, such as page views and most visited pages etc. The same is true for Alexa. Essentially this is the same information we also get from AwStats (on-site page statistics), although the latter includes all pages, as it also sees the pages which Google and Alexa cannot see, like Member profiles, and specific forums, like Chatter. We use Google because it is able to show us a breakdown per forum, which is something AwStats cannot do, and Alexa only because it is a generally used tool, even though not very good for forums (it only is capable of counting about half of the page views). This is general, anonymous site-based tracking code, not a cookie, however.

 

We use this information for this page: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/page/advertise.html

And this info is used, f,e., to calculate rates for direct advertising.

 

In short, no personal information is stored in cookies at all.

We respect the privacy of members and visitors.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

[I.M.]

Thank you

[wimg]

It's a pleasure, I.M.

 

Warm regards, Wim

[wimg]

We just finished bringing the messages online with regard to advertising and people using ad blockers.

 

In principle this is a gentle reminder of whitelisting FPN for your ad blocking software, or alternatively donate towards one of the two Ads Free options we have here .

 

We started off with testing of a reminder that would be cookie-based, which would take 20 seconds to display the first time you visit FPN and would display again after a day, but for now we found that too unwelcoming, so we took another approach - hence the delay between announcement and final activation.

Since we do have fairly long pages, these messages may be displayed up to three times on a page, namely at the top, in the sidebar underneath the FPN Quick Navigation box, and right at the bottom of the page.

 

We deliberately chose for it NOT to appear inside any content, because we prefer the friendly approach.

 

Next thing we will do, after an appropriate period of rest, is to implement a counter to determine exact percentages for pages loaded with ad blocking software active.

 

In an attempt to make these messages as friendly as possible, we have also integrated them into the styling of the board software and themes (the default IP.Board theme and our own Library theme).

In short, they d not stick out like a sore thumb, and neither do they interfere with content.

 

Finally, we implemented these messages with the board online rather than offline, so some of you may have seen these messages while they were being implemented. Apologies for these occurrences of incorrect display of these messages, but we considered this to be a minor annoyance, less than not having the board available for the period it took to implement these messages.

 

Warm regards, Wim

[BobR]

Thanks for the updates, Wim. I've just seen the Ad-blocking notice (yes I admit that I use it ). I did become a Rhodium supporter a few months back--is there any thought to extending the ad-free themes to the existing sustaining members, or is the "Ad-Free option" separate?

[wimg]

Thanks for the updates, Wim. I've just seen the Ad-blocking notice (yes I admit that I use it ). I did become a Rhodium supporter a few months back--is there any thought to extending the ad-free themes to the existing sustaining members, or is the "Ad-Free option" separate?

 

 

The ad-free option is separate - it makes use of a combination of additional code and a set of ad-free skins, as there was no other way to implement this. However, as a Supporter you do get a very good discount, and as a bonus you get an additional skin/theme with the Ads Free option .

 

There are the usual IP.Board (default), IP.Mobile and Library themes in a "Show No Ads" format, an there also is the Observatory theme without ads.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

[hbquikcomjamesl]

For a time today, I received the ad-block message, in spite of the fact that I am demonstrably NOT blocking ads (I see them all the time on boards like TrekBBS).

 

I DO block the unsolicited execution of Flash content, and I DO have a small (but growing) list of domains remapped to 0.0.0.0 in my host table, including Facebook and (currently) eighteen domains that have served pop-unders, many with at least mild browser-traps. And on my Mac at home, I DO block scripts (in blacklist, rather than whitelist, mode) that come from any domain that has a history of either making an egregious waste of my limited dial-up(!) bandwidth, or breaking my browser (the terminal Firefox release for PPC-based Macs).

 

***

 

And for the record, I am NOT in any way opposed to advertising. It is because of paid advertising that, for example, Popular Science and Model Railroader are 80-plus-page magazines with 4-color available throughout, costing only a few bucks an issue, instead of being 12-page black-and-white newsletters with prohibitive cover prices. It is because of paid advertising that transit fares in most major cities are relatively low. It is because of paid advertising that we have, in the United States, a system of free radio and television broadcasting. But I also recognize that whenever a medium is advertiser-supported, and to the extent that it is advertiser-supported, the editorial content is not the product but the raw material, and the audience is not the customer, but the product. In most cases, there is nothing wrong with that (especially if the audience is aware of it), but in some, it is intolerable, which is why Consumers' Union, in order to avoid even the appearance of being biased in favor of any vendor, has never run paid advertisements in Consumer Reports.

 

Likewise, when a medium permits (or in some cases, actively aids and abets) the disguising of paid advertisements as editorial content, it creates a conflict of interest. For example, when the American Guild of Organists began running color covers on its membership magazine, The American Organist, it funded them by quite literally selling the outside front cover (customarily reserved for editorial content) to whatever organbuilder offered to "sponsor" the issue, and included several interior pages for the organbuilder to present an "article" (i.e., an untagged advertorial) about the instrument featured on the cover. Since such a thing would be unheard-of in any of the magazines (commercial or membership) I otherwise read, I was completely oblivious to it, until Fisk blew the lid off it (for which I am forever in their debt), by running what was effectively a promotional brochure in the interior space, with no attempt to disguise it as editorial content. After multiple appeals to the editorial staff and the AGO officers (supported by statistical data comparing their magazine with the National Model Railroad Association's membership magazine for three random months) failed to elicit even an admission that there was anything wrong with allowing paid advertisements to be disguised as editorial content, I severed all connections with the AGO National Office, retaining only a "Chapter Friend" membership with my home chapter, which will continue only so long as it can be maintained by remitting dues directly to the chapter.

 

Advertising, I have no problems with. It's abusive advertising that's the problem.

Edited September 23, 2015 by hbquikcomjamesl