The site isn't putting ad content on the pages and serving it to members. It sells blank ad space to a service. The ad content is pulled from the ad service, and it fills the blank spaces on a member's device, not the site's server. The ad content is based at least in part on data pulled from a member's device, not from the site, so the mods have little control over what the ad service puts in those blank spaces. Everyone may see different ad content because it's personalized and sent directly to their device - it never hits the forum's server.
Thats 100% how this site works. VS is a massive company and they have ad sales team. Their sole job is to target companies and get them to buy ad space. Their ad packages range from ' advertise on just xyz site' to volume discounts where the advertiser can pick multiple sites to spread their impressions to. They can even pick a general topic, like motorcycles, to have their ads shown on all VS's motorcycle forums. So VS is VERY much in control of what ads show where.
I on the other hand am not a salesman and can't afford a sales guy. So we give our ad space to a company and they do their best to find advertisers with products that appeals to this audience. It's a very hard sell with a new site like this so many of the ads you see fall back to a general pool (so to speak) of advertisers. From there it goes one of two ways depending on the country you are in and your privacy settings. First choice from the ad company is if you allow them to look at your cookies and see what all you look at online and serves ads from what it learns there. These are 2nd most profitable. If you have all cookies blocked or in a country that doesn't allow it, it just grabs ads from people offering a fraction of what the ad space is worth but are willing to be 'fill in ads' on any site anywhere. These last two situations are 99% of what you see on here right now.
At best, it sounds like staff can complain to an ad service in an attempt to have specific content or types of content removed from the available options sent to members. It really is out of their hands as long as the ad service is filling the blank spaces they bought with content that meets the terms of the agreement (correct size, no blinking, no auto-playing video, etc.).
They can complain, or at least tell you they have. If they haven't already figured it out yet their complaints fall on deaf ears. VS bought the site for a premium to put their ads where they want. It's their business, don't think they didn't have some research on how much more ads they could sell with ADVr in their portfolio.
Bottom line, they sell any and all types of ads, from toy ads for kids, to ads for 12 inch dildos for the kids' moms.
Very likely, they will take any money given to them. The legal world has gotten tricky about advertising, I'd be willing to bet that if you are seeing dildo ads, you were looking at porn of some type. People say 'I never look at that stuff!!' and ..... maaayyyyybe they are telling the truth, maybe not. The trickery of the web is getting bad. All it takes is for you to get carpet bombed with email spam about the clitmaster 5000 and for you open the email without realizing what it is. Well, that pic in the email that loads form their server just told them thats a valid email and your curious about sex toys. Your on a list. So .. most of the times it's because somebody was surfing adult stuff .... sometimes it's malicious targeting. Either way .. the ad serving code is targeting just as it should. Nobody paying for ads wants to pay a premium for their ad to be displayed to the completely wrong audience ... there is a reason for it.
I gave the ad company a 13+ age target. Unless there is something on your computer to tell it otherwise it's fairly good at sticking to it.
Also, I don't blame the mods for all this nonsense. They are just the drones, doing what they are told to do by the site owners/operators.
I wouldn't blame them. They have been used to the OG ADVr for years and have been set on helping the community for years. Not getting in to the definition of your view of their 'help' was but thats what they were doing. They are just holding onto that now even though it's largely a .... novelty role in VS's eyes.
If one of us oversteps, please take it up with them in a private Conversation that includes Austin. I think that's the best way to address it. @Austin has made it clear that a heavy handed mod won't have a long tenure on ADVb. None of us want that, and I think we've lived up to that standard so far.
100%, Google's moto used to be "don't be evil" .... since they dropped it I've adopted it. Vindictive or virtue signaling will not be tolerated here. Everybody here should be here to talk riding & bikes. Take the rest of the BS to social media, thats what it seems to be for these days.
I honestly feel sorry for the ADVr mods. That probably reads in a cynical manner but it's not meant to be. Aside from how they acted to members, they are very much like the die-hards on pirate4x4 when irate4x4 launched. Some can't let go of the power but I think most have just made that role such a part of their responsibility they can't accept whats happened to the site. This is my second go at setting up an alternative home for a community and the first go around I thought they were 'power tripping' since they didn't get mod powers at the new place. After a few years I see they just ... want the comfort that was. Change is scary and I get it, especially if thats the only forum they are on thats been bought out by VS. So I don't blame them sticking around and trying to save the place. In my experience they are beating a dead horse .. but I get it. I hope they do sooner rather than later.
Mod'n is a funny thing. A lot of people want to be but don't get that it is work. IMO it sucks and I'm really thankful people want to do it. My goal is to have the community as a whole do most of the moderating. Pirate4x4 and now irate4x4 members are kind of aggressive when it comes to random assholes on the site. They are amazing at either running them off and are quick to use the reporting tool if they break the few rules we have. I hope to instill that her for the mod's sake. It's not at all about running off certain viewpoints, which is where it gets tricky to describe the 'community moderating' without being a part of the community and seeing it. Follow the core rules or get hell from the board ... I couldn't ask for more honestly. Mod powers aren't for pushing their beliefs ... it's to move a newb's post who accidentally posted in the wrong place, registers with a typo in their username ... silly stuff. What they certinally don't need is the chip on the shoulder many have towards them. I see it more that I ever did as a regular member on pirate. One of the more contributing mods on irate4x4 got wrapped up in a heated discussion about a topic that hit closer to home that most of the forum knows. He posted for a day or two arguing against what most, including myself, consider a distasteful, but not illegal, viewpoint as he 100% should have. I would have in his shoes. After a while he used his mod powers to zap the whole thread and he lost his mod status for it. He continued to be a active member, in the tech sections not just that thread, and after a few months we talked, he apologized and I asked him to be a mod again. It took him a few weeks to decide because he liked not having the burden but I'm glad he is a mod again. He's kind of a dick and a grumpy old man :fo2: but ... is a good mod. I don't see those second chances happening a lot but it did there.
Since we are on the topic of mods, there is a question I have been wanting to ask. What exactly is a Super Moderator? Is that a moderator with a cape? Maybe a moderator to rule all moderators like Lord of the Rings??
Those are Xenforo's definitions. You can make somebody a moderator of a specific forum, album, calendar etc. Supermods can moderate anyplace on the site. There are a few exceptions but I feel if I trust you to mod one section, and you happen to be surfing elsewhere on the site and see an issue I trust you to take care of it. Also requires far less mods to manage the site which is nice because of the number of forums and the diffrent time zones members are in.
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