Mouth
Well-known member
You mean like a mandated Date of Birth? I rarely register to anywhere requiring that, turns me off straight away, but if I do I always fill it with dummy info anyways.
AdBlock Detected Tracker & Statistics [Paid] v2.1.0
- Thread starter Wutime
- Start date
Wutime
Well-known member
@RoyalRumble @Stuart Wright
I'm happy to update anything OTHER than the actual detection.
If I can make it support 2.3, I'm happy to do so. I'm also happy to make sure it continues to work with 2.2x for anyone that paid for it.
I don't want to abandon the project, the problem is I'm not happy/proud with the detection. I know ways it can be circumvented, and for large/popular websites, people are able to specifically bypass the detection if they're knowledgeable enough. As a result, for large website owners, they're going to be upset at me. For smaller/niche websites, this works great. However, since I can't prevent large website owners from purchasing and then getting upset at me, I'm a bit stuck.
On the good side, it works for most users and websites, but won't always work for all (depending on their userbase and the level of cunning of some). Additionally, there's RasberryPi hole, etc.
I'm not sure what to do.
I thought marking this resource [Unmaintained] seemed most honest on my end. I can change it back, but thought I'd get your input first.
What do you guys think?
I'm happy to update anything OTHER than the actual detection.
If I can make it support 2.3, I'm happy to do so. I'm also happy to make sure it continues to work with 2.2x for anyone that paid for it.
I don't want to abandon the project, the problem is I'm not happy/proud with the detection. I know ways it can be circumvented, and for large/popular websites, people are able to specifically bypass the detection if they're knowledgeable enough. As a result, for large website owners, they're going to be upset at me. For smaller/niche websites, this works great. However, since I can't prevent large website owners from purchasing and then getting upset at me, I'm a bit stuck.
On the good side, it works for most users and websites, but won't always work for all (depending on their userbase and the level of cunning of some). Additionally, there's RasberryPi hole, etc.
I'm not sure what to do.
I thought marking this resource [Unmaintained] seemed most honest on my end. I can change it back, but thought I'd get your input first.
What do you guys think?
Last edited:
bzcomputers
Well-known member
Appreciate you honesty and being upfront it doesn't detect everyone. I know personally myself I never expected it to, and being honest it has always out performed my expectations in detection. Maybe I'm just lucky enough to have lazy guests or guests that love ads.
I would like to see this supported through 2.3 & 3.0. I think with detection exactly as it is, it is still a useful add-on and worth far more than its' price.
Just continue to be upfront... "There are a few ways to bypass this add-on that are not fixable. As time passes this will likely only get worse. The more technically savvy your users are, the more likely they will bypass the detection capabilities of this add-on. For many sites it will still detect a significant amount of ad blocking users. Each site will be unique."
Unfortunately, even with that stated there will be purchasers that will still complain. Which is why there a ton of great XenForo add-ons created that people never share, free or paid.
Wutime
Well-known member
Okay, appreciate your replies. I think this is the goal.
Your post was very insightful.
Perhaps I just need to be more upfront on the Overview page.
You pretty much summed it up, some customers will raise a hell storm when it doesn't detect X or Y, and I just can't stomach the back and forth. Or, the repetition of replies.
AdBlock detection is so much of a goose chase, and with such a small customer base it's not worth the time continually updating for new ways of circumvention. Specifically, when in some cases, it's almost impossible to stay on top of without implementing a wide array of systems and staff. The few companies I see doing it somewhat perfectly, are just that, companies. Even then, I think 100% success rate is impossible for any implementation.
I'll move things back to maintained and add notes to the Overview page to read this page.
Wutime
Well-known member
As alluded to by @bzcomputers, being upfront is important. Cheers for the friendly input.
I've updated the Overview page in order to feel comfortable continuing to provide this add-on.
Limitations:
I've updated the Overview page in order to feel comfortable continuing to provide this add-on.
Limitations:
- This does detect the most popular AdDetectors (as of June 16, 2024)
- Please note, this will never work 100% perfectly for ALL possible ways to AdBlock
- Please read the following few posts for a more through discussion on the subject
- Please do not buy if you're expecting 100% accuracy across all bazillion possible implementations of AdBlock detection such as (DNS, custom Raspberry Pi-hole Domain Name Server systems, etc.)
Stuart Wright
Well-known member
I stopped using this addon a long time ago when detection and support stopped.
I didn't resume its use in case it got removed again. I don't want to piss off my members by removing, then reinstating addons and I need addon authors to be consistent and reliable.
People who release addons for free have zero obligation to their users to maintain and update it. Users would still get upset if authors withdrew any free addon.
People who charge a fee do have an obligation to their customers. That's why I was upset when the detection and support stopped.
Particularly because the addon was excellent, solved a specific problem and did it a professional way. That's why I paid for it.
It may still be excellent, but I haven't looked at it since it was removed.
If you recall, I suggested a multiplier for the number of page loads required to remove the flag dependent upon the number of times they have turned ad blocking on and off. This combats the people to repeatedly turn on ads to access something and then block them the rest of the time.
I felt like we helped you to make the addon better, I appreciated you doing that and that improvement was a big benefit to us.
I'm not worried by a tiny minority of people who use their own methods to bypass ad blocking.
I'm only really interested in finding the majority of people who are blocking ads with adblock+ or whatever are the most common apps.
However, if the tech wizards share the method to bypass this addon on my forum and it's an easy process to implement then the addon would be pretty useless.
To quantify it, if the addon detects, say, 95%+ of ad blocking members and bypassing it is quite a hassle, and I felt it would continue to be supported, then I'd be happy to use it again. However, our commercial team have been in talks for a while with companies to provide a more generic adblocker recovery system.
Once I can reliably add a new adblocker usergroup to members' accounts (and, of course, remove it quickly after they allow ads), then I can incentivise those people to allow ads for AVForums by denying them access to the additional features like competitions and classifieds (both of which are free to access, so I feel justified in requiring the viewing of ads to access them).
As @bzcomputers writes, transparency is key and over promising and underdelivering is the best way to upset people.
Thanks for asking and I hope my answer helps.
Stuart Wright
Well-known member
Yes, but only because we insist that people using our classifieds are over 18 years of age since a minor can not enter a legally binding contract.
tajhay
Well-known member
@Wutime is there an intention to uodate this addon like you did with https://xenforo.com/community/threads/adblock-detector-pro-paid.165243/ ?
Wutime
Well-known member
Absolutely and 100%. I'm already in the process of updating it.
Currently the detection is sub-par because we're on a few lists unfortunately. A couple of the most popular extensions are able to circumvent detection by this addon, but that's already been addressed and fixed in the upcoming release.
I've been running a new build on a community and it's working flawlessly. Detection has increased two-fold, which is about right for the percentage of people that use adblockers by my estimation.
I'll try to get a new build out soon, or at the very least, in a release candidate version.
As a note, moving forward this addon is the one I'm most excited to update because there's so many possibilities. I've got a bunch of ideas and features to add. I'll focus on that after getting my other addons ready for XF 2.3.
Wutime
Well-known member
Wutime updated AdBlock Detected Tracker & Statistics with a new update entry:
v2.0.0
Read the rest of this update entry...
v2.0.0
Read the rest of this update entry...
Wutime
Well-known member
(Bought it again anyways, even though it's much more expensive. Pays itself back)
Appreciate your positive feedback.
I've got a list of things to add - I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
#Anakin
Member
man cm on.. i have bought the addon like 4 days ago.. and now its not working because of the xenforo upgrade.. is it possible to have the upgrade for free.. i paid the addon 4 days ago for nothing because now is not working..
#Anakin
Member
Wutime
Well-known member
Sorry, I don't understand.
If you purchased 4+ days ago you DO have access to download this update.
Did you try visiting here: https://www.wutime.com/wp-admin/ (login and click "Purchases")
Any version prior < 2.0.0 will NOT working with XF 2.3
#Anakin
Member
yes i upgraded both xenforo to 2.3.0 and the addon too.. but it doesnt work anymore. before it was
Wutime
Well-known member
If you're having a specific issue, please let me know. Worst case, while we figure out what's wrong, you can uninstall the addon, delete files, and resort back to v1.4 meanwhile.