Kiwi

Hi everyone, I would like to provide some follow up on the Ezoic pop up that appeared a couple of weeks ago.   You'll recall that I was starting a trial for third party advertising with our new partner Ezoic and a pop up appeared, asking for some permissions that were inappropriate.

Firstly I understand that the pop up caused some alarm and in the time since, as promised, I've had some discussions with Ezoic to get more insight into what happened. 

The first thing I would like to do is provide some reassurance.  Not only was pop up in error but it wasn't even necessary because the ads are intended for visitors who aren't signed in.  Additionally, even if someone had agreed to the pop up request, they wouldn't have seen any ads because the site settings I had in place prevented that from happening.  So once again, there shouldn't be any need for concerns about privacy. 

Secondly, I would like to introduce Jack (@dewww) from Ezoic to you.  I've invited him to introduce the company and explain it's approach to privacy in a little more detail.  We have discussed at length the concerns raised in the thread by BC moderator Sylvia Bluejay and he would also like to provide some reassurance that Ezoic take their responsibilities over privacy very seriously.  So, with his agreement, I have set up a sub forum here for the purpose of asking questions:

https://www.basschat.co.uk/forum/123-introducing-ezoic-basschats-sponsorship-partner/

The intention is to provide two opportunities: 
1) To give Ezoic an opportunity to clarify what they do and to reassure members they operate in a fully transparent way.  I hope this will help address any knee jerk reactions or misinformation.
2) To give members an opportunity to ask Jack any questions they may have about how Ezoic operate.  I hope this will help reassure concerned members that nothing underhanded is going on.

Some context: I've been working with Ezoic over the last 4 months and, on the whole Matt and Jack (who took over from Matt) have been very responsive and receptive.  I've emphasised to them the importance of listening to the community and they've taken that on board.  Ezoic have also partnered up with other online communities and generally the feedback I've seen so far has been very positive.

So, please view the pop up as an anomaly and if you have any lingering questions for Ezoic feel free to post them in the subforum.  But I would ask that you be respectful, keep questions relevant and fair.  Airing general grievances about online advertising, or to scapegoat Ezoic for matters they have no control over, will result in content being moderated.  Thanks in advance for your understanding on that.

Make sure to take plenty of photos so I can throw them up on the BC FB page!

On 14/09/2023 at 04:29, michele said:

Asked the guy if the AH200 was recently serviced and answer was of course “no”. He said it works perfectly, no volume drops but admitted “there’s some rustle” (i don’t know the nature of it… could be the crappy Peavey 15 cab the head’s connected with? i dont know….)

Noise reduction button missed but he claims it works…

Wants 200 euros for it..

 

Here it is however. What do you think?

Rustling needs more context.  If he means when the controls are operated, it could mean dirty pots - an easy fix with cleaner.  If the amp rustles without moving anything about, it could be the power caps need some attention.  Also relatively simple but needs an amp tech for safety reasons.  

4 hours ago, VTypeV4 said:

 

@Kiwi The V4 MK2 combos are a little later than the '90s and are from around 2001. The V-Type combos from the 1990s were hybrids featuring the original V-Type pre-amp and the 250 / 300w SS output stage. Early green 'pimple' tolex ones only came as 1x15 although the later green furr examples also came as 4x8 (model 4808) using Celestion BG8-60 drivers. Again, like most Trace combos, they're horribly heavy but sound great.

cheers!  my memory was a bit hazy.  I've come into contact with at least three of the 1x15 V4 combos, one of which was in really rough state but up for sale.  I think someone else on the forum eventually snagged it from a studio in SE London and started restoring it.

2 hours ago, LennyP said:

Those AH200 Series 6 are great heads. 

I couldn't get on with mine and sold it.  It wasn't doing the Mk V thing, too coloured.

On 12/09/2023 at 06:20, VTypeV4 said:

I had a Twin Valve combo for a while which was a fantastic sounding thing despite it's modest 115w rating and simple 7-band pre-amp. It weighed an absolute ton and was a pig to move plus the power stage was more than capable of finding the limits of the speaker but I'd happily own another - a lovely amplifier. I expect this was the amp you tried all those years ago as it was the only all valve combo they would have made back then - mine was built in 1990.

Trace also did a version of the all valve V4 amp in combo format in the mid 90's but they're super rare.  IIRC maybe only a hundred were made.  

3 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

Would that just affect the post I'm editing? 

I expect so because the formatting code for each post would be specific to that post.   But try it and see what happens maybe?  It seems a relatively low risk activity.

9 hours ago, michele said:

I have never owned a Trace but I remember plugging' in a valve combo of theirs in the mid 90' as one of the most delicious sound I've ever heard.

Talk to @Chimike He's selling a load of Trace kit including valve combos at pretty reasonable prices. 

I would say that the valve stuff sounds much more lo-fi than the solid state stuff.  So if the valve range are your thing, definitely stick to those.  I have owned both.  The Mk V amps are generally like PA amps.  The Series 6 are fairly coloured in their character so may not suit all basses.  The SMX range are pretty good and that dual band compressor is a great way to vintage up a solid state head but it won't give you the low end.  I have no experience of the hybrid V range but I've owned a V8 head and played a V4 combo, both all valve.  They're very full sounding and remind me a bit of an SVT.  The Twin, Quatra and Hexavalve heads are much more a half way thing between the V heads and solid state range - sort of a modern sound from valves.  I still own a Hexavalve head.

 You should be able to double click on the image while the edit window is open.  In just the same way that you are prompted to when inserting the image.

I'm not going to get involved with this.  When you guys have developed a consensus on where to put it, drop me a PM and I'll put it there.

On 02/09/2023 at 18:27, Silvia Bluejay said:

@Kiwi the new subforum should definitely be under Amps And Cabs NOT Other Instruments, which would make it very hard to spot. Could you please move it?

OK, done.

PM me please.

I think the interest level is probably high enough to trial it for 3 months.  But if the sub forum goes for more than 3 months without activity at any point in the future then I'll combine it with another section.

https://www.basschat.co.uk/forum/122-pa-set-up-and-use/

Here you go.

OK I'm getting the same issue but only for banners in a particular position.  I'll deactivate them until the reasons are known.

I'm sorry that the pop up caused some members to feel alarmed.  I'd also like to clarify some misunderstandings too.

Firstly BC isn't tracking your browsing history of other websites.  We can't, even if we could we wouldn't be  interested because its not relevant to management of the forum.  We are definitely NOT selling your information to anyone and if it became clear that Ezoic was doing it on the sly then I would oppose it.
 

Lets put notions about tracking in context.  Any website you access that features third party advertising - news sites, social media, any sites accessed using Google Chrome when you are signed into Google, any site that uses Google Analytics will track what demand there is from users of a site and where in the site that demand is greatest.  Google also shares very broad demographic information (age, country, gender, OS, browser) that those users have already agreed to provide to Google.  Mobile apps are arguably a grey area for privacy but BC doesn't have an app so it's less relevant to this thread.

Because a few members have lumped what BC does with the pop up message that came from Ezoic, I'm going to address what information we have access to next.  Like nearly every popular website out there, we run Google Analytics because it provides more context about how BC is being used.   If some of you have Google accounts and weren't aware of this, it may be an idea to review what information you have agreed to share with Google.  Google won't identify individual users from the information that it gathers.  In fact in July Google Chrome no longer permits third party cookies, which has put the online advertising industry into a bit of a spin.  So the main point here is that BC doesn't and won't breach your privacy, or as stated above, sell your information, and neither does Google

Hopefully that will provide some reassurance that your privacy is still protected and respected by us.
 

Lastly...any member who still has concerns despite the above can use an ad blocker.  It's a simple solution and you stay in control regardless of where your concerns lie.

On 31/08/2023 at 05:53, Silvia Bluejay said:

I get this message when I log on:

 

 

Well, I don't want that to happen. I don't want this website to share any information about my use of this site with your partners. But I'm only offered a button called "Got it!", so I can't deny permission. I'm not sure this is legal in the UK?

Yeah, me neither.  I'm suspending the trial until further reassurances are provided.  If anyone has any remaining concerns about Ezoic breaching privacy, drop me a pm to ensure it doesn't get lost amongst other responses and I'll get you an answer from them.  They're already on notice over this slip up as it is and if I'm not satisfied that their responses are transparent enough then the trial may end.

I have invited a representative from Ezoic to sign up and we can discuss concerns with them directly.  They say this pop up wasn't generated by them so it seems there is some investigation to do on who was responsible for it and why.

As mentioned in the site update notice above, I am trialling a partnership with new third party advertiser called Ezoic.  This is because BC needs the income and the last couple of years have been pretty bad for the digital marketing industry overall.  I've really struggled to get sponsors on board by myself who are interested in display ads.  Most of the larger names in the music industry I've spoken to, like Andertons and Reverb, expect us to join affiilate schemes which operate in a way (as a sales channel) that is different to how BC functions best (as a marketing platform).  It's like Nike going to Youtube and offering them a commission based on the sales Youtube generates for them.  The rate of return on affiliate advertising for us is pretty poor because that's not what we do.  So this is a back stop while I wait for things to pick up within the industry or a better way of doing things emerges.

Woody the other admin and I have also spent the last four months working through technical issues with Ezoic around cookie management on GC and today was supposed to be the start of a four week trial on BC. Apart from this hiccup, Ezoic have been pretty good to work with, very proactive and sensitive to my concerns about causing disruption and alarm. So to have something unexpected happen like this pop up is pretty disappointing given things were running so smoothly on GC.  

Now the important bit:
The main objective of the advertising trial is to test if we can get more income in by increasing the advertising only to lurkers. That is, people viewing the site who are not signed in.  We've gone to quite some lengths, including commissioning a new plug in from Invision, to avoid any increase in exposure to ads for members.  We are also removing all exposure to ads for those members who are kind enough to support the site.

The only way Ezoic can differentiate between members and supporting members is through cookies.  So the plug in we commissioned puts a cookie in your browser cache that tells Ezoic what grade of membership you have.  That should tell Ezoic whether to show ads in a browser window or not.  Adblock should still work but it shouldn't be necessary if you are signed in.  If you are blocking cookies, I can't predict what you will see - I hope the feedback you provide will help us minimise alarm and concerns. 

If you have any questions about what Ezoic does, feel free to ask them below and I'll either pass them on and report back, or if they're technically complex, I'll invite Ezoic to come on here and answer them directly. 

Finally: 
Just a reminder that this is a trial.  That means initial testing for four weeks from today. 

From the first moment I started having discussions with them, I emphasised very strongly the need to establish a good fit with the community and to not cause alarm or concerns.  If Ezoic is indeed a good fit and can provide the income needed to support the site then we'd like to keep them on board.  If they cause more problems than they solve then...well, the search for an alternative source of income might have to continue.  

8 hours ago, BigRedX said:

It's fine in Firefox, Opera and Chrome.

 

I suspect it's an incompatibility between this version of Safari and however these icons are generated. Flushing the cache doesn't make the icons appear.

I'll ask @Woodinblack if it might be something to do with our side.

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

No formatting icons visible in the dialog boxes for starting a new topic or replying to an exiting one.

 

The spaces for them are there and the grey highlight shows up when I move the mouse pointer across them, and AFAICS the formatting can be applied. It's just That I can't see what I'm applying until I start typing.

 

Mac OS 10.13.6, Safari 13.1.2 (I know it's old but until I can afford I new Mac that all I have).

 

Alt tags are visible, so I'll probably manage without.

Have you tried it in different browsers to rule out the possibility of browser cache issues?

https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/482928-poll-would-you-contribute-towards-a-pa-sub-group-on-bc/

This poll came from a request by Happy Jack, based on his observations that at least half the bands he knows have a bassist responsible for the PA. Please register your interest below so we can clarify what interest there might be on BC for this sub group.  The poll will close a week from now, on September 4th.

14 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

 

I'd love to do that, Steve, only it's not working.

 

Something went wrong. Check the values provided on the marked tabs and try again.

 

Naturally, NO tabs were "marked".

OK I'll take a look and see if I can repeat the same thing.

Just now, Happy Jack said:

 

Demand - I suspect really quite a lot. The PA for most bands seems to be run by (or at least involve) the bass player.

Value - see "Demand" (above).

How about you set up a poll?  That way the level of interest might be more than just a suspicion.

So there's no white X in a corner somewhere...?  Could you please PM me a screenshot of your mobile?  It'll help me understand your concerns a bit more clearly.

On 26/07/2023 at 13:50, Happy Jack said:

Picking up on a comment by @Phil Starr it would seem sensible for a bass playing forum to have a section for PA and related equipment, equipment and operation.

The criteria in my mind would be how much demand is there, how much value will it bring the membership as a whole and is there a risk it might make the site more cluttered?

Sorry about that.  Can you remove it by clicking on it?

Have a look now, I've added it to your basket.