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Also meant to add that none of the above has anything to do with Robert or his raising money to fund this site.
 
Hi Robert,

My understanding is that "The Ads" that are generated are from activity from the Appliance Website. Am I wrong?
I am getting ads from Google searches that I made and websites that I used yesterday that have nothing to do with appliances.
For instance I used a program / website called "Fax Zero" yesterday. Most of my ads this morning are about free fax websites. The second search I did on google was for parts for a Philips Hard Disk Drive Recorder, and now I am getting ads for Tivo HDD Recorders.
My questions is...who is going into my cookies?
Brent
 
Robert, I am pleased that AW.org has grown.  Best of luck with the  new endeavour.  I do not understand, how it all works, I do know it costs more and more to do great things.  Thank You!  arthur 
 
My questions is...who is going into my cookies?

Morning Brent, good question actually. The answer is no one actually, unless they wrote the cookie originally. Web browers have been constructed to only allow cookies to be read by the website/domain that set the cookie in the first place. So in other words when aw.org sets a login cookie on your machine the only site that can read that is ours. Even though I wrote Vacuumland the same way, aw.org has no way to read vacuumland cookies, that must be done through the programs on the vacuumland site.

What google does is it saves its own cookie on your drive with your recent searches that way it can send you ads that it thinks will be more interesting to you. I'm seeing appliance ads, along with ads for web programming applications, Dodge Jeeps other content related to my recent searches.

Fred and I were talking about this last night as we were watching TV. I so wish they would do the same thing with Television. If we have to be bombarded with ads, I would much prefer them to at least have a chance of being something I'm interested in. There is absolutely no reason for me to see a commercial for some boring ho hum football game, I would much prefer to see an ad for something techy related or appliances.

As stated above there are some programs you can download to stop this interest tracking, but as for me personally I have no interest in them. I'd rather see ads that have a chance of being something that I'm interested in.

Just to be clear this isn't something unique to aw.org, this is done on any website where you see ads. For those who are upgraded members here and have the ads turned off then google has no way of saving a cookie, but as soon as you leave aw.org and go to any other website that has google ads, which there are billions of and are the most popular in the world or use anything google related such as doing a google search, this cookie will be saved and updated.

As another thing to point out is I have zero control of which ads you are sent, nor do I have any way of knowing what ads you are seeing unless you specifically tell me.
 
Thanks Robert for the explanation!
I am cool with it if you are. I just wanted to point it out to you from my end because I was not sure if you had control over content. I must have misunderstood the original post about appliance related information.
Brent
 
@a440

Here is what I believe to be true:

Google, plus any number of other companies will have cookies (or whatever) that monitor your searches, what websites you visit, the sort of clothes you might search for as well as your e-mail address and such.
If the company is related to Google, the information is passed on. In other cases, these companies sell the information they've collected to Google, (making money off you, without your permission) so Google can provide relevant advertising and make money off you. This goes on without your consent. I would say that whilst you cannot search this information, the internet has a pretty good idea of who you are. Ever wonder why you still get those "Online Pharmacy" e-mails when you never post your address? I believe this to be the reason: You filling in forms on various sites, then the Google or whoever gets this info and sells it...

Its disappointing no-one has actually sued Google or any number of other companies for earning money off them, or invading their privacy. I saw a YouTube video once that explained that after just a simple google search, and a few clicks, you have anywhere up to 20+ different companies who know you've searched for what you searched for (This was at school, by the way).

That is why I installed DoNotTrackMe. When it is disabled, I still do not see any ads, so I might have to alter Firefox's settings...
 
This tracking is bad for a number of reasons imo, and with it has come some true atrocities, like "personalized" news. The headlines and stories shown to you while you're logged into Yahoo, HuffPo and most every big site today are not necessarily the headlines and stories seen by anyone else. It's a not-so-subtle form of fascism that, among other things, keeps people perpetually ghettoized and controls (if not essentially prevents) organized and necessary responses to news and events.

Robert, if the site needs more money could you bump donation levels up a bit instead of implement advertising? I bought two toothbrushes yesterday and they were over $12.
 
Sorry guys I don't buy all that, this tracking bit is no different than on cnn.com, foxnews.com, ebay.com or most any other website, we're just catching up to the rest of the world. I've never seen so many appliance ads in one place as I see now on aw.org and I think it's super fun. I think it is a good fit for this site and I think it gives it a more professional look as well. Upgraded members of course have a opt-in choice as to whether they want to see the ads or not, with them being defaulted to off.

I'm a power web user and I've been using google as my search engine for years, I probably do at least 20 google searches a day for various things for years with no regrets what so ever. If you are worried about being tracked then you shouldn't be on the net in the first place. Personally, I don't care that they know I like washing machines and I'm pro-gay rights. As I said above I'd much rather see news and ads targeted to the things I'm interested in.

I have absolutely no desire to raise the $12 yearly membership fee, it's what I've done all along now and I think it is enough, while $12 might not seem like a lot to us, there are plenty that $12 is barely affordable. If anything I'd like to lower it, but I'll have to wait and see how much revenue the ads generate, I wont know for at least a year what the norm will be.

I will be experimenting with ad location and placements so you might see them move around a bit over the next week or two as I'm testing to see what looks the nicest.
 
Tracking works: Depends who you are. If you actually use the ads to your convenience, then yes, its great.

I'm not "scared" of it, as such, rather just conscious. I don't want them to know everything about me, do I?
If people knew such things were happening, chances are, there would be lots of troble
At school, the ads are targeting me for used cars, since I've been searching that lots lately!

But to each their own, I suppose
 
Just to let you know:

I don't want this to turn ugly, so I'll be quiet now. I plan on donating again in the next few days. Probably something like $10.
 
I think its great. Anything that helps to keep us together as a community has got to be a good thing. Adds are pretty common now on most sites and if anything it shows just how far this site has come. Here's to a long future of AW thanks again to Robert
 
"I discovered that when I'm wearing my tinfoil hat I

Good one! I thought I was the only one who had this figured out - now, thanks to you everyone else knows it too.
 
Only My Opinion

I don't think we have any real privacy anymore. It's a little scary, but that's the age we live in now. I am not ashamed or concerned about the websites I have visited. One of my favorite and I am not just saying this, is this website. Since joining I feel more whole as person. Before someone told me about this website I thought I was the only person that had a strong facination with vintage appliances. It's been great. Just wish I had known about it sooner. Have met a lot a great people too!
 
I agree with Retromania and others

The only way to have any privacy on the Internet seems to be to log on to the Internet...Visit one site (by typing in the address, not letting Messrs Google do it for you) ....Then log off and clear all cookies before logging back on and visiting somewhere else... Remembering to do frequent virus/spyware scans if you've been anywhere 'new'... That seems to work for me, anyway... ;)

Congratulations on the discreet advertising here... I've just visited another site of which I am a member, and was immediately diverted away to an advertising site from which I had to navigate BACK to the site I had intended to visit.... NOT what I would call discreet advertising at all!! ;)

Many thanks for maintaining such an interesting, friendly and informative site.... I'm STILL exploring.... :D

Dave T
 
Peter, you just made my belly wiggle with the tinfoil hats........Can't remember what movie it's from where the kids made them to keep the aliens away. So funny!

 

ROBERT: Is there way to donate without upgrading? Suppose your membership was about to expire and you wanted to stay only in the public forums, but really wanted to donate anyway. Or suppose you wanted to give Aworg a Christmas present. How would you do that?

 

Still in wonderment that you ran this site for over a decade out of your own pocket, and never asked for a dime. Thank you. Still hoping that advertising will allow retirement soon. The people whining should be fined and made to wear tinfoil hats, LOL.
 
 
<blockquote>Is there way to donate without upgrading? Suppose your membership was about to expire and you wanted to stay only in the public forums, but really wanted to donate anyway. Or suppose you wanted to give Aworg a Christmas present. How would you do that?</blockquote> Initiate a paid subscription for the desired donation amount, then don't log-in.  :-)
 
Well Maybe In The Minority Here

While one enjoys the wealth of information and appliance camaraderie found here, it must also be said the nature of things have changed as with the Internet in general.

Just look at how many members are listed versus those who actively contribute. Leaving aside those that have passed on, moved on for personal reasons and so forth, it still leaves a not small amount of people who pop in for information and aren't heard from again.

Many other appliance collector/tech/advise sites have begun to go behind "member's only" paywalls where archived, technical knowledge, and so forth can be found.

Robert here as created a one stop international appliance forum that not only promotes the free exchange of ideas but where often accurate and exact information can be found on the history, repair, design and other aspects of vintage/modern appliances can be found. If there isn't money in that I don't know what things are coming to. Persons have made vast fortunes from websites offering less.
 

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