Yes, ads are back on YWS

Nate · 2026-02-24T14:53:34Z

Hey all, Several years ago, I took down ads on YWS for a few reasons. One was that they simply weren't necessary for funding the site anymore. Donations covered a portion of the cost, and server / hosting costs were coming down. But secondly, Google was introducing changes to its privacy policy that raised some concerns about the privacy of users under the age of 18. In particular, it was launching personalization of ads for all users, and treating anyone 13+ as an adult. Since then, Google has shifted course by disabling personalization of ads for users under the age of 18. It's also implemented the option of tagging a site as teen-safe, which I'm doing for YWS. This should disable personalization for all users, though I'm still in the process of figuring it all out. But also, costs have only grown, and I want to develop YWS as a viable revenue stream, which would allow me to spend more time developing the site. I'm hoping to introduce new features as well as evolve the site into WriterFeed, but it's difficult right now to justify the amount of time needed to do that. I understand that pretty much everyone will be annoyed by the presence of ads. Quite frankly, I always use an ad blocker myself, though I do disable it for certain sites (like YWS). But I'm hoping they're unobtrusive enough that you'll soon develop ad blindness. If any ads are particularly annoying though, or you come across an ad that seems directly targeted to you, or see an offensive ad, please let me know either in this thread or by PM.

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Thu Feb 26, 2026 5:56 am

Nate says... · Thu Feb 26, 2026 5:56 am

Hopefully, those ads should be gone for good now. Found out it's not enough to block sensitive categories, but I also needed to block swimwear...

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Thu Feb 26, 2026 5:56 am

Aet Lindling says... · Thu Feb 26, 2026 5:56 am

Nate wrote:* The exception to location tracking is if you're using a VPN. If you're using a VPN and still getting ads based on your area, then that's definitely an issue.

But it’s generally going to be an issue on your end with your VPN configuration and not an issue with YWS in that case, it should be noted. Nate is just being gracious and leaving that out.

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Thu Feb 26, 2026 12:34 pm

bladassare says... · Thu Feb 26, 2026 12:34 pm

hey Nate, they're still here :/

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Fri Feb 27, 2026 2:43 pm

Snoink says... · Fri Feb 27, 2026 2:43 pm

On mobile, and this happened when I got a new PM...

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Fri Feb 27, 2026 4:26 pm

Nate says... · Fri Feb 27, 2026 4:26 pm

No matter what I do, the mobile ad unit at the top of the page displays funky. So, I've disabled it.

By the way, for those curious, ad revenue isn't much. It's been a little less than $2 per day so far. I don't really expect it to be any higher than that for quite a while.

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Fri Feb 27, 2026 5:34 pm

Aet Lindling says... · Fri Feb 27, 2026 5:34 pm

Nate wrote:No matter what I do, the mobile ad unit at the top of the page displays funky. So, I've disabled it.

By the way, for those curious, ad revenue isn't much. It's been a little less than $2 per day so far. I don't really expect it to be any higher than that for quite a while.

Sent a new email (i double emailed sorry)

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Sat Apr 04, 2026 9:04 pm

alliyah says... · Sat Apr 04, 2026 9:04 pm

@Nate - I want to mention an unfortunate unintended consequence of the Ads - I am pretty sure that the presence of Ads on YWS are attracting more Spam Bots to the site.

This is a little hard to track, but I believe I have noticed a significant uptick in spam-bots posting in the forums and ones that we're having to track down to delete. It does create a bit more of a nuisance for the mod team than we previously had (especially the bots that post!)

I don't have the exact numbers to compare, but you may be able to see that information yourself based on bots deleted for Forum Spam.

I don't find the bottom ads to be too distracting / annoying - but did want to make a quick mention of this issue as I wonder if there are any stronger CAPTCHA or spam blockers we could use to prevent this given the increase in spam?

Thanks!

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