CPAPtalk.com

If it was me I would send the boss over there a little PM and ask him why the click bait and tell him what happened.
I don't know if those game people have paid him to let them post those click bait things or if they have placed the links and he isn't aware of it. He does need or want outside money helping him to pay the bills hence the ads for donations that you will see at their website.
That would be SuperSleeper....he is the main big boss over there.
https://www.apneaboard.com/forums/User-SuperSleeper

There's no reason that you can't use both forums if you want to. We have lots of members here who also participate over there.
Now I don't participate over there....I have enough on my plate here and besides they have a lot more rules and regulations than we do here. That has always been a major annoyance to me but it's his forum (SuperSleeper) and he gets to run it like he feels like running it. For the most part good people over there. As with any forum...a few a$$holes over there though but they don't have much patience for troublemakers over there.

This forum here doesn't need or want ads or help in paying the bills.
CPAP.com (a retailer for cpap stuff) pays the bills to run this forum and keep it ad free.

dweston55 wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 15, 2024 8:58 pm

One follow up question if I might ...............

Is there a big difference between cpaptalk and Apneaboard ? Are they similar in # of users ? Quality of information ? Engagement ?

Is there a reason one would use one over the other ?

Thanks again
Dave

for me, it's just personal preference. i don't like the comment system there. it has way too much white space for my liking.

the other thing(and i don't know if this is still true) i don't like the lag time between my asking a question and then getting an answer. this was several years ago and might not still apply. there didn't seem to be a lot of engagement there.

you might get more arguments or spicy talk here, but that suits me fine.

just my opinion.

FWIW, the reason for the ads is simple. Cpaptalk is funded by a DME. Apneaboard is not funded and therefore has to "pay the bills" by providing ad space. In fact they solicit donations. The ads have nothing to do with registering.
On the right had side of the screen (on the apneaboard site) there are statistics like the number of threads, the number of posts and the busiest single day (1-16-23), as well as who is currently logged-in )
The principle members/moderators/administrators there are very knowledgeable about the OSCAR program and it's intricacies (the principles here seem to be the OSCAR programmers and have written several very informative articles that are in the glossary)

I have seldom, if ever run across vulgarity or name calling there. My exposure over that past several years seems to be that people are treated respectfully. If anyone has been banished for bad behaviour, apparently it is done in private. There is also a "report" tool - to alert the moderators to a problematic user - a feature that seems to be absent on Cpaptalk.

Down side:
yes the white space. And, as Zonker said, an absence of "spicy talk".

" "

Being able to weigh and verify information posted by members is a valuable skill to have at any forum, including this one.

Being able to tell the difference between an ad and the rest of a page is likewise a vital skill for staying safe and being informed when navigating the Internet.

Cpaptalk has a relatively simple, practical, and useful structure compared to other forums. It is free of certain kinds of clutter but occasionally full of other kinds of it. Find the place you are most comfortable and learn the personality of its interface and primary players.

The area of town near the crossroads of Sleephelp Street and PAPhelp Avenue has a number of bars and nightclubs. Some have better drinks. Some have better entertainment. Some have a different brand of customers. But there's room in this town for them all.

Some here are forum-hoppers and others are regular fixtures with their own corner booth and a table in the back.

At least now there's a consistent bouncer-barkeep around who can keep the furniture from getting busted up and thrown around every few hours like used to happen. That development is what made me feel comfortable coming back and stopping by on a regular basis. She mostly keeps the sawed-off under the counter and only reaches for it when she needs to. But it and she both need to be there. It's the nature of this whole part of town, not just this one place.

Tourists come around in waves, so sometimes the place gets a little sparse and lifeless on weekends and holidays but then picks up for a few weeks.

I just hope Johnny is doing well enough to keep the lights on here a few more years. I'm probably too set in my ways to find another bar now.

The only real negative here is the posters like me who take it upon themselves to ramble on in posts like this one without saying anything useful. If I were a moderator here, I would have probably sent myself packing a long time ago for the kind of nonsense I keep posting.

lazarus wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 15, 2024 10:59 pm

At least now there's a consistent bouncer-barkeep around who can keep the furniture from getting busted up and thrown around every few hours like used to happen. That development is what made me feel comfortable coming back and stopping by on a regular basis.

Hear Hear!
Same for me.

The only real negative here is the posters like me who take it upon themselves to ramble on in posts like this one without saying anything useful. If I were a moderator here, I would have probably sent myself packing a long time ago for the kind of nonsense I keep posting.

Ignore Ignore!
Where would we be without Lazarus' way with words???
And this "Find the place you are most comfortable and learn the personality of its interface and primary players." is very helpful.

"Johnny" (Goodman) is the owner of www.cpap.com who set up this forum, and never ever gets into what's written in it. You can mentions his competition over and over, buy from whomever you want - no problem.

zonker wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 15, 2024 9:09 pm

amenite wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 15, 2024 8:06 pm

The box with the green "Start" button and the one at the bottom that says "Activate your account" are ads. You can see the little ad buttons in the upper right of each of those elements. Shady looking ads but ads nonetheless.

good eye! i didn't see it until you pointed it out.

I think it was sourceforge.net that was pretty notorious for this type of "ad". You would go there to download software from independent producers and there would be a bunch of things to click on only one of which was what you were actually looking for, the others were bait and switch kind of "ads" for random crap. I guess it was how they funded a chunk of the operation. Easy to get fooled over there too.

Really outstanding answers. I very much appreciate it.

Thanks to all

Howdy folks... an Apnea Board member gave me a "heads-up" about this discussion, so perhaps I'll offer some info that may help...

I've personally seen the type of "tricky" ad like was what described in an earlier post here. Ads that state "Get your PDF manual here", or "Register here" or "Activate your account", etc. So this issue is a legitimate one that I'm concerned about and hope to correct (as much as possible).

Apnea Board does have it's own dedicated server, where we host our SleepFiles.com, ApneaBoard.com sites, including all OSCAR files, running server-side bug-tracking software for the OSCAR team, plus a slew of other files that are downloaded on a regular basis (requiring enough bandwidth) and some private areas and file locations that are used solely for OSCAR development. We also have the Wiki and Forums, of course, just as you have here. But we have no commercial organization like CPAP.com to pay for all that, which is why we need to fund operations via donations & Google Adsense.

Unfortunately, with Adsense ads, sometimes it's next to impossible to prevent some of these types of ads from appearing. Adsense allows us to ban certain "categories" of ads, but sometimes sneaky advertizers miss-categorize their ads to by-pass our prohibited categories. So we can preemptively disallow certain types of ads, but that doesn't catch them all. Also, if we see a "bad ad" (like those tricky ones described above), I can personally go into our Google Adsense account and ban that advertizer. But that's after the fact, not preemptively eliminating the ad that was already displayed. There's other options to control certain ads as well, and we've tried them all.

In the end, Google is in business to make money, and with Adsense, they only make money if someone clicks on an ad. Perhaps this is why they're not overly concerned about "inappropriate" or "deceptive" ads.

I wish there were another option to Google Adsense, but as most website owners know, even the closest competitor to Adsense provides a pittance in ad revenue when compared to Adsense. I would love to be able to fund Apnea Board via donations alone, but right now, we need Adsense revenue to make up for a shortfall on a monthly basis. So that's why we continue with Adsense.

That said, I'm definitely NOT pleased with these types of "tricky" ads! And I continue to seek out ways to get rid of them, but I can't catch all of them. Remember, Apnea Board does not decide which specific ads are placed on our website and forums. All we can do is sign up for Adsense and their system decides which ads are placed. We can and do prohibit certain types & categories of ads, plus a few other minor tweaks to avoid this stuff, and ban some ads after they appear.

I'm especially not pleased with some of the overly-intrusive ads that have showed up as of late, some on mobile devices. Near full-screen ads drive me nuts. I never signed up for that, and I'm going to look into how to turn that type of stuff off for good.

Anyway, I wanted to reach out and give that info, so folks know what's going on. Whether you go to cpaptalk or Apnea Board, I wish you well. There's good and helpful people on both forums, and there's some "annoying people" on both as well. Like has been said, cpaptalk is the more "spicy" forum - maybe that's a better fit for some folks who like all the banter. Apnea Board has it's share of that too, but mostly in the Off-Topic forum that's for registered members only, and we do indeed discourage personal attacks and inappropriate language and on our forums. The owner of Apnea Board (me) is a Christian, so while I never require anyone to hold my beliefs, I do tend to run Apnea Board with my own Christian principals in mind. I'm not overly vocal about my personal beliefs, and I think if you read the forums on Apnea Board for very long, you'll note that I do not make a huge deal about it when someone disagrees with me. In either case, people have freedom of choice, and personally, I kind of like it that way.

In the immortal words of a famous person, "If you like your forum, you can keep your forum". So if you're happy here on cpaptalk, by all means stay here and support it the best you can, and try not to make trouble for Pugsy. God bless y'all over here on cpaptalk-- Pugsy, since you're the main Moderator here, you already know that maintaining an even keel when managing a forum can be a major headache. Add to that the full requirements of maintaining a server and a few other tasks, and I'm sure you can understand how frustrating things can become, trying to satisfy everyone.

Thanks for allowing me to explain where we're at over on Apnea Board. If anyone has suggestions on how to improve this ad situation, I'm hoping you'll email me at apneaboard@gmail.com. I'm open to anything that will work for us. So now, I'm blathering on and on... (it's what I do).. so I'll end it there.

Take care folks, and sleep well...

SuperSleeper
Apnea Board Administrator
www.ApneaBoard.com

SuperSleeper wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 17, 2024 2:12 pm

Pugsy, since you're the main Moderator here, you already know that maintaining an even keel when managing a forum can be a major headache. Add to that the full requirements of maintaining a server and a few other tasks, and I'm sure you can understand how frustrating things can become, trying to satisfy everyone.

I do fully understand the amount of work you have to do and I applaud you for doing it. It's certainly more work than I have the time or energy for. Heck, just the work I do here is all I can manage. Sometimes my patience level dips to below zero and I get short tempered and bitchy. I am human after all and I come with my own annoying little warts.

And yes...sometimes some stuff gets by here that wouldn't get by on your forum but everyone needs to remember I don't own this forum at all (totally unpaid volunteer here) and I have someone who I have to answer to and that someone is really big on as little censorship as possible. Hey it's Johnny's forum and he gets to decide what to allow or not allow.

I walk a fine line when it comes to allowing or disallowing the crap talk here. It's a major personal annoyance for me to see it go on but first I have to try Johnny's approach which is he thinks/hopes the offenders will grow up and do the Golden Rule kind of thing and stop with the bickering and/or other bad tasting stuff but some people just want to stir up trouble and they won't ever change.

It's not perfect here but it is better than it was when we had no moderator at all....at least it's not a biker bar forum anymore.

SuperSleeper wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 17, 2024 2:12 pm

I'll offer some info that may help...

Helpful indeed. Thank you!

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:06 pm

least it's not a biker bar forum anymore.

Although, depending on the type of help needed, asking for assistance at a biker bar can work out a lot better than asking at a cop bar. Just sayin'.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:06 pm

I walk a fine line when it comes to allowing or disallowing the crap talk here. It's a major personal annoyance for me to see it go on but first I have to try Johnny's approach which is he thinks/hopes the offenders will grow up and do the Golden Rule kind of thing and stop with the bickering and/or other bad tasting stuff but some people just want to stir up trouble and they won't ever change.

It seems you let your so called friends abuse way too many people here. And when I quote it to point it out you immediately delete my post (before most even see it) but say or do nothing about your friends bs. And I'm not the only one I see you doing this to. That is not a fine line at all.

One Example -
viewtopic/p1451018/Storing-Cpap-Machine.html#p1451017

SleepGeek wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 17, 2024 7:15 pm

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:06 pm

I walk a fine line when it comes to allowing or disallowing the crap talk here. It's a major personal annoyance for me to see it go on but first I have to try Johnny's approach which is he thinks/hopes the offenders will grow up and do the Golden Rule kind of thing and stop with the bickering and/or other bad tasting stuff but some people just want to stir up trouble and they won't ever change.

It seems you let your so called friends abuse way too many people here. And when I quote it to point it out you immediately delete my post (before most even see it) but say or do nothing about your friends bs. And I'm not the only one I see you doing this to. That is not a fine line at all.

One Example -
viewtopic/p1451018/Storing-Cpap-Machine.html#p1451017

Not true....lots of people get away with crap...including you and I don't think you qualify for being one of my friends.
It's not just my friends who get away with crap.

Have a nice day.

SleepGeek wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 17, 2024 7:15 pm

fine line

My personal take:

If Pugsy was chosen by Johnny to make the day-to-day decisions around here that she makes, then anyone else taking it upon himself or herself to try to tell Pugsy what to do is basically insulting Johnny.

I think she's earned our support in being allowed the elbow room to make the judgment calls, whether someone/anyone likes the calls she makes or not.

If you don't like the calls being made by the ref(s), complain to the league or find another league to play in.

Hey, just me.

Not that she needs any defense by/from me.

Folks...I messed up....the link that SG posted I accidentally deleted the entire topic.
I was meaning to just edit my own post there but I clicked on the wrong button and didn't realize I was in delete mode instead of edit mode.

I made a mistake....I apologize.