Automatically Hiding Comments Has Issues

[branfont]

On 18/11/2025 at 11:32, Steven P. said:

Advertisers are requiring us to hide comments next to their ads, and since advertisements are a major part of why we can even be online I have to do it.

Funny, because absolutely no other site with ads is requiring them to do that!

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 19/11/2025 at 07:56, branfont said:

Funny, because absolutely no other site with ads is requiring them to do that!

That you know of. 

[leonsk29]

On 18/11/2025 at 15:18, Nik Louch said:

Jesus guys, relax.  Steve's aware, will liaise with Dave.

Excuse me, but I'm not upset, I'm just giving constructive criticism. It's a fact that the dev person for this site likes to push stuff to production without properly testing it. As mentioned before, remember the front page redesign a few months ago? TOTAL DISASTER, I don't know how that wasn't caught. Now this. I just love Neowin and I think things like these affect its overall quality, that's all. And I don't need to be a paying member to say those things, so if that's a new rule, just update your TOS and I'll shut up accordingly. Have a nice evening.

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 18/11/2025 at 22:11, leonsk29 said:

 remember the front page redesign a few months ago? TOTAL DISASTER, I don't know how that wasn't caught. 

That was never meant to go into production, one faulty main site update in 25 years is not bad going if you ask me 😛 

Also please do check around, there are tons of sites that now require a click to load comments. Only the largest sites that advertisers beg to be on might get away with it. It is a recent new policy that advertisers are enforcing, the main one is Amazon believe it or not (who have stopped advertising on Neowin until we are fully compliant) and The Trade Desk, two large advertisers that account for a large percentage of our monthly revenues.

I'd love to take off all the ads and only have paying members but I know that will never pay the monthly bills.

Please also remember Neowin is independant, we buy our own hardware and pay for everything ourselves.

[leonsk29]

On 18/11/2025 at 16:20, Steven P. said:

That was never meant to go into production, one faulty main site update in 25 years is not bad going if you ask me 😛 

Also please do check around, there are tons of sites that now require a click to load comments. Only the largest sites that advertisers beg to be on might get away with it. It is a recent new policy that advertisers are enforcing, the main one is Amazon believe it or not (who have stopped advertising on Neowin until we are fully compliant) and The Trade Desk, two large advertisers that account for a large percentage of our monthly revenues.

I'd love to take off all the ads and only have paying members but I know that will never pay the monthly bills.

Please also remember Neowin is independant, we buy our own hardware and pay for everything ourselves.

I never asked for ads to be removed, I completely understand why they have to be there, hosting and wages aren't free. And I said that I don't mind the extra click, just that the linked comments weren't working, that's all.

[wingliston]

Well, that's unfortunate. Time to write up a Tampermonkey script to auto load. 😵‍💫

[Yonah Member]

On 18/11/2025 at 15:20, Steven P. said:

That was never meant to go into production, one faulty main site update in 25 years is not bad going if you ask me 😛 

Also please do check around, there are tons of sites that now require a click to load comments. Only the largest sites that advertisers beg to be on might get away with it. It is a recent new policy that advertisers are enforcing, the main one is Amazon believe it or not (who have stopped advertising on Neowin until we are fully compliant) and The Trade Desk, two large advertisers that account for a large percentage of our monthly revenues.

I'd love to take off all the ads and only have paying members but I know that will never pay the monthly bills.

Please also remember Neowin is independant, we buy our own hardware and pay for everything ourselves.

Is there a way to donate to Neowin that does not involve a subscription?

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 18/11/2025 at 23:06, Yonah said:

Is there a way to donate to Neowin that does not involve a subscription?

Yeah on the front page, the sidebar (to the right of the news) there's a field where you can enter any amount without having to subscribe.

Thanks in advance!

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

On 18/11/2025 at 21:11, leonsk29 said:

Excuse me, but I'm not upset, I'm just giving constructive criticism. It's a fact that the dev person for this site likes to push stuff to production without properly testing it. As mentioned before, remember the front page redesign a few months ago? TOTAL DISASTER, I don't know how that wasn't caught. Now this. I just love Neowin and I think things like these affect its overall quality, that's all. And I don't need to be a paying member to say those things, so if that's a new rule, just update your TOS and I'll shut up accordingly. Have a nice evening.

Nothing says “I’m not upset” like denying that you’re upset when nobody has accused you of being upset…

[+Legendary Subscriber²]

Would it not be possible to show comments for subscribers who don't see ads anyway.

[leonsk29]

On 18/11/2025 at 17:42, Nik Louch said:

Nothing says “I’m not upset” like denying that you’re upset when nobody has accused you of being upset…

Yeah, man, totally, I'm glad you can read minds. I'm upset, sure, if you say so. 😄

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 19/11/2025 at 00:10, Legendary said:

Would it not be possible to show comments for subscribers who don't see ads anyway.

That's a really good idea! Passing it to Devs.

[Yonah Member]

On 18/11/2025 at 16:38, Steven P. said:

Yeah on the front page, the sidebar (to the right of the news) there's a field where you can enter any amount without having to subscribe.

Thanks in advance!

I am not seeing this on the front page when I am signed in (but it is visible when I am not signed in); is it inadvertently disabled for subscribers?

(For those curious, a link that can be used to donate is: https://www.neowin.net/donate.)

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

On 18/11/2025 at 23:24, leonsk29 said:

Yeah, man, totally, I'm glad you can read minds. I'm upset, sure, if you say so. 😄

No need to read minds - it was your written words.  That's just how reading works.  Not hard to grasp.

[leonsk29]

On 19/11/2025 at 04:16, Nik Louch said:

No need to read minds - it was your written words.  That's just how reading works.  Not hard to grasp.

Totally, buddy, totally... 😄

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 19/11/2025 at 00:10, Legendary said:

Would it not be possible to show comments for subscribers who don't see ads anyway.

This should now be working.

[WndSks]

Why is it not possible to even view the comments if you are not logged in now? Sometimes I visit from public machines and not being able to read the comments is a bit annoying.

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 22/11/2025 at 23:03, WndSks said:

Why is it not possible to even view the comments if you are not logged in now? Sometimes I visit from public machines and not being able to read the comments is a bit annoying.

I gave the answer in this thread already.

[MtnDewCodeRedFreak]

Ahems. Why? 
Why make this more annoying? Sheesh. 

[hellowalkman Reporter]

Quote

Advertisers are requiring us to hide comments next to their ads, and since advertisements are a major part of why we can even be online I have to do it.

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1461243-automatically-hiding-comments-has-issues/#comment-599027899

 

[WndSks]

On 23/11/2025 at 00:13, Steven P. said:

I gave the answer in this thread already.

Not why anonymous users cannot view comments at all? When you are logged in you have to click a button, whatever. But when you are not logged in, there is no button to click, the only options are "sign in" and  "sign up".

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 23/11/2025 at 11:08, WndSks said:

Not why anonymous users cannot view comments at all? When you are logged in you have to click a button, whatever. But when you are not logged in, there is no button to click, the only options are "sign in" and  "sign up".

...

 

Quote

Advertisers are requiring us to hide comments next to their ads, 

what part of this is confusing?

They wanted us to remove comments altogether even for logged in members, but I was able to compromise by forcing members to have to click a button to view them.

If you have a Tier2 subscription that completely removes advertising on Neowin, comments will be there without having to press a button to load them, because they will not be next to any ads.

BTW Toms Hardware does not have any comments on their articles (for guests) others too.

[WndSks]

On 23/11/2025 at 12:51, Steven P. said:

what part of this is confusing?

It was never mentioned that there was a difference between being a guest and being logged in?

 

On 23/11/2025 at 12:51, Steven P. said:

BTW Toms Hardware does not have any comments on their articles (for guests)

Then why am I looking at comments on their articles right now in a private tab without being logged in?

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 23/11/2025 at 13:43, WndSks said:

IThen why am I looking at comments on their articles right now in a private tab without being logged in?

Ahh I must have clicked on an article where the comments were disabled, I confirmed that guests can see comments after they click a button to show the comments.

[leonsk29]

Circling back again to this, Mr. Parker, can we at least get a link to the comments section? Let me explain myself:

- Before, when you clicked something related to comments, you jumped directly to the specific comment. Now, that doesn't happen, you're only redirected to the top of the article in question.

- I know that comments have to be hidden now for non-subscribers, I get that, but can we at least get a direct link to the "Load comments section" banner? That way we wouldn't need to scroll ALL the way down to the comments section of every article, just click and load the comments.

Would that be possible?