IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL SPRINGHOLE.NET VISITORS

UPDATE (May 31): Google's consent solution is, at least at this time, of no use. You have to "contact your Google representative" about it and I am trying to find out how that works, let alone whether contacting a Google rep is even possible for small publishers.

UPDATE (May 26): Google's consent solution is finally being rolled out, but it's in beta, and figuring out how to use it and get it implemented will take time and energy - and at this time, I have to focus a good part of that on some offline stuff. Support through Patreon is still very helpful (and will never not be!), and is very much appreciated.

UPDATE: Google says they are going to roll out their own consent solution in the near future, but they aren't very clear on exactly when this will happen, so... here's hoping it'll be sooner rather than later and won't be a butt to implement. In the meantime, you can support springhole.net on Patreon.

Okay guys, here's the lowdown: I'm in some serious trouble here.

I have some nasty health issues that have prevented me from doing very much at all, and for the last several years the ad revenue from springhole.net has been a great help in keeping myself clothed, fed, and sheltered. But now, that might change. See, the General Data Protection Regulation is coming into effect soon. The GDPR is supposed to help end users in the EU take better control of their Internet privacy, and requires that users are notified about a site's use of cookies and are able to decide for themselves whether they accept them.

Nearly a year ago, I received notification from Google that I'd need to install something like Cookie Consent to be compliant with the GDRP. Okay, cool, no problem! I've been using the version of Cookie Consent that basically says "hey, heads up, we use cookies here, click here to learn how to not have cookies." This was, to the best I could tell, going to be enough.

Except it's not. The GDPR is actually more stringent than that, and it requires users to outright consent to cookies. This is a lot harder to code and implement. I didn't find out about this until several days ago, and the GDPR comes into effect on May 25th.

I've been scouring the Internet for consent solutions, and it hasn't been going well. Some services are pricey, some aren't publicly available yet, and some are really counterintuitive to the average JavaScript-illiterate person - and I am pretty JavaScript-illiterate. (The scripts I do have either came from free resources or were kindly created by volunteers.)

I need help.

If there's anyone out there who could spare some time and energy to help me get a GDPR-compliant consent system in place, it would mean so much to me. If it can't happen, I'm going to have to take down the ads, and there goes my income.

Yeah, I know nobody really likes ads that much, but they're a necessary evil here. Groceries gotta be bought and bills have gotta be paid, after all.

If there's any way you could help, please contact me through the chat (preferably during daytime hours within the US, IE, when I'm awake and probably around) or Ask.fm.