I don't use ad blockers. I don't spoof my IP via VPNs. I don't hail from an economy where advertising has no impact. I hardly ever even click-away that insulting right-hand ad sidebar.
I guess that makes me a sucker paying the freight for the freeloaders, eh?
Nothing like killing your Golden Goose.
I understand that bills have to be paid. So why not go after the crooks here who steal from you instead?
I have never seen a popover ad on this site. There is an ad at the very bottom of the screen, but they're hardly getting their money's worth out of that, as who ever scrolls to the bottom of the screen?
I had used the "Insert Image" button, so it's clear to me that the new forum software is broken there. It has been flawed for a very long time but now it seems to have failed altogether.
I had used the "Insert Image" button, so it's clear to me that the new forum software is broken there. It has been flawed for a very long time but now it seems to have failed altogether.
All YOU have to do is allow the entire world to have access to your hard drive and the Insert Image works as designed.
Cute. But the flaws I referred to are things like transforming an image any wider than around 520 pixels from the original format to a bloated blurry JPEG. Aside from that it has worked for years, and before that broken forum software version was adopted here it worked flawlessly.
In case you've never used it, the button pops up a dialog asking you to provide an image URL or upload an image attachment.
I just looked at some old threads here, and I can see that the broken forum software has now taken every inlined image users have posted and jerked them out of context to display them all at the bottom of the post in an Attached Images lump.
Quite destructive, rendering thousands of threads into a confusing mess.
I don't think it is site specific. I see the add on this forum, but I also see the same popup window at the bottom of the browser window on a lot of other sites, so it may be browser rendering characteristic. I'm using Firefox, which you might be able to tell by the taskbar in the capture. You see how the "Ads by Google" window shows up at the bottom of the screen. It stays at the bottom of the browser window as you scroll, so is always in view, obscuring part of the window when you scroll, in this case I'm on a laptop with a 1920x1080 screen, and the browser window is set to maximize.
Today, with Firefox, I can't even get the ad window to go away. If I click on the "close x", the window stays, but asks some questions about the ad. There is no option to close this window. If I select, "I don't want to see this add again", the obscuring window remains, with no way to remove it I can figure out, with the text "Ad closed by Google" in the window. It still obscures the web browser content.
p.s. I guess when I actually posted this reply, and the window refreshed, then the popup window did finally go away.
Last edited by passel; Jun 21st, 2020 at 10:52 AM.
"Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment" Robert Benchley, 1930
I just looked at some old threads here, and I can see that the broken forum software has now taken every inlined image users have posted and jerked them out of context to display them all at the bottom of the post in an Attached Images lump.
Quite destructive, rendering thousands of threads into a confusing mess.
Please provide two examples.... And odds are you'll need to show screenshots too. And we'll in-turn explain how to set your browser or which browser to use.
I'm seeing it, as well. It wasn't here yesterday. And as Passel noted, I can't dismiss it. That's a VERY aggressive way to run an ad: An omni-present, invincible, overlay ad. You can't dismiss it, you can't ignore it, and it covers part of the screen in all cases.
I'll check on my Surface, later. If this ad is present on that device, in this format, it would make the site pretty nearly unusable. There isn't all that much screen area to begin with on one of those older Surface Pro 2, so giving up a good percentage to an ad that can't be dismissed has the effect of chopping off the bottom inch or so of the screen.
The popover floating bottom-banner appears in Edge Version 83.0.478.54 now as well as in Chrome.
I can confirm that I didn't see it in Edge when I first viewed this thread but I do now. Unfortunately, not sure whether Edge has updated in the interim. I was thinking that maybe it was something Google slipped into Chromium in a recent version but if it's happening in Firefox too then I guess that's not it.
My guess would be that this site gets paid to allow that advertising at the bottom. I'm surprised the administrators are acting like they don't know what we're talking about. It's an annoying banner but it's a free site so you got to either accept it or move on.
My guess would be that this site gets paid to allow that advertising at the bottom. I'm surprised the administrators are acting like they don't know what we're talking about. It's an annoying banner but it's a free site so you got to either accept it or move on.
If it's a new thing, which seems may be the case, then maybe the powers that be weren't aware that they were allowing advertising of that nature and, if they are made aware, they may be able to do something about it. Given the inactivity on the PHP errors, etc, though, that seems fairly unlikely.
This wasn't showing up for me for days after it was first reported. It is now showing up all the time on Chrome. I have yet to try it on the new Edge, but that would be on the Surface, where it would be pretty horrible.
I used up my one screenshot of the day (I'm on a diet) taking a shot of the tracking of an Amazon package. I live just outside of Boise Idaho. The package came from the east coast to Portland, OR, which makes sense, as that would be a hub. Then it went just a bit further west (you can't go much further west), then made it to Boise Saturday in the wee hours of the morning. I felt that meant it would be delivered today....until I saw the update showing that it arrived in Texas Monday morning....Oops.
Fortunately, that appears to have been a mistake, because it's out for delivery from Boise, today. So, unless it made a round trip to Texas over the weekend, which it could have done, that was just a typo.
Well, on my personal PC (windows 10, firefox), I don't see it, I have only a small rectangle with "adchoices" written in it in the right bottom corner.
On my job PC (windows 7, firefox), I don't even see the "adchoices" box.
For both I have an AD blocker but it is not active for this website.
PS : for reason unknown to me the picture attached is reduced in size when uploaded
PPS : I check on the new EDGE and I have it on it
Last edited by Delaney; Jun 22nd, 2020 at 03:21 PM.
The best friend of any programmer is a search engine
"Don't wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems, wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenges, wish for more wisdom" (J. Rohn)
“They did not know it was impossible so they did it” (Mark Twain)
I'm not sure whether it was there all along and I just missed it due to my browser being full-screen on a 2K monitor but there is a means to dismiss that intrusive ad, as shown below. Interestingly, if I turn on my adblocker, the ad disappears but that close button is still there.
I'm not sure whether it was there all along and I just missed it due to my browser being full-screen on a 2K monitor but there is a means to dismiss that intrusive ad, as shown below. Interestingly, if I turn on my adblocker, the ad disappears but that close button is still there.
That's interesting because yesterday, I didn't have that button... or I didn't pay attention maybe . But I am pretty sure it was not there on my work PC and I am sure I didn't have it on my personal one (as it can be seen on the picture before). I'll check tonight.
By the way, I don't see the add even with the adblocker off.
Last edited by Delaney; Jun 23rd, 2020 at 04:02 AM.
The best friend of any programmer is a search engine
"Don't wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems, wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenges, wish for more wisdom" (J. Rohn)
“They did not know it was impossible so they did it” (Mark Twain)
Hopefully the new owners will agree. Time will tell.
I just noticed that that strip at the top of the page doesn't descend a second or two after the page loads any more. I take it that that belonged to the previous owners. I cannot tell you how many times I've tried to click on the New Posts link, only to have that appear a moment beforehand and push the page down so I clicked the Forum link instead. So annoying!
The X is an improvement. However, I still feel this is a bad ad strategy. Since the ad comes back on every navigation, you have to click the X after every navigation. Compared to what was happening with the duplicate posts, this is a very minor thing.
Still, what is the point of an ad? It is to get information to people who might be interested in it, potentially making them aware of something they didn't know about and might want to purchase. If they don't have any interest in it, then the ad is a waste for all involved. Since you can't predict who will be in the former group, you show it to everybody. But in this case, the ad is in their face all the time, which will do little more for the people who ARE interested in the subject, while aggravating those who are NOT interested in the subject. That's a pretty aggressive ad strategy.
At work, there are ad blockers at the domain level that filter out these ads. However, I have noticed that the bottom half inch of the pages are partially greyed out. You can still read the text, it is just grey instead of black. This is the only site I have noticed with this issue. I am using IE11 on Windows 10.
At work, there are ad blockers at the domain level that filter out these ads. However, I have noticed that the bottom half inch of the pages are partially greyed out. You can still read the text, it is just grey instead of black. This is the only site I have noticed with this issue. I am using IE11 on Windows 10.
It's because of the "X" they added so you could close the ad. It shows up even if the ad is hidden.
It's because of the "X" they added so you could close the ad. It shows up even if the ad is hidden.
I still use Firefox 56.0.2, principally because it allows me to block unwanted scripts. I was curious about the "X" at the bottom left of the screen, but now that I know what it is, I can just ignore it.