How to stop depressing ads

[Amethyst]

Hey all,

Can anyone recommend any free ad-suppressing ware that will work for this site? I'm pretty sick of banner ads for old folks' homes, dementia care, and that old-lady bobble-head that advertises annuities.

Better yet, I'd like ware that shows me only ads for male strippers and chocolate.

Amethyst

[REWahoo]

Try uBlock.

[Walt34]

I can't help you with the latter but Adblock Plus and Ghostery take care of the former in Firefox.

[W2R]

I use Ad Block Plus in MSIE, and I don't see any ads on this page. I don't think my Admin status protects me from ads, although I don't actually know. I have heard *great* things about ublock but have never used it myself.

In general, on Facebook for example, I see ads for whatever I was looking at on Amazon. So, another tactic might be to go look at some cheery things there.


Edited to add: Wait, not Facebook. I just went there to look and AdBlock Plus seems to be blocking all ads there. Must be someplace else.

[Tadpole]

If you haven't done this already:
Click
User CP
then click
EDIT OPTIONS (on the left)
Scroll until you see the setting:
"Turn off Ad on top of the Right Column
If you would like to turn off the Ad on top of the Right Column, please set this to off."
So, turn it "Off"
Then to get rid of the rest of the junk over on the right, leave the next option blank.


I also have
127.0.0.1 www.googleads.g.doubleclick.net
in my host files
(the link above is just text in the host file and not a link)

I'm also running adblock plus but it doesn't contribute anything but reducing the empty space left where the long ad was. I had eliminated the ads at RE before I installed it.


I don't see ads in either firefox or IE but the long ad above the forum list shows up in Chrome with AdChoices and some links (ignores the host file, I guess).


Using IE mostly, I never see ads on this computer.

[Sunset]

Either use an ad blocker, or do a bunch of searches for male strippers, big studs, hot chocolate, chocolate cake, chocolate bars, melting heart chocolate.

Soon all your ads will show what you want on every site.
I can't tell you what ads I see...

[Tadpole]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R I use Ad Block Plus in MSIE, and I don't see any ads on this page. I don't think my Admin status protects me from ads, although I don't actually know. I have heard *great* things about ublock but have never used it myself. In general, on Facebook for example, I see ads for whatever I was looking at on Amazon. So, another tactic might be to go look at some cheery things there. Edited to add: Wait, not Facebook. I just went there to look and AdBlock Plus seems to be blocking all ads there. Must be someplace else.

Facebook has started embedding the ads on the Home page as shared by one of your friends so it looks like your friend is sharing the Amazon ads over and over again. It's not just Amazon ads.

[aja8888]

I use Adblock on Chrome. Never seen an ad.

[Marita40]

I was inundated with ads until I finally got Adblock Plus up and running. For some reason I had trouble getting it to work initially. The "adchoice" targeted ads were everywhere! Also, on Adblock make sure you go to settings and uncheck the box that says you will receive some unless you opt out of all of them. That in itself is an obnoxious little thing about Adblock.

[Amethyst]

Thanks, all. I do sometimes see ads for things I just ordered (like I'm going to buy the same thing again, immediately?) but the depressing ones quickly overwhelm them, and the old-lady bobblehead makes me want to swat the computer. I'll try adblock first.

[Chuckanut]

i'm going to play the Devil's Advocate here.

Somehow this site has to be paid for. They don't charge us anything to read and post. The ads are the way this site is paid for. Sure, I don't like many of the stupid ads I see here, other sites and on TV. But, I figure each ad is money in my pocket that stays in my pocket.

The marketing mavens need to learn what works and what doesn't work in advertising. Sure, some of the 'old folks' ads are stupid and insulting. They will soon learn that offending one's target customers is not a smart thing to do.

Don't kill the goose that is laying the golden bronze eggs that keep this site free (and so well run).

[RonBoyd]

I, first, wondered what you were talking about. I don't remember ever seeing an Ad on the site. A check of my "Edit Options" settings confirmed that I had Ads turned off.

FWIW, I do not have any ad-blockers installed on my machines -- they slow things up too much. I simply ignore the advertising.


I do agree that one should pay for content... either through advertising or donations, your choice.

[MBSC]

This recent E-R post explains why uBlock Origin may be better than Adblock. Also, uBlock Origin uses fewer system resources on my old PC.

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ml#post1709759

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckanut i'm going to play the Devil's Advocate here. Somehow this site has to be paid for. They don't charge us anything to read and post. The ads are the way this site is paid for. Sure, I don't like many of the stupid ads I see here, other sites and on TV. But, I figure each ad is money in my pocket that stays in my pocket. The marketing mavens need to learn what works and what doesn't work in advertising. Sure, some of the 'old folks' ads are stupid and insulting. They will soon learn that offending one's target customers is not a smart thing to do. Don't kill the goose that is laying the golden bronze eggs that keep this site free (and so well run).

I agree (just in case someone is paying for you to say that ).

I find ads are pretty ignorable, like telephone poles, or light poles, they are there, but I don't consciously see them.
The subconscious mind does I suppose that explains the 42 boxes of depends and 6 rollators in the garage

[Janet H]

Many ads are served up (google) based on your recent surfing habits. You might try searching for fun products... chocolate, bikinis, men in kilts, tropical islands, alchemy, etc....

Currently I'm seeing planned parenthood ads and REI. REI I understand, the other has me baffled.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckanut i'm going to play the Devil's Advocate here. Somehow this site has to be paid for. They don't charge us anything to read and post. The ads are the way this site is paid for. Sure, I don't like many of the stupid ads I see here, other sites and on TV. But, I figure each ad is money in my pocket that stays in my pocket. The marketing mavens need to learn what works and what doesn't work in advertising. Sure, some of the 'old folks' ads are stupid and insulting. They will soon learn that offending one's target customers is not a smart thing to do. Don't kill the goose that is laying the golden bronze eggs that keep this site free (and so well run).

But, but, but - surely they value my input! Isn't that enough?

I agree with you in principle, and I avoided ad-blockers for that reason. But far too many sites went ballistic with animated ads and links under every other word that it just made it too hard to actually focus on the content. Many sites fail to find a balance.

Now, some sites recently have thrown up a dialog box, they say they've detected an ad-blocker and then politely ask that I turn it off, they need the ad revenue, etc. So if I want to read the article, I disable the blocker for that site. And generally, those sites have been subtle enough with the ads, that I'm fine with them (and I might even click one - it might actually be related to the content!).

IIRC, I turned it off for this site for a while, but the ads got to me - too big, too much. OK, I'll try again and see how I think they are doing.

-ERD50

[target2019]

Adblock Browser will do the trick. Not sure what platforms it will work with.

[Tadpole]

I turned some accessibility features on in my browser. Many of the ads don't scale with the page but end up magnifying such that they cover the left, right, bottom or top of the website content and I can't scroll independently to uncover the popover effect. One of the worst of these is the floating social button panels on the left of many pages. I haven't found a way to keep them from overwhelming the content at many sites.

[easysurfer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Try uBlock.

I used to swear by Adblock Plus. But switched browsers recently so thought I'd give uBlock Origin (same author as uBlock but the author did a "do over" with uBlock Origin) a try.

Big thumbs up from me for uBlock Origin. I just use the default setting. Now, I can actually read the LA Times and NY Times . Whereas with AdBlock Plus, I'd get an irritation anti-popup blocker popping up saying something like "We noticed you use and ad blocker..."