# Ads defeating Adblock Plus **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 10, 2017, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ads-defeating-adblock-plus/798510 "2017-10-10T19:44:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ads-defeating-adblock-plus/798510/1 "2017-10-10T19:44:02Z")
What villainy is this? Got tired of seeing the nag screens to update Firefox, so I did. Apparently the update removed or disabled Adblock Plus, and this place was creepy horrible with ads everywhere. So I reinstalled Adblock, and it got rid of most of the ads. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to block these mid-thread ads that seem to show up every few posts. Something about Nexus 7 Google something or other. How are these ads defeating Adblock Plus, and more importantly, how can I block them? I want no ads from any source. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ads-defeating-adblock-plus/798510/2 "2017-10-10T19:54:15Z")
You should see them, it helps me not see them, by providing advertisers with people who view them enough to allow the rest of us not to have them. Advertising viewing is for suckers and as the PT Barnum saying goes a sucker is born every minute. I’m glad for the suckers and glad I was not born on the minute. I love you guys and gals and your moral imperative to see ads for the good of society. God Bless. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ads-defeating-adblock-plus/798510/3 "2017-10-10T20:15:34Z")
Adblock Plus has been letting more and more ads through lately. There’s a check box under filter preferences to allow what Adblock Plus calls non-intrusive advertising, and that check box is enabled by default. I always turn it off. You can also try different filter subscriptions. uBlock Origin is also available as an alternative to Adblock Plus. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ads-defeating-adblock-plus/798510/4 "2017-10-10T20:20:45Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > What villainy is this? Got tired of seeing the nag screens to update Firefox, so I did. Apparently the update removed or disabled Adblock Plus, and this place was creepy horrible with ads everywhere. So I reinstalled Adblock, and it got rid of most of the ads. > > Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to block these mid-thread ads that seem to show up every few posts. Something about **Nexus 7 Google** something or other. How are these ads defeating Adblock Plus, and more importantly, how can I block them? I want no ads from any source. You’re using the “new” skin here, aren’t you? Those “ads” aren’t actually ads. They’re placeholders that came with the new “Sultantheme” skin. They’re actually part of the markup or CSS or whatever for the theme. Hell, that particular product (highlighted) hasn’t been an actual advertised product since 2013! No adblocker will block them (out of the box) because they’re not actual ads. IMHO: Best answer is to switch back to the original SDMB skin, simply because those bogus non-ad ads are the least damaged element of the new skin. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ads-defeating-adblock-plus/798510/5 "2017-10-10T21:28:56Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Those “ads” aren’t actually ads. They’re placeholders that came with the new “Sultantheme” skin. They’re actually part of the markup or CSS or whatever for the theme. Hell, that particular product (highlighted) hasn’t been an actual advertised product since 2013! > > No adblocker will block them (out of the box) because they’re not actual ads. I’m not seeing them. (I use the old skin, but switched to the new one for a test.) I use Firefox with uBlock Origin. It seems to block them for me. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ads-defeating-adblock-plus/798510/6 "2017-10-10T21:35:14Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I’m not seeing them. (I use the old skin, but switched to the new one for a test.) > > I use Firefox with uBlock Origin. It seems to block them for me. You may have a ruleset with uBlock that catches them. I didn’t when I looked at this last from a Firefox installation with default uBlock rules. Nonetheless, the point stands: those are locally-hosted (i.e., delivered by SDMB’s servers, not an ad provider) static unclickable non-advertisements. The dead giveaway is OP’s description of the ancient Google Nexus 7 ad. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ads-defeating-adblock-plus/798510/7 "2017-10-10T22:03:21Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Adblock Plus has been letting more and more ads through lately. There’s a check box under filter preferences to allow what Adblock Plus calls non-intrusive advertising, and that check box is enabled by default. I always turn it off. > > You can also try different filter subscriptions. > > uBlock Origin is also available as an alternative to Adblock Plus. Yeah, I turned that off. Gonna go check out uBlock Origin. Thanks for the tip. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ads-defeating-adblock-plus/798510/8 "2017-10-11T00:39:09Z")
As far as I can tell, the defaults with uBlock Origin do now block these fake ads. But, in case they don’t for you, I can give three options: [ol] [li]Switch to the old theme.[/li][li]Install my Userscript.[/li][li]Add the following rule to your adblocker (uBlock Origin or Adblock Plus):[/li] ```auto boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/images/SultanThemeVB3R/ads/ ``` [/ol] ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ads-defeating-adblock-plus/798510/9 "2017-10-11T01:34:49Z")
Thanks all. Problem solved.