How can I prevent advertisements from constantly appearing on these
message boards. They cover up the right third of the screen, and are
impossible to remove. The reason that this submittal is truncated
on the right is that the remainder of the screen is covered by the
advertisement. The title of the ad, BTW is “Hot Deals!” This is com-
pletely destroying usage of the SD.
Moved to About This Message Board.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Typically, just running AdBlock Plus is all you need. But if it’s OVER your browser, to the point that you have to hit enter so that you can see what you’re typing, you might have something on your system. If this shows up on other websites as well, download and run ( for free) Lavasoft Adaware and Malwarebytes. Those two are usually enough to clean up most problems.
I do not have the problem described by the OP. And I don’t think I have ever had it. And it’s been quite a while since I ran any of the programs suggested by JoeyP.
You could also purchase a subscription. $14.95 a year, the ads go away, and you help keep The Straight Dope in business. Win-win.
That’s assuming that the ads he’s seeing are actually coming from the SDMB and not from some infection on his computer, as Joey P speculated.
Yeah, though that does seem like throwing shit and then offering to sell relief from the flies.
What he said, and an excellent point has been made.
Usually our ads don’t say “Hot Deals.” But stuff you pick up that gets triggered by ad calls on our pages sometimes does – but the source itself is not coming from the Straight Dope.
The suggested programs listed above usually do an excellent job of tracking down and and clearing away these outside problems. (Then buy a subscription and you’re good to go.) 
I logged out and disabled AdBlock just to see what the ads look like. All I got was a banner across the top, a banner in the middle, between two posts with three still ads and one video, and then another banner that ran along the left margin below the thread. Nothing that blocked any of the posts/words/graphics of the message board at all.
If you’re getting pop-ups that obstruct reading posts, I sing with the rest of the chorus that you’ve got a bug.
:dubious:
Are you suggesting the Straight Dope is shit? Then why post here at all?
If you like the Straight Dope and the Straight Dope Message Board but don’t like the ads, pay for a subscription. If you can’t afford a subscription (or otherwise just don’t want to pay) learn to ignore the ads. If you don’t like the SDMB and don’t like the ads, don’t patronize the site!
If you don’t like the SDMB but just like to come here for the ads, you’re an odd duck but I’m sure the Straight Dope appreciates your revenue all the same.
I have Win 7 64 bit, Chrome, and AdBlock Plus. I don’t see any ads here on the SDMB.
Your mileage may vary.
I avoid using ad blocking software on sites I trust/frequently visit as it may rob them of revenue.
That is malware. Here are some ways to remove it.
Worthy goal but In the vast majority of cases sites only make money if you click on a link. If you’re not clicking you may as well block them.
Hence the strategic use of ‘may’. 
Not sure which payment scheme SDMB’s ad server uses, but regardless they (generally) aren’t so noxious as to warrant blocking.
I specifically leave YouTube unblocked because I know Google pays per view for ads there. Also, I actually enjoy some of those ads. Unfortunately I hate many, many more of them.
Have a link to any of these trusted sites?
No, I’m not suggesting the SD is shit. I meant that when SD ads serve up malware, saying that the solution is to buy a subscription seems…I dunno, off, somehow.
That said, I acknowledge that the money to run the SDMB has to come from somewhere, and that SD management is working to resolve the recent problems, so I guess my post was unduly harsh. Consider it retracted.
Yea, but considering his username, I think he might be a dollar short.
There doesn’t seem to be an iPad equivalent of Adblock. Since the site turned ads back on, it’s been unusable with Chrome - as soon as the page loads, a pop-up for a game or app yanks me away to iTunes to purchase it. And that’s with pop-ups turned off.
Maybe it’s just you? Ed’s SDMB ads are resuming - post problem reports here thread hasn’t gotten any takers.