I couldn’t (and can’t) install ad-blocking software on my employer’s computer. That’s why I ONLY read the dope at home for a while – the ads were lurid and embarrassing. But I could block them on my own hardware.
Also, apparently there is already an option for you to block images!
Oh, I don’t think anyone is opposed to having the option to turn off images. That’s all good. There are people who hope that they will be allowed to post and view images themselves, that’s all.
I suppose, but wouldn’t at least one of the two tricks for hiding ads have to be add-ons or something like that if the person isn’t a member? Maybe there’s a trick I don’t know about.
Doug_K is right. It’s not an issue of “modern” vs “stuck in the past.”
Many of the books I own, some of which were published recently, consist of only text. They don’t have images and don’t need them. And other sorts of books do have images and wouldn’t really work without them.
A while back our work went to allowing NO personal use of computers at work. So when I was in the office, I wouldn’t use my work laptop to even check the weather. Hell, if I’m gonna get fired, it will be for something tougher to document than me surfing the Dope! 
Now, when I’m working at home, I have both my home and work computers up and running.
I’ve learned I’m really good at ignoring a lot of stuff. Ads? Mildly annoying, but pretty easy to ignore whether at the bottom of pages or in the middle. Avatars - they mean nothing to me, but I can create a blindspot for them as well. I find it easier to make myself ignore shit I’m not interested in, that to try to fuck around and see if I can figure out how to block them - that is, until the NEXT update… Background blue, white, or purple - who cares, unless the colors/fonts are so bad as to give me a headache. Even then, I would be strongly inclined to stop using something that had an ultra-annoying default.
There was a trick that involved loading a filter list into Internet Explorer. I used this when I worked somewhere that used IE exclusively and didn’t allow employees to install anything. I don’t know if that works with Edge, though.
It does my heart good to know everyone at work is using their computers for fun stuff.
A happy workforce is more productive.
Y’all carry on.
Yeah, that’s why it is stupid and ridiculous to prohibit ANY private activity on a work computer. If I can work productively 50 minutes of an hour while goofing around for 10 minutes, it’s much more efficient than to try (or rather pretend) to be productive 8 hours nonstop a day.
I’ve spent many work hours just playing with AutoCAD and Inventor, learning about various features in both programs that I don’t necessarily encounter when doing work-related tasks. This is a very enjoyable activity for me; I’ve often wondered if it counts as goofing off.
Gotta say - a week later, and I’m having a hard time remembering how the old boards worked. Now that I’ve figured how to scroll up and down, and how to switch among forums, I’m hard-pressed to say the new setup is any better or worsre than the old.
I really wish I did not find tech changeovers so traumatic…
Meh, Change is easier for some than others. But, since you know this about yourself, next time, just take a deep breath and remind yourself that you are probably making more of it than you should be.
Maybe that will help you feel less stressed?
I’m still struggling some, but I haven’t been around as much. That’s by choice and not the SDMB specifically.
But, as I’ve said, this is what we have so we have to use it or leave. With lockdown easing here, I plan to get out more and less time on Twitter and the SDMB
I’m having less issues.
When I pull up the Dope on my screen I have a momentary ‘uh oh, wrong place’ then I remember.
I do miss the little biographies we had of each poster at their stats.
With more graphics, etc., it will be slow. I’ve noticed it, too.
I also like the bare bones, because it’s the content that is important, and not the style, and of course, if its functional. I think just being “new” for the sake of it is annoying. I don’t like emojis, hell, I don’t have an i-phone. When I tell someone this online, they go crazy, which makes me even more defiant.
This might just be a problem for me, but when I want to respond to a previous thread, I go to my browser and type out a word, and the history comes up, but with this new … whatever, it just says “Page is Private or…”
But a part of me feels odd to complain, as if I was ungrateful, so I try not to. I don’t plan on leaving the site.
Try changing the interface to “Sam’s Simple Theme” to reduce the visual clutter.
I might, if it weren’t for being blinded by all that white.
Mouseover has suddenly begun working for me within the last few minutes, with no change in config, last restart of the browser hours ago.
To this point, I hope we don’t take seriously any argument along the lines of ‘I want to steal functionality from thousands of users so I may continue stealing time from my employer’, because that’s bullshit.
If you’re not supposed to be browsing the SDMB at work, then don’t browse the SDMB at work. Asking that all of us do without pictures so you can do what you’re not supposed to do is a special kind of selfish.
I don’t see anyone making that argument, though. Those citing the work restrictions have only argued that they want to be able to disable images for their own use.
I’m also pretty sure that, if Dopers didn’t post while at work, participation in this board would drop dramatically. Our traffic in the day is rather high, and posters have talked about posting from work for as long as I’ve been here.
It’s a good idea to accommodate those users.
I’d say make this (and other such controversial features) as user-selectable as possible, to allow for pleasing the widest range of users.
Many of us are not “stealing time from our employer”, but we are stuck in front of a computer with less work to do than time to do it in.
At the same time, yes, when one of my employees comes up, and sees a screen full of text, they show little or no interest in it. If there are pictures, their eyes are drawn to the pictures.