Audio ads: REALLY not appreciated

[What_the]

@TubaDiva

The moderators and administrators have no way of accessing how ads get on to the page. There’s no switches, there’s no function, we see them (or not) just like Members do.

There is nothing that any of the staff can do about ads except make an email to Ed. We can also notify Jerry if there is a rogue ad/malware in the system and of course we’d let Ed know about that as well.

Every time there’s one of these threads about ads that sound off – or any complaint about what goes on here – if it’s something I cannot advise on/fix myself I send Ed email about it.

I don’t know what else to tell you.

That may be the state of play. I was asking about how the responses have evolved over the last couple of years.

As I mentioned, at one time you all asked for screenshots of specific instances and stated that those ads were absolutely not supposed to be allowed.

Then iirc, at one time the official line was “that’s the way it is” no one is going to change anything.

That info may or may not provide some insight into where things are headed.

[TubaDiva]

@What_the

That may be the state of play. I was asking about how the responses have evolved over the last couple of years.

As I mentioned, at one time you all asked for screenshots of specific instances and stated that those ads were absolutely not supposed to be allowed.

Then iirc, at one time the official line was “that’s the way it is” no one is going to change anything.

That info may or may not provide some insight into where things are headed.

Different days, different management, different situations. You cannot expect that current owners will continue policies set by previous ones.

I did hear from someone with the Sun-Times. He has said they will “be more forceful” with the ad company to try to keep this from happening. You can’t ask for more than that; they book a lot of ads and sometimes accidents happen.

If you keep us informed, we’ll keep sending in reports.

[RaftPeople]

@Amateur_Barbarian

Sound is such an essential part of the workstation working environment that turning it off is no more a good solution than turning the monitor off whenever you don’t happen to be looking at it, or unplugging the mouse if you don’t happen to be pointing.

I think this might be a little more user-specific than what you’ve posted.

I have sound turned off pretty much always unless I happen to click on a video and turn it up just for that.

[InternetLegend]

@Cheshire_Human

All the audio ads are Flash based. If you use Firefox, there’s an add-on called Flashblock that gets rid of flash, while leaving the link-based ads intact. It also leaves you a button you can click on (for YouTube vids, for example), if you actually want to see the flash content. I’ve been using it for years, mainly because flash sucks up CPU cycles unbelievably, but since I’ve started using it, I’ve gotten no sound ads at any site.

Thank you for this information. I typically use my much-loved but underpowered netbook, and Flash content often brings it to its knees. You’ve just improved my life!

[What_the]

@TubaDiva

Different days, different management, different situations. You cannot expect that current owners will continue policies set by previous ones.

I did hear from someone with the Sun-Times. He has said they will “be more forceful” with the ad company to try to keep this from happening. You can’t ask for more than that; they book a lot of ads and sometimes accidents happen.

If you keep us informed, we’ll keep sending in reports.

Well that helps a little… I had forgotten about a management/owner change,if I ever did know about it.

… so who is in charge? The Sun Times or this Ed guy you mentioned above?

[Senegoid]

@TubaDiva

There is nothing that any of the staff can do about ads except make an email to Ed. We can also notify Jerry if there is a rogue ad/malware in the system and of course we’d let Ed know about that as well.

But does Ed have any more clout with TPTB than any of the rest of you?

Note, ads are no problem for me: As I’ve mentioned many times, my solution (to this any myriad other web annoyances) has always been to run by browser with Javascript disabled at all times except when I actually know that I need it. Many sites are mildly crippled by this, but only a small few (that I care about anyway) are significantly crippled. On SDMB, this eliminates ads entirely. The only minor crippleness that I find noticeable is that all the tool buttons and smilies don’t work when I’m entering text, so I have to type all my BBcodes and smilies by hand. This has been good enough for me, such that I’ve never felt the need to download any of the script blocker tools to use.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

Sad when even this bastion of rationality caves to the tsunadmi.

[Guinastasia]

@Rick

Become a member here. You support the place AND no ads. Win win.

So basically, “Pay, or we’ll annoy the crap out of you?” That’s a pretty shitty business model. :rolleyes:

[Czarcasm]

@Guinastasia

So basically, “Pay, or we’ll annoy the crap out of you?” That’s a pretty shitty business model. :rolleyes:

“You don’t have to pay, and we’re cutting out the ads to boot!” followed soon after by “SITE NOT FOUND” is an even shittier business model, I’d say. It looks to me like mods and admins don’t have the closeness to the owners that they used to have, putting them between a rock and a hard place when it comes to trying to solve problems that may come up on the board…or even getting The Higher Ups to see the problem in the first place. As has been said by others, this board has gone from a well-loved child of a local paper to being yet another acquisition by a corporation.

Just my opinion.

[harmonicamoon]

@Cheshire_Human

All the audio ads are Flash based. If you use Firefox, there’s an add-on called Flashblock that gets rid of flash, while leaving the link-based ads intact. It also leaves you a button you can click on (for YouTube vids, for example), if you actually want to see the flash content. I’ve been using it for years, mainly because flash sucks up CPU cycles unbelievably, but since I’ve started using it, I’ve gotten no sound ads at any site.

Thank you CH! Flashblock rocks! Today I was viewing the activity monitor and the flash was consuming 70-90% of the CPU. Installed Flashblock and my CPU has returned to an acceptable level. Another benefit is that my laptop runs a lot cooler!