Srsly, these things damage the SDMB “brand”. The more of these things, the more users are going to take steps to ban ALL ads (ad-block or similar; shutting off JavaScript; installing NoScript; or whatever). And the more this happens, the more OTHER advertisers are going to see that their ads aren’t being seen either because users are shutting them out, because of some bad “players” (heh).
Do these ad brokers pay SDMB some flat-rate for the privilege of displaying ads here? Or does SDMB get some royalty for each ad clicked on? If the latter, these bad ads hurt SDMB too as more and more users block all ads. I would think the SDMB PTB would be screaming bloody murder at the ad brokers when these happen. They (the brokers) should be the ones to police and deal with this.
(I still wonder, though, who actually ever clicks on internet ads anyway?)
As Ed has requested elsewhere, if you get an ad that sounds off all by itself please send me a screenshot of the offending page. That’s tubadiva@straightdope.com.
The Sun-Times Media ad guys will hopefully take it from there.
As Ed stated this is still early days and the ad situation is being sorted out; it’s going to take some time and help from the Teeming Millions. We appreciate your assistance as we strive for peace and quiet.
on the SDMB i just got audio with a Nissan ad, no mouseover involved because i clicked on the first unread message arrow. since i was at the bottom of the screen i tried to position for a screen capture, by the time i got the capture the logo was gone. so no screen capture on this one.
When I clicked on this thread I got an auto-playing audio/video ad telling me some congressman in New York voted to funnel money to Obama cronies via Solyndra. I get the same ad on about 50% of the threads I click on.
The most obnoxious one I frequently get is for a mobile phone company that has the volume turned up to the max and the sound severely distorted. I’m afraid it’s going to damage my speakers.
I just got a video ad at the bottom of the Elections forum thread list. In the past, it’s always happened after opening a thread so this is a little different. Screenshot sent to TubaDiva.
Home Depot ad in the "Are low-income parents usually this disinterested in their kid’s school? " thread. Again, this was on a tab that I wasn’t even looking at.
Minor nitpick. Thinking about NOT mousing over them still counts as thinking about mousing over them. That is, Thinking about not mousing over =/= not thinking about mousing over.
IOW, don’t try to remind yourself not to mouse over an ad. That’s good enough for the autoplay feature to get the green light.
Hopefully we’re all clear on that.
Hilariously, this is the first thread I’ve been to where not only does it start spontaneously with loud sound once I’ve opened the thread, and then upon navigating to page 2, it’s happening with three or four consecutive loud ads. 5 gum is the most prevalent.
Oh, and I didn’t mouse over them. Although, I must have thought too hard about it. I’m very glad to hear that this is something that isn’t a new “feature” and somebody is presumably going to fix it. It’s been making me ragey.
Well, what I know is that I’ve been perusing most of the day, and I haven’t gotten one peep out of the ads. All I wanted is to not have spontaneous sound. I don’t mind the other stuff. Besides, I can pony up to get back in to no ads, yeah?