I’m not seeing them on Firefox (I have adblock), but I’m not seeing them on Internet Explorer either (though the page loaded with errors, it said, so I guess it didn’t load the banner ad).
They don’t show up in IE 5 
I use IE7 (I know, I know) and I didn’t see them. I even logged out and deleted all my cookies and cache and still didn’t see them.
I can see one at the top of the Straight Dope home page, not on the message boards pages. I’m not even using any fancy adblocker plugins, just an old-ish version of IE (though it does block low-tech pop-ups). Still, banner ads on a pay-to-post board are bullshit. I’ll forgive it if they slash the subscription fee.
They’re probably pushed aside by all the viruses and trojans racing into your system.
Ditto, but I’m curious. Do they look like the ones on the homepage?
Don’t see anything there that says it’s temporary.
I have loved everything about this board for every day I’ve been a member of it - until now. Fuck these ads.
If we have to have these banners for good, I think we should also be able to have avatars. It’s only fair that we should get something good in return for having to look at annoying ads.
TubaDiva’s post is the best information we have at the moment. We’re not sitting on any master plan, and more will be posted when possible.
As of 4:27EDT:
[
](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9219680&postcount=4)Doesn’t sound temporary to me.
Jerry’s statement, however, makes it look like the ads are to be permanent. I don’t see how Tuba gets the idea that this will be temporary, from Jerry’s post… 
That’s like arguing that if we have to eat shit, we should also be allowed to eat vomit.
Avatars suck.
If this is in fact a temporary development, I retract my bullshits.
However, it would have behooved Jerry to say as much in his post.
More like if we have to eat “their” shit, then “they” can eat our shit in return. Stick it to The Man!
Tuba probably begged Jerry to get rid of that crap and Jerry probably responded with something like, “Hey, you ain’t my boss.”
I just got on the Board and spent a good three minutes trying to figure out how it said I was signed in, but I clearly wasn’t because, duh, I’m seeing banner ads.
I’m an idiot.
That said, this is crap. The Google Ads blow, too (I always accidentally click on the worst ones), but this beyond that.
Actually, the ads on the StraightDope.com front page are irritating too, though those are understandable. There is one for Ford at the top of the page that I always see- the damn thing expands huge, plays a fucking video, and is REALLY loud. Then- I dunno if this is a Firefox thing or what- the X button to close the fuckin’ thing doesn’t work. I have to refresh the page almost every time, leading me to want to murder people.
Why yes, that rant was somewhat off topic, but damnit! It has been bugging me for days!
Anyway, call my a cynic, but I suspect that somehow these banner ads will go from short term to fix a problem, to longer term because the problem hasn’t been fixed, to “Oops! Sorry, they’re permanent, ya suckers! Get back to your BBQ Pits and MSPSIMS, bitches!” Hopefully, I am wrong.
PS: I will be investigating this AdBlock business as soon as I get home from work. Thank you all for the tip.
Why am I not seeing them? I am using IE6 on WindowsXP, with no special ad blocker (that I am aware of – it’s my work laptop, so I guess it might be loaded with something I’m not aware of).
Me neither, IE7 on Vista.
No doubt, some of the “debugging” Jerry is working on is getting the banners to work on all browsers.