Can the SDMB please find a way to get rid of the ads saying “Democrats Suck”?
They are offensive and bring down the level of the SDMB by several notches.
Is there a way for the SDMB to specify that they don’t want political ads in their adSense program?
You can easily block ads from specific servers. E.g., on a MS-Windows machine, adding the following line to your “hosts” file:
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
will stop anything from the listed server from reaching you. Similar mods for Unices and such are also easily done.
You can see which servers you want to block by viewing the source of the webpage.
It’s you, isn’t it? Stealing our money and robbing our morality? 
I believe the ads are controlled by Google, not the SDMB staff.
When many Dopers themselves post that “Democrats suck” or “Republicans suck” I fail to see how it lowers the board several notches.
I don’t think this will happening and I hope it doesn’t. Can’t have the Reader scurrying to re-tailor their Google contract every time someone gets annoyed with an ad. Saying something “sucks” is pretty low on the offensive scale, anyways.
Think of it this way: Through that ad, some right-wing group is unwittingly donating a lot of money to a group of people who are just laughing openly at them. Personally, I think it’s wonderful poetic justice.
Maybe it refers to the PC admonition for “Democrats, suck eggs! The healthy raw ones straight from the shell. Nature’s protein supplement. Just be sure they are unfertilized so no ethereal spirit is damaged. And they must be free range birds. From free traded farms. Are you writing this down, because there’s more . . .” 
I had this all set up and working, but ever since I changed my computer, it’s not working any more. I looked for possible duplicate versions of the hosts file, but there is only one, it’s set up the right way, and it doesn’t seem to work.
My previous computer had Apache installed. My new one doesn’t. Could this make the difference?
Do you mean that the Google ads can say
“See teens sucking big cock”
and the SDMB can’t do anything about it?
I would assume the contract enables the SDMB to disable certain types of ads.
(And since some websites might want an ad like the above, Google doesn’t have to have a blanket ban on, say, adult ads)
Outside of the Pit (which some may argue does bring the SDMB down several notches, but let’s not go there), any OP or post that states
“Democrats Suck! They’re stealing our money and robbing our morality”
is definitely several notches below the normal SDMB standard.
And if more and more people started posting like that, it would definitley bring down the level of the SDMB.
To have those kind of statements being presented by the owners of the SDMB as ‘ads’ is ridiculous.
Standard path is C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
Watch out, a common mistake with the hosts file is to modify a hosts.txt file.
The Windows system only looks at the hosts file that has no extension.
Jim
I have my PC set up to always show extensions, so I’m pretty sure I’m editing hosts and not hosts.txt
Also, the path is indeed C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
Anything else that I may be doing wrong?
I normally leave the ads on, but this is my entire hosts file to prevent them from showing.
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
Jim
I think the quality of ads of a place say a lot about its ‘character’.
Would you buy a magazine that had full page ads that were well below the level of the articles in that magazine?
Also, if the “National Review” magazine started running ads saying “Republicans Suck! They are incompetent buffoons”, do you think readers of that magazine would think it’s poetic justice that the people placing those ads are unwittingly donating a lot of money to a group of people who are just laughing openly at them? Or, would they be, justifiably, outraged?
Maybe a more apt analogy is if the Skeptical Inquirer started running ads saying 'Evolution Proponents Suck! They are robbing us of our morality". Would the readers of that magazine find it to be poetic justice?
Unfortunately, still showing after I replaced my hosts file with yours. I even restarted my computer.
I wanted to add that even if the existing members of the SDMB learn to ignore the ads that are stupid and/or of a supremely sub-par level, the same cannot necessarily be said for prospective members, who may opt not to sign up due to the quality of the ads being served here.
Starting the computer is not required, but always a good try.
I have no other ideas. The Hosts file usually does not act up.
There is a small chance your machine is a web server and resolving the googleads through the loopback routine.
Try address 0.0.0.0 instead of 127.0.0.1
This is a non-resolvable address.
Once you change and save the hosts file just start a new session of Internet explorer to test the change.
Good Luck,
Jim
Again, no dice.
I’ll try installing Apache like on my previous machine to see if this works.
I am clueless now. At this point, I would begin a long search of http://www.google.com/microsoft?num=50&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=Hosts+File+problems
You exceeded the problems I have had to deal with at work.
Jim
It only costs them money (and the Reader only makes money off them) if you click the ads. So get clicking!