Improper Advertisement

About This Message Board
21

No, TubaDiva, what has to happen is this: There needs to be a channel by which the users can express their extreme dissatisfaction at obnoxious ads (and it should become well-defined where the line is, and the line should be probably be drawn at any pop-up or pop-under ads, or certainly at autoplaying ads), and that communication channel must extend all the way from the users to the place where the buck stops.

If you are going to have limited patience with listening to all these complaints (and I’m catching an implication that you might be giving us a mod instruction to quit complaining, since there’s “nothing” you can do), then all TULPTB (upper-level powers that be) will only hear a few complaints, which they will ignore.

If you are willing to receive a complaint here on ATMB every time a user gets hit with this and wishes to complain, and if you are willing to pass the complaint up the line every time that happens, then eventually, hopefully, TULPTB will begin to realize that there is a limit to the advertising insults that users will tolerate, and that a major revolt is brewing. That is the message that TULPTB needs to hear.

You’ve mentioned that something can be done and was done when some ads were installing malware. All you need to do is make clear where the line is drawn between acceptable and unacceptable, and make clear that autoplaying ads are unacceptable. As noted above, bad ads will ruin things for all the other advertisers too. And you wouldn’t want that to happen.

Note that I don’t have a very big dog in this fight here in SDMB. (And, as not-a-paying-member, I’m basically just an observer.) My beef is more general, against the widespread obnoxious all over the net, everywhere you look. My solution has been to run my browser with JavaScript disabled, which strategy alone eliminates a vast load of trash. Not to mention that I use Firefox (without even any add-ons!) and Linux. And I don’t have any Flash or Flash-equivalent installed. And I’ve added a whole bunch of lines like:
[symbol]127.0.0.1 whatever.junk.com[/symbol]
to my hosts file. (Yes, you can do this on Winders systems too!)

22

The only flaw in your arguments is that there doesn’t seem to be a major revolt brewing. Just a few dissatisfied customers.

23

That’s what I was thinking. A few people are annoyed and the rest of us installed AdBlock and have mostly forgotten that the internet even had ads. I just went to the page in question and turned off ABP. Wow, two animated ads. Animated ads were the reason I started using an adblocker. They’re just too distracting for me to read the rest of the page.

Every time I see people complaining about problems with ads here, I really don’t understand why they just don’t install an adblocker. I mean, people have been complaining about malware being delivered via ads, pop up ads, animated ads, audio ads and nothing has been fixed, nothing is going to get fixed, it’s not going to get changed, just install an adblocker and be done with it. Tuba has done everything from deny that it’s happening to now saying that the staff can’t do anything about it (which I’m sure is the case). She said it’s out of her hands so at this point it’s literally not worth even bringing the subject up anymore. If you still want your favorite site to get money, install an adblocker and only block the ads here or just pony up the $15 to become a member and you won’t get ads that way either (on the forum anyway, it wouldn’t have helped with the OP).
But I vote that you just install ABP.

24

For those who read the Dope at work, few are allowed to install anything.

25

Then they should pay to become a member. Not seeing ads is the whole point of membership these days.

Ask yourself why any business should care about someone who is not a member but wants the business to fore-go advertising because poor little him might get caught by his own workplace. Ads get more obnoxious and more in-your-face every day precisely because so few people pay attention to them. They will not get less so in the future. Telling a business to accept only ads that are guaranteed to be ignored is laughable. Telling a business to turn down ads because you yourself refuse to pay the business for its value is beyond ludicrous.

If you don’t want ads, pay for a membership. The Dope is either valued or not. There is no Plan B.

26

What a great protection racket that is. “Hey, we’re going to fill your computer with malware and obnoxious ads unless you give us money.”

27

Protection racket?? Please.

Noone’s making anybody visit this site. That’s purely voluntary.

28

The issue that Tubadiva keeps ignoring is that the owner of the website is responsible for the content including ads. Back when I kept getting hit with malware it was always the ad provider’s fault. No it isn’t. It is your fault for letting it pass through your webpage onto my computer. The fact that the ad provider ha(s/d?) crappy quality control is YOUR issue - not MINE.

So now apparently the owners have decided to allow autostart ads. That’s fine since it’s their site but since it is pretty clear that the policy at one time was to not have autostart ads then where is the announcement warning us of the new ad policy. You’ll forgive us Tubadiva if given SD’s history of deny, deny, deny, OK the problem exists but YOU need to deal with it ($15, or adblocker, read the “If you’re hit with malware” thread or it’s the ad providers fault so we’re powerless) that we are very skeptical that autostart ads are supposed to be on SD.

So the questions that need to be answered are
Does the SD (either owners or staff) accept that they are responsible for the ads on their website?
Are autorun ads allowed on SD?

29

As a newer member/outsider, this is exactly the attitude I’m reading from those trying to convince people to join as paid members. I understand that there are costs associated with running a site, and that advertisements and/or subscription fees can be necessary to keep the place running, but this place is not exactly running smoothly.

First off, as it is the subject of this thread, TubaDiva is now claiming that auto-play ads are now part of the ad scheme for this board and since its all up to the owners, there is nothing they can do about this. Less than a year ago, Ed Zotti plainly stated that auto-play ads are not to be displayed on this site. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15523076&postcount=59

As far as I know, the current owners are the same ones talked about in the post I just linked to. That means either something changed and the user base was never informed, or someone was lying then or is lying now. If something did change regarding ads and it goes against what staff has previously stated, then not telling your user base is a lie of omission.

Then we move onto the various technical issues the board is suffering from. This thread Read/Unread timer resetting c. 5 minutes into a session - About This Message Board - Straight Dope Message Board has been active since January and is full of “we’ll look into it” or “we kicked the reports upstairs” type responses from the staff. Now here we are coming into June, and after several more threads about issues with board functionality, we finally got an official response. But that response is pretty open ended. A new server would be awesome, but when can we expect things to start running smoother? In 3 months? In 6 months?

The search engine is another issue. This is a basic primary tool that comes standard on pretty much every message board I’ve ever encountered. Yet here we are told to use a google search if the board search isn’t working up to snuff. That’s like going into a bar that advertises beer on tap, then being told the taps don’t always work right and you’d be better off going next door & getting a beer from the liquor store.

I’d like to address the members of the board for a second. Some users posting in this thread are essentially saying “love it or leave it”. I do love it (or at least am highly fond of it), and those types of comments aren’t doing anything the help resolve any issues brought up here. Every new pair of eyes that sign up for the board for free, are potential new paying customers. The attitude of “if you don’t like it you can pay or leave” only serves to drive people away or make them dig their heels in and refuse to pay.

All these things combined doesn’t make a paid membership a very attractive option. If I’m paying money for a service, I expect that service to work. If I’m having issues with the service, I expect the staff to be helpful so long as I’m not being outlandish or rude. Based on what I’ve seen, I can’t expect either of those things from this board.

I’d love to see this board continuing long into the future. I’ve been reading here on and off for almost ten years. This place has kept me entertained through many boring work days, and through many uneventful evenings at home. If keeping the board running means expanding the advertisements, just tell us so we can make an informed decision on whether to go for a paid membership or not. If you need paid subscriptions to get this place back on the right track, again, just tell us. I can only speak for myself but I bet if there was an announcement saying something along the lines of, “Hey guys, the board has some problems and we need to fix them but don’t have the funds available. That means we either need more paying members or more advertising on the board.” people might be more keen on kicking in their fair share. I know I would. But for now, I will remain a “guest”. If there are improvements made to the board, and the staff improves their level of customer service, I will definitely put my money where my mouth is. If things continue to remain unchanged, I will continue my silent freeloading and eventually mourn the day the board is no longer around due to not attracting enough new paying members and having obnoxious ads rendered useless as more people start using adblockers.
I’m not trying to whine or complain, I’m just trying to state how all this looks to the potential customer base. . I hope those in charge read this and give some thought to how things are are being done here, and how the board will be affected down the road.

30

If you had explained this in the first place, your response would not have seemed snippy and bullshit. Instead, you acted like we have never reported auto-playing ads.

31

Nobody is defending malware. But you don’t get to dictate which kinds of ads are obnoxious and which aren’t. As far as I’m concerned all ads are obnoxious. Doesn’t my vote count as much as yours?

You made a reasoned post and I wish the actual whiners would respond like you. However, the Powers That Be have been saying variations of this for years. None of the whiners could think that the Board is doing anything more than just scraping by.

I’m digging in my heels against those who insist that they must be able to get the Dope free and without any inconvenience. Their attitude is the opposite of yours. They appear to believe that those of us who pay for the value of the Dope are indeed dopes. There is a ridiculously easy solution to their problem, and it only costs four cents a day.

32

I don’t think that I must be able to get the Dope free and without any inconvenience, but I also don’t think Tuba is responding in good faith to these problems. As someone pointed out, after the Sun-Times took over, Ed said there should be no autoplaying ads. Tuba’s response in this thread is just laziness and disinterest in receiving reports that they have told us to make. I get that she’s frustrated that the ad situation is annoying. I get that there may not be a very good mechanism for her getting these problems fixed (and I would argue that that’s a problem that the administration needs to look at). What I don’t get is this bullshit response that indicates we’re wrong for complaining about this stuff. It’s like she responded to performance problems with “Uh, I think the management was thinking about making the site, like, really slow, or something. It’s probably supposed to be that way. Welp, it’s their site! I guess you should stop complaining now.”

33

Ads that automatically make noise are way more obnoxious than ads that don’t. If I happen to open a web page with an auto-playing, loud-noisemaking ad, I’ll almost always close the offending page as soon as possible. No way will I stick around long enough to decide whether the site is worth contributing money to.

I’m sympathetic to your message that “If you’re not willing to pay for a membership, you’re not really entitled to complain about the ads”—but that’s not really relevant here, since all of us, Members and Guests, see ads on the main Straight Dope column pages (as opposed to the Message Board), unless we have some sort of ad blocker running. For what it’s worth, I’ve never encountered a noisemaking ad here on the Straight Dope, and many of the ads I do see (on the main page, and on some other sites that run ads) seem to be targeted to me, since many of them are for sites I already visit (like Amazon).

34

I get a vote too.

I request that the mods not notify TULPTB about every little ATMB drama including noisy ads. The SDMB is a very small barnacle on a very big ship. The idea that company-wide ad policy should be modified for them and them alone is borderline ludicrous. As a user, I request that admins keep a low profile.

And as a member, I can only roll my eyes at the sense of entitlement of a few of the posters here.

35

Jesus Christ OP, just don’t get on the Dope when you’re supposed to be working.

And as for the rest of you claiming malware…has that ever happened? If so I’ve never seen it. But then again I have anti-virus and malware (free versions) on my computer so I don’t ever get it anywhere else, either.

36

For those getting snippy because your IT department won’t allow a browser change or adblocker install–WTF are you doing browsing a known infected site with a work computer? Are you tired of your job or what? I won’t even browse here on my tablet because of the crapware ads–I like having it functional.

37

Another trick is to disable javascript and java when browsing on dubious websites. In Firefox see options -> options-> Content tab. In IE 9 : Gear Icon -> Internet Options -> Security -> Press Custom Level Button -> Scroll Down to Scripting Section -> Choose Disable Active Scripting -> hit Ok, and curse your IT group for limiting you to that ridiculous browser.

For those unbounded by an IT department, I recommend the toolbar Buttons plugin in Firefox. I can turn javascript and java on and off at will without digging into menus.
Toolbar Buttons 1.0

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/toolbar-buttons/

38

Here’s another idea. If you don’t want the sound of autoplaying ads to startle you - TURN YOUR SPEAKERS OFF WHEN YOU SURF.

39

But then I can’t listen to my music that I know my co-workers want to hear. :stuck_out_tongue:

40

Make sure you’re singing along too. Under your breath, but just loud enough for them to hear.