If you had read Eds OP more carefully you will have noted that this is NOT what Ed said would happen. Here is what he said:
I came to this thread to see if this was happening to anyone else. It’s happened to me a few times and it’s pretty random. Tonight I’ve been on the forums for an hour or so with no problems. Then a video started playing, I found the ad and there was no way to stop it or silence it. I came to this thread and navigating it was like moving through quicksand. Then the “shockwave crashed” banner appeared and I could move again. I’m always logged in and on my desktop at home (which is where I am now). At work, I’m not logged in on my desktop and get the popunders but I can x out of them easily. That’s easier to deal with than what I’m getting when I’m logged in.
When I’m at home using a laptop and browsing with ancient IE as a browser I get the pop-under ad thing even with a pop-up blocker turned on, which I exit out of but these ads at the bottom of the page still play with audio, typing anything is insanely laggy, and the website freezes a lot or takes longer to load or even go back to a previous thing I already loaded. Its really ruining the experience. On my iPhone I don’t get any ads and don’t seem to have any issues.
If I sit on a page too long my back button doesn’t work because apparently the page reloads for the ads. I’ll suddenly realize I’ve got a tab with some sleazy ad open that I never opened on my own. Frequently audio will start playing and thanks to Chrome I can tell it is from here, yet I can’t stop it unless I mute my entire laptop. I’ve been here since '99, I’m always logged on and this is the worst I’ve seen… I don’t run ad blocker because I think a site should be able to make a living, and I every now and then find one I actually click on. However in the last week or so I’ve totally closed down the SDMB more often than I had in the last year or so due to the new annoying ads. I hope your ad guys made a good commission.
I ignore the ads, but the board is becoming unusable. I’ve just abandoned a post because it was taking about 5 keystrokes just to type in each character in a reply.
Indeed, just in composing this post, I’ve had the browser collapse on me. This just isn’t good enough.
I’m becoming offended at the content of the ads.
This message board is dedicated to fighting ignorance, not serving it up.
I just got this ad as a popover. Disgusting stuff.
I thought I was the only one. 4 times I had to recover the page for this post.
Any answer from Ed et alii?
The Straight Dope: Fighting Ignorance Since 1973
(It’s Taking Longer Than We Thought. Hey, Did You Guys Hear About the New Miracle Cure That OBAMA Doesn’t Want You To Know About?)
We could change the board name to The Dopey Straights!
Sent from my SM-G360G using Tapatalk
Aha! I’ve been experimenting with starting over with my Firefox settings, and I found out the issue. It seems I had changed an option in about:config to force popup windows into new tabs.
It seems that, by default, if you create a new window and set the size, it becomes a new window. If you don’t set the size, it becomes a new tab.
Anyways, if anyone wants it, the setting in Firefox is browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction. Go to about:config, agree that you will be careful, and set it to 0 to disable any ability to open a new window.
Personally, I’m experimenting with keeping it on. Since I use adblock, the only time these have shown up so far is when some site is using them for a small login window. There it makes sense.
Why am I still getting these “leave behind” ads even when I am logged in?
Also, I only see the welcome message on the Message Board, not on the recent articles page. Why?
Because you are a guest. Only paid members avoid the ads.
As per the OP
That shouldn’t be the case.
In order for them to make that distinction, they seem to be admitting that this particular series of ads is too distasteful to show to logged in users, even non-members.
Sorry, I missed that.
They seem to think that people will somehow stumble onto the board and decide that the content is so wonderful, they simply must register, at which point it shouldn’t* be a problem for them any more. Or else they will go away, which means they won’t have the problem any more.
It also assumes that registered users remain logged in at all times and never use another computer. Or else they are okay with getting it in those situations.
- Except apparently it is a problem for some people, not acting the way expected.
Maybe it’s deliberately designed to keep out the riffraff?
Riffraff in this case being “people who won’t tolerate obnoxious, shady ads”?
I know I’m late to this party, but I just want to add to the chorus about the quality of the ads here. Every time I come here without the shields up, I just can’t believe how bad and distasteful they are. The contrast between the content here and the advertising is bizarre.
I guess we don’t have the demographics of the NY Times, but surely our ads shouldn’t be worse than, say, msn.com.
If I hadn’t found this place years ago, I never would have come back. And, with all the discipline about no avatars and limited, static emojis (both of which I really appreciate, especially compared to other boards), it’s bizarre to have garish motion ads on the page.
Also, pop-under ads are an abomination.
I’m still getting a single leave behind message a day, even though I am a logged in member. My blocker tells me it blocked a popup, but then when I close out, there the ad is.