# Unusual Banner
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [March 31, 2000, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165 "2000-03-31T19:04:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2000, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/1 "2000-04-01T06:01:00Z")
So could someone explain to me what this new “not an ad” banner is that I’m seeing now, or is everyone else as clueless as I am?
---
### Author:  [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2000, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/2 "2000-04-01T06:55:00Z")
I’d like a slice of that explanation too, please.
---
### Author:  [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/3 "2000-03-31T19:04:00Z")
I took it as a charitable gesture from one of the teeming millions who wanted to either:
Support the _Reader_ financially for so genrously providing the SDMB; or
Spare the rest of us from the same old, same old banners.
Either way, it’s a nice gesture. However, it does raise interesting possibilities. I wonder if I could get a banner that says “(Insert disliked troll’s name here) is a big fat weenie-head”
---
### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/4 "2000-03-31T19:19:00Z")
If you’re referring to the game site, it’s a legitimate ad. A PAID ad, please please click and go play!
That IS what you’re referring to, right?
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
The Straight Dope
PS If you wanna advertise, go talk to the Chicago Reader advertising department, they run the banner ads here. It’s only money.
---
### Author:  [@Lord\_Derfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Derfel)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/5 "2000-03-31T19:28:00Z")
Ummm, Tuba - I’m seeing an ad that says “This is not an ad. Nothing to click. Nowhere to go. Brought to you by a friend of the SDMB”. Nothing happens when I click on it.
---
### Author:  [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/6 "2000-03-31T19:28:00Z")
Okay, so I’m dense…
> [@](#):
>
> That IS what you’re referring to, right?
Absolutely, positively not. I’m referring to the nice Not-An-Ad from a “Friend of the SDMB”. It’s kinda creeping me out, actually. I wanna know who our friend is, and why they picked that horrid color of blue.
---
### Author:  [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/7 "2000-03-31T19:33:00Z")
And, more importantly, can I just put up something like, “Party at Flyp’s”?
---
### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/8 "2000-03-31T19:36:00Z")
I suspect we have been April Fooled.
We’re investigating.
Thanks.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
The Straight Dope
---
### Author:  [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/9 "2000-03-31T19:48:00Z")
Well, not to get anyone’s bras in the figurative twist, but is this a hacking? Are we looking at MB down time while this is looked into/corrected? Or is it something that’s going to get taken down without a hiccup?
---
### Author:  [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/10 "2000-03-31T20:03:00Z")
I like it, it’s cool as hell. I clicked it too, just to show my support, haha.
* * *
“Mrs. Krabappel, are you trying to seduce me?”
---
### Author:  [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/11 "2000-03-31T20:08:00Z")
I have that banner on my screen right now. When I click on it, all it does is reload the page.
Remember whn someone named **gl0worm** disabled the banners and replaced them with black rectangles? It was said that if anyone did this, HTML would be disabled.
Then, we had the hacker and that’s exactly what was done. Evidently, someone has figured out how to do the same without using HTML.
Now, is that something to worry about or not?
* * *
Feel free to correct me at any time. But don’t be surprised if I try to correct you.
---
### Author:  [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/12 "2000-03-31T20:11:00Z")
Wow, that “ad” NEVER disappears! It follows me wherever I go on the board! It’s stalking me! Now that I have it, the only way to get rid of it is to go off-site and return or re-boot.
---
### Author:  [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/13 "2000-03-31T20:30:00Z")
::voguevixen serruptitiously (sp) checks to make sure her virusscan is running, and exhales a “phew” when she sees it is::
* * *
“Mrs. Krabappel, are you trying to seduce me?”
---
### Author:  [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/14 "2000-03-31T20:41:00Z")
I noticed that banner too and just wanted to chime in with the “I’m creeped out and hope this doesn’t mean the board will be down for a week again” crowd.
* * *
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
[The Kat House](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/home.htm)
[Join the FSH Muscular Dystrophy Webring](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/fshwebring.htm)
---
### Author:  [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/15 "2000-03-31T21:28:00Z")
Are ya’ll still seeing it? I was at school when I started this thread, but I haven’t seen it again since I’ve come back home.
---
### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/16 "2000-03-31T22:46:00Z")
I have heard from the Reader and from the originator of the ad.
It was placed by a friend of the SDMB, just one of folks amongst us all; they paid cash money to have it run.
Let me quote from our anonymous Teemster:
> [@](#):
>
> I thought I’d better give you the SD on the banner since people are freaking out. You can reassure them it’s not a hack job.
>
> Frank has it right - I wanted to support the SMDB because I’m bad and don’t often click on the advertising. I also don’t have
> anything to advertise - I just wanted a peaceful little ad that loaded in a hurry and wasn’t annoying.
>
> So, feel free to let them know I didn’t mean any harm, but I would rather remain anonymous. You could also tell them it’s dead easy to do, if they’d like to support the board with a little advertising
> revenue.
Hope this allays all suspicions – and perhaps gives you all an idea. Consider it the cyberspace version of the bake sale.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
The Straight Dope
“Put your money where your mouth is, we’ll put it on a banner.”
---
### Author:  [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/17 "2000-03-31T22:51:00Z")
Cool. If I have the party I’m thinkin’ about over the summer, guess where the Dopers’ invite is goin.
---
### Author:  [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/18 "2000-03-31T22:51:00Z")
Cool. Now I feel a little guilty for kinda starting the paranoia. Sorry.
---
### Author:  [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/19 "2000-03-31T23:11:00Z")
How do we find out the rates for running an ad?
---
### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2000, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165/20 "2000-03-31T23:36:00Z")
Now **that’s** a great idea!
whitetho: look at the bottom of your screen. see in tiny characters the line that says
For advertising information, see the [/url=http://www.chireader.com/readerinc/Onlinerate.html]Chicago Reader Online Rate Sheet
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-banner/1165.md?page=2)