Why so many adverts suddenly?

[ColinEssex]

Over the recent week or so, when I browse the forums I get loads of adverts between each post on any thread. I counted 25 adverts between 2 posts on the Trump thread. None of the adverts were relevant and took some time to scroll to the next post. What has happened? How can I stop these useless annoying adverts? They have ruined these forums.
Col

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Col, that is an "@Jon" question. Moderators won't be able to answer that.

 

[Jon]

Over the recent week or so, when I browse the forums I get loads of adverts between each post on any thread. I counted 25 adverts between 2 posts on the Trump thread.

Can you provide a screenshot so I can see what is going on? Were you logged in when you saw those adverts?

 

[ColinEssex]

Hi Jon. I don't have a computer, I only use an ipad, I don't know how to do a screenshot, sorry. Yes I was logged in.
Col

 

[Jon]

Are you still getting them? And when you say 25 ads between 2 posts, do you mean between 2 posts within a thread?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Col, never let it be said that I would ignore a request for help. Here is how an IPAD takes a screenshot.

Take a screenshot on iPad

Take a picture of what’s on your iPad screen.

support.apple.com

 

[ColinEssex]

Done it!

 

[Jon]

I have not made any changes to the advertising system in over a couple of years. I've got Google Adsense on the site and Google largely determines where to place the adverts and how many through their automated system. I would suggest clearing your cache to see if that does anything.

 

[Jon]

Google automatically decides where the ads go. No ads, no site. How else can we pay the hosting and upkeep?

 

[Jon]

Couple of ads? No site.

 

[Jason Lee Hayes]

What really gets on my nerves isn’t just the ads themselves—it’s where they’re placed. First on the right, then the left, then back to the right… it’s like playing a game of Downfall trying to keep up. And the sheer number of them? Way over the top. I get that ads are part of the deal, but still… it’s seriously frustrating.

 

[Jon]

What really gets on my nerves isn’t just the ads themselves—it’s where they’re placed. First on the right, then the left, then back to the right… it’s like playing a game of Downfall trying to keep up. And the sheer number of them? Way over the top. I get that ads are part of the deal, but still… it’s seriously frustrating.

I wish there were no ads, but the alternative is no site at all. Going back to before Covid, we had lots of traffic and so could afford to have fewer ads. Traffic is down to about 1/3rd and most of the higher paying advertisers left. So, we are on a shoestring here, which means more ads.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Just checked in and, for some reason, Firefox lost my cookies so I had to log in again. Before I did so, I saw a whole bunch of ads. The ones that have the blue-and-white triangle pointing to the right are from Google. Once I logged in, as a moderator I don't see the ads and that behaved normally. It is interesting that several of the ads appeared to be from private consultants for Office products.

 

[ColinEssex]

What really gets on my nerves isn’t just the ads themselves—it’s where they’re placed. First on the right, then the left, then back to the right… it’s like playing a game of Downfall trying to keep up. And the sheer number of them? Way over the top. I get that ads are part of the deal, but still… it’s seriously frustrating.

Two things will finish this site. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but sometime. How sad.

A) Americans who think they know it all - and don't, instead, they are boring.
And more importantly
B) Too many ads, even in the middle of a post you're trying to read. I've had ads from sanitary towels to cars, all of no interest to me.

Col

 

[Isaac]

Americans who think they know it all - and don't, instead, they are boring

I for one am happy to talk about just about anything. Whether it's something I know much about or not, as long as it's interesting to learn.
I enjoy learning new things as long as it's at least just familiar enough so that I might have some opinion on it, since we all compulsively enjoy sharing our opinion it seems that's human nature

 

[Isaac]

Only if you bring an electronic device into your home such as a "smart" refrigerator. Or maybe you got on their radar somehow and they broke in and bugged your house.

Of course I don't trust my TV. That's what Big Brother used and ours now look just like the ones in the movie from 20+ years ago.

Esp when they're made in other countries

 

[Isaac]

The government stopped buying certain components from China due to embedded spyware.

It's a drop in the bucket but that's a good start

 

[Mark_]

Well, to help avoid annoying adds we can start asking for a list of "All places that have and independence day thanks to the UK". Should give Collin some possible vacation plans and make big brother help us for a change!

 

[moke123]

They've been spying on us ever since we started using cell phones and the internet. Fir all we know, they have the ability to listen and see everything we do in our homes, car, everywhere we go with our devices.

I've been demoing a new database the past month which contains something like 80 billion records from license plate readers around the country. I never knew how widespread they were. They're supposedly going on amazon, ups, and fedex trucks as an additional revenue stream. I put my own plate into it and it had pictures of me driving on the roads, my car in my driveway and at my office and stores It has the GPS co-ordinates of each photo, dates and times, etc. You can also geo-fence an area and see all the cars that were read within that selected area. You can set an alert where you get notified if a plate you set is read somewhere.
Some pretty intrusive stuff.