Adverts on the forum website

[graduate_owner]

Hi all,
I keep getting adverts on these forum pages, usually based on the most recent thing I searched for. Does everyone get this, I.e. is it the forum getting revenue, or am I seeing the result of malware? I am using a hudl.

K

 

[monkeybiter]

the forum getting revenue

 

[finneyb]

If you use In Private browsing it doesn't keep the cookies so you don't get the adverts for those more sensitive things you may have recently searched on - so I'm told

Brian

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you can, install AdBlock (and Privacy badger) . I had a glitch a few months ago, and uninstalled and reinstalled AdBlock and it's blocked 688,591 adverts since then.

 

[Jacob]

I just installed adblock. Brilliant! Ads (I presume) had been slowing this site right down - becoming unusable on Chrome and slow on Safari. Now really fast!

 

[AndyT]

While I understand about AdBlocker and use it in general, I do think we ought to have a thought about how the site is financed and treat it as an exception, from time to time at least. If we do click through to the ads occasionally, advertisers will keep buying space and we will be able to carry on using the site for free, the way we like it. The ads are not very intrusive and can even be interesting, imo.

 

[AES]

+1 for what he (Andy T) said.

I just get the ads in RH column and on the top. They don't disturb me, don't seem to slow the site down (sometimes it's a bit slow, especially on start, but sometimes not, I don't know why - I use Win 7 + whatever standard Win web browser is current, I'net Explorer 11 I think), so overall it doesn't bother me.

If that's what it takes to keep it free then I can live with it.

AES

 

[Jacob]

While I understand about AdBlocker and use it in general, I do think we ought to have a thought about how the site is financed and treat it as an exception, from time to time at least. If we do click through to the ads occasionally, advertisers will keep buying space and we will be able to carry on using the site for free, the way we like it. The ads are not very intrusive and can even be interesting, imo.

The ads seemed to have stopped the site altogether for me. I tried deleting cache etc and even reinstalled but it stayed the same. It's now working perfectly without them.

 

[graduate_owner]

Thanks for the replies. I don't mind if the ads actually do provide the forum with revenue, they aren't that intrusive. I was asking in case my hudl has been attacked, in which case I would do ( or at least try to do) something about it.

K

 

[beganasatree]

I would agree with AndyT

Peter

 

[CHJ]

Thanks for the replies. I don't mind if the ads actually do provide the forum with revenue, they aren't that intrusive. I was asking in case my hudl has been attacked, in which case I would do ( or at least try to do) something about it.

K

If it's the AdChoices panel then if you click on the icon (top right corner) you will get an explanation such as this.

[ X ]

This Advertiser used Google's DoubleClick ad serving/targeting platform to determine that you might be interested in this ad. Depending on your settings, this ad may have been matched to your interests or previous visits to websites, or it may have been selected based solely on the website you are visiting.

More information & opt-out options »

What is interest based advertising »

Google Privacy Policy »

Privacy Controls by Ghostery, Inc.

 

[JohnPW]

You can block 3rd party (tracking) cookies in you browser setting. They track you across different websites and send you adverts based on what you've been browsing or searching. If you don't do anything else, you'll just see random adverts instead

Blocking 3rd party cookies generally won't affect your browsing but 3rd party have very occasional legit uses, eg you try to make a payment with an online retailer and .the payment is process by another website. In which case you'd temporarily allow 3rd party cookies.

 

[Jacob]

I'm beginning to wonder if it was mainly the ads which have recently pushed us over the limit with our broadband supplier, several months in a row, hence costing us money. Certainly everything (which had ads) is now much much faster i.e Chrome, Safari, Facebook etc.

 

[RogerS]

I'm beginning to wonder if it was mainly the ads which have recently pushed us over the limit with our broadband supplier, several months in a row, hence costing us money. Certainly everything (which had ads) is now much much faster i.e Chrome, Safari, Facebook etc.

It's watching all those 1980's videos of Corbyn that did it :wink:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I caught up with something on ITV earlier, for which I had to disable AdBlock. I came back here with it still disabled - I'd forgotten how much slower it was.

 

[Paul Hannaby]

Or you can be devious and add all the ad servers to your hosts file, redirecting them back to the localhost. This also speeds up browsing because the ad panel never loads!

 

[Jacob]

I'm beginning to wonder if it was mainly the ads which have recently pushed us over the limit with our broadband supplier, several months in a row, hence costing us money. Certainly everything (which had ads) is now much much faster i.e Chrome, Safari, Facebook etc.

It's watching all those 1980's videos of Corbyn that did it :wink:

Could be - and the Williams sisters of course :roll:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Or you can be devious and add all the ad servers to your hosts file, redirecting them back to the localhost. This also speeds up browsing because the ad panel never loads!

Now if you're talking to someone with some sort of computer literacy, fine. I have absolutely no idea what a server, a host file or the localhost is.

 

[MartinCox]

+1 for Phil.p. Can someone give us an idiots guide how to add all the ad servers to your hosts file and redirect them back to the local host.

How little did I understand after the phrase "how to"

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I had "The Idiot's Guide to Windows 8.1" - It beat me before the second page.