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2,121 Posts
I have now got 2 ads on how to meet women and one ad about a dating site. All because I’m 50 and collect dollies does not mean I need help with the women.
What is OSW trying to tell me?
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1,006 Posts
I will take those over the ads for the books about how to beat obesity. I know I'm not slim and trim but I am NOT obese.
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3,998 Posts
I have dating sites and home loans... and, ironically, an ad for making your own website.
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91 Posts
Yah the pop up ads are a bit annoying
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2,121 Posts
We'll trade then. I don't look obese but according to the doctors charts I am obese.
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1,200 Posts
How do you do that change the browser.
And I knew the new owners would do this to us.
And I knew the new owners would do this to us.
I'd recommend Google's Chrome browser. If you visit the goggle's chrome extension store you can search for Adblock and install from there and I'd also recommend users use the extension "uBlock Origin" as the combination of the two usually does a good job with the more annoying ads and malware.
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680 Posts
Do some Google search with key words
Chrome pop up block
Firefox pop up block
It will tell you step by step instruction. Just follow it.
Also keep in mind that there are 2 ways to show you ads.
1 is based on your search and visited sites.
2 is just generic ones based on sites ads contracts.
Most ads will do 1 by default. If you don't like it, turn off personal ads feature in the browser.
If you see adult ads without turning off 1, that means you are visiting adult site quite often. LOL
The same goes for the search results.
Thanks for the recommendations but I personally prefer MS Edge over Chrome and wouldn't switch just for OSW. For others that aren't using Chrome and prefer to keep their preferred browser, it's not necessary to switch to Chrome to get those extensions. Both ad blockers are available for just about every browser out there. I use MS Edge with Adblock Plus and I'm not seeing any of the popup ads that others are reporting. I haven't used uBlock Origin but it seems to be available for most browsers as well so I will give it a try to combat popups from some of the more pesky sites out there. When I visited their website it says that it doesn't support Edge but it's available for free from the Microsoft store in beta form. For anyone that's interested, visit the first two sites and they should recognize the browser you're using and allow you to install the proper version. For uBlock Origin for MS Edge, use the third link.
Adblock Plus - Surf the web without annoying ads!
uBlock - A Fast and Efficient Ad Blocker. Easy on CPU and Memory.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/ublock-origin/9nblggh444l4
***edit***
If you're using Firefox Quantum and want to install uBlock Origin, then go here: uBlock Origin - Add-ons for Firefox
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2,502 Posts
I agree with Scimitar that one doesn't have to use Chrome (though it has its advantages). I have been using Firefox all along and with a couple of ad blockers I don't see any (ads).
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3,887 Posts
personally i don't mind the new ads if osw gets money to stay alive. that said, ad blockers work, but some sites do not work with them at all. I wont name names, but theres one with a p in the name, and i cant watch anything on it with ad blocking. not that i mind. i'm sure that on phones it's much more intrusive.
There are several advantages to using Chrome. One being their recent push to integrate built in blocking for a number of intrusive ad types. It can do this without relying on filter lists, something other blockers rely on. The other being it operates in a more sandboxed environment which helps with common malware attack strategies spread through flash and ads. I mention those specifically as OSW was previously effected by this, and both the old owners as well as the newer owners have a somewhat patchy record with large scale hacks of their servers. Vbulletin tends to get hacked not only for the user databases but also to distribute malware, as OSW was for a time doing in the past when it was compromised. That being said browser choices tend to be more personal so a combination of some sound blocking options like those mentioned along with a good AV and malware solution will do a reasonable job.
I despise popup ads with a passion and simply won't allow them to show up in my browser if it's possible to block them. Therefore, ad blockers are a must. To address the issue that you mention, most ad blockers (and all the ones mentioned so far)) add an icon to the browser (on Edge, it's to the right of the address bar) that you can click and turn the ad blocker off momentarily while using sites that won't work with them enabled. Most ad blockers (including the ones mentioned) also allow you to very easily whitelist sites so that ads from those sites won't be blocked. Also, I don't think that an ad blocker would negatively effect OSW. Obviously, some sites check for ad blockers before delivering content but that doesn't seem to be the case with OSW and I doubt that the advertisers know if individual users are using ad blockers or not. I'm currently using three ad blockers at the same time and to give OSW the benefit of the doubt, I've whitelisted the site and the only thing that I'm actively blocking is popup ads. Once a site is whitelisted, nothing else has to be done. As soon as I switch to another site, all the blockers are active again.
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5,799 Posts
I don't think you should take those ads personally.....they are only trying to make money.....
Some of the ads that are now showing up are quite inappropriate for this forum. The Ashley Madison adultery dating site in particular has no place here considering that some members are underage. I gave the new owners the benefit of the doubt and disabled my ad blocker for OSW but I have now turned it back on.
I did a quick browse switching over to LTE so my firewall's filter lists weren't blocking any content and the first ad is dating naughty single moms. You would think that a company associated with a newspaper would have some sense of what sort of ads you run and where you place them, but this site is basically being pimped out for the lowest rung of ads out there. It is barely a step above the pseudo adware/malware/etc networks. This was to be expected as VS is a for profit enterprise that doesn't actually manage communities and contribute content, but rather just levies subscription/feature fees for users and runs ads to leverage the community traffic.
Sadly annoying ads are actually a feature of the business model. One of their staples is forum subscriptions where you get less ads, classifieds permissions, a flair/username, a special badge, and more! A single annual user subscription fee is about what the site costs to run a month for context.
I'm no prude but with ads for sites like Ashley Madison and those for meeting "naughty" women, OSW is approaching the point where it could be considered "NSFW". If my wife walks by and sees those types of ads on the screen, she's going to want to know what I'm doing. I can easily explain it away but a forum for action figures shouldn't put me in that position. I have to wonder if we will eventually see more explicit ads in the future with nudity or ads for porn sites? Perhaps OSW is actually dieing or being ruined as some have suggested.
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