The Ad That Must Not Be Named...

[ABSpareEditor]

As we are all well aware we have had an incredibly irritating issue with a particularly clever ad that seemed determined to interrupt specific people on our lovely site.

We have been working hard over the weekend to get to the root of this. And our techie gnomes have discovered it likes to be named, so any threads naming this ad (beginning with a 'g', and ending with an 's') were triggering the ad to show.

For this reason we have deleted all threads, both old and new, that mention this terrible ad by name. It's not that we're deleting your threads because we don't care - quite the opposite!

The advice of 'please clear your cache' still stands true, if you have seen the ad, please clear your cache (comment below if you need any help on your specific browser, but a quick google should help you). And let's never talk of this terrible ad again! Doing so will cause it to rear it's ugly head!

[-Talbot-]

Am I Billy Nomates, because I never saw the ad?


Nope Holly, you're in good company...the best company. I don't use any ad blocker but never saw a thing.

[Bigbad]

I just cleared my cache, emptied the trash and restarted the computer, and I’m still getting it!

[Bigbad]

Yes, me and everyone else, spathiphyllum. I didn’t see you mention in any of your many posts not to type the name.
I suspect that like me, you didn’t know until you read this thread, not to type it, so your criticism and smugness is unwarranted.

[Gromit]

Bigbad

That is worrying.
At the moment the solution is just a working theory.

[jim360]

It may take a while for the effects of "the Voldemort Approach" to work, perhaps? If it still carries on appearing then perhaps you might want to perform a more complete check of your own computer to see if anything related to the site is still bouncing around.

[Bigbad]

Gromit, as per Buenchico’s advice the other day, I have again tried blocking things by going to ‘terminal.’ I’m on a Mac desktop. (No problems on an iPad).
All instructions say to type in sudo nano /etc/hosts or sudo flor /etc/hosts
It doesn’t matter what I do, the terminal box cannot be typed in!

[Kidas]

The best solution so far appears to be to use the Chrome browser.

There are very limited reports of Chrome users getting the advert, whereas users of other browsers can suffer repeated appearances.

If you are not on Chrome, it may help to go into the history of your browser and delete all occasions when the offending site was loaded - tell your computer to 'forget about this site' or equivalent.

Finally, if you can see the Ally-X-Pre55 advert (especially if it appears distorted), then re-load the page as quickly as you can. Repeat until that advert (yellow-orange, and advertising "50% off" is not visible on the page.

[Bigbad]

Jim, thank you for your input, but although not a complete thicko, I’m not a techie either, and wouldn’t know how to!
I can look for a youtube video, but would need to know what to look for.

Kidas, I have constantly cleared my history, and I don’t want to download another browser.
Apart from this, I’ve always been happy with Safari.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen the Ally advert.

[Voltage]

im on google chrome not had a problem

[Kidas]

Bigbad

when you try to type sudo into the terminal, does it request a password?

su / sudo = superuser and such instructions are often protected by the login password.

This is one of the more common reasons for the terminal window not permitting a sudo instruction

[Bigbad]

No, Kidas, absolutely nothing happens, not even when I click the mouse or hit the keyboard more aggressively than I should!

I’m gonna give up for now, and check back later.
Thanks to all those trying to help.

[Gromit]

Please do not start anymore threads about the Ad that cannot be named. They will get zapped anyway.

If you want to alert Tora, drop him a link to this page on one of the threads he is on.

[Bigbad]

I’m tearing my hair out here!

I’ve watched no end of youtube videos, followed the instructions, cleared the cache so often I don’t need the video to do that any more, and still it happens.
In fact, I would say that today is the worst day. Before, I could have stayed on AB for a few minutes, now It’s seconds.

I give up. It’s beaten me!