Too Many Ads

[horseshoes]

Hi all. I'm afraid that Answerbank has lost all it's appeal for me. It is swamped with adverts which jump up at every opportunity and getting worse. Even as I type this I can see ads for Tesco, Samsung, Pretty Green and Korniche aluminium roof lantern. Is there a way to be ad-free.

[emmie]

yes but i can't tell you how to do it.

[spathiphyllum]

"Is there a way to be ad-free."

This is a free to use website so that means the income is generated from advertisements, one way for AB to remove all adverts would be to make it a subscription only service. If that was the case, then members would have every right to moan and complain about imperfections on the site. However, as it's free to use and free to benefit from without being a member, the only thing we have to put up with is a few ads.
There are ways around this, but the more people who get around it, the less people contributing to ad revenue, this means that AB is losing out. The possible consequences of this are, not allowing members to use the website with an ad blocker. Making the site subscription only.

[Mamyalynne]

There have been posts in Ed's blog over weekend but no response so far.

[TonyV]

horseshoes, how would you fund a free commercial site then?

[emmie]

you can and some use an ad blocker..

[Rockrose]

One could google ad blocker but it is frowned upon by ed and those that work for the company that owns AB - See spaths very business motivated response above

[pixie374]

Use Opera browser. I have a mobile and would rather pay a subscription, than try to cope with all the intrusive adverts, often in the middle of a thread... and worse, pop-ups. They can make the site totally unusable. Maybe a subscription would cut down on spam too?

[Pete65]

I had the same problem on this site.
I changed my browser to Brave browser and no more ads.

[Mamyalynne]

Pop Ups that block you such as have been reported are wrong.

Surely folk would complain if billboards jumped from the pavement and blocked the road.

[pastafreak]

I have very few ads on my tablet...they are all on my phone! The amount has gone up enormously recently. That plus "please accept cookies" EVERY TIME I move from page to page, is doing my head in.

[Gromit]

Adverts pay for the running of the site, so you should not block them.
I use a VPN which means the browser is tricked into thinking that I am in another country. So instead of seeing ads for Tesco or Sainsbury, I see ads in Japanese for products I don’t even know what they are.
So AB gets it money
Tesco don’t get my custom
And I get amused by Japanese ads.

[pixie374]

Mamya, I got to a point that I literally couldn't use the site, due to pop-ups, and had no way of contacting the ed's (didn't know the email address offhand). Since doing the above, I have not had a problem since.

[pixie374]

Gromit, do advertisers know how many are using adblockers, or not? I would suspect it would make no difference- if we all kept quiet about it?

[Prudie]

I said long ago that I'd rather pay. Those who use an adblocker are contributing no less to ad revenue than users who don't. If you don't click on them and follow through it makes no difference to the revenue. From a business perspective you need to balance the amount of ads with the impact it has on the functionality of the site and at the moment that balance is incorrect. The ads are hugely intrusive and unless you're hooked on the site like most long-term users are you'd probably give it a wide berth after the first look-in.

[Mamyalynne]

If Ads prevent people posting then they are counter productive surely.

[pixie374]

I think so.... and do the advertisers get revenue, if nobody clicks on them anyway? I'm not techie and not sure how it works.

[lankeela]

I can't see any adverts!

[Toorak]

Spare ed has posted to say that the pop up problem on safari has been addressed - if your ad problem is persisting then perhaps try a post on the editors blog

[horseshoes]

I completely understand that Answerbank needs adverts to operate as a free forum, but what I object to is that they almost paralyze my screen and obscure things. Surely it doesn't have to be that way! Perhaps I shouldn't have used the term ad-free.

[AuntPollyGrey]

Can you not just use a pop up filter so the normal ads are still there? Seems the pop ups cause the most problems.