RE: Tech: ads on Mudcat

Subject: RE: RE: Tech: ads on Mudcat
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 15 Nov 21 - 12:55 PM

There’s an old adage in the advertising world that says that half the money spent on advertising is wasted but nobody has ever been able to work out which half it is.

The pop-up advertising we’re talking about clearly falls within the 50% waste and I, for one, avoid looking at it and would particularly avoid dealing with anyone who uses this form of advert.

Subject: RE: RE: Tech: ads on Mudcat
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Nov 21 - 12:17 PM

You can get an adblock app from the Google play store, I use it on my Android phone to block a lot of ads. It works in the background, you don't add it to the phone browser like an extension on the desktop.

Subject: RE: RE: Tech: ads on Mudcat
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 15 Nov 21 - 09:52 AM

Jeri - the overlay ads which bury mudcat on chrome browser on my android phone,
tend to be for music software
I've previously shown interest in...

[android chrome does not allow install of any plugins like AdBlock]

Subject: RE: RE: Tech: ads on Mudcat
From: Jeri
Date: 15 Nov 21 - 09:37 AM

I don't believe the ads have anything to do with Mudcat cookies. Google sticks them in here, and I think it's based on your browser history.
You can get adBlock Plus, or view threads a "printer friendly".

Subject: RE: Tech: Pussed Off
From: Reinhard
Date: 15 Nov 21 - 08:02 AM

These annoying ads pop up since about September. On my Firefox and my iPad Safari, the uBlock Origin extension helps against them; otherwise I would have left Mudcat too.

Subject: RE: Tech: Pussed Off
From: Rain Dog
Date: 15 Nov 21 - 07:40 AM

It happens to me as well when i first open a thread. I just hit the back button and then reopen the thread again without any problem. I can also usually open other threads without the problem recurring.

A minor inconvenience at most. I am using android on a phone.

Subject: Tech: Pussed Off
From: GUEST,JHW
Date: 15 Nov 21 - 06:01 AM

I've mentioned this on several threads but find whenever I click a thread title up comes a popup ad in my screen blocked by a greyed out surrounding. EVEN trying to greate this thread up came a blessed ad. So I close my browser and go. I guess its goodbye Mudcat. It may say Guest JHW. I used to be a member, tried removing loads of cookies but ads still come up.
I guess no-one elso has the problem. Doesn't happen elsewhere.
What baffles me is that if I never come to Mudcat anymore I'm not going to see their damned ads so what is their point?
GOODBYE
John

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: JHW
Date: 28 Sep 21 - 02:37 PM

Maybe its been fixed. I was getting much the same as Rain Dog but has stopped.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 26 Sep 21 - 11:56 AM

Ad's on Mudcat? :)

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: JHW
Date: 25 Sep 21 - 04:53 PM

I've even had an ad for 'Ad free net' Didn't click it - might be for anything!

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 23 Sep 21 - 06:42 PM

Seven years down the road.
Still no ads - except for a small Dell computer ad separating MC's heaven and hell sections.

Once MC encouraged clicking on advertisements to help generate revenue to sponsor Max.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Maybe GUESTS have more freedom than members?

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: leeneia
Date: 23 Sep 21 - 12:43 PM

I don't see any ads at this time. I pay $10 a month for YouTube, and somewhere in my system is an ad blocker. I'm embarrassed to say that I don't remember where it is or what you call it, but it's working beautifully.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Rain Dog
Date: 23 Sep 21 - 12:34 PM

Using a phone to access Mudcat, i get an ad popup when i open the first thread on each visit. Small add in the middle (usually) of a blank page.

For instance, on opening the thread 'I'll go to the foot of our stairs', i got an ad for Age Co Homelifts.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: JHW
Date: 22 Sep 21 - 05:25 AM

Worked out how the full page ads arrive. Simply click on a BS thread and up comes a dark greyed out screen with an ad in the middle. Clicking Mudcat browser button takes me back to the start.
Why I don't know. Tech how to avoid would probably be beyond me. Has only happened on Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat.
From: DaveRo
Date: 18 Sep 21 - 05:38 PM

Google says: Vignette ads are full-screen ads that appear between page loads and can be skipped by users at any time. Vignettes are displayed when the user leaves a page, rather than when they arrive on one, so the user doesn't have to wait for them to load.

I've never seen one of these adverts but if that description is true then it suggests a method to avoid them. Always open a thread in a new tab, so you never leave the thread index page. After reading a thread just close its tab, which will return you to the index.

Most browsers offer to open a link in a new tab if you long-press it on a touch screen, or right- or middle-click it with a mouse.

I've no idea whether this works on an iThing, or whether it's better than just dismissing the ad.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: JHW
Date: 18 Sep 21 - 03:42 PM

I looked here hoping the current full page ads might get a mention. I've been getting a darkened full screen with an ad in the middle. Haven't worked out what triggers them but they do go easily. As someone said what's the point of an ad that annoys you. Maybe to get attention. Ads in posts are easier to ignore.
Note; Its only on Mudcat it happens I think. wth

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 18 Sep 21 - 03:12 PM

The full-page ad pops up every time I open the first thread in a Mudcat browsing session. I use a laptop.

A real pain in the neck.

Jay

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Sep 21 - 03:01 PM

I knew there was a good reason to not using a phone or iPad..etc. to read Mudcat.I haven't seen an ad of any kind in years in my Win7 desktop.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Sep 21 - 01:10 PM

When the full page pop-up appears, as it did a few minutes ago,
the URL says
the usual https://mudcat.org
and adds to this
/#google_vignette

?

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 14 Sep 21 - 04:23 AM

Powered up the laptop as I had to download some paperwork and decided to do some old school browsing. Popup on the first thread I looked at advertisign ad blockers. At least it wasn't larger than the screen so I could easily close it.

There don't seem to be as many ads scattered through the threads than when using Chrome with Android but that might be because they are less "in your face" on a larger screen.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 14 Sep 21 - 02:56 AM

Two days running a full page pop up has come up on the first thread that I have clicked on. Neither had been optimised for a phone and I certainly didn't bother to scroll to find out what they were for.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Reinhard
Date: 13 Sep 21 - 02:25 PM

I've trained myself to mentally more or less ignore in-page ads, so selecting the printer-friendly page is just extra effort.

But being forced to look at the full-page ads and to have to actively click them away before I can read the actual page contents is an absolute no-no. I'm so mad that I've removed the about 800 links from Mainly Norfolk to Mudcat for now.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Sep 21 - 12:12 PM

That's an excellent tip, Joe. Reading the printer friendly version of a thread means you need to scroll to the bottom (not go by Mudcat link), but without the hijinx of ads that want to load if your finger hovers too close to the ad link.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Sep 21 - 11:45 AM

I agree, Reinhard. We have a new type of fullscreen ad that comes up whenever I click a link on the Forum Menu. One would think that Google would know by now that ads work best when they're inviting, not annoying. At least these new fullscreen ads are easy to click away.
The ads on the top and bottom of screens make Mudcat almost unusable on my phone.

Please note that Max has turned off ads on the "printer friendly" versions of threads and messages. The thread links are at the top of every thread, and the message links at the bottom of each message. Use CTRL-F to find the word printer.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Sep 21 - 11:30 AM

Because Mudcat doesn't have images and fancy downloadable files, the security is fairly low. Nothing to download that has noxious things hidden inside. But the ads that load come from Google, and who knows what comes through. You can express preferences on ads (that's a different operation, probably achieved by visiting a Google ad preference site.) The security caution I usually see on my Windows computer has to do with searching the DT, where there is less security or certificate activity than the rest of the site. I just click past it.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Sep 21 - 11:27 AM

You can get ad blockers for tablets, I recommend you search around for one! I use them on my phone and my tablets (Android, mind you, but I suspect Apple lets its users block ads also.)

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Sep 21 - 11:26 AM

The last few times I've logged on, the Mudcat page has been completely blocked by a full-screen ad. Well the last one wasn't even an ad - it was some kind of copyright warning! I'm on my iPad.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Reinhard
Date: 13 Sep 21 - 11:22 AM

Up to now the ads on Mudcat were merely slightly disturbing, especially if they cut a posting in half. But now every few minutes when I click on a posting to read I get a full screen advertisement pop up that is impossible to ignore and that I hate with a passion.

On my Mac's Firefox I have an adblocker, but most often I'm reading Mudcat in bed on my iPad and I don't know what to do except staying away from Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: artbrooks
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 09:03 AM

No ads. AdBlock Plus.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 01:18 PM

I know some folks who could qualify for Chronic Crabbiness Syndrome. There's always the recreational bitcher's subset of that (bitcher does not have to be gender specific). I see today that I can meet Asian Women. Yes, we love the slower pace of life up in the UP. Of course that might have something to do with both of us ditching our day jobs and being able to play more music.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 10:14 AM

Hi, Phil. This is the second reference to the UP in a few days for me.

When I was a kid in Milwaukee, we used to go to the UP for our big vacation. I was a nature lover and a rock collector, so for me the UP was heaven.   

Last Sunday we went to a theater organ concert where a man from the UP, Dave Wickerham of Crystal City, played us some incredible music.

I'll get caught up with your music on YouTube.
========
Re the post just above: I've been thinking. Psychiatry recognizes chronic sadness (depression), chronic fear (anxiety) and even chronic cheerfulness (seen in some stroke victims.)

Don't you suppose it's time we recognized Chronic Crabbiness Syndrome?

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 15 Jan 14 - 03:47 PM

Yes, Leeneia, I am that very same person. I still play with Margaret in the context of the Bittersweet Christmas Band. We did the last official Cooper & Nelson gig in late January of 2011. There was no big fallout, or anything exciting. My life partner, now spouse of 24 some years, Susan Urban and I had been planning on moving to the UP in Michigan for some time. After my dad died in 2009 we started firming up those plans. No one that either Susan or I played with from the Chicago area was crazy enough to want to move to the UP. Susan and I figured that if we were going to keep playing music, that we would have to with each other, so we formed the band February Sky (you can punch in my name on youtube and see videos from all sorts of incarnations). We didn't move till 2013, but bookings seemed to be falling off for C & N (we weren't alt folk, or any other sort of act places were starting to look for), so we thought officially calling it a day in 2011 made sense. Hope that wasn't too long an explanation.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Jan 14 - 10:26 AM

Phil, I'm with you. (Love your puns!) Actually, the only game I like to play is Scrabble. Are you the Phil Cooper that I've heard perform with Margaret Nelson?

Topsie, don't worry. They advertise singing lessons because no singer ever feels she's good enough.

Seriously, the Adblock seems to be working and there's no sign that it has messed up anything else on my computer. I'm ready to go back to their site and make a donation.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 15 Jan 14 - 07:23 AM

I keep getting advertisements for singing lessons - is there something my friends have been too polite to tell me?

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: SINSULL
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 11:31 AM

I was a bit mystified by the zaftig ladies cavorting near our banjo. Given the Mudcat median age I saw heart attacks in our future. Is that what Mick was up to????


Cellar!

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Mr Red
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 11:20 AM

FWIW I don't use Google to search and get no pop-up ads.
Use http://alltheweb.com (rather than Yahoo direct and you get few ads on their page. Just a thought, but I do clear cookies often and never click through. Amazon seem to think I want to see their wares but they are small ads.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Jeri
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 10:10 AM

You know what they say about elephants, right? Very good mammaries.
Phil, I could get into the thinking sort of games. I don't like ones that require speed and a lot of manual dexterity. I'm finding texting is as much of a challenge as I can deal with.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 09:50 AM

Good one, Leenia. I did get it. I just didn't want to come across like a boob. I do like to keep abreast of developments. Now I see a different ad on top. I'm afraid in reality computer games is something I don't do. In college pac man was first coming out, and pong. I was more in to shooting pool and playing pinball at bars, so I never saw the point. When one pushes playing music one has to prioritize what one does in their spare time, and gaming never moved up the list. I guess that means I'm a dinosaur.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Jeri
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 09:17 AM

If the elephants are trying to sell you something, they're ads and AdBlock would work. If they're just there having a good time, I'd leave them alone or look into getting some more effective medication.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 08:42 AM

Maybe not, Grishka, but green shades may make them look brown.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 07:20 AM

When I open Mudcat, I always see pink elephants. Would AdBlock help against these?

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 12:42 AM

Well, Phil, the game is called 'League of Angels,' so I suppose I was targeted because I posted Christmas songs that mentioned angels.

So maybe if you post something truly angelic and pious, you will get to see the titillating ads again. TIT ilating, get it?

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 12:06 AM

I just noticed the computer game ad was replaced by christian singles. Can I get the boobs back?

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jan 14 - 11:18 AM

You're welcome Jeri. I've had AdBlock for slightly less than a month now and it has blocked over 23,000 ads. (Well, you were here so you know.) Good to see you back online.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Jeri
Date: 13 Jan 14 - 10:44 AM

And thanks to GUEST and gnu for mentioning AdBlock before I did.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 13 Jan 14 - 10:13 AM

Yes, I have, Gargoyle. I doubt that the appearence of the ad has anything to do with previous activity. It's probably a shotgun approach. Saints preserve us from amateur pornographers who manage to be offensive without even being sexy.

So far, AdBlock seems to be helping. Thanks, Jeri.

I

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 12 Jan 14 - 09:56 PM

Have you made a small contribution to Mudcat?

Just a wild guess...

I get virtually no mudcat ads. The few that do come through are tiny, reserved in content. and nice. They are subjects I am actually interested in.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

I remove cache, cookies, history, data....one to three times each day. You need to browse with a condom ... and wash frequently. It appears soom Mudcatters are lazy and have contracted "the French Pox"

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 12 Jan 14 - 09:24 PM

I've been getting that ad, too, and wondered what I did to trigger it. I can't think of any website I've visited that could have caused this. When I was getting ready to buy my car, I got a lot of car ads. When I'm trying to pick other products, I get lots of ads with similar products. But this one? I have no clue. All I can say is "Yuck!"

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 Jan 14 - 08:14 PM

Thanks for the link, Jack. It gave me a laugh.

I realize that ads help finance the Internet, but I draw the line at strangers trying to poop on my posts.

I'll look into AdBlock.

Subject: RE: Tech: offensive ad on Mudcat. Yellow stickies
From: Jeri
Date: 12 Jan 14 - 02:20 PM

I'm not sure the ads alone help pay for Mudcat. I think maybe you clicking on them does.

I've had AdBlock Plus on my computer since I first noticed the ads slowed it down unbearably. I still have a browser without AdBlock on it in case I want to see them.

I think Max would be happy if he didn't need the revenue from them. Until he doesn't, we can choose to either find a solution for ourselves or complain. One of those actually makes one's experience better.