Worst Ads Ever! (SkepticOverlord's Ad Hitlist)

Just A Reminder

Originally posted by SimonGray

4b) Ad Blockers: As AboveTopSecret.com is provided as a free service, in part through the income of our advertising, you agree not to use "ad-blocking" software or similar built-in web browser options designed to obfuscate or block online advertising while using the website(s).

This thread is for identifying specific ads that members want to see removed from ATS. Please post accordingly.

Thanks.

Mod note: We'll review the terms & conditions and discuss this via U2U. -- Majic




[edit on 8/16/2009 by Majic]

Guess i best rewrite that post and word it in a less sartirical form.

Could advertising have an effect on what posts are allowed and which are removed ie. If there were a lot of revenue from a particular advertiser, would it be prudent to control the content of posts that may put said advertisers in a bad light or maybe sway people away from purchasing that product ?

[edit on 16-8-2009 by Wobbly Anomaly]

reply to post by Wobbly Anomaly

I don't think so, the way the adverts work is by using keywords, so I think that if they are filtering bad keywords associated with a product or ad then they would probably show different ads for the same product, but as that would be more difficult to implement, I don't think any ad company uses them.

So, you may be talking about some product, saying that it's the worst on the market and that the company suck but the adds will be the same, showing you how good the product is.

PS: I think I have seen something like that 3 or 4 years ago.

reply to post by ArMaP


The ad's on here must be targeted though, this is a very particular demographic and i would guess that it's a) in the advertisers interest to get to a key market and in the interest of the site to attract the highest revenue advertisers. At what point do we say that advertising is directly effecting the content/spread of ideas on a site ?

Since I'm behind a company firewall all ads are blocked anyhow. The admin has modified hosts files, runs browser with a higher security as well as the adblock plugins.

thing is even if I agreed there's nothing I can do about it, and if I tried to ask the network admin to allow ads on 1 site on the net, he'd laugh at me.

user level access can't make any changes since it's all on citrix terminals.

adfree is nice anyhow, cause people that use flash ads should be shot imo.

adsense text ads are cool, but flash/shockwave ads should be illegal.

reply to post by Wobbly Anomaly

They are targeted but, as far as I have seen, to the "average ATS member", they are targeted in the same way as all other ads.

For example, I see sometimes ads that are specific for Portugal, and I haves seen many people talking about ads that I have never see. That, as far as I see it, it's because the ads are sent at the time that we request the page.

The ATS or BTS page includes the code for the ad company, the ad company gets the request and the information sent by the browser (probably including the usual location from the IP address, browser, any search word used to get to the page, etc.), and we receive both things, the ATS or BTS page and the ad, "tailored" to what we "show" to the outside world when we are browsing any site.

What's up with that "Magic" ad on the homepage.

outlander FLASH POP UP

total crap... get ride of it..

reply to post by symmetricAvenger


Get yourself 'Flashblock' sir...
You need to be on Firefox to roll like that.

reply to post by and14263


I am on firefox the little bugger still popped up LOL u2u me that blocker thing.. i aint a fan of blocking it because i have clicked on some adds on ATS but that one just did my nut in it covered half my screen!!!

Please ATS no more flash ones.. i hate them because i make them lol

just kinda gets in the way the other static ones are fine but the roll overs "inserts some kinda inflammatory words lol"

I appreciate that ATS relies on Ads to pay all the bandwidth bills, so what I'm wondering, is there some ad block type software that will only block those ads that are known to be scams or use things like pop ups or malicious code?

I'm sure a lot of people are only concerned about ads that are either dangerous or highly annoying (like pop ups), but the browser add-ons I've seen seem to 'throw out the baby with the bathwater' as it were.

reply to post by dugganj83

Opera can block ads (or anything else) using their URL, so it can only block specific ads, I once blocked an avatar that I thought annoying.

I'm fed up of the Outlander ad dropping down when I want to click on My ATS or Member Tools (for instance).

Why does it have to come down so far? I inadvertently clicked on the last one that did that and ended up on the Amazon website.

It's not getting my attention, it's just irritating me. I only know what it's called because I looked especially so I could complain about it.

The way the ad behaves completely defeats its objective.

reply to post by berenike


Funnily enough, I was just strolling on by to say the same thing. That freaking outlander drop down ad is pissing me off no end. Like in a big way.


Dudes in control, please kill it in the face, kill it in the face with fire *flutters eyelashes*

edit to add, is it still the case, where if you have over 250 flags, you get to view ATS ad free?

[edit on 2/9/2009 by Acidtastic]

I just had something interesting happen. I went to a thread and prompt to close Adobe Acrobat came up yet I had no PDF's open in any browser. After I hit "close" the Data Execution Prevention icon came up in the tray and stated that was why AA was shut down. So, something tried to execute code in a data segment which sounds like a malformed PDF automatically being snuck-in somewhere trying to implement a buffer overflow exploit.

Just a fair warning. Look out for that one!

Update (a few hours later):
I updated Acrobat, and this time I got a dialog requesting that eula.exe be allowed to run because of the new install (to agree to licence terms firt I presume). The ads that were showing were Evony and Singles Net.

[edit on 9/19/2009 by EnlightenUp]

i didn't bother to read the whole thread, but Firefox+AdBlock Plus anyone???
(edit to ad(d) (no pun intended))

I have absolutley no comercials, banners or pop-ups anywhere i go, if I see one on the rare ocassion I kill it by right clicking + add to filter

[edit on 11-10-2009 by SkurkNilsen]

reply to post by SkurkNilsen

And did you noticed that in the Terms & Conditions that you signed to become a member it says:

4b) Ad Blockers: As AboveTopSecret.com is provided as a free service, in part through the income of our advertising, you agree not to use "ad-blocking" software or similar built-in web browser options designed to obfuscate or block online advertising while using the website(s).