anyone having trouble posting, quoting, etc due to aggressive ads?

[TheVat]

Took me a couple tries to just post this.  

On the brain/protein thread I couldn't post at all.  Sometimes the text box wouldn't open or the quote selection feature would refuse to work.   Seemed to relate to drop-down ads atop the page that would freeze all activity until I closed them, but sometimes not.  And of course there seems to be a new and aggressive wave of full page blocking ads, a lot of them seem to want me to join a popular service that rhymes with snick-snock (don't want to inflame them further by including actual name).  

[StringJunky]

Is it on a phone or pc? Is it an iphone or Apple computer?

Edited June 27 by StringJunky

[iNow]

I’ve noticed it too, yes. iPhone and frequently there are ads which cover the text editor box and make the action buttons like submit etc hidden behind the ad itself. It takes lots of strategic scrolling to get to the spot I need to proceed. 

Edited June 27 by iNow

[StringJunky]

4 minutes ago, iNow said:

I’ve noticed it too, yes. iPhone and frequently there are ads which cover the text editor box and make the action buttons like submit etc hidden behind the ad itself. It takes lots of strategic scrolling to get to the spot I need to proceed. 

Have you tried Brave browser on your phone? It is a very non-invasive browser and geared towards user experience, rather than facilitating advertisers. It's my goto on Windows 11.

[iNow]

Negative but am familiar 

[Phi for All]

We'll have an Admin check the settings and see if there's something to be done.

[exchemist]

1 hour ago, Phi for All said:

We'll have an Admin check the settings and see if there's something to be done.

Good idea. While they are at it, the vignette ads that they managed to suppress a few months ago have returned. (I’ve now got sufficiently fed up that I’ve installed Adblock Plus, which seems to get rid of them, but for those without it must be annoying. I’m running Safari on Apple Mac.)

[StringJunky]

I've rarely had problems with ads on Android or Windows.

[TheVat]

14 hours ago, StringJunky said:

Is it on a phone or pc? Is it an iphone or Apple computer?

Android tablet.  I'll try the Brave browser you mentioned.  I do have an alternative browser, DuckDuckGo, which I would use more often in such situations but it's rather clunky and so stripped-down that it's missing features I am used to in Chrome.  

Thanks @Phi for All for checking.  Liked your curly hair joke, btw.  

[StringJunky]

25 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Android tablet.  I'll try the Brave browser you mentioned.  I do have an alternative browser, DuckDuckGo, which I would use more often in such situations but it's rather clunky and so stripped-down that it's missing features I am used to in Chrome.  

Thanks @Phi for All for checking.  Liked your curly hair joke, btw.  

Just had a look on my Android phone (Android 13 OS) with Brave installed and gone on this site. No ads. Brave Shields, the built-in blocker on its own seems to do the trick. Click on the the lion icon up top to toggle it off for a site if it gets in the way of access. There are two levels of ad removal: aggressive and normal, and other options. If it's too stripped down for you, but works here, you could just use it for here and use Chrome for your other sites.

Edited June 28 by StringJunky

[TheVat]

Six tries to post this.  Let me be blunt here.  The ads, which for various reasons I cannot block on this chrome tablet, are now disabling my keyboard (and quite often the button that allows you to quote and then reply).  I had to go through various contortions and finally got the keyboard to reappear.  Other facts possibly of use to the site owner:

This tablet has none of these problems with other comparable sites.

Chrome tablets are common, so this site issue could be deterring other members and prospective members. (I have noticed some really slow days here lately - of course I can't be sure that is related to the ad attacks)

Page blocking ads are rude as all holy fuck.  (I may have touched on that last fact before)  

With regret, I will have to reduce my participation here if this problem persists.

 

[geordief]

17 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Six tries to post this.  Let me be blunt here.  The ads, which for various reasons I cannot block on this chrome tablet, are now disabling my keyboard (and quite often the button that allows you to quote and then reply).  I had to go through various contortions and finally got the keyboard to reappear.  Other facts possibly of use to the site owner:

This tablet has none of these problems with other comparable sites.

Chrome tablets are common, so this site issue could be deterring other members and prospective members. (I have noticed some really slow days here lately - of course I can't be sure that is related to the ad attacks)

Page blocking ads are rude as all holy fuck.  (I may have touched on that last fact before)  

With regret, I will have to reduce my participation here if this problem persists.

 

I normally use an android phone  but there is a Samsung Tablet in the house and I am now using it (with Chrome)

I don't see a problem this end (there are ads af the top of the page)

Have you tried both landscape and portrait? I find that sometimes one works better than the other. 

[geordief]

3 hours ago, geordief said:

I normally use an android phone  but there is a Samsung Tablet in the house and I am now using it (with Chrome)

I don't see a problem this end (there are ads af the top of the page)

Have you tried both landscape and portrait? I find that sometimes one works better than the other. 

Edit.This site is loading incredibly slowly this past while.Maybe that is the problem?

[iNow]

12 hours ago, TheVat said:

I will have to reduce my participation here if this problem persists.

Any ideas on what options the admins even have to assist?

[exchemist]

2 hours ago, iNow said:

Any ideas on what options the admins even have to assist?

They were able to stop “vignette”, i.e. full page, ads that you have to cancel in order to get back to the page you were on. So it does appear admin has, or had,  some means of control.

But some months later they came back again, at which point I got sufficiently pissed off that I installed Adblock Plus, which suppresses them. So maybe the enshittifiers have found a way to overcome whatever admin did.

[Sensei]

I never post and rarely read the forum from a cell phone or tablet. But often on a regular computer, when making a longer reply that involves copying and pasting links or quotes from articles (which requires switching tabs and/or browser windows), the forum software automatically reloads the page. Sometimes it ends up with the whole post disappearing while editing, sometimes it's still there, but you have to click "reply to this topic...".

 

[dimreepr]

3 hours ago, Sensei said:

I never post and rarely read the forum from a cell phone or tablet. But often on a regular computer, when making a longer reply that involves copying and pasting links or quotes from articles (which requires switching tabs and/or browser windows), the forum software automatically reloads the page. Sometimes it ends up with the whole post disappearing while editing, sometimes it's still there, but you have to click "reply to this topic...".

 

I've found a reasonable work around, before you leave the site to gather information, highlight a word and click the link button; it mostly, work's. 

[Phi for All]

Dave has been on holiday, and today he's back and will have a chance to take a look at this, see if we can't make it right.

[TheVat]

Thanks all of you.  This is the first time been able to post.  Am moving permanently to DDG, a browser I'm not crazy about, but at least it works to suppress some of these problems.  Cory Doctorow seems to have been right.  

[studiot]

On 8/11/2024 at 8:47 PM, TheVat said:

Thanks all of you.  This is the first time been able to post.  Am moving permanently to DDG, a browser I'm not crazy about, but at least it works to suppress some of these problems.  Cory Doctorow seems to have been right.  

I'm not having trouble with the posting action itself, but this is the sort of thing I see over 50% of the time when I try to move to a differnt page on the website eg from the browse tab to the activity tab.

Now the ad box goes away if I left click outside the box and I am returned to the original page, not the new one I requested.
But the second request then sends me to the correct page.

I agree it is annoying and hampers the flow of usage.

Note the page address changes in the address bar with the addition of  google vignette

 

[StringJunky]

1 hour ago, studiot said:

I'm not having trouble with the posting action itself, but this is the sort of thing I see over 50% of the time when I try to move to a differnt page on the website eg from the browse tab to the activity tab.

Now the ad box goes away if I left click outside the box and I am returned to the original page, not the new one I requested.
But the second request then sends me to the correct page.

I agree it is annoying and hampers the flow of usage.

Note the page address changes in the address bar with the addition of  google vignette

 

What browser are you using?

 

[studiot]

9 hours ago, StringJunky said:

What browser are you using?

 

Firefox

 

This doesn't happen on any other website, just SF,  by the way.

[exchemist]

11 hours ago, studiot said:

I'm not having trouble with the posting action itself, but this is the sort of thing I see over 50% of the time when I try to move to a differnt page on the website eg from the browse tab to the activity tab.

Now the ad box goes away if I left click outside the box and I am returned to the original page, not the new one I requested.
But the second request then sends me to the correct page.

I agree it is annoying and hampers the flow of usage.

Note the page address changes in the address bar with the addition of  google vignette

 

Yes, this was explained to us before as being something euphemistically termed a "vignette" ad. The idea is it intrudes into what you are trying to do, to force you to cancel it in order to get back to where you were. Bloody rude and irritating: a classic example of Cory Doctorow's concept of enshittification in action:  https://doctorow.medium.com/my-mcluhan-lecture-on-enshittification-ea343342b9bc

"We’re all living through the enshittocene, a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit." 

[MigL]

It is extremely irritating when the ads pop-up at the most inopportune times.
If you go to a different tab to check/copy a link or something, an ad will usually pop-up, and you have to re-open the editor to retrieve your unfinished post.
Another irritation that has happened at least twice now, when attempting to submit a post an ad will pop up, you cancel the ad and re-submit the post as it doesn't seem to have posted, and you end up with a doubled up single post, necessitating an edit to remove the second of the double.

Is someone working on these issues, or do we simply have to live with all the ads between posts, plus these irritating pop-ups ?
I'm sure I, and many others, are so irritated by the pop-ups that we will make it a point to never consider any of the items/services advertised in this manner; that makes them useless, because if we don't, who else can possibly be targeted by these ads ?

[StringJunky]

I've just installed Firefox and uBlock Origin on my Android tablet. There is no ads on this site after installing uBlock, which there was before I added uBlock.... yuk! In Firefox on Android if you click the 3 dots top right, select Extensions, then uBlock Origin you will see an 'Element Zapper'. Click on that, which will return you to the errant page and try clicking on the obstruction. See what happens. I don't have the issue, so can't replicate it.

On PC, with uBlock Origin installed, if you right-click on the enshittification you should see a 'Block Element' entry. Click on that, then click on 'Create'. That will make an entry in the block list for that element. Don't be afraid to try the other blocking options in Settings, especially Fanboy's lists. You can temporarily disable ublock for a site by clicking on the broken blue circle icon if something breaks a site. Some secure sites like banks don't like it when they check for authorisation.

As aside, I think it's a good idea to have an unmodified browser as well to act as a reserve in case something is amiss on a site you want to access and to eliminate whether your usual browser is at issue. It's very difficult to have a secure, privacy-based browser without sometimes breaking a site, like, as I said, banks. They have their own secure channels built in anyway.

Edited August 14 by StringJunky