Author Topic: Did ads just get a lot more annoying? (Read 3418 times)

Robotbeat · « **on:** 05/24/2023 06:08 pm »

Ads got a lot more annoying. They’re now overlayed on the top of the screen instead of just posted on the bottom or top of the content. Is this an intentional change, or is it due to a change in forum software?

Robotbeat · « **Reply #1 on:** 05/24/2023 06:23 pm »

I got it to go away by using an adblocker, but I’d really rather not block ads on NSF as I’d love to help support the site. The ads have never been intrusive like this before.

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #2 on:** 05/24/2023 07:39 pm »

Yeah, something's changed in the software. It's not us. We're aware and looking to fix.

1 · « **Reply #3 on:** 05/26/2023 09:51 pm »

Just got a full screen, modal overlay ad on the desktop site. In general, I prefer to keep NSF whitelisted, but...yeah. Hope progress is being made on the fix.

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #4 on:** 05/29/2023 01:39 pm »

Quote from: 1 on 05/26/2023 09:51 pm

Just got a full screen, modal overlay ad on the desktop site. In general, I prefer to keep NSF whitelisted, but...yeah. Hope progress is being made on the fix.

It's absolutely getting fixed. It was actually a "we automatically tested" crap from Adsense and hard to opt out of. We're working to get out of it or we're pulling the whole show on that side.

zubenelgenubi · « **Reply #5 on:** 05/29/2023 10:24 pm »

Noting now (afternoon EDT) that the automatic ad in top-tab drop-down is gone--this is on my smart phone 📱.

Robotbeat · « **Reply #6 on:** 05/30/2023 05:46 am »

Okay, I’m white-listing NSF…

Thanks!

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #7 on:** 05/30/2023 01:11 pm »

Mark's found the issue and it looks a lot cleaner to me at least. I see above it seems to be working.

That pop up though. Can you believe they auto-opted us in!

This is how we want it. Ads should always be site specific, like the NSF store, space companies (the hotel ad is relevant cause they allowed us to have a cam and point to point system installed on their roof), our photographers and such. And a couple of adsense ads cause it's relevant to the channel's adsense and cover the every view = 0.000001 cents (it adds up) element. But NOT in your face.

Like the MDA ad we recently added for a bit. That's paid for and on topic. That's how it should be.

Thanks for everyone's patience. That recent "Oh, we opted you in and didn't bother to tell you" was not our idea.

Robotbeat · « **Reply #8 on:** 05/30/2023 04:35 pm »

On-topic ads are actually a value-add (heh), and I appreciate them. Like when looking through Physics Today and there are all these ads for like oscilloscopes and stuff. I like it. Keep it up, and thanks for improving the site!

jcm · « **Reply #9 on:** 06/01/2023 03:19 am »

Definite improvement in last few days. I often print hardcopy of the main articles, and the popups were getting printed overlaying/obscuring the story in the hardcopy unless I manually swatted them away - super annoying. Glad this is no longer happening.

catdlr · « **Reply #10 on:** 06/01/2023 03:33 am »

Quote from: jcm on 06/01/2023 03:19 am

Definite improvement in last few days. I often print hardcopy of the main articles, and the popups were getting printed overlaying/obscuring the story in the hardcopy unless I manually swatted them away - super annoying. Glad this is no longer happening.

Would you be open to posting a request in the Site Imporvment thread to provide a Print button that would provide a PDF of the NSF Articles? That could be very useful for making copies for students without all the cut-n-pasting your doing now.

jcm · « **Reply #11 on:** 06/06/2023 03:15 am »

Quote from: catdlr on 06/01/2023 03:33 am

Quote from: jcm on 06/01/2023 03:19 am
Definite improvement in last few days. I often print hardcopy of the main articles, and the popups were getting printed overlaying/obscuring the story in the hardcopy unless I manually swatted them away - super annoying. Glad this is no longer happening.

Would you be open to posting a request in the Site Imporvment thread to provide a Print button that would provide a PDF of the NSF Articles? That could be very useful for making copies for students without all the cut-n-pasting your doing now.

Not doing cut-and-paste, just doing print and save to pdf. It exists just fine (at least in Firefox on linux), just the result isn't ideal in how it handles formatting.