-16

Wow. By accident I was using Google Chrome and noticed suddenly all the ads in SO! I use Firefox with AdBlock Plus installed and I have never seen an ad ever since I started using SO. I never told ABP to blocks ads from SO. So it seems they are blocking it through their subscription filter server.

Jeff Atwood has been talking about ads on the site and I was wondering what he was talking about because I never saw the ads and it never occurred to me ABP was blocking them. Now the ads look annoying to me. I know a free site has to make some money but I NEVER click on an ad.

I am sorry but I have to block the ads. I find them annoying and why do I have to see the same ad on the same page more than once. That TFS report ad is there TWICE. I can see it now twice above the fold! This seems like forcing ads on me.

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13
  • 11
    ... is this a question?
    – Mark Henderson
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 1:58
  • 6
    -1 for pointless rant.
    – user27414
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 2:20
  • @Farseeker, on meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/33705/… Jeff suggests that MSO is more of a discussion site, where 'not a real question' is NOT a valid reason to close because posts aren't necessarily questions. – pavium 18 mins ago
    – pavium
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 5:45
  • No it's not a question. That's why there's a tag called 'discussion'.
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 8:12
  • @JonB: You must like big intrusive ads.
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 8:22
  • 7
    "I NEVER click on an ad" -- well gee, if you block them all the time, I guess you wouldn't click on them, would you?
    – Alex Papadimoulis
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 14:44
  • @'smart'Alex: . I don't click on ads when they appear.. on any site. well.. maybe one in a half a million.
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 21:56
  • Nice flashing black attention grabber!
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 22:05
  • @Farseeker Not every post has to be a question on meta. For example a suggestion is not a question. and yes there's an implied question. why the same ad above the fold twice?
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 18:52
  • Here's a better version of this post.
    – bb216b3acfd8f72cbc8f899d4d6963
    Commented Aug 3, 2016 at 3:44
  • OP, get AdBlock Plus for Chrome. Problem fixed.
    – bb216b3acfd8f72cbc8f899d4d6963
    Commented Aug 3, 2016 at 3:48
  • Someone needs to calibrate his intrusion detector.
    – WGroleau
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 9:36
  • @haykam I guess the presentation is very important here since the other post and mine are basically talking about the same thing. Yet his was upvoted 13 times and mine was downvoted 14 times.
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 20:42

3 Answers 3

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18

I agree. Stack Overflow is the worst. Just so you all know what he's talking about, this is exactly what it looks like if you disable adblock on StackOverflow.com...

alt text

We used to do that whole Responsible Advertising thing.... but screw it, we're rich, b#tches!.

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5
  • Would it be enable and not disable?
    – Engineer2021
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 14:55
  • "I like money."
    – gnostradamus
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 15:55
  • I visit thousands of sites with ads. %99 of the ads are either in the side bars or header. SO had a full width ad TWICE in the same viewable page (I didn't have to scroll). Didn't I hear Jeff complain of practices like this but he doesn't it himself? WTF
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 22:03
  • @Tony: Talk is cheap. You can say what you want in theory, but in practice it rarely ever works. They have to support the sites somehow.
    – Engineer2021
    Commented Dec 24, 2009 at 20:40
  • Fortunately my sarcasm detector rebooted before I could downvote this for being untrue.
    – WGroleau
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 9:33
16

You mean those small 220x250, non-animated, non-flashy static content ads bother you? I specifically white-listed the SO family sites because they're some of my favorite ads online - completely non intrusive. Not a single one has ever tried to cover up my content with some annoying fake window or a car driving across the screen (I'm looking at you, imdb!)

Also, for what it's worth - THERE IS NO PAGE FOLD.

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8
  • Wonder why that site (ThereIsNoPageFold.com) needs jQuery.
    – random
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 2:11
  • 1
    @random: shutup, random. Everything is better with jQuery.
    – Shog9
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 3:04
  • @Shog9 Hand that memo to Google Wave.
    – random
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 3:05
  • The ads between the answers are intrusive. The page fold is where it shows the question and where you don't have to scroll down once you figure the question is not that interesting.
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 8:20
  • These are the 730 x 90 ads. What I am seeing now. The ads that take the full width of the answer column.
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 8:39
  • 2
    @Tony_Henrich: Just log in. With 1,396 rep, you should only see the sidebar ads.
    – balpha StaffMod
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 9:32
  • @Jared what do you call the browser view prt before scrolling.. if it's not the page fold?
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 18:54
  • @Jared you call those content column full width ads between the answers non intrusive? Your definition of non intrusive is different than most people. it doesn't have to be animated to be intrusive.
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 18:56
2

Are you saying that you would rather pay a subscription fee than let others see the ads and potentially click on them, while you continue to block them?

The money for all those servers and all that software has to come from someplace....

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1
  • I would pay $5/month than be bombarded with ads. I just hate ads that are interspersed between the text I read. I find them too invasive. I feel the SO folks are forcing them on me as if the right column is not enough. The probably figured that people ignore these. Yeah I understand the ad revenue model. I did mention that in my post.
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented Dec 23, 2009 at 8:16

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