Are Internet Ads Getting More Intrusive?

[Rapscallion]

Heh - that bit annoys me. I go to somewhere such as Amazon or Ebay, look for something, buy it, and then I get bombarded by offers for more of the same!

It's the 'having bought one' that they should be able to work out.

Rapscallion

[wolfie]

Somehow the "decide which ads to present" software has figured out what I do for a living, but not where I live (which it should be able to get from IP address). For a while, I was getting frequent recruiting ads for a U.S.-only trucking company.

[Aethian]

What I don't like about the YouTube ads is you can get the same one... Again and again and again. I once had the same 5-hour energy drink seven times in a row.

Another one I hate is I was watching a lets play and the guy I was watching had a nice soothing voice. Because of trying to get through the full playlist I failed and fell asleep. Next thing I know I'm being screamed at in high pitched squeals and screams from the mentioned 30 min lets play ad.

I followed to where that lets play went and it was all the same, I down voted every vid and put the same comment on all. "Bad sound, don't need busted eardrums."

[siead_lietrathua]

i dunno, i don't find ads that bothersome. granted, i DO have a pop-up-blocker but that's just because some popups have sound that auto-plays, and i like controlling the level of noise around me. lol.
but in-page ads i mostly just ignore, and youtube ads are no worse than a TV commercial. with the benefit of a skip button most of the time.
one thing i do enjoy is, now they seem to target ad to your FB/Youtube based on the sort of stuff you watch and like. i don't mind ads when it ends up being for things i would actually visit, like steampunk stores or DIY craft channels.

[MadMike]

Yeah, who cares if they need the ad revenue to keep the site running so long as you're not inconvenienced, that's all that's important...

It's a little more than being inconvenienced. Some of these ads try to do bad things to your machine. Like I said, the advertisers only had themselves to blame. No one complained when the ads were at a reasonable amount, and not too intrusive. But the advertisers got greedy and ruined it.

[Rageaholic]

^

Yeah, I don't use adblock myself, but I wouldn't fault anyone for using it considering how many nasty viruses are out there. And this is coming from someone who actually watches through the commercials at the end of a video to make sure the creators get paid.

[lordlundar]

Yeah, who cares if they need the ad revenue to keep the site running so long as you're not inconvenienced, that's all that's important...

As I said before, when the choice put before me is between my computer security or some stranger's income source, my computer's security will out every time.

No one is going to convince me that the advertising service they use is not going to be problematic because they don't get to make those decisions.

If these people really want to ensure their financial security, they should be taking action against the advertising companies to ensure they're not spreading malicious software instead of whining to the users that they're depriving them of their money.

[protege]

As I said before, when the choice put before me is between my computer security or some stranger's income source, my computer's security will out every time.

That's how I see it too. My computer, is my computer. I shouldn't have to deal with some adware flooding my machine with crap and/or attempting to grab my info. I have to deal with that all day at work--I'll be damned if I'm going to do it at home

If these people really want to ensure their financial security, they should be taking action against the advertising companies to ensure they're not spreading malicious software instead of whining to the users that they're depriving them of their money.

Their financial well-being simply isn't my problem. If they're that hard-up for cash that they have to resort to nefarious tactics, maybe they should reevaluate their life choices or have a better business plan. Why should I be forced to deal with *their* adware on *my* machine?

[lordlundar]

Their financial well-being simply isn't my problem. If they're that hard-up for cash that they have to resort to nefarious tactics, maybe they should reevaluate their life choices or have a better business plan. Why should I be forced to deal with *their* adware on *my* machine?

This I give them a bit of slack. Most times the content creators limit of control is simply deciding which advertising service to sign up with and (rarely and often ineffective) what ads get blocked. The problem is all the advertising services do the same shady practices. They won't shut down clients submitting malware laced ads because it makes them money. And content creators that report these problem issues to them usually aren't able to until it's too late then the advertising company ignores them anyways. Ad companies don't care what the end user deals with because they're not paying them. So it's useless for content creators to blame the end user for stopping this crap because it's the only option they have.

[NorthernZel]

Also, most often those pesky malware creators buy ad place through a seemingly "innocent" third party that claim to publish another ad.

Another forum I frequent is often a victim of this, and they shut down the bad ads as soon as they are reported by the forum members.

[Sleepwalker]

Yeah, no. I had higher tolerance for this bullcrap when I had an internet connection that was fast enough that I didn't have to worry about the bandwidth ads took up, nor the amount of time it would take to redownload and update my software if I needed to reinstall Windows after a virus(I don't muck about with 'removing' them anymore. Waste of time, considering how often it fails to remove, or breaks your windows)

[catcul]

Xaxis Wants to Put Ads on Your Smart Phone

It looks like one company wants to make TV ads MORE intrusive. They want to put them on smart phones while the user is watching TV.

[jedimaster91]

I have AdBlock and it's the best extension I ever downloaded. If I wanted to see your ads, I wouldn't have blocked them. But what really pisses me off are the sites that have ads that will circumvent ad blockers. CBS is getting to be particularly bad about it to the point where the videos won't even start if you have ad blockers. ABC's got the right idea, I think. If you have an ad blocker active, you get one or two commercials for other ABC shows, and if you don't have an ad blocker, you get the regular ads. And really I didn't mind sitting through one or two ads, but now it's up to 5 or more, which is as bad as actually watching it on TV. And it's always the same ads. I'm so sick of seeing some of them that I will never buy whatever product they're advertising.

[Ginger Tea]

Blip did something similar a year or two ago, even Linkara made a PSA about it as it was affecting his income.

IIR blip would find you using adblock and force you to watch a title card saying "I see you are using adblock, your video will resume in 90 seconds." and at the time adverts were 30, most still are, just hardly any adverts on rotation for UK users, though I haven't seen Wrestlers by Josh recently and another site that uses blip have more variety than those on TGWTG, which is odd as blip hosts both.

apparently Jim Sterling recently made a video about adblocking too, I was searching the escapist forums for a youtube video and when I typed in the phrase I remember being the response to said video, the thread about Jim's video came up.
I don't do much on the escapist bar watching zero punctuation, used to watch unskippable, but not in 9 months now I think.
but in the forum rules advocating adblock is a bannable offence, hard to have a discussion on adblock when talking about adblock gets you banned.

[lordlundar]

apparently Jim Sterling recently made a video about adblocking too, I was searching the escapist forums for a youtube video and when I typed in the phrase I remember being the response to said video, the thread about Jim's video came up.
I don't do much on the escapist bar watching zero punctuation, used to watch unskippable, but not in 9 months now I think.
but in the forum rules advocating adblock is a bannable offence, hard to have a discussion on adblock when talking about adblock gets you banned.

Yup, and despite (supposedly) getting a reprieve from the mods for the discussion, people were still getting warnings and bans.

Of course, the modding there is a joke. You can advocate hate crimes on there without a problem but adblock or, shock of shocks, saying something negative about the mods? Instant warning.