Unless you are signed in, there is an annoying popup for every single thread that you click. I have a popup blocker and it doesn't help. To add to the frustration, Houzz has now added a further ad after the opening post (Search for professionals near you). I find myself on here less and less...and there are a lot of regulars that have left, I don't blame them. There isn't even a feedback forum so members can voice their opinions about this spam being crammed down our throats.

I agree, but just for a moment. (the use of blockers) Those that are computer savvy, and have the instant ability to cary on by using apps so quickly, do have an advantage. My father is 86 and needs social media for stimulation and brain exercise. He is still brilliant but very frustrated. Every update is a struggle. Every visit i need to walk him through changes. And i can barely keep up. I don't like to think of our elders loosing connections via their computers, or getting more confused. (i'm on my husbands new air laptop right now, just days old, without problems.) My iPad i use at work, and for work, is touch sensitive. I speed read and just can't read posts with big sections of posts blocked. And i have add blockers but need to keep trying i suppose. I'm personally not at all put off as i know it will continue and needs to be accepted...I just have to support those here that are frustrated with it just wanting some social time, relaxing time... On an iPad it is a mess. Just a simple scroll, the page present jumps away instantly and hard to retrieve. As if these new pop-ups were designed for just that.

Dedtired are you by any chance using a keyboard app like say SwiftKey instead of the native keyboard? If so change back to the native keyboard and try signing in. I have run into this problem repeatedly when using my Android device and SwiftKey keyboard or other keyboard apps. As soon as I switched back to the original native keyboard it signed in just fine. Remember that there are copycat programs that try to fool you into getting them because they have a name very similar to the real thing. It is Adblock plus not anything else or similar. It will have an icon that is a red stop sign with ABP in it. There's a version for just about all the major browsers just select the right one for the browser you use. There should not be any messing up your computer by simply adding Adblock plus to the browser. However if you accidentally got one of those other sound alike programs that installed on your computer you very well may have some problems because some are malware. If you had that happen go to control panel and all programs and remove it from there. The real thing is at adblockplus.org I always recommend making sure that you have the easylist filter added to the filter preferences in the adblock plus settings and in the settings area uncheck the option to allow some types of ads.

I don't know how ads are served on this website (I have my own way of blocking annoying ads... but I don't find GW/Hz to be a problem at all) but the record needs to be set straight that you can, theoretically, get a virus from almost any website. At least any website that has advertisements. Because ad networks can be compromised. This is one reason browsers have to be updated so often. It happens about 2 or 3 times a year to me; most recently on a legal discussion forum. I just browsed to it, and my antivirus caught it trying to install a virus. It's just curious no one else reported your problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvertising