Evil Ads

17 years ago

Hi All,

I know that I am not the only one who absolutely hates those stupid ads that come down and block the text. Has anyone found a way to block them? Is there an evil ad blocker? ;-)

Let me know.

Jen

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

christy2828
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I hate it when you go to click on something, and the ad pops up just in time for you to click it unintentionally. I love this site, but I can't stand the ads! Christy
cfmuehling
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Your browser should have a pop-up blocker. If not, download the Google toolbar and set it to block anything you don't manually OK.

iVillage doesn't give a squat about members or actual business revenue from members, just how many pop-ups they can include to show their advertisers they have exposure.

Kind of like spam. It's not so important that they actually get business, just that they can say they're reaching xxxxx millions of people.

Grrrrr...
C.
Related Discussions
Off-topic, ads on website.
Q
Comments (14)
On occasion, I'll get a pop-up box to take a survey but not any ads. Don't have anything special, just Windows XP. Used to get them here but haven't for the past few months. As a long shot, it might have something to do with my switching to RealPlayer and deep-sixing Windows Media Player. I don't see the connection but that's when the annoying ads seemed to stop -- and at weather.com also. However, the ads are a very small price to pay for using GardenWeb for free. No one puts together a website like this and absorbs the high cost of operating it just for charity. This is a business and has to make money from advertisers to keep the website up. That's why TV also has commercials. I remember when cable TV first came around with the premise that you pay a monthly fee and they would eliminate commercials. Well, that worked for a while anyhow.
...See More
The 'Evil creatures' thread
Q
Comments (39)
I woke up about half an hour ago dreaming about the miserable groundhogs going all over the yards and I was running all around trying to see what they were eating. Not by coincidence I watched them running all over the place foraging yesterday afternoon. Gardening...nightmares about evil creatures eating plants/blooms instead some hunky star. What's life come to? LOL Once I was awake I went down the driveway to get the newspaper only to see the one and ONLY Tulip the woman across the street got to bloom in front of her mailbox in 2 years is conspicuously GONE...I told her to spray every day with RopelsAll. Crossing the street is a deer thoroughfare and that's why I only put a few Daffs & grape hyacinth for bulbs there cause it can't be protected. The rest of plants in that bed are relatively deer/rabbit resistant with lots of destructive experience last year to work from. The rabbits snipped off the only 2 leaves to emerge from a Corydalis Blackberry Wine I thought I had lost last year. The joy of seeing it had survived quickly tempered by missing leaves and tiny little bare stems. I won't identify the "integrated pest management" I'd like to have...another year of going out every morning to see what the evil creatures have eaten in spite of fencing, sprays and pellets. I've got diomataceous earth for slugs but can't put it down in the Butterfly Garden because Monarch cats stray from the Milkweed looking for place to "hang it up" until they emerge. I think I'll play my laptop recording of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" to calm down...LOL.
...See More
Good VS Evil Trees for Central Tx
Q
Comments (42)
I agree that for the most part, what trees you like are a matter of taste. That said, there are some trees that, while having some nice ornamental properties are highly invasive. Chinaberry, Ligustrum and Chinese Tallow (another "evil" one) are extremely invasive around here, displacing native species. I think most of us can agree that's a bad thing. I also agree with Lou that over planting any variety of tree, native or not can be a bad thing. Ask anyone in the northern part of the country where American Elm was the dominant boulevard tree if a little more variety wouldn't have been nice when the majority of them succumbed to Dutch Elm disease in the 80's. Like the Live Oak around here, it was a quality, native tree that was just over-used. I hope our neighborhood never experiences Oak Wilt since the builder planted Live Oaks almost exclusively and they are mostly now 20' to 30' trees, along with some mature ones that were preserved. I'm seeing Monterrey Oaks planted more and more, which I find encouraging as they are supposed to be wilt resistant and are also evergreen or nearly so. Bug-the reason I dislike AZ Ash, above all else, is the root system. We have a neighbor that has one on the west side of their house that's about 25' tall, so it's giving off nice shade. The problem is the roots are on top of the ground everywhere, including large ones pushing up against their foundation. I can't see that situation getting any better... If in doubt, go over to Dave's Garden and check out some of the pictures and reviews of AZ Ash. I think if TX Ash was more widely available and it was more well known it would help. People are going to keep planting AZ Ash and its cultivars if nurseries and the big boxes keep selling them. After all, they wouldn't be selling it if it was a "trash" tree, would they? ;^)
...See More
Lunch with the Evil One!
Q
Comments (12)
(yeah um Annie gee I wonder where I got the idea for the Leifheit turbo pitter heh heh) Gina has a wonderful new place and I could NOT come over without a proper CF housewarming gift - especially since she had waited four hours for autographed Pioneer Woman cookbooks, one of which was destined for me - I was supposed to be WITH her but my DH commandeered me instead! The best part was Odo's greeting. He likes me!
...See More
avoirgold
Original Author
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I found this solution elsewhere and wanted to share. I use Firefox and followed the instructions and YEEE, NO MORE ADS!!!!

Jen

Once and for all: How to stop the iVillage ad onslaught.

First we need to understand how it's done: iVillage doesn't bother to try and buy ads directly from all the various companies that show up on the pages of GW. Instead they use large ad-service agencies like doubleclick, akamai and pointroll. You can visit some of these sites if you'd like to see who's behind the ads.

http://www.akamai.com
http://www.doubleclick.com/us
http://pointroll.com

This makes it easy to block out all or almost all of the ads very easily, just block the originating sites. Right now all the ads on GW come from:

http://amch.questionmarket.com
http://a820.g.akamai.net
http://iv.doubleclick.net
http://i.ivillage.com
http://m.2mdn.net
http://tste.ivillage.com
http://img-cdn.mediaplex.com
http://ads.vmirror.com
http://cmhtml.ivillage.overture.com
http://ads.pointroll.com

The Universal Solution.
This will work on Windows systems for all browsers; IE, FireFox and Netscape.

The Windows operating system provides a system-level method to block specific IP addresses before they even get to the browser. To effect this solution you need to edit a Windows system file called hosts. This file is located in the directory:

Windows XP: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
Windows 2K: C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
Windows 98: C:\WINDOWS

Open the file in Notepad. Cut the following from this post and paste it to the end of the file.

127.0.0.1 amch.questionmarket.com
127.0.0.1 a820.g.akamai.net
127.0.0.1 iv.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 i.ivillage.com
127.0.0.1 m.2mdn.net
127.0.0.1 tste.ivillage.com
127.0.0.1 img-cdn.mediaplex.com
127.0.0.1 ads.vmirror.com
127.0.0.1 cmhtml.ivillage.overture.com
127.0.0.1 ads.pointroll.com

Edit each entry so that there is a tab between the IP address 127.0.0.1 and the URLs. Save the file and you're finished. Close and re-open your browser and all the ads will be gone.

Unfortunately, iVillage may in the future buy ads from a new source. In this event the new ad source will have to be added to the list.

The IE solution.
Most of the ads are placed using Java$cript. You can remove the more offensive ads in IE with the browser settings. You can't however remove them all. To improve GW using IE do the following:

From the menu select Tools -> Internet Options -> Security and click on Custom Level. Scroll down to the end of the list and you'll see an entry for Scripting. Disable all the sub-entries. Now select the tab labeled Privacy. In the bottom of the box that appears check on the option to block pop-ups. I recommend you also click on the button Advanced and select the option to block Third-party Cookies.

NOTE: By disabling Scripting you will also effect the way other websites behave. You may need to get used to switching scripting on and off as desired. That's why this is the least desirable of these various options.

The FireFox solution
This is an excellent choice -- it's the fastest performing of the options listed here: FireFox is superior to IE in every possible way. FireFox provides the added advantage of blocking all Spyware, an evil that IE brought into this world.

* download and install Firefox 1.5
* in the FireFox address bar type about:config
* scroll down the list to the entry xpinstall.enabled
* right click on the entry and select toggle from the menu
* toggle as needed to set the value to true
* go to the Firefox website and follow links to extensions
* find the extension adblock and install it
* remember to toggle xpinstall.enabled back to false
* in Firefox select Tools -> Adblock -> Preferences
* use the New Filter field to add the following items:
http://amch.questionmarket.com
http://a820.g.akamai.net
http://iv.doubleclick.net
http://i.ivillage.com
http://m.2mdn.net
http://tste.ivillage.com
http://img-cdn.mediaplex.com
http://ads.vmirror.com
http://cmhtml.ivillage.overture.com
http://ads.pointroll.com
* enable Adblock

The trick with Adblock is to block the domain rather than the specific ad. If you click on Adblock to disable an ad. Select Tools -> Adblock -> Preferences from the menu and then edit the new entry; remove anything that follows after .com or .net. This will block everyting from that source.

The Netscape solution.
With Netscape you can shut down all the iVillage ads using the browser preference settings. From the menu select:

Edit -> Preferences -> Privacy and Security -> Cookies
Allow cookies for the originating website only

Edit -> Preferences -> Privacy and Security -> Images
Accept Images that come from the originating server only

Edit -> Preferences -> Privacy and Security -> Images
Block unrequested popup windows -- turn this on

Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced
Enable native object scripting -- turn this off

Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Scripts & Plug-ins
Enable Java$cript for Navigator -- turn this off

NOTE: GW will now be ad free, however disabling Java$cript will effect how other websites behave. You may have to get used to switching this setting back and forth. Therefore I suggest the Universal option above is more appropriate.

NOTE: You MAC users out there: Sorry I don't have more info for you except to say that FireFox and adblock are available for the MAC.

There's no sense in further complaing, iVillage IS an ad. We need to let them be who they are and stop them on our end. Take care all.
cfmuehling
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks for collecting all those IP addresses!
There are so many more that can be obtained through the Cookies folder, if one has the energy -- or aggravation!

Excellent. :) I haven't worked with the host file since I was an Exchange Admin on the Server level! Didn't even think of it.
Christine
mpbruns
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Try Ad Block Plus-it's the only thing I've ever found that works well, even on those ghastly YouTube ads. Comes in many different flavors, for if fervent browsers.

Merry

Evil Ads

Comments (5)

christy2828

cfmuehling

Related Discussions

avoirgold
Original Author

cfmuehling

mpbruns

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Evil Ads

Comments (5)

christy2828

cfmuehling

Related Discussions

avoirgoldOriginal Author

cfmuehling

mpbruns

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

avoirgold
Original Author