I have a popup blocker, I never see any popups on any other sites I go to, however here at gardenweb a lot of them get through. The popup companies are not the only ones to blame though. I think unautre is right, "Gardenweb's new owners are driving away visitors and killing the forums trying to make money off the ads." I know I don't come to the site as often as I used to. I just hate having to navigate around all the popups! This place has become more like a video game than a gardening website! And it is not a good video game. I sure hope the administration reads this. People don't want to have to deal with the volume and type of popups they now have on this site, and it is still getting worse. Last week I could not even get the jello ad off the page, every time I closed it, it popped back up. I had to close the page. The lakehouse movie is even worse and I'm tired of seeing a little blue pill wander across my page. What does any of this have to do with gardening anyway? Well, enough said, now I just have one question. New owners? What did happen to spike? Can anyone fill me in? Thanks, Pat

I hate to ADD to this thread...but clarification is in order: -First of all, this thread would be perfect for the Hot Topics Forum...but "it dont fit" in Hot Peppers or Hydroponics. -"Troll" is not a comment on one's appearance/stature/etc: In Internet terminology, a troll is someone who intentionally posts derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages about sensitive topics in an established online community such as an online discussion forum to bait users into responding (Wikipedia) -Posting the identical off-topic message to multiple groups is typical troll behavior. I realize however, that Willard's intent may have been merely to rant, not to 'troll'. -The ads are indeed annoying and frustrating; but I have yet to see one that is "offensive". -If the ads annoy you...I agree with John...email the specific advertiser or gardenweb... --Don

Mozilla Firefox - a dream come true. No pop ups, no ads, none of the annoying videos that used to play here AND, no annoying ads on my Yahoo browser either. And, and, and....so many extensions that can be added that are too numerous and too cool to list. Love my colorful tabs! And just added a coupon code alert to tell me if the site I'm shopping has a code available. Woo Hoo! fwiw, I've never had a problem with pictures not showing.

Thank you, olychick and ravencajun! I've been cussing these green underlined ads ever since GW started adding them. I have opted out of Intellitext so many times, each time clearing cookies and cache. Initially, it worked but then it didn't and no matter how often I went to the Intellitext opt-out site, I couldn't get it to work again. So, like nanj, I kept my cursor to the side to keep them at bay but that trick failed me in recent weeks as the ads popped up on their own. Grrrrrr! I thought I had Adblock Plus already installed but either I didn't or what I had was outdated. I just installed it again and, oh, happy day, the wretched green underlined ads are *finally* gone!!! Thank you, thank you! I will NEVER buy from companies that use this type of obnoxious advertising.