I've seen a couple posts expressing dismay with this form of advertising. I have not yet read solutions for ipad users.

The problem seems to be getting worse - more pop ups lingering over text for longer periods. I cannot believe the sponsors are getting any positive responses from such random and annoying ads.

FOR example in my post above- the word MOBILE is underlined and printed in green. When you click on the page for a few seconds, up comes an ad for Paypal on mobile devices and it lingers a second or two and disappears.
I haven't seen this on any other website except GW. The words that are printed in green or the pop up ads. Weird!

I am glad to know that I'm not alone! I echo your feelings on the lack of benefit for the advertiser. Why would I bother to click on a sleep pillow with an owl or download paypal?
Hopefully someone will weigh in on how to rid ourselves of this annoying crap!

First it just turned words into hyperlinks. Now they are actual mini popups that take several seconds to disappear before you can actually read the text. I think they're slowly introducing their "improvements" so that we don't all scream too loudly at once.

A while back GWTamara mentioned they were coming out with a mobile version. Hopefully, if and when they do, there will be options to opt out of this nonsense. I have no issue with ads in the margins - someone has to pay for this afterall - but I hate anything overly intrusive.

About the only thing I really like about this site's format is the lack of a quotations feature. Go to any of myriad sites such as eGullet, and you'll see people quote paragraphs worth of prior posts AND responses to those posts INCLUDING all the embedded pictures, only to follow up with something as useless as "Agreed." It's maddening.

It's happening to my iphone and ipad screens, but not to my imac.

I've posted this before, elsewhere, but there is a solution for iOS if you also have a mac. Install glimmerblocker (a very fine adblock) on your mac and you can also make it block ads for iOS devices on the same wifi network. It won't work when you're using 4G or a different wifi network, but it will get rid of ads while you're on your home network.

Here is a link that might be useful: glimmerblocker

...and why i just don't post much. It comes up on my ipad and blocks any reading.
a tap sends me into cyber space...or a miss-guided tap. Seems to be all about add money and 'big business'. Times are changing and that was the plan all along.
I'm fine with it. Never been a mystery and expected. It will always be a system to try new
things and see what works and 'add', (advertising), interference will only get worse, or experiments to see how many annoyances forum members we will put up with...oh well.

I have AdBlocker for iOS on my phone (also available for iPad) and it doesn't do that stuff. It's a browser, and fairly bare bones, but it became a necessity when Google started doing that kind of thing in Safari.

I am fine with fast loading ads paying for the service, if they don't take over and screw things up, but when they interfere with the enjoyment of the website, they've got to go.

I am on an iPad and I have all but given up on this forum because of these ridiculously annoying ads! I'm all for ads to pay for the site, but when they are so intrusive I can't even read the posts, what is the point. I certainly will not be swayed to click or purchase by something so obnoxious. No, I don't want your 7 minute workout, I want to read about that lovely backsplash! I keep checking back every few days to see if they have fixed this issue, but nothing yet, so I am out for now. I hope they address this issue soon, I will have a lot to catch up on when they finally do!

Call me crazy. I actually don't mind spammers and pop-up ads.

iVillage needs to make money to keep this forum going. The more spammer and ads means iVillage is more popular and profittable for them.

Sometimes before I shut the PC, I click on all the ads. Not that I will ever buy anything from those ads.

dcarch

Crazy!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and commiseration. I certainly will investigate the ad block ideas. While this forum isn't the friendly, active interchange that it once was, I do enjoy dropping by to visit from time to time. I'm in agreement that the side bar ads aren't too annoying, but the pop-ups need to disappear!
Have a great day!

I have Abblock for IOS on my iPad, but, while it wipes out the ad content, it leaves a blank, gray window covering the text in place of the ad!
And I can't even get it to work at all on iPhone.

I'm sorry. Above, I should have said AdBlock Pro. You have to have the paid version after the free trial.

KD, on the iPad try going into the settings (touch the upper left hand logo). The first item has a circle with an X in it and the word AdBlock. Make sure the switch is pushed to the right (shows green).

I didn't have the Pro version installed on the iPad, because I resented having to pay another $4, but I just did because that badge thing is really annoying, and if I want to use the iPad for GW, I'll want it. I also did a restart of the program (while it's open, double click the home button, then push the tile for AdBlocker up. That closes it, and it opens fresh thereafter. Or you could restart the whole iPad).

Anyway, it works fine on my iPad. Oh! But it requires iOS 7. With iOS 7 and AdBlock Pro, the green underlines and all their ephemera are gone.

DCarch, I agree with you on principle about the ads, but do you remember the dancing baby? That's when I first started blocking ads. While I'm happy there's a commercial model, I don't look at the ads anyway, so they're not really losing on me.

I too am NOT happy with these instant ads. pillog, I looked for an app on my iPad and can't find one that says its "Pro", only the free one. I don't want the app if it's not going to solve the problem. Any suggestions?

Thanks Westelle, I looked too. TAMARA can you hear us?

I'm surprised that they don't have an iTunes/App Store entry for the Pro version, but you can get it as an in-app purchase from the free version. The free one has a trial period of something like five days where you can see if you can get it configured to block the ads. It takes a little jiggling and fiddling with the settings and all. Try what I posted up topic first.

It'll still work as a browser after the trial, and just have a red banner on opening saying that it won't be blocking ads until you upgrade to the Pro version. You don't have to wait, though. If you're happy with it on install, you can buy it right away. The Pro version also has features that aren't in the free trial, I think.

It does work, even if it's not instantaneous.

Oh heavens, you have placed that dancing baby in my brain again. Drat!

I'm so sorry! But did you get the AdBlock browser to work?

Edit:
Disclaimer: I am not associated with this app, and there might be something better. I'm just talking about my experiences using it.

Someone offline was asking me about this and didn't get it, so in case there's someone with the same questions, who is keeping quiet:

AdBlock is a browser. You use it as a browser to go on the internet instead of using Safari or Chrome. It does bookmarks and tabs and other basic things that browsers do.

You can put it on the app bar at the bottom instead of Safari or one of the others you don't use. (Touch and hold until they wiggle, drag the icons, then press the Home button (the actual round plastic button in the case with the picture of a square on it.)

There are settings inside the app. Open the app and touch the red logo in the upper left corner. You can choose ad blocking on or off, home page (site to launch on opening), which optional icons to show on the bottom margin, whether to use a lock requiring a passcode (if you don't want your kids on the internet or something), an option to use as a PC style browser (switch user agent) instead of optimized for mobile browsing (only good if the site doesn't work with the mobile browser--there's no Flash, etc., on an iPad, so it's limited). There is also an option to always delete cookies when it closes, a slider for brightness level, and links to clear cookies and cache manually. "Done" is at the top, so remember to scroll back up.

This post was edited by plllog on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 17:57

I checked all the settings on my iPad. I still have to try the hard shut down but I doubt that will help.

I don't mind ads on free sites, as long as I have the option to close the ad. They have taken away that option and some random ad stays over the words so long that it has made the site unusable for an iPad user that reads fast. I just don't have that kind of time. You would think the ads would be targeted to the forum or the user. It is just a completely random ad.

I don't know what they were thinking.

Tamara, if you are listening. You just lost me from the cooking forum, gardening forums, and THS. It is unusable.

Joan,

AdBlock is an app. You have to download it first. It's a browser to use instead of Safari.

Thanks for describing so well why this kind of ad is worth blocking.

Hmm I'm on the iPad tonight and there are no hyperlinks! Maybe someone at GW is listening!

I use an Android tablet, so I don't know if this is available for i-users, but my browser is firefox. Firefox has add-ons available to customize it. Namely, I'm using an add-on called Adblock Plus. I wasn't even aware GardenWeb was using the ad strategy named above. For that matter, I haven't seen the column down the right side in so long I forgot that it has ads. That's due to an add-on called stylish.

Is firefox available to you folks?

I'll spend some time over the weekend looking for ad blockers. I won't go so far as using a new browser though. If I can't use Safari, Explorer, or Chrome then that website just won't be used be me any more. You have to wonder about the decision makers sometimes. Do they even use the product they are tinkering with?

When I came to this site today, the first thread I clicked on had the silly ads covering the text. So no more browsing for me. Oh well, maybe they will drive all the iPad people away and eventually miss the traffic and correct their problem.

Almost hesitant to bump this up, but I'm getting SO annoyed! Is it me or has it gotten worse over the past weeks?

For me the pop-ups have gotten bigger, and longer-lasting. And no mercy if you've already inadvertently clicked on a link - it's just as likely to happen again. On the phone, just trying to scroll, more often than not I end up someplace I don't want to be.

If I'm being honest, my lowered interest in this site has more to do with the attrition than pop-up ads, but I could list other sites that I don't go to much because of the annoying advertising, and this place isn't much better these days.

p.s. While I appreciate the advice above about ad blocker, etc., it shouldn't be necessary to download apps and browsers to make a site user friendly. Like I've said myriad times before, I don't mind ads on the page, as long as they don't become obtrusive.

AMEN!

OK, if you think that " it shouldn't be necessary to download apps and browsers to make a site user friendly." then I don't have a lot of sympathy.

A lot of our interactions with the world involve taking action to protect ourselves and to customize how we are exposed to things. You don't like bank fees? It's possible to avoid them. Don't like TV reality shows? Don't watch them. Whever we do, we are constantly tailoring our interfaces with the world.

You've been offered tools that work perfectly well (not sure about how the iPad pop-up work or the solutions, since I don't have an iPad). You can moan and groan about how the world should be a different way or you can use the tools at your disposal to make it so.

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.

Sushipup, I have practiced the philosophy of VS (Voluntary Simplicity) for about 30 years. One of its tenets is: Don't complicate your life.

So I have no interest in searching for and downloading apps that will let me read Cooking Forum posts on my iPad without the text being obscured. The last month or two, when pop-up ads prevent me from reading, I immediately go to Favorites and move on to another website. The net result is that I have not been returning to post but the problem of viewing aggravating pop-ups has been solved for me.