"Was anyone able to get rid of the gray banner with adblocker. I use firefox and the adblocker plus eliminated every ad except the gray banner at the bottom where AL used to live. " olychick, I had the same thing. Originally got rid of the ad itself but the gray box remained. I restarted Firefox and in the upper right corner of the gray box there was a little tab with "block" written in it. I clicked on that and that added that little ditty to the Adblock Plus list.

Posted by lindac "Obviously you have no idea how internet advertising works. ------There are ads to the right of the page that don't impinge on the content.... My son is a senior account director with a very large digital marketing company...." Yes obviously. Here I go again, talking about something I have no knowledge and showing off my ignorance as usual. What is blatantly shameful, and inexcusable, let me admit also, notwithstanding the fact that I have a great deal of business relationship with the media world, yet I have not the faintest idea as to how that environment operates. What I mean is, I have done a lot of business with J. Walter Thompson, WPP, The Dilenschneider Group, KCS & A, Hill & Knowlton, The Ricochet Group, TNS Media Intelligence, AMF Market Research ------ etc. I just had dinner with the former C.E.O of TNS, and his wife. I should have asked them some business questions so that I would not be as uninformed ------ but mostly we ended up talking about her operation. Wouldn't it be funny if your son works for one of those companies? ---------------------- Let me be clear, I don't like any kind of advertisement, whether they are on the vertical side or on the horizontal bottom. But they are a fact of life. Angie's List didn't upset me because it didn't restrict my abilities to view the materials here. With my Windows Internet Explorer, I just use the Ctrl key and the center scroll knob and I can minimize the ad to very small size. dcarch

I have only provided reviews for angie's list, and have never actually used a contractor from them (usually b/c I end up hiring a person that a friend or neighbor has used) Have been a member for about 6 years. My concern is like others. I have wanted to write 2 negative reviews, but I fear retaliation from the two companies I want to write about ( bathroom contractor and doctor). Especially, if there are not any other negative reviews written, it is hard to be the first. It would be very easy for the provider to figure out who wrote the negative review. I wonder what safegaurds Angie's List has in place to protect users from their reviews? In the meantime, I take all reviews across Angie's with a grain of salt. I have stopped writing reviews b/c after doing a search with for a service, Anige's List sends an email to ask me to write a review. I am tired of getting so many emails from Angie's List and find their business model has changed over the year ( not for the positive) I used to find their magazine enjoyable and helpful to read, but lately it seems like the main feature is promoting some type of business, instead of consumer issues.

When I moved I found a closer vet who is wonderful, so that's worth the price of the subscription. I've lived in the metro area for a long time so I can say that the rating are generally fairly accurate, as long as you remember that there will always be people who can't be pleased by anyone, and that even good businesses sometimes make mistakes. You also have to look for trends, because reasonable people may differ. For example, my gynecologist is widely recognized as being outstanding. She also happens to be a good fit for my geeky personality. We "get" each other. I could tell that the women who gave her poor ratings (there were only a couple) wanted someone who was better at the warm fuzzies. Some business give discounts to members of Angie's list. For example, I replaced a water heater last week and got $50 off. It was a genuine savings. It's my favorite plumbing company and they quoted a perfectly fair price before I mentioned the Angie's List coupon. I'm not sure that I'm going to renew. In the last year or so, the emphasis seems to have shifted away from consumer ratings to advertising for businesses. I get e-mail from them multiple times per week advertizing "deals". My roofer claims that part of the position of business names in the search results is based on fees that the businesses pay. I have no idea whether or not that's true.