Note to advertisers ... if you want gain us as customers, don't make us hate you. What you are doing here is the internet version of telemarketing at dinner time. It's easier to opt out of buying your products and services than it is to opt out of your annoying ads.

>. I don't know what would work on a Mac

Both firefox and safari have adblock extensions available. For safari, just go to the preferences>extensions>get extensions and download it. Works fine.

Very annoying.

I wrote to GW overseers too - was basically told to not use my phone. Only access with a computer but I have the issue with my old mac laptop and my more recent android phone.. It has gotten much worse recently. Pop ups with no little x to close them.

We complained on the Home Decor thread and someone received this response from the powers that be. I tried it and it worked for me.

"I apologize for any inconvenience these ads as have caused you. We appreciate getting feedback from our members, and I have reported the pop-up issue to our community manager .
In the meantime, you should be able to opt-out of the in-line (green underlined) texts by following these instructions:
1. When you're on a GardenWeb page, hover your cursor on the double-underlined word, but don't click it. You will see an advertisement open in a pop-up box.
2. In the upper-left corner of the box, click the 'V' logo. A new browser window will open the Vibrant in-text advertising page.
3. Scroll partially down this page, and click the 'Disable' tab. Click 'Click here to disable.' The page should update to now say 'Click here to enable.'
4. Close the Vibrant in-text advertising browser window, then once you refresh your main browser window the Vibrant in-text advertising should disappear."

Well I just followed the GW instructions printed above. After refreshing...THEY'RE STILL THERE!! I'm so fed up. I'm on a Surface Pro tablet which is really a PC computer and they're ever present on my iPad too. This is so invasive!

GARDENWEB your posters and readers are leaving for Facebook groups, blogs and the like. Keep up the same kind of invasive advertising and you'll be left with empty forums. It makes me quite sad. I've been here for 12 years. I guess you care more about the ad revenue rather than sustaining your place as the go-to site for knowledgeable and helpful advice from your members. I'm sad.

This post was edited by compumom on Wed, Jan 28, 15 at 12:55

We should make a note of the pop-ups and swear to never buy anything from them ever,ever. It is so irritating. Barb

Can you get Ad Block Plus for your phone? That's what worked for me on my desktop Mac w/ Chrome browser. I just did a web search for Ad Block Plus (for Chrome in my case) & clicked to install it on my browser - it was free. Worked like a charm; I can still see the linked words, but they only open if I click on them.

Edited to add that I just did a quick web search for 'adblock plus for phones' & also 'adblock plus for iphones' & both came up as available apps...

This post was edited by carolb_w_fl on Wed, Jan 28, 15 at 12:54

The trick worked with Chrome browser on a PC. I'll need to check on my phone later. But I do agree -- if you can't get rid of these links, it's time to boycott the products that pop up.

... but we are also working on some bigger projects like a better search engine (yay!) and a mobile app.

- gwtamara, 10/17/12

So over two years later we're being told not to use our phones? Well that pretty much precludes me. 99% of my GW surfing is done on the phone, when I'm bored, and I don't have a computer handy. Train, bed, powder room...

Here is a link that might be useful: Promises, promises!

Didn't anyone else get the news?

We've got some exciting news to share with you.

Last week, GardenWeb joined the Houzz family. The GardenWeb and Houzz communities have a lot in common with regard to our shared passion for our homes and gardens and the overwhelmingly positive experience we try to provide our members. You may even belong to both GardenWeb and Houzz already!

You may have some questions about what to expect in the coming weeks, so we wanted to share some preliminary information with you. Rest assured, it is very important to us to maintain the incredible community you have been a part of creating over the years.

We will:

Preserve GardenWeb forums - We love the GardenWeb community and we want it to remain strong and vibrant.
Respect your Privacy - Houzz does not and will not share your contact information with any advertisers.
Next week we'll be in touch with more information and an email to confirm your GardenWeb account, but in the meantime, if you have feedback, questions, or concerns please don't hesitate to email us at feedback@gardenweb.com. We would love to hear from you.

The GardenWeb and Houzz Teams

For me, Adblock+ worked on the Chrome browser I use at work, and I never had a problem with Firefox at home, as the ad blocker always worked.

I also belong to Houzz, as I need to do research there for my work, and so my Houzz account is tied to my work email, but I do not use it at home. Certain GW forums are also helpful to me at work, notably lighting, decor, and furniture.

Lars

I haven't seen ads in years. I'm always surprised when so many people complain about pop-ups etc.

AdBlockPlus has a version for most if not all browsers. It's easy to install and free. I've used it for years and I don't see ads anywhere. Here or my Yahoo mail, etc etc.

I use it on Chrome, Firefox and Opera, and IE even though I never use IE.

I find it amusing that GW is giving out advice on how to block advertising that they're presumably getting paid for.

If you are using Safari: go to the Safari pull down at the top of the screen, select Safari Extensions, then choose AdBlock Plus. It will install without needing a password or anything.

I didn't know Safari had an ad blocker. It's supposed to have a pop-up blocker, but it doesn't work all that well. I'll look for the ad blocker.

I got the same message about how to opt out, but when I went to do that, they wanted me to enable cookies. I don't want to do that. Also, the whole problem is that it's not working right, anyway, with the ads popping up without scrolling over them. I don't think it's the advertiser's fault, but Gardenweb's.

Thanks for the advice, all.

Sally

Tamara wrote to say there will be no more ads, and I havent seen any since yesterday morning.

Woohoo the inline text crap seems gone to me, too! So far, so good!

So where is a safe place to download adblockplus for firefox.

I also am getting a popup notice many times that says such and such a website is a forgery when I am not even clicking on any thing.

Thanks

This is adblock safe link. Notice that it is a dot org and not a dot com...it's a non profit, run solely by donations. Where you see a green bar that says Install for (it will name a browser). if you are using the named browser, select that. If you use a different browser, look for the correct icon to the right of the green bar.

I've used this for years and it's a great service. If you are happy, donate some $ to them!

Here is a link that might be useful: adblock safe link

"I also am getting a popup notice many times that says such and such a website is a forgery when I am not even clicking on any thing."

If you're talking about Firefox, there's a check box in tools:options:security.

This whole thread is about people coming here to whine about how bad it is to come here. Only very rarely does someone thank Gardenweb for the free site. Every moocher should demand his or her money back; every single cent they paid in.

Oh, right...

Grubby_Me

I am not sure what your point is.

People are not whining about anything. Ads and especially popups make using the system difficult. People show their appreciation by participating and making the website a success.

Thanks for the adblock link. It installed just fine.

As to this forgery screen that was popping up on me... I know now that it was one more virus ploy and that if I clicked on either of their two fake buttons I was opening the door for them to download their garbage on my system. I did a system restore back to where I had not clicked on their stupid screen and most of the new programs they had added disappeared from my control panel. Hopefully that has taken care of it.

Maybe I was whining, but not about how bad it is to come here. I was wondering if others were having the same malfunction with the adblocks as I was. I didn't use the word malfunction, but I should have. If the ads block the view of what I'm trying to read, it's a problem. When I close them and they pop up again, even when I haven't scrolled over them, it's a malfunction. It hurts the advertisers as well as annoys the users of this website. I wrote to the managers before posting, and their solution was unsatisfactory, as it didn't really address the real problem. Now
It looks like they have done so, and I'm very pleased.

Thank you, Tamara!

Sally

Seems to be back, but not as intrusive.

The problem is when ads open automatically and BLOCK the page content.

I don't seem to be seeing this now on GW ...