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

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.

Question ... does ANYONE like, enjoy, or find the pop-ups to be at all useful? Has anyone ever clicked on one of the pop-ups to get further information from the advertiser? My guess is NO. I understand the need for advertising, but I hope to heck those who purchase the pop-up space are paying through the nose. As I scroll down a thread, there is tons of available white space in the margins for ads. Why are they not utilizing that space first? I guess if you can annoy the bejeebers out of your patrons and they keep coming back, there is not much incentive to accomodate their wishes. We get GW for free, but we are going to pay in other ways.

Dedtired are you by any chance using a keyboard app like say SwiftKey instead of the native keyboard? If so change back to the native keyboard and try signing in. I have run into this problem repeatedly when using my Android device and SwiftKey keyboard or other keyboard apps. As soon as I switched back to the original native keyboard it signed in just fine. Remember that there are copycat programs that try to fool you into getting them because they have a name very similar to the real thing. It is Adblock plus not anything else or similar. It will have an icon that is a red stop sign with ABP in it. There's a version for just about all the major browsers just select the right one for the browser you use. There should not be any messing up your computer by simply adding Adblock plus to the browser. However if you accidentally got one of those other sound alike programs that installed on your computer you very well may have some problems because some are malware. If you had that happen go to control panel and all programs and remove it from there. The real thing is at adblockplus.org I always recommend making sure that you have the easylist filter added to the filter preferences in the adblock plus settings and in the settings area uncheck the option to allow some types of ads.