Trains.com

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Motion picture ads while browsing MR forums killing forum experience

3298 views
35 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    June 2007
  • 8,892 posts
Motion picture ads while browsing MR forums killing forum experience
Posted by riogrande5761 on Friday, June 29, 2018 10:17 AM

I noticed today there are animated, motion picture ads showing at the top when I am in the MR forums.  I've noticed while they are playing, which seems to be a lot today, trying to type a message is really jerky and laggy.  It's really really bad!   It's killing my experience here at MR forums.  And I have a pretty decent bandwidth as well.

I really h8 this!  StormBroken Heart

Make it stop!

Rio Grande.  The Action Road  - Focus 1977-1983

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Vancouver Island, BC
  • 23,330 posts
Posted by selector on Friday, June 29, 2018 10:26 AM

I don't have this experience here.  Maybe it's your browser and search history at work against you?

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,483 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Friday, June 29, 2018 11:24 AM

What are the ads for?  If MR does not produce the ads they can"t be blamed for the content.

Selling ad space carries with it the responsibility to monitor and sometimes police it.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
    June 2007
  • 8,892 posts
Posted by riogrande5761 on Friday, June 29, 2018 11:29 AM

Using Google Chrome.  I have never searched Serina Williams tennis stuff so how can it be my history?  No, definitely some random stuff served up. 

No, it's not MR ads.  I'm guessing it's MR's host.

Here is a screen shot showing the current add in the banner:

There have been motion picture ads with Tennis star Serina Williams playing in the banner and when motion pictures adds are playing, funs over.  Right now it's a Bowser add, not animated and things are fine.

It was so bad a while ago when the motion picture ads were playing, I kept hitting back space and trying to type stuff and try again cause the lag was so bad, couldn't even get words typed properly.

Rio Grande.  The Action Road  - Focus 1977-1983

  • Member since
    April 2018
  • From: 53° 33′ N, 10° 0′ E
  • 2,508 posts
Posted by Tinplate Toddler on Friday, June 29, 2018 11:38 AM

Blame it on Google and Facebook and not MR! Both  are hijacking websites and implement ads on what they reckon is "free space".

I am using Firefox with Adblock Plus and Privacy Badger as add-ons and I don´t see any of the advertisements annoying you! I see only those from Kalmbach which I have chosen to see!

Happy times!

Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)

"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"

  • Member since
    June 2007
  • 8,892 posts
Posted by riogrande5761 on Friday, June 29, 2018 11:41 AM

Hmm... all I can say is I've never had this problem before today.  Gotta love "progess".

Rio Grande.  The Action Road  - Focus 1977-1983

  • Member since
    December 2015
  • From: Shenandoah Valley
  • 9,094 posts
Posted by BigDaddy on Friday, June 29, 2018 12:06 PM

I opted out of ad choices  http://optout.aboutads.info/?c=2&lang=EN

I do not see your problem today, but I have had strange ads pop up on this site before.  I delete my cookies when that happens.  I think it's especially creepy when I look up something like sump pumps and then go to youtube or facebook and see an ad for sump pumps.

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Bakersfield, CA 93308
  • 6,526 posts
Posted by RR_Mel on Friday, June 29, 2018 12:07 PM

I agree with the above, the adds are not coming from the Forum.  I too use Firefox with Add Blocker and I don’t get the adds.  The Google Spiders line you up with Google add machines, Add Blocker should stop them.
 
The Add Blocker icon on my Firefox toolbar shows 6 adds blocked this morning, I’ve seen it as high as 14.  It’s just Google trying to make $$$, I think they are paid by the hit.   
 
 
Mel
 
 
My Model Railroad   
 
Bakersfield, California
 
I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
 
  • Member since
    November 2017
  • 153 posts
Posted by HOmainline on Friday, June 29, 2018 12:16 PM
I recently had a similar experience, with irratating ads (aren't they all?!) popping up on every website. I put an end to them with Ghostery: https://www.ghostery.com/blog/product-releases/browse-smarter-with-ghostery-8/

Kerry

  • Member since
    June 2007
  • 8,892 posts
Posted by riogrande5761 on Friday, June 29, 2018 12:32 PM

Well, I do use an ad blocker at home, and on my smart phone.

Rio Grande.  The Action Road  - Focus 1977-1983

  • Member since
    September 2014
  • From: 10,430’ (3,179 m)
  • 2,311 posts
Posted by jjdamnit on Friday, June 29, 2018 12:41 PM

Hello all,

These sure seem to be sucking-up the bandwidth.

I have never had so many "Problem Loading Page" errors than I have in the past few weeks.

"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"

  • Member since
    January 2015
  • From: Southern California
  • 1,682 posts
Posted by Lone Wolf and Santa Fe on Friday, June 29, 2018 12:44 PM

In the top right corner of the ad there are options to close the ad or not show irrelevant content. 

Modeling a fictional version of California set in the 1990s Lone Wolf and Santa Fe Railroad
  • Member since
    June 2007
  • 8,892 posts
Posted by riogrande5761 on Friday, June 29, 2018 12:57 PM

Lone Wolf and Santa Fe

In the top right corner of the ad there are options to close the ad or not show irrelevant content.  

That actually does help, at least you can close the motion ads that cause the forums to stutter badly.

There are a couple of other forums where there are ad issues.  I won't name it but there is a Train Forum that obvously relies on ads for it's existance.  It always opens with several boxes you have to close out before you even bowse the topics.  And it has ad banners all the time and sometimes you can barely type message there because it lags so bad and stutters.  It is always like that when I go there and frankly it discourages me from even going there much.

I do have an ad blocker installed at home and more recently on another fourm I get a pop-up that says at the bottom that says:

"Can we talk?" Sorry, no.  There is a point that you have to hold your ground and say enough is enough.

The whole advertising system, yes, I get it.  But has been going to seed in the US over the past 50 years and is becoming a science in the internet age.  But even before that it was getting bad on TV, Billboards and other print media.

On TV if you look at the original 1960's Star Trek episodes and they were around 51 minutes long with 9 minutes of advertising.  What are "hour long shows" now?  Approaching 40 minutes long with advertising close to 20 minutes per hour? 

Of course this is a primary reason why I haven't watch regular, over the air, TV in probably 10 or 12 years.  I can't tolerate the ads every 5 minutes.  Netflix is solid programing for shows or Movies and for a minimal monthly fee - *ahhhhhh*

I really noticed the contrast in how bad advertising was in the US back when I went to Germany in the late 1980's.  Advertising was only a tiny fraction there vs  the US back then.  Then I came back after a couple months overseas and whammo, "back in USSA now, you don't know how lucky you are, yeah." Reminds me of the old Beatles song.  I digressed.  Ads everywhere all over the place, pardeon the pun but AD nauseum.

 

Rio Grande.  The Action Road  - Focus 1977-1983

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Western, MA
  • 8,571 posts
Posted by richg1998 on Friday, June 29, 2018 1:17 PM

I do not see them. I usually look at the forums when not logged in. Even logged in, I do not see them.

I also do not allow third party cookies and clear History when I close Firefox. I also have a couple blockers.

Rich

If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.

  • Member since
    February 2001
  • From: Wyoming, where men are men, and sheep are nervous!
  • 3,392 posts
Posted by Pruitt on Friday, June 29, 2018 1:29 PM

I brought this up a month or so again - had never happened to me before - and received what came across as a somewhat short-tempered reply that this is not an appropriate forum topic so the thread was locked and would soon be deleted. I was surprised at the tone of the post from the MR staffer. Kalmbach's web site usability is being negatively impacted and they don't want to know?

I wound up adding an ad blocker and have not seen the issue appear again. Neither do the ads that Kalmbach routinely places on the forums. 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 10,582 posts
Posted by mlehman on Friday, June 29, 2018 1:47 PM

Yeah, check and/or implement ad blcoking.

There's another possibility and that is a malware infection.

Neither has anything to do with MR. I'm sure Ms. Williams doesn't. I've never seen anything like that, but my computers are pretty well locked down behind the wife's very effective VPN due to work requirements.

Mike Lehman

Urbana, IL

  • Member since
    June 2007
  • 8,892 posts
Posted by riogrande5761 on Friday, June 29, 2018 2:12 PM

Brunton

I brought this up a month or so again - had never happened to me before - and received what came across as a somewhat short-tempered reply that this is not an appropriate forum topic so the thread was locked and would soon be deleted. I was surprised at the tone of the post from the MR staffer. Kalmbach's web site usability is being negatively impacted and they don't want to know?

I wound up adding an ad blocker and have not seen the issue appear again. Neither do the ads that Kalmbach routinely places on the forums. 

Yeah, again, I have an ad block on my home computers.  I don't think this is malware.  No, it's standard ad banners but the motion picture ones just KILL the bandwidth and bring thing to a herky jerky crawl.  LIke I said, I have seen it on another forumt hat relies heavily on ads for it's existance.

OK.  I'm expecting this to *poof away*  Thanks for the remind that I can hit the X on the bad ones.  That does help.

Rio Grande.  The Action Road  - Focus 1977-1983

  • Member since
    March 2017
  • 58 posts
Posted by RobertSchuknecht on Friday, June 29, 2018 5:08 PM

I don't get any moving ads while on this forum.

  • Member since
    December 2015
  • From: Shenandoah Valley
  • 9,094 posts
Posted by BigDaddy on Friday, June 29, 2018 6:26 PM

Advertising is part of financing websites, even commercial websites.  There are so-called news sites that have click bait ads.  There will be a picture of some attractive famous actress or athelete, with the line "See what they look like now"  40 clicks and 15 minutes of slow loading pages, you find out they look every bit of 20 years older than they were in the original picture.

Bear in mind, we don't pay anything for this website.  You don't pay anything for the Home Depot site or your bank, but they are making money off you or looking at it as a cost of doing business.  Subscribing to this site, doesn't really make you buy a magazine subscription.

That said, the responsibility for the ads you see is not entirely your fault.  That statement will get this thread deleted, first thing Monday morning.

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Bradford, Ontario
  • 15,797 posts
Posted by hon30critter on Friday, June 29, 2018 8:48 PM

I use AdBlock on Google Chrome and the only interuptions I get are from websites asking me to turn the AdBlock off, which I can do momentarily if I so choose.

After a few hours on the computor, the blocked ads number in the dozens some days so AdBlock is obviously working, and it's free (although they do ask for donations to support their work).

https://getadblock.com/

Dave

I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!

  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Heart of Georgia
  • 5,406 posts
Posted by Doughless on Saturday, June 30, 2018 8:41 AM

BigDaddy

Advertising is part of financing websites, even commercial websites.  There are so-called news sites that have click bait ads.  There will be a picture of some attractive famous actress or athelete, with the line "See what they look like now"  40 clicks and 15 minutes of slow loading pages, you find out they look every bit of 20 years older than they were in the original picture.

Bear in mind, we don't pay anything for this website.  You don't pay anything for the Home Depot site or your bank, but they are making money off you or looking at it as a cost of doing business.  Subscribing to this site, doesn't really make you buy a magazine subscription.

That said, the responsibility for the ads you see is not entirely your fault.  That statement will get this thread deleted, first thing Monday morning.

 

Well, back in the days of antenna TV and radio, the service was free.  You just needed an intenna and device to grab the signals out of the air.  Being subject to advertising was the way the entire infrastructure was paid for.

Then came cable TV in about 1975.  Monthly subscriptions paid for the service and infrastructure, so said the salesmen.  No ads, that was the allure, and was the justification for the monthly subscription fee to get the service.

Then in the 80s and 90s, paying a monlthy subscription fee AND being subject to ads became the norm.  But my cable fee was only a few bucks a month.

Today, I'm paying huge amounts for basic media services, subscriptions PLUS being subjected to many ads that SHARE the screen at the SAME TIME I'm watching the content.

People tend to adjust their sense of normalcy over time, especially when there are few alternatives.

Do ad blockers cost money to block the ads?  It'd be a hoot if they were ultimately run by the same people who create the ads in the first place.

 

- Douglas

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: west coast
  • 7,667 posts
Posted by rrebell on Saturday, June 30, 2018 9:33 AM

Ok all you tecno geeks, how do you delete cookies and stuff but save passwords or is that a can't be done.

  • Member since
    March 2015
  • 1,358 posts
Posted by SouthPenn on Saturday, June 30, 2018 9:40 AM

rrebell

Ok all you tecno geeks, how do you delete cookies and stuff but save passwords or is that a can't be done. 

What web browser are you using?

South Penn
  • Member since
    May 2004
  • 7,500 posts
Posted by 7j43k on Saturday, June 30, 2018 10:07 AM

Contrary to some opinions, I DO blame Kalmbach for irritating ads, because they own the website.  And they either build or authorize the code for the site.

I suspect they've been convinced they need a very complicated bunch of code, and whover has been assigned the task to impliment it can't handle it.

Kalmbach should be in complete control of their site.

 

 

Ed

  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Heart of Georgia
  • 5,406 posts
Posted by Doughless on Saturday, June 30, 2018 10:18 AM

7j43k

Contrary to some opinions, I DO blame Kalmbach for irritating ads, because they own the website.  And they either build or authorize the code for the site.

I suspect they've been convinced they need a very complicated bunch of code, and whover has been assigned the task to impliment it can't handle it.

Kalmbach should be in complete control of their site.

 

 

Ed

 

Accessing this site is free of charge beyond whatever fees you pay for your media service.   

I think a friendly message that the moving ads impede the function of the site for many people might incent our hosts to look into it.

- Douglas

  • Member since
    April 2018
  • From: 53° 33′ N, 10° 0′ E
  • 2,508 posts
Posted by Tinplate Toddler on Saturday, June 30, 2018 11:09 AM

7j43k
Kalmbach should be in complete control of their site.

This is wishful thinking in today´s world. Kalmbach only has control over the content it puts on the its website, but not over any content superimposed on it by the likes of Google, Doubleclick, Facebook etc. which are automatically loaded to the page by your free browser, regardless of which it is.

Happy times!

Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)

"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"

  • Member since
    July 2014
  • 53 posts
Posted by tommymr on Saturday, June 30, 2018 11:32 AM

The ads all come from google, and are built into the web page.  All you have to do is look at the page source. You'll see something like this: addService.googletag.pubads() This is what they call a publishing tag, which is defined as follows:The Google Publisher Tag (GPT) is an ad tagging library for DFP that can dynamically build ad requests. GPT takes key details such as ad unit name, ad size, and custom targeting, builds the request, and displays the ad on web pages.

 

  • Member since
    February 2001
  • From: Wyoming, where men are men, and sheep are nervous!
  • 3,392 posts
Posted by Pruitt on Saturday, June 30, 2018 4:51 PM

Tinplate Toddler
Kalmbach only has control over the content it puts on the its website, but not over any content superimposed on it by the likes of Google, Doubleclick, Facebook etc. which are automatically loaded to the page by your free browser, regardless of which it is.

That's not completely accurate. Kalmbach can choose to not allow external advertising on their website. ANY private website has that option. I own two sites, and have never considered allowing ads on either of them (not that anyone would want to advertise, with my visitor count...).

But they choose to allow advertising as an additional revenue source. If we don't like it, we can choose not to visit this forum. 

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Western, MA
  • 8,571 posts
Posted by richg1998 on Saturday, June 30, 2018 5:12 PM

I just looked at this fourm not logged in and logged in and did not see anything like the OP does. My ISP is Charter and I use Firefox.

Rich

If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: west coast
  • 7,667 posts
Posted by rrebell on Saturday, June 30, 2018 6:20 PM

[quote user="Sou

 
rrebell

Ok all you tecno geeks, how do you delete cookies and stuff but save passwords or is that a can't be done. 

 

 

What web browser are you using?

 

[/quote]chrome

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Users Online

There are no community member online

Search the Community

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Model Railroader Newsletter See all
Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!