Yes, this is another gripe about ads.

The google ads at the bottom of a thread have changed/been changed recently- now are three links/items stacked on top of each other, rather than a (slim) horizontal ad.

This means that the smooth movement from the bottom of the thread, back to the top to click on the main forum link (quicker than the back button in the browser in a multiple paged thread) requires more scrolling.

Now, I don't mind the ads- I understand that LQ has got bills to pay etc. I'm just complaining about the format. If it's the way it's got to be, I can live with it, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

titanium_geek

PS- I know about contributing, ad-blockers etc.

Recently, there were also a number of horribly intrusive blinking ads. Like titanium_geek, I can fix this problem: Tell the dnsmasq in my SmoothWall Express firewall to block them.

Intrusive/annoying ads are counter-productive in at least 2 ways:

1. They motivate users to block them & perhaps ALL the ads on the site.
2. They distract the viewer & interfere w/ the site's main purpose -- asking & answering questions.

If I see many more "blinkers", that is what I will do -- block them all, not just the offenders.

Please, Jeremy, set a site policy that eliminates blinking & other annoying ads.

The only ads we serve are directly Open Source and Linux related. We have a much stricter policy than almost any other ad supported site you'll see. If you see an ad that is particularly obtrusive, feel free to send it to me, but I browse with ads on and haven't seen one that crossed my threshold in a long time.

--jeremy

The Splunk ads of a few weeks ago are the "blinkers" I am complaining about. The double stacked HP ads from yesterday are a distant 2nd.

I block on the firewall at the DNS level for my whole network. It's off right now because I had to rebuild the FW hardware. When I put the blocks back in place, is there any easy way to exempt LQ ads? Among other things, do you refuse ads served by doubleclick?

We do not block DART - it's by far the most popular 3rd party ad serving system.

--jeremy

I don't understand -- what does "DART" have to do w/ this?

You asked about doubleclick. They don't actually sell ads, they make a product called DART that is an ad serving platform.

--jeremy

What I am complaining about is that you can no longer see the bottom forum post and the quickreply box in the same screen (unless you had a really tall one or something... ) - not the fact that there are ads, or even the type of ads. As opposed to a bar of ads under the last post in a thread (page)- there is a square. Please bring back the bar?

This is the same problem with the Back to Top button.

titanium_geek

The square is something new we're trying at the request of Google. As with most things on LQ, member feedback will have a lot to do with whether it goes or stays.

--jeremy

quick, someone else complain about the square!

TG

Stupid big bottom block ad in the way.. took me forever to scroll down and click reply..

Aren't google ads controlled by you though Jeremy? Couldn't you just make that big block a smaller banner type for the bottom? Or am I missing something..

Yup - I do control them. As mentioned, it's simply a bit of a test at this point.

--jeremy