I know that there is a discussion on another thread,
but thought the title of this thread might get the point across to Mods.
I get some “Buck” hunting gear ad popping up…was wondering if my computer was infected. Am running Safari on a Mac.
Blocks content. No way to “x” out of it.
YES i was just about to post a thread about this! Especially when it stops moving right over the “new posts” button, and the only way to get to the new posts is to exit and re log in… but then of course, it happens again. :mad:
Talk about ANNOYING, ARGHHHH!!! This just started on my screen and I’m pi$$$ed about it.
Posting is Difficult ~ Please help ? TIA
Posting is difficult ~ please help TIA and and btw COLORS and icons are not ‘working’ unless i return to BLACK post and edit then colors work … Thank You for reading ~
Bad move on the advertiser’s part!
:mad: each and every time I have to delete that sucker
Pop-Up Ads at Bottom of Screen
I have started getting really annoying pop-up ads at the bottom of my screen when I am on COTH. Don’t get them anywhere else. Last night it was Dodge Ram. Finally found the X to delete it.
Tonight it is John Deere. I can’t find an X to delete it.
Can you help, please?
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=370385
Get rid of them!! When I click on the ‘close’ button, I open the ad underneath on the side.
We’ve been scurrying around behind the scenes, working on the software upgrade for the site, so sorry for “going dark” on this topic.
The ads come pre-designed, so our tech crew can’t easily modify the code to move or make more visible the close button, or we would have done that already. We’re going to discuss the topic today in a meeting, in terms of addressing your concerns with this round of ads if possible or any future ones of this type that are sold.
We appreciate that ads can be annoying, especially when it’s hard to close them easily (!), but they literally are what pays the bills, employing us and allowing the site to exist as a free service. We’ll work to make any future ads of this type more user-friendly.
If they ads are locking up your computer or are appearing constantly (I see maybe one or two a session) – please explain the issue in your post and let us know what browser and version you’re using to access the site.
Thanks for your patience ~
Mod 1
It’s more than just the hard-to-see/find Close button. As I explained in the thread on Off Course (and I’m not the only one having this problem), these stupid ads affect the readability of this site’s text. It fades out the font, and it will NOT go back to normal after the ad is closed. I have to refresh the screen to get the readability back. NOT good.
Bottom line - I see these ads as intrusive and totally offensive, almost as bad as telephone solicitors. It wasn’t that long ago that the sidebar ads were granted more screen space, but I can live with that. Those horrid, creeping bottom ads are another story.
I use IE8 as my browser.
COTH- I have clicked through and purchased from your advertising partners in the past. But not only will I not purchase from advertisers whose ads are intrusive and make my browsing experience more difficult, if these ads continue, I will also remove the exception I have installed and allow my ad-blocker software to block ads from COTH in the future. The unfortunate downside to this is that if I do block all advertising in response to these pop-ups I will not be supporting either COTH or your other advertising partners. I cannot think that I am the only person who will be making this decision. It would be a pity to lose revenue both to COTH and to your advertising partners because of a few companies who made the decision to use disruptive and intrusive advertising tactics.
I have resisted doing this in the past because I want to support the site; but pop-up ads are immensely annoying and detract from the site content.
I am using Firefox 16.0.1 at work and a Firefox 15 version at home. I see these pop-up ads approximately two times per 10 minutes. On my iThing using both Safari 6 and Apollo I see the ads slightly less frequently, two times per 15 minutes. This may not seem frequent- but consider that it takes a solid 45 seconds to find the close button, scroll down to a point on the page where it is clearly visible, and manage to click it without clicking on anything else.
I had to install the ad blocker because that stupid John Deere ad kept freezing my computer :mad:.
I also want to drill the point home that these ads will not logically make COTH any money in the long run because everyone will resort to adblockers, which will block ALL of the ads, making them fairly ineffective. Perhaps that is not a concern if the companies just pay for the ad space straight up, but it will make it so no one ever clicks those ads, OR the side bar ads, and I would think that would not be a desired outcome for the companies putting up the ads.
Also, the frequency seems to depend on the time of day and/or number of people browsing. I have had the worst cases (every single page I load) later at night when I may logically assume that there are less people browsing, so perhaps I’m getting bombarded because of that. HOWEVER, I also seem to get a lot around/after dinnertime, when presumably there are a lot of people browsing, so I don’t know how that correlates…
Bottom line is I think we all understand that these ads fuel COTH. It’s the placement that is driving everyone bonkers. If it’s at all possible to make those floating banner ads into side ads, PLEASE DO. Perhaps you can work with the companies to show them the huge negative feedback, and dozens of people declaring they will NEVER purchase from a company that puts out such intrusive ads.
These ads are also using excessive bandwidth or have a virus wrapped into them.
They caused my satellite internet to go over my bandwidth limit for a 30 day period. How do I know? Because I hit the limit and it crashed my computer a couple times. Downloading ad blocker decreased the bandwidth usage greatly, and I’d only been visiting this site.
I actually booked a trip on equine express by clicking through from this site, and have visited other advertisers from the side ads. Now, though, I will not see any ads in the future.
I also will no longer visit from my phone as I don’t know how to block ads there, but they show up larger than the screen so it’s impossible to close them if they don’t crash my phone anyway.
Some days the ads are fairly infrequent, and other days they show up every single screen.
Oh good, I thought x-ing out of that dashboard ad changed the font on my computer only.
Mods, when we do scroll up and down a few times to find a way to place the “x” so we can click it off without opening a new page…which, btw, is annoying since it happens every other page click for me…after closing that pop-up the entire font on my screen not only fades, it also changes actual font. 
So perusing this site is now…open interesting sounding thread…start reading…2 seconds later pop up shows up and all font fades a little…pop up blocks text and x is always over other ads so cannot be clicked…scroll up and down a few times trying to place x in new location so you can click it…click it off and text fades to almost unreadable…squint and try to read thread now with nose pressed on screen…get annoyed and click out to find new thread…start whole process all over again, now with added screen nose-prints.
Can they be 86ed as pop-ups totally? I do click on the sidebar ads, especially ones that have sales or something I want and don’t want to have to use an adblocker.
And please don’t go with a floating one from any other direction.
hey guys - if COTH is like any other company they are not personally responsible for creating /designing/etc the ads -
There are other companies that are doing this work and selling COTH space to other businesses… so COTH in not really involved…
so i dont think COTH can do anything about this stuff easily… it is just part of an online advertising package that they sell and the design etc is taken care of elsewhere - this is why you see so many ads that really have nothing to do with horses and more to do with hunting…
hopefully COTH will figure out a way to get rid of them, but it will take time…
and fwiw, my guess is this type of ad is the new way advertising will be implemented online.
Thanks for the information. I sent a copy of this thread to the tech folk to see if they can determine what’s behind the fading/changing font issue, crashing, and display frequency variations.
There’s a meeting at the main office today to discuss a variety of issues, and I’ve forwarded a copy of this thread to be sure they’re aware of the range of issues users are experiencing with the dashboard ads. I’ll also provide a link to the closed thread in Off Course for reference.
Thanks ~
Mod 1
Chiming in late here but I am also getting really annoyed with the pop up ads. I am a premium subscriber and actually go out of my way to “click through” the normal static ads on the right side of the page when I need something, because I understand that ad revenue supports the site and that it costs $$$ to give us all a place to play.
But one thing I really can’t do is tolerate ads that crash my other software or hang my computer up, and the pop ups fall into that category. Like others, I will install an ad blocker if this continues so that I can avoid this problem, but I’d surely hope that COTH can figure out how to address the issue before that becomes necessary (i.e., SOON.) It would be a shame to force people to make ALL the ads ineffective just because one group of advertisers somehow thinks that trying to FORCE people to look at their wares is a good idea.
I am on a Mac running Safari 5.1.6 or Firefox most of the time, FWIW.
It’s SO bad tonight I’m signing off. I am now just not even going to try to be in here. EVERY single change of page the (**((&&^^%^ Dodge ad pops up.
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