Looking at the main page of bOING bOING I got constant flashes of cross-screen lines, occasional patches of visual static, and various other video artifacts.
I associate this (anecdotally) with the addition of the full-width toast add that popped up from the bottom of the browser window. Incidentally, this occasionally meant that more than 50% of the vertical real-estate in my window was taken up by adds
At first I though my device was failing (it’s a few years old now) but then I noticed this problem only happened at bOING bOING.
I just installed an add blocker (AdBlock, from the Chrome Store) and voila no more screen artifacts.
I want to help bOING bOING remain solvent. I don’t mind seeing adds, but I can’t abide them crushing my device so hard it can’t keep up with the add auctions.
loss of 50% of vertical space is definitely not expected - I am so very much not an adtech expert, but I know that the Freestar folks have checks in place that are supposed to manage ad display by browser page width and height. Of course, if you are blocking some or all of that information, the code will likely get that wrong.
As for the artifacts, If it’s a specific ad doing that, we’ll have a look. There was a malicious survey ad that we just had taken down earlier today, was that the culprit?
