The ads here on BoingBoing have gotten completely out of control. I can’t focus on content when it is drowned out by this many ads. I understand the need for revenue, but this is unreasonable.
It’s been a while since I’ve browsed articles on the BoingBoing sure on my phone, and I don’t have ad blocking software.
Holy crap.
Ads the finitely fill the screen. Ads the pop up at random times. Ads that cover every one of the pictures in the stories.
Here was me trying to read Xeni’s article on yurts:
Not a fun experience. (@jlw)
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The front page is unreadable due to all the ad garbage. So, I’ve stopped entering there.
The recent hijacking ad was the last straw.
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On mobile I’ve pretty much entirely been using BBS as the front page. I had forgotten why. Now I’ve remembered.
Like, seriously, I browse the web on my phone every day. I don’t mind ads. But BoingBoing is something else.
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It took some serious cache cleaning on my part to get rid of the browser hijack ads. I suspect one of the ad networks was keeping track of how many times I closed the ad with the DOM inspector.
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Same here. No longer use the front page.
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Don’t BBS pages still have a pile of chum at the bottom on mobile?
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I recently set up a Pi-hole on my home network to swallow all ads across all connected devices.
But when I fired up my phone, I was confused 'cos I didn’t see any difference.
Then I realised that’s because I NEVER see ads on my phone thanks to the wonderful Brave browser:
https://brave.com
I highly, highly recommend it. Quick and easy install and your troubles are over.
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So what? At least they don’t spew malware, like their web version does on macOS.
Firefox Focus also works well. No ads in sight; it automatically blocks them.
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That was supremely interesting. I had subconsciously noticed that same set of categories in the (now I know) “chum” boxes, from the disgusting looking foods that claim to cure things, to the sick feeling I get from Trypophobia, to the more vapid celebrity stuff. And I had subconsciously noticed that the disgusting things had an odd pull to them, in spite of or because of their grossness.
How much of this is thought out by twisted professionals misusing their psychology degrees, and how much of it is just “the algorithm” – the same one that studies have shown leads YouTube watchers to more obscene, extreme, or illegal content – I don’t know. But it’s fascinating.
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Sidenote: the Brave crypto-rewards are not working for me. At all. And the notification-based advertising this starts getting on my nerves.
Still better than that abominations above, though.
However, I’m going to check Vivaldi soon, I guess.
I wasn’t aware of that rewards stuff at all, sorry, can’t comment.
I just like Brave for the ad-free experience on mobile (my phone is cheap, and underpowered, but I like it).
I don’t get any notifications from Brave at all, either, but thay may be because I tend turn off notifications from everything except email…
I’m with others in using the BBS to access items on BB. The main BB site nearly locks my computer work laptop up as it tries to load the ads and my company firewall is trying to block them. I don’t have the ability to load any add one to my browsers so basically I’m stuck with it.
I seriously wish there was another revenue stream for BB or a better way to organize the ads in a different manner.
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The whole stuff is opt-in, but at the core of their idea. Just: doesn’t work, apparently.
The new ads are particularly intrusive and unpleasant. A moving ad that appears and obscures the image associated with every article? I know Boing Boing needs to pay for itself, and I would be happy to subscribe, but this new “innovation” has made the experience of Boing Boing much, much worse.
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Also now happening on this page, in the main image, above the first line of text.
The Sprint add, from before.
I see that orenwolf has posted a link in another thread that permits us to report mis-behaving adverts directly to the ad vendor.
I’ll use that tool going forward, rather than whinging about ads here in the meta category.
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I know that identifying a particular ad or situation is helpful/actionable, but I can’t describe any better than the artical pages have become a hot mess. Ads everywere, some moving, some not. Most load before content, so if I want to click into the comments section it will move out from under my cursor as I click and I’ve clicked on an ad I didn’t want, AND didn’t get the content I was going for.
The comments section in this site is excellent, with many kind and intelligent contributors, but the content format is getting bad enough for the site to be a negative value proposition. (and it’s “free”!)
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