Those make it very hard to read the articles with all the flashing and movement.

BTW, the "X" thing doesn't really work, not your fault.

I'm on a desktop and the ads don't reduce in size so I see a lot of blank space between threads where the ads are pushing down to space they fit in. That's happening when I view "actual size" if I reduce the size, the ads fit, but then the type is rather small.

I had a feeling you were doing some tests this weekend, am glad to know you've got it worked out. I spent so much time closing ads on the desktop that reading was becoming a chore. Glad it's back to normal. I try and support your advertisers whenever possible.

I’m afraid static ads are probably a thing of the past...

When you say the ads are pushing down to fit, I’m kinda curious to know what that looks like. Could you possibly take a screenshot and email me at earlg@democraticunderground.com?

FWIW, the ad software is supposed to learn what kind of ad it’s supposed to put where, so it might be a bit squirrelly to start with, before it figures out the layout. Hopefully it will settle down for you before too long.

Thanks for your feedback, and if you could get a screenshot to me that would be super helpful.

hosed back up. Instead of seeing too many ads I see no ads and the green circling arrows and blank spaces.

some kind of content blocker, or a security setting turned on in your browser which is affecting the display. If you’re a Star Member or running an ad blocker, you wouldn’t see the ads at all. But if you’re not, the ads should load after a second or two. They shouldn’t spin but then not load. But you’re the only person who has reported this so far. Do you see ads on other websites?

Whereas at DU you’re just getting spinning circles that don’t go away?

I previously mentioned in other emails. I am also noticing that in the article content I am now seeing funny figures that don't belong such as a backward S, a % sign, a ? mark. I can still read and post but the circles and figures are still there, I read around them.

I'll be off line for a couple of hours. Will check back later. It's 7:45 am AZ time right now.

Last week we had an issue with our character set that made those odd characters appear where smart quotes would normally be, but we fixed that and it hasn't been a problem for days. I'm wondering if you have some kind of caching problem.

Can you try clearing your browser cache and see if that makes a difference? Here's a page that shows you how to do it in different types of browser:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-clear-your-browser-cache/

instructions to clear my cache. I don't notice a difference. BTW I am also seeing the word "ezoic" on the portions of my blank screen.

"Ezoic" is just the name of the company that's serving the ads.

Something in your browser is blocking the ads from loading but I don't know what it could be. I think there's a way for us to get rid of the spinning circles though, so we're working on that.

again in AM and report. Thanks.

if the screen is 5 inches ,the ads are 4 inches plus of it

yes you can scroll and some of them go away

and yes I can click the x each and every time and the ad will go away

but if I was visiting for the first time I would of never have tried to get past the ads, I think this new ad "placement" will kill new peoples interest

on my laptop the only change seems to be there are ads about every 15 op titles or so ( but there were already ads on 3 sides the page)

Past week DU has been horribly slow, especially when hitting the back button or going to a new page. Blocked ezodn.com and ezoic.net. Back to normal speed.

Sad that ad trackers are now the norm, particularly on a political forum where anonymity, privacy, and security should be considered a high priority.

While I don't post much, I've been here since 2001 and read every day, like many, many other lurkers. I'm disappointed, and considering leaving permanently if this is the way forward. It's not worth my time having loading delays, spinning circles, and having my every move online analyzed. It definitely DOES interfere with my ability to enjoy the site.

Come on guys. You're better than this.

you have enjoyed the site for almost 20 years? send it some money

is it a business?

is there something wrong with that? and why can't it serve more than one purpose?

I wonder why they call it a "donation"?

I don't know how they structure that kind of stuff. I know I have "donated" to a number of "businesses" over the years...what do you think they should call monetary contributions to the site?

if it is a non profit then it is a donation

honestly it doesn't matter to me, I just think it should be transparent about the reason for it to exist

for whatever reason the admin did not respond to me on this page, you did so I engaged

"shrugs"

if a dollar a year can make up for me not seeing literally hundreds of ads a day, then I question what those ads even pay the site and how they can be worth taking the chance of not growing the democratic community

I am just naturally curious, sorry if it bothers you

asking for a donation makes more sense than asking for a fee for service, but I don't have a problem viewing it that way...pay a small fee to get one of the best sources for late breaking news (especially political news) and discussion with no ads.

or as a donation to the same cause...news, info, and discussion on a site run by some people who have a right to earn money off of it.

but being a business makes my question about how little ads must pay even more on point, if a dollar a year makes up for missing hundreds of ads a day, how little must those ads pay or is there a different goal than the dollar?

They can pay wages to their employees. My S-corp paid me a salary and salaries to my employees. Any profits retained in the corporate account at the end of the year became business income to me on which I paid taxes as if they were regular non-wage income. This income would be taxed similar to income you would get from a rental property.

The admins "work" and I hope make some reasonable salary or profits from the endeavor. They incur expenses to run the site and are giving up other pursuits in order to run the site.

Many schools and hospitals operate as non-profits but are still expensive to operate. They have employees and usually pay them competitively.

While the admins here do at times participate, they are quite busy right now. YMMV

I just noticed all the headlines that I had already read in Latest news (on the Latest page) column are no longer the "read" color...stuff I looked at in the center "Latest" column are marked, but not the other...

that would actually be my browser wouldn't it?

Last edited Fri Aug 7, 2020, 09:19 PM - Edit history (1)

This happens to me too from time to time, and has been going on for a while -- most of the time links turn to the correct "visited" color (the default is purple), but sometimes they go back to blue again. It's a bit of a mystery... likely something to do with our code being a bit old and creaky these days. There's possibly a simple fix for this -- I'll take a look. If it's not a simple fix though, we may have to live with it for a little while.

normally I just assume it is an update or something on my end. thanks!

The odd thing is I am seeing them in odd places. Every jury I am on...ad! In "My Posts" when I have more than a few responses to a thread and open it in "My Posts" to see who responded...ad! I even had an add in one of my PMs, but I can't find it now, so it is either fixed or gone.

We thought we'd fixed the issue with Star Members seeing ads which occurred briefly last weekend, but it seems that the new ad platform is occasionally inserting ads into pages where they shouldn't be at all. It's possible that the fix Elad came up with for making sure Star Members don't see the ads did not extend to pages where we weren't expecting ads to be, which is why they're occasionally sneaking through.

I'm going to do some troubleshooting on this and make sure that no ads are served on those pages. Thanks for the heads up and sorry about that. As you can see, we're still working out some kinks with the new ad platform.