Obnoxious ad on front page December 16, 2005 4:29 PM   Subscribe

The "Access your PC from anywhere" ad is really obnoxious. It's a big white square with an un-antialised blue underlined headline that makes it looks like some CSS file has failed to load. Oh, and it blinks. It reminds me of the "Oh noes! You are broadcasting an IP address!" ads.

I realise these things make the site money, but that one sucks. :(
posted by Mwongozi to MetaFilter-Related at 4:29 PM (24 comments total)

Mwongozi, here are three simple client-side solutions that will prevent you from being troubled by this ad.

Adblock (ad-blocking extension if you're using Firefox).
The Proxomitron (ad-blocking local proxy)
Privoxy (same)
posted by killdevil at 4:37 PM on December 16, 2005


er, Privoxy is actually here.
posted by killdevil at 4:38 PM on December 16, 2005


It's built into Firefox - I just right clicked (on that exact ad, because I agree - it's obnoxious), hit "Block images from this site", and BAM. All gone!

I had initially had some concerns if that sort of thing would reduce MeFi revenue, but Mathowie never said anything when I asked, and I think the ad models have moved on from such crude metrics, so...no more ads on MeFi for me!
posted by freebird at 4:42 PM on December 16, 2005


My opinion of it is that it's no big deal. If it were I would have gotten adblock by now.
posted by scarabic at 4:42 PM on December 16, 2005


I think the point of the ad is that it's supposed to look like a text ad (complete with aliased text) on a white page, and mefi is blue.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:51 PM on December 16, 2005


We could have had hot naked indie-rock chicks, but no, that wasn't good enough for you people, was it? And now look what you've gone and done.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 4:52 PM on December 16, 2005


There's an ad?

You guys still see them?

nearly naked pierced women, man, those were the days
posted by cedar at 5:05 PM on December 16, 2005


bring back the SG ad!

and make it blink!
posted by scarabic at 5:07 PM on December 16, 2005


PithHelmet makes my browsing experience ad-free, but I can't imagine the Gotomypc.com ad on metafilter nearly as bad as the radio ads on the non-music XM sat radio channels.
posted by birdherder at 5:10 PM on December 16, 2005


I have to admit though, I kinda liked the text ads. I know, I know, Projects replaces them. But I don't always go browse projects yet, and some of those text ads were pretty interesting, and the lame ones were easily ignored.
posted by freebird at 5:21 PM on December 16, 2005


How about a projects module on the homepage? It could look just like the old textads, yet pull one post at a time from projects. A little more exposure for the Red?
posted by scarabic at 5:24 PM on December 16, 2005


Matt's opinions on ad blocking.

"I don't mind if you block ads, feel free to continue doing it. Most comments about the ads make no sense, since they change so frequently as a thread grows."
posted by stet at 5:32 PM on December 16, 2005


Woah, woah, WOAH!?! There are ads on MeFi? I guess I've been sitting behind my invisible ad shield for too long.
posted by blue_beetle at 5:39 PM on December 16, 2005


How about a projects module on the homepage? It could look just like the old textads, yet pull one post at a time from projects.

That's a kickass idea. I could totally do that.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:14 PM on December 16, 2005


It's spelled "Whoa." "Woah" would be pronounced "Woe-ah."
posted by Eideteker at 9:23 PM on December 16, 2005


My tactic has always been to simply not install Flash on Firefox - only on IE. That and a rather lengthy list of servers for adblock to filter means that I almost never see any ads anymore no matter what website I'm browsing.
posted by Ryvar at 9:33 PM on December 16, 2005


But did you click on the ad? I totally did. The blinking was convincing. The whole PC from anywhere thing is the shit!
posted by panoptican at 12:56 AM on December 17, 2005


Ads are your friends, people. Advertisers pay so you don't have to. If you see an ad deal happen behind the scenes you won't feel as bad about it. Advertiser: "Your site seems to cater to just the kind of person I consider valuable, let me load you down with some money, guy." A good ad client is solid gold. And the ad which logged-in members see is tiny and out of the way.

By comparison, I recently asked the ad guy at work if it would be hellish to stop using those banners that expand when you mouse over them. He said yes, that would be a problem with many clients. But he emphasized again and again that we do not allow these ads to expand UNLESS YOU MOUSEOVER THEM. In his mind, that means that the user has to request said expansion, implying they're interested.

In my mind, the banner goes the whole width of the page, and is between the top navigation tabs and the page body. It's kinda hard *not* to cross it with your mouse.

So I wouldn't complain too much about one compact module stuffed to the side where you never have to look at it. Especially when you're all smart enough to block it.
posted by scarabic at 1:36 AM on December 17, 2005


birdherder: "PithHelmet makes my browsing experience ad-free, but I can't imagine the Gotomypc.com ad on metafilter nearly as bad as the radio ads on the non-music XM sat radio channels."

Hear, hear. I know it's because the channels are syndicated but the end result is that I 1) change the channel, 2) would never consider their product. Sounds like a winning combo.
posted by kcm at 7:11 AM on December 17, 2005


We could have had hot naked indie-rock chicks, but no, that wasn't good enough for you people, was it? And now look what you've gone and done.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 4:52 PM PST on December 16 [!]


Yes, we could have had college dropouts from abusive homes selling tail because there is nothing else they can do for drug money. But, we've already talked about it.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 7:28 AM on December 17, 2005


College dropouts from abusive homes are going to want drug money no matter what you or I do. Better they be staring vapidly on my monitor than staring vapidly at potential johns on a street corner.
posted by Ryvar at 7:40 AM on December 17, 2005


Anyone who does pornography is a homeless drug addict!
</derail>
posted by billybunny at 9:04 PM on December 17, 2005


You're mistaking the existence of an overlapping subset of A + B for the equivalence of A + B, billy-boy.
posted by Ryvar at 9:51 PM on December 17, 2005


How about a projects module on the homepage? It could look just like the old textads, yet pull one post at a time from projects.

I second the awesomeness of that idea. Nice thinking scarabic.
posted by banished at 12:21 AM on December 18, 2005


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