Back button runs a new TextAd.

December 31, 2001 8:38 AM

Back button runs a new TextAd.

Just noticed that if I am in a thread I followed off the homepage, then click back, the page reloads with a new TextAd. But if I've scrolled down a bit to click on the thread in the first place (let's say I'm checking out what I missed yesterday), when I go back I miss the ad (unless I scroll up to see what it may be).

I'd assume this counts as an ad served, but it isn't seen. Now I know the ads are real cheap and it is just one count, but should it be different?
posted by jaysoucy to Bugs at 8:38 AM (6 comments total)

Well if you notice the new TextAd, then you've seen it. That's the idea. Every time you click you see a new one. If you want to see the previous one again, go to the complete listing.
What could be simpler?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:20 AM on December 31, 2001

That doesn't happen for me. Reload (for obvious reasons) does. Perhaps your cache copy expired between first visit and backing up. In any event, I don't know what anyone could do to prevent a new ad from being served. As MC said, That's the idea.
posted by rschram at 10:17 AM on December 31, 2001

Miguel, I think his point is that you are paying for each impression, but not all of the impressions are seen by the users. So every time jaysoucy hits the back button and a new TextAd loads (and he doesn't scroll up), MetaFilter gets credit for it as an impression, although a human doesn't actually see it. But maybe that's why impressions are so cheap.
posted by insomnyuk at 10:18 AM on December 31, 2001

Thanks, insomnyuk, that's what I'm talking about.

Since going "back" doesn't count as a click (I'm not talking about clicking on "home" in the top nav), therein lies the problem.

I'm also curious as to whether or not this is a ColdFusion thing (hitting back should just be my browser's cache of the last page -- is there some sort of force-reload?) Or is it an IE6 thing (I couldn't reproduce it with Netscape 4.6 or Opera 6)?
posted by jaysoucy at 10:26 AM on December 31, 2001

It's just the nature of your browser's cache. Sometimes it reads the recent local copy of a page, sometimes it reloads a fresh one from the server. I see it myself and there's no predictive reason for it (except besides time, if I read a comment for 20 minutes then go back, the index usually reloads fresh).
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:43 AM on December 31, 2001

browser cache? or a clever scheme to become fabulously wealthy overreporting ad impressions? where are woodward and bernstein when we need them? getting deep throat in the parking garage, that's where...
posted by quonsar at 8:07 AM on January 1, 2002