Thread: Advertising pop-ups

Dear Moderators,

I just tuned in and was greeted by several ads for Nintendos, Metroids, Nintendos, etc.

While I rather enjoy the ebay adds for razor opportunities I may have missed or have not yet become aware of, I think the adds for computer games are not needed here and I, for one, don't appreciate the invasion.

Can anything be done to ban the "off topic" adds?

feeling somewhat smug about the topical segue, Bruce

There is a way that they can be reported or blocked, but I think the actual link has to be recorded. Joe knows exactly what needs to be done, I havent seen this type of ad, but I will keep my eye out for it.

I am not sure what you mean by pop-up ads though. I only see ads on the side of the forum, no pop-up ads are ever present when I browse.

i have a pop up blocker, however i never get pop ups off of SRP. do you have any other windows open in the background??

vgod

V and J,

I was incorrect in calling them pop up ads in that it is not the phenomenom of another window opening up with a new ad in it, rather it's the ads which populate the space under the top bar of the web page boiler plate and the left edge of the screen. Right now I'm looking at ads for an Elite lcd car charger for an Apple Iphone, current bid$6.99, a black horizontal pouch holster for an Apple Iphone, current bid$0.99, and a current $13.99 bid for an Apple Iphone Metal Aluminum Housing Case Cover + Lcd.

Obviously SRP has sold advertizing to ebay and those ads used to be for shaving related things which has devolved to mostly Zeepk model perfect razors and burshes(sic) and strops. At least they are shaving related. This new stuff offends my delicate sensitivities and since I have not Iwhatzits one, won't prompt me to buy anything. If shaving related at least ebay has a chance to get me to part with some coin.

Bruce

Are the adds "smart"? I mean, does some software crawl through the posts to pick up key words in order to target the ads from the topics under discussion? If so, we're probably going to see a lot of non-razor ads because of the Off Topic forum Or are they just random?

James.

PS I'm looking at three adds at the moment for Iphone cases.

I'm moving this to the site comments forum to be more on-topic... I hope that's ok. (if not, please contact me via PM)

Now, as to the ads...

Bruce -- I'm sorry the ads offended you. I haven't seen an occurrence of the specific situation you mentioned, but admittedly I don't pay much attention to the ads very often. I'll pay more attention for a while to see if there's anything we can do.

There are three ad types being rotated in the advertisements area on the left side of the screens:

1. vendor ads -- these ads are screened by us and originate from our server, so we know they're appropriate because we control them in real time.
2. Googleads -- Googleads are context sensitive, ie, the ad keys off of content contained on the page being displayed. The actual ad is served in real time by the Google ad server... ie, we have no control at that point. Most of the time our content is chock full of terms like razors, soaps, aftershaves, etc. and so we get appropriate ads. Occasionally, however, someone will mention a term like, eg, "gameboy"... and voila... you get toy ads.
3. Auction ads -- these work a little differently in that they are constrained to the key words we supply... eg, razor, aftershave, etc. So for the most part, only those types of auctions appear. However, things are not always what they seem... if an auction for a tv contained the verbiage "razor sharp picture" it might show up being served to our site because of the match on "razor".

Now, all that said, sometimes there are glitches and google or auction ads are unable to provide a well targeted ad due to some problem on their end, so they just serve up any old ad, so to speak.

Hmm...there is a thread in the OT forum about xbox and video games...I wonder if that did it.

could be, but only if that was the post he was looking at.

AZ and JL,

Ads in general are fine as I'm guessing they are needed to bring in some much needed funds to support the site. The ones I've cited are new and not related to what we all profess to enjoy. I'm more curious about how or if one can control what comes onto the SRP.

Thanks for the work you guys do; I don't want to give the impression that this is a gravely serious matter for which I'm asking prompt and vigorous action. My issue with these ads is really as significant that old grain of salt - particularly if they are bringing in some money. I can ignore them as easily as I do the Zeepk ads, but sometimes when one rolls to the wrong side of mattress, one can't help but feel the pea. My curiosity is more about how they are able to get in if they are not invited.


Bruce

Originally Posted by Bruce

AZ and JL,

Ads in general are fine as I'm guessing they are needed to bring in some much needed funds to support the site. The ones I've cited are new and not related to what we all profess to enjoy. I'm more curious about how or if one can control what comes onto the SRP.

Thanks for the work you guys do; I don't want to give the impression that this is a gravely serious matter for which I'm asking prompt and vigorous action. My issue with these ads is really as significant that old grain of salt - particularly if they are bringing in some money. I can ignore them as easily as I do the Zeepk ads, but sometimes when one rolls to the wrong side of mattress, one can't help but feel the pea. My curiosity is more about how they are able to get in if they are not invited.


Bruce

since I've not witnesses the issue, I don't know. I assume the ads you're seeing are in the Advertisements box at the left. If the ad is served by AuctionAds it will say "Ads by Auctionads" at the bottom of the box. If Served by google ads, it will say something like "ads by Google" at the top of the box. We do have control, but not in real time. We define the keywords that they look for matches on. Also, we can exclude specific urls of advertisers, etc. No matter how you try, however, there will always be some bogus ads get through since the advertisers know how to work the system to their advantage.

Historically, AuctionAds has more operational problems and so they are not filtering properly more often than Google. But Google isn't perfect either... for example, a while ago "razor" and "Razr" seem to be equivalent in their minds... so we got a flurry of cell phone ads.

What screen or thread or post does it seem to happen most frequently on for you?