Politically Offensive Banner Ads

[Blackrat]

If anyone sees an offensive advertisement, all they have to do is email me with the URL and I'll block it.

ephealy (at) ephealy (dot) com

Just wanted to ask, are the ads that come through your network generally safe for work material? Google claims that, but evony and such have proved that that's an empty claim.

I'd love to make ENW exception for the adblocker even at work, but so far it's been impossible...

 

[ephealy]

Just wanted to ask, are the ads that come through your network generally safe for work material? Google claims that, but evony and such have proved that that's an empty claim.

Yes. Safe for work.

RE EVONY: I was able to block these ads for some time, but it looks like they're moving servers. If you see one, let me know the target domain and I'll add it to 'the list'.

 

[Blackrat]

That's cool. I've kinda felt bad that I've had to block the ads on ENW at work since I'm mostly online only at work. Can fix that now

 

[TheAuldGrump]

With the switch to the new service, this is perhaps moot. But as I understand it, what Google presents is in part based on the site upon which the ad appears, and in part upon the viewer. So, you dont' necessarily see what I see. So one person's experience doesn't speak to the bulk. Only when a bunch of people note the occurrence (like with the Evony ads recently) can we start to speak about the overall effect.

I imagine that these days, it would be a common nasty trick to send ads from one side of the political fence to people who have been browsing topics on the other side of the fence.

Or just shuffle it under 'Poiltics, General'

I do visit political sites, but until those banners started popping up on EN World I pretty much left my political opinions at the door. (I don't think that I have ever mentioned politics on this site, except in an historic perspective. I don't think that 17th century politics really counts.)

OK, but in line with the theme of the thread, lets not allude to your own political opinions, either. The aim is to cut out all political discussion, not to only cut out political discussion we don't like. So please feel feel to report (but not discuss!) any political or religious ads.

The 'voting with your feet' comment as in reference to having political ads from Google in general. I would probably have mentioned it even if I had agreed with the message, although almost certainly not in as cranky a fashion. I actually agree that political discussion should be left out of this site.

*EDIT* Well, except for edition discussion - that is almost like politics and religion rolled into one.

And, for whatever it is worth, I have rarely seen Google Ads with a political tinge, certainly not three days worth of ads from the opposite end of the political spectrum. Then again - I put EN World as an exception to my ad blocker, so I probably miss most of them. They just don't show up on my screen.

I hope that you did not lose too much in regards to revenue, part of the reason that I had made an exception on my blocker was to support this site.

The Auld Grump, and now back to rolling dice.

*EDIT 2* Banner ads are back, and the only thing offensive is that there is no way that I can make it to the con advertised. Thank you very much.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Given this news about a new ad site, I've put the top banner back on again. I'll try and make sure I click through whenever I see something interesting, as even if it's only pennies it'll all count.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Spoke too soon. It's back, and once again the only series of ads I am getting.

The Auld Grump, makes me want to burn barns and become a pagan worshiper of Cthulhu.... Not to mention smack that one kid in the picture right in the face.... Grrrr....

 

[Morrus]

Well, I'll drop Ed a line and ask him to block it specifically.

 

[ephealy]

Spoke too soon. It's back, and once again the only series of ads I am getting.

Because I may not see a post like this in the forums, please feel free to email me the URLs for these ads. Yes, you'll probably need to click on it if the URL isn't obvious, but I can't block the ads without a domain.

You can email these to me at ephealy (at) ephealy (dot) com

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

Here's the upshot:

Google Ads can be blocked, but you have to know what they are to block them. So it only happens after the fact and with the relevant information to hand to know exactly what to block.

From experience I can say that Ed offers a great service with his advertising network, while it is run through Google Ads he is very responsive to requests including removing anything that may cause issues.

We had an issue on our site that involved this very matter of political ads appearing and Ed solved it permanently inside an hour IIRC.

 

[Kafen]

This is a politically active time. Google uses region to help place the ads under AdSense. So, you will see ads that go against your point of view if you active in politics at all.


- link of ad
- company/group
- screenshot

It's not easy to go through the ad manager on Google and hit every offensive ad. So, some time is often required to nail down the full range of ads from the entire group/company as the "same" ad may in fact be multiple ads with slightly different traits.