[::maroma::]

Something that has been bugging me a lot lately is the state of banner ads today.

I remember back in the good ole days, banner ads were merely static graphics, usually of the same dimensions. These were a tad distracting at times, but generally stayed out of the way unless you were bored or looking for something in particular.

Then suddenly, quietly, they threw some fairly innocent animation on those banner ads. Definitely got your attention more than the static ones, but a bit more annoying and distracting. Usually stayed the same dimensions as the original banner ads. I could live with that.

And now we come to today. We have banner ads that are all kinds of different dimensions. They are animated. They are interactive. Well, sort of. They act like they are but when you try to interact with them, they just take you to the site they wanted you at all along. And we also now have banner ads that are shapeshifters! They will start out one size, then get much larger and invade your space. They force you to hit the "close" box (even though it really isn't closing anything). Some of them bleed out onto your page and you simply have to wait until they are done. Some chick dancing around, or some dog wagging its tail and staring at you, etc. They are annoying, distracting as all hell, and they are bogging down sites that, without these monstrosities they call banner ads, would otherwise be light and fast. (see MacNN Forums).

Anyone else hate where banner ads have come to? Sure, you can download an addon that will take out all banner ads, but for those of use stuck at work where we can't install any damn thing, we must suffer.

DOWN WITH STUPID CRAPPY LAME DUMB FARTY BANNER ADS!

WHO'S WITH ME??

(Yep, I'm at work. And yep, I'm as bored as I've ever been.)

[peeb]

Get an ad-blocker. I don't remember the last time I saw an ad, till I switched to Safari 3, and then got the css for it, and they stopped again.

[Chuckit]

Blame Flash. Flash is the blight of the Web.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Disable Flash. Flash is the blight of the Web.

Fixed that for you.

[highstakes]

You forgot to mention the ad's with the sound. Most of the time I dont know where its coming from, and by the time I find it, it shuts up.

[::maroma::]

Oh yeah, sound! Add that one to the list.

I know about ad blockers and the like. But thats not always an option for me. I just don't understand how its come to this. Where are the regulations? Where are the standards? Where's Waldo?

[peeb]

Why are ad-blockers not an option?

[::maroma::]

When I'm at work they aren't an option because our computers are on super duper lockdown. We can't install jack squat on them. We're in the process of changing that, but for the time being we're stuck with what we got.

And I browse the web a lot at work. As you might have guessed.

[peeb]

Firefox on a thumbdrive? Turning off flash?

[zerostar]

Are you browsing with safari? If so you can load a custom css sheet (just store it somewhere you can access) and select the style sheet in the advanced settings. Maybe someone here can point you to a good one. I am using this one I think:

Ad Blocking for Mozilla, Netscape 7, and Safari

[Tomchu]

I have a FreeBSD box doing PF firewalling/NAT, and local DNS. I get an updated list of ad servers on the Internet every now and then from Ad blocking with ad server hostnames and IP addresses in BIND format, and I put it in place on my server.

The result?

No computer accessing the Internet through my wired/wireless connection at home sees ads. :-)

Originally Posted by peeb 

Get an ad-blocker.

I don't use an ad-blocker because I don't want all the free sites I visit to become pay-sites.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by hayesk 

I don't use an ad-blocker because I don't want all the free sites I visit to become pay-sites.

Its a vicious cycle. If everyone used sensitive, text ads, then I wouldn't have been driven to it, but since some people poisoned the well with pop-up, animated, audio crapulators, then the ad-game is over from my perspective. Advertisers and sites that allowed them blew it. I understand that sites need revenue, but I don't watch TV anymore for the same reason - ads ruined it. So how do sites make money? Wikipedia does ok, NPR manages, I think a contributions model would work ok. I donate to a few sites that I use a lot.
I don't know what the solution is, but, for me, it's not unfiltered ads.

[zerostar]

Originally Posted by Tomchu 

I have a FreeBSD box doing PF firewalling/NAT, and local DNS. I get an updated list of ad servers on the Internet every now and then from Ad blocking with ad server hostnames and IP addresses

I like this list, anyone know how I can utilize this on a per-machine level? I tired adding them to my etc/host file but it didn't seem to work, I don't mind mucking around on each machine so let me know where I should look or edit.

EDIT: apparently coping it to the hosts file isn't enough, I found this page which seems to walk me through it, ill let you all know how it goes!

MacMerc.com: Superior Ad Blocking on OS X

[Buckaroo]

Do you guys remember back when html would allow you to have blinky text? I forgot what version of html canceled it, but you don't see it anymore (of course).

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Buckaroo 

Do you guys remember back when html would allow you to have blinky text? I forgot what version of html canceled it, but you don't see it anymore (of course).

It's actually still available in Mozilla browsers (Netscape, Firefox, etc.) like it always was; people just don't use it anymore because it's a horrible abomination. Just like <marquee>, which is actually available on all browsers, but nobody uses it anymore because nobody wants to look at it.

[Buckaroo]

I'll be darn, I didn't even know <marquee>test</marquee> existed.

Blinky has been replaced with flash and a gif's.