Is Anyone Else Seeing Political Ads Pushed to Them On These Forums?

[LouK]

I complained about these ads several months ago & caught hell for it. Now I get ads for sailboat gear and women in swimsuits, which if given a choice, would much be my preference over anything MAGA.

[AKA-None]

If you want nicer as acceptable ads then a few click will get you pretty girls in bikinis or whatever turns your crank, as the saying goes.

[WillyTheRat]

OK, maybe someone else has already clarified this BUT, those ads are partially indicative of your internet searches NOT this forum and partially a "shot gun" campaign tactic. I get Joe Biden ads on YouTube. But I don't care. Amazingly enough, I have the willpower to click off something I do not want. But maybe that's me. Why must we all be the same? And why must the sameness be your definition?

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by WillyTheRat

OK, maybe someone else has already clarified this BUT, those ads are partially indicative of your internet searches NOT this forum and partially a "shot gun" campaign tactic. I get Joe Biden ads on YouTube. But I don't care. Amazingly enough, I have the willpower to click off something I do not want. But maybe that's me. Why must we all be the same? And why must the sameness be your definition?

Yes, this is true, but as I've pointed out, the site owner CAN block these ads. Adsense gives the owners a lot of control over the types, categories or even specific ads they choose to allow or block.

So yes, the ads people see are dependent on each person's own browsing history (plus all the background secret tracking that everyone is subject to), but CF owners could block them from even being on the possible list.

[nwdiver]

Not at all.....

I’m in Canada, Canadian politicos are too cheap to buy ads.....

[Sir_Crabs_A_Lot]

Originally Posted by Wireless1

Today in the advertising space above a page I saw a Trump Support ad. I was in the process of scrolling pages and when I briefly saw it I tried to hit the back button because on a non political website like this one I couldn’t believe what I saw. Going back through pages either I could not find it or another ad replaced it. Was this somehow a fluke?
Curious...

I run Adblock on my computer so I never see ads, however on my phone I have no blocker, so I see all the trump ads, republican ads, and gun ads ("Solved! Which one is better, revolver or semi-auto") EVEN THO I'm a dyed-in-the-wool democrat, liberal, atheist, and have never visited those sites although I do watch the news (hmmm...)


BUT what really scares me is that your computers and phones are LISTENING to every word you say. No lie! Numerous times I've been talking to my wife while she's on her computer and the words I say trigger ads to pop up in the pages she's viewing! "Have you seen my shoes?" -- ding, shoe ad. "Do you want my pants in the laundry?" -- ding, ads for detergent and underwear. "What do you have planned for dinner?" -- ding, restaurant ad.



1984.

[Crusty Joker]

Interesting discussion. I do need better control over the internet and advertisers on my side. While I like good information sources, I am missing the security of access to really great libraries and printed pages and periodicals. Particularly the peer reviewed Science Periodicals. A person's reputation is on the line as well as his or her integrity. That is all about what real BRAND should be about. The internet is just quick and convenient. It is not necessarily a place to share truth... though most of us try to keep ourselves squared away.
Thank all of you for the discussion which came with some education... for me.

[fatherchronica]

The thing that bothered me is that I did not look anything up about underwear or elastic. Just mentioned it in my living room. I do have tape over my selfie camera on the iPad now though.

[Janet H]

Originally Posted by fatherchronica

The thing that bothered me is that I did not look anything up about underwear or elastic. Just mentioned it in my living room. I do have tape over my selfie camera on the iPad now though.

Google ads are served up based on a number of parameters. Your own view habits, the viewing habits of others using your internet connection, key words of the page you are viewing, etc. We each see different ads and the forum doesn't control the content.

Right now I'm seeing ads for down comforters even though it's blazing hot outside right now... last night I was shopping for a new parka at the site now showing me ads for down comforters.


We can block certain types of ads but frankly scurrilous ad purveyors often submit ads to google platform and deliberately mislabel the content. it takes a few days for them to be removed. We have blocked adult content and some political content but that doesn't mean it never displays.

Ads help keep the board online. Click around a bit

[JPA Cate]

Thanks, Janet. They don't know what to show me, all i do is CF and ask Google weird questions. Jim's our shopper.

[Janet H]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Thanks, Janet. They don't know what to show me, all i do is CF and ask Google weird questions. Jim's our shopper.

Asking google weird questions may result in google showing you related content the next day. Using googles currency conversion calculator will ensure that the next day you see travel ads, for instance.

Have you seen this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxqca4RQd_M

[NorthernMac]

Clear cookies and VPN?

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I get it Barn. We are in agreement. But political content is strictly forbidden here. Threads are constantly closed down, members are chastised, and in some cases banned. You are suggesting a pretty high level of hypocrisy on the part of the owners. I hope this is not the case.

Given this enforced lack of political content, I doubt if this site actually attracts much in the way of political ad revenue. Maybe the admins already block this this stuff, and it is a case of whack-a-mole, but clearly some of it is getting through.

Mike, I will have to somewhat disagree.


Look at the longest and hottest threads right now. Read into them. Covid. It is not about Covid. Flags in marinas. It is not about flags.


Too bad. But my feeling is that CF is EXTREMELY politicized right now. I do not say elsewhere the world is better. There is plenty of worse places too.


Perhaps because the world is a worse place today. And our media are part of the world.



You are right threads are taken down. And they should. But are Ads taken down?


We are talking Ads here, not threads.


Admins are just employees, they will do what the owners will ask them to do. And the owners will do what pays.


It would be odd, in my book, to expect any for profit organization (aka business) to behave otherwise. You reject profits, you are out of the game, and something new comes and takes your niche.


I do not see nor expect any ill will from admins or from owners of this forum. But I would be absolutely swept if suddenly someone somewhere stopped playing along with generally practiced and accepted business rules and methods.


I do not look at Ads so I cannot say if a political one ever popped up for me from CF.


I also have a dynamic IP, clean my cache maybe twice a day, never use Chrome and use a plain but effective 'blocker' on my Firefox. Not bullet-proof, but at least not naively vulnerable.



The Internet is like any other machine. It's either a benefit or a hazard. If it's a hazard, it's not my problem.


Yours,
b.

[barnakiel]

My dear people. Simple tricks I found to be somewhat effective:

- use dynamic IP, if you can, VPN, if you cannot,
- clean your cache, delete all cookies, use a third party cleaner for this,
- do not use Chrome nor other browsers known to aggerssivelly collect your data,
- use a strong Ad-blocker, and update it every time your browser updates.


You will by wildly surprised how the above limits your ability to use the Internet!


For all the colorful things out there, you know, they have been created by people like you and me, people who need to eat, and so they need to get paid. And a very very common way to get paid is to drive traffic, provide user data and do a couple of other things with vaguely technical names.


An Ad pops up. The coder gets paid. The website gets paid. The politician gets elected (or not, your choice).



Yes. We are being watched, tagged, targeted and otherwise manipulated.


No, it is not 'them, it is 'us'. With our actions, preferences and choices, we got to this point of history (again).


I promise you, it will not get better any time soon. It cannot. Because we are making this worse.


YOU and I.


If you have good ideas, add them to this list at the top of my post.


I love you, but you already know.


barnakiel

[akopac]

Use Brave. Even for news. It’s chrome based and stops the adds. I use an iPad with the cruising forum app too. No adds