Advertisements inside the post itself. Screenshots Addmageddon!

a reply to: dubiousatworst

Hmmmmm...that's actually a valid legal point! I hadn't considered that angle.

A post could quite easily turn from a critical opinion into defamatory or libelous attack based on the advertisement embedded within that post which the author of the post had no part in placing there. Examples of this have already been illustrated with screen shots in this very thread. The appearance is that the poster endorses the product or service which is being advertised when they are not. Equally, it could work the other way too, where a person could easily and inadvertently implicate themselves into association with a group just by the advertisement posted within their post.

--Serious Example--

For example: Let's say (hypothetically) someone made a critical comment about a public figure's medical condition and honestly questioned their fitness for office. At the same time the advertising app decides to embed an advertisement for a pharmaceutical company marketing a powerful anti-psychotic drug within the post. The poster's post has now turned from an honest question into a libelous and potentially defamatory accusation by associating the subject of the post with the product being advertised. And a simple screenshot of the post in question by someone pursuing legal action would certainly not work in the favor of the poster for a defense.

I know, I know,...but the ads are selected randomly, and may appear differently for different people, right? Well, that's even worse actually! Why? Well, because we already see advertising algorithms which present certain ads to target certain people based on their browsing or posting habits. And advertisers are very much sifting through data (data mining) to try to attach their brand name to material (news, blogs, social media, etc) which has the most views or the most impact. And we know this is true because this is why some individuals fare far better on monetized social media than others do, because of their content.

I'm not sure I want to be party to that, and I certainly take exception to appearing to endorse products or services I have no association with, or knowledge of.

What I foresee happening (minimally) is poster's on forums like ATS having to craft and attach large legal disclaimers to their signature lines in all posts holding themselves harmless from any associations which may be derived from products and services, or apparent endorsements of, advertisements embedded within their posts. That's not a good thing, and all that legal mumbo-jumbo will just further clutter up the flow of discussion to the point of being non-functional.

Sad days ahead, for everyone, I'm afraid.

Just another example of advertisers creeping into every single crevice of your personal life, every orifice, no matter how inappropriate or offensive.

originally posted by: Springer
…I just found out tonight that S.O. is doing some db maintenance...

Tell him to make sure he uses a let two sets of rubber gloves, last time I did maintenance on DB I think I caught something.

a reply to: Shamrock6

My situation as well. I’ve just about given up. I get about 10 seconds of ATS, then poof, off to a site that is trying to give me a free Walmart gift card.

The site is acting much better for me this morning.
Thanks to whoever fixed it!

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: Springer
…I just found out tonight that S.O. is doing some db maintenance...

Tell him to make sure he uses a let two sets of rubber gloves, last time I did maintenance on DB I think I caught something.

I told you that might happen. . . .

One question: anyone clicked the "report add" link to complain about the ads covering content?

Is this normal ? Makes my crappy work computer sound like a stitching machine while loading ... But much better then yesterday!

originally posted by: ArMaP
One question: anyone clicked the "report add" link to complain about the ads covering content?

I thought about that, but the pages took so long to load because
of all of the ads in each post and avatars, on the side and bottom.

It was like playing whack a mole, I gave up.

Good news is it seems back to normal today!

Thank you Soringer and all techies!

a reply to: Gargoyle91

YES that is our normal ad display.

Thank The Stars!

Everything seems back to normal. Thanks Springer!

I’m still getting redirects to Walmart gift cards. Yep, I’ve cleared all my caches, eaten all my cookies, and erased history.

Please please fix it. It has been 3 days now. I’m assuming that the only reason I have time to post here is because there aren’t ads on this page. The business forum are the only threads I can read.

I’m sorry I complained about live not working.... please let me back into the clubhouse.

a reply to: AdmireTheDistance

Yup, here too. Yay!

I use Firefox with uBlock as an ad-blocker, I've got zero ads on any of my pages. I just have to disable it for a minute if I want to do a forum search. Well worth it, I was ready to stop visiting the site.

I notice this only when I'm not logged in.

If you don't like ads make a donation to the site! I do every once in a while. I hope it might offset some of the costs. My only problem with ads is when they prevent page load (which I've seen happen).

I don't have else to contribute, but I really do love the content. That reminds me, it's probably about that time.

All seems to be working great now. Live is back, I’m not getting redirects, and minimal ads.

Thank you ATS team!

a reply to: Doodle19815

Thank You for sticking with us through the last few days. :-)

I sure hope ATS is making a lot more money with these redirect ads.

I tightened up my ad blocker and it seems like certain threads I get hammered with redirects.

It must be the Iranians.

Gets pretty old might not visit for a while again. This is a good way to push people away from the site instead of getting people to visit.

I haven't told anybody about the site since the ad debacle started.