Drop down and talking ads...

I get it, this site needs ads to generate revenue in order to pay for it to operate and stay free, but these talking ads and drop down ads are getting out of control.

There are few things more frustrating on the internet than browsing a website and having a banner ad drop down into a half / full page ad when you accidentally mouse over it... especially when it drops down over the link you were going to click, thus "tricking" you into clicking the ad.

The talking ads, however, are infinitely more annoying. I lost count of how many times I've had 3-4 tabs open, and hear an ad talking to me about some TV show or product. Once I hear it, I have to search through every webpage I have open, and after 5-10 minutes of searching find that it's coming from a 2" by 2" video ad on ATS. These ads are usualy placed half way down the page, or if you're offline could be located between posts in a thread. God help you if you have your volume turned all the way up when one of these ads starts screaming at you through your speakers (you owe me a few pairs of underwear, ATS).

I wouldn't normally make a post about this, but I feel I have to because of a post I read a few weeks ago by the site owner, claiming the advertisement agency he used was a legit, professional one. Tricking me into clicking ads, and forcing me to listen to a video ad until I can track it down and mute it is not what I would call professional.

reply to post by Adyta


Yeah, I agree. The ones I hate the most are the ones that move and come down and you accidentally click on them because they pop up in front of what ever you were just about to click on. I haven't seen one like that on this site in a long while thankfully though. I also usually have my speakers turned off while I am browsing ATS so I haven't experienced the talking ads. I know that some other sites I use not at home on a different computer in order to get around site blocks have talking ads, those are annoying too.

reply to post by Adyta


I agree, its incredibly annoying when they have movies or volume. on top of that, these really eat up data for those of us visiting via phones who are often charged ridiculous sums of money for data transactions.

The moving ads are the worst. They want you to take a survey? On a conspiracy site? Are they serious? Does anybody actually click such an ad where you can likely be backtracked? No thanks. Those types of ads need to go away imho.

In the time it took to write this rant you could have just installed a pop-up-blocker

Never had any issues with ads xD

same pop up blocks rule the one I have even works on youtube and hulu.

I agree. ATS is treading on thin ice these days. You guys have no idea how close I am to leaving and never coming back. As I switched tabs to begin reading this post, I moused over the ad at the top of the page and guess what? A big expanded ad filled up half of my 12"x8" laptop display. Ironically it was the first time I'd seen the expanding type on ATS, and I had just started reading this post. Ads are fine, but keep them simple ATS. We aren't like the rest of the internet. We won't click on ads no matter how flashy you make them.

agree'd...the pop down adds really piss me off the most

reply to post by AnnoyingOrangeX


It doesn't work on these ads. The drop down ads aren't a pop up, it's an expanding ad. Mousing over it doesn't create a pop up, it just makes the ad larger so it's covering 1/4 the screen. They also doesn't work on video ads, since they are just ads that incorporate video and sounds in an effort to force you to see and hear their message.

Advertising is becoming more and more aggressive. It reminds me of the movie Idiocracy. In that movie some guy is watching TV, and only the center of the screen is the program and the border is all ads.

It started with pop-ups, then people started installing pop up blockers. I see an actual pop up ad maybe once a month, the rest are these new "trickery" ads that jump out at you when you mouse over it and talking ads that force you to listen to their message until you manage to mute it.

What next? I bet advertisement companies are working on an ad that hijacks your entire screen for the duration of the ad with no way to click it off. Wanna view a webpage? Not until you hear this important message about how you're the 1,000,000th viewer!

reply to post by Adyta


Get noscript for firefox. It works wonders.

reply to post by mb2591


Thank you. Installing now.

Here is the post I was talking about.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
We only use top-tier ad networks with quality reputations who are part of the Network Advertising Initiative. More and more domain-blockers are restricting access to ad-serving domains not part of the NAI list.

(You'd be surprised to learn how many inquiries we get every month from other banner ad networks promising to double/triple our ad revenue... but since they're not part of the NAI, we ignore them.)

If these ads are part of a top-tier ad network, I cringe to think what would be considered bottom-tier.

Original post here.

reply to post by Adyta


Adblockplus for firefox works perfectly fine for me

realy ...I have never seen any ad here

reply to post by AnnoyingOrangeX


Ad blocking is against the ATS T&C and I believe can get you a ban.

4b) Ad Blockers: As AboveTopSecret.com is provided as a free service, in part through the income of our advertising, you agree not to use "ad-blocking" software or similar built-in web browser options designed to obfuscate or block online advertising while using the website(s).

reply to post by Adyta


wtf ...never seen that before.

thx for that information xD

well ok then I´ll join your side - remove those annoying ads immediately, ATS! xD

reply to post by Adyta


uh oh

reply to post by Adyta


i never get drop down ads or talking ads, maybe i'm lucky. i must be lucky huh.

or....

Figured I'd add a picture since I just got another one of those drop down ads. Went to click "myATS" and the thing dropped down and tricked me into clicking it.

I hate them for the reasons stated in the OP but the talking ones get me the most because I like to listen to music as I browse the net and I hate having to listen to ads for stain remover or some other crap over the songs I'm trying to listen to with no way of getting the ads to shut up.

It's not just ATS either, it's happened on a download site when I wanna grab wrestling shows that won't be available on dvd after viewing it on tv days earlier.

The problem with the damn adds is they're right in the middle of the best part of this website...

Look in the "new hot:active new topics" section under "new topics" and tell me what you see.