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Original poster

These ruddy video ads are crippling the site

40 replies

FrannyandZooey · 16/11/2006 08:45

It has been like this for a few days now

I have a video ad at the top, a video ad to the side and the actual talk section takes for flaming ever to load

Feeling really hacked off with it this morning, I only get a short time to come on in the mornings and it has taken me forever to load a page

OP posts:
magnolia1 · 16/11/2006 08:49

Have to agree the Ad's are a pain in the arse!

Original poster
FrannyandZooey · 16/11/2006 08:51

Tech it is chronic, please do something...

I think the Orange one at the top is one of the culprits, whenever I am sat here waiting for the page to load, it is sitting there smugly in front of me

I have broadband and fancy modern pc btw

OP posts:
SparklyfestiveYellowFeathers · 16/11/2006 08:54

but what can mn do about it?
surely they lose money if they remove them?

Original poster
FrannyandZooey · 16/11/2006 09:02

Running ads that cause the site to not work properly is never going to be good for business, is it?

I am sure Tech can twiddle the flanges, or something

OP posts:
lemonaid · 16/11/2006 09:08

I block them by editing my hosts file (can explain for anyone who's interested). On Windows you can also block them using proxy settings, which apparently is a better solution from a technical point of view, but I didn't know that until I'd already done the hosts tweak.

bubblerock · 16/11/2006 09:14

I hate sites with moving images on such as these adverts because it gives me headaches when I'm trying to read text. I must admit, I have been coming here less often and not staying too long.(probably a good thing though )

Original poster
FrannyandZooey · 16/11/2006 09:14

Ooh yes pls explain lemonaid

I would think MN would improve their revenue by not running ads that annoy people so much that they feel the need to block them, anyway

I think a lot of the money they get is from click throughs, so I presume they would like to know which ads we like and dislike, and which cause us to block them

OP posts:
BettySpaghetti · 16/11/2006 09:26

I'm finding it takes ages once I've written a post and then click "Post Message" for it to appear on the thread IYSWIM -is that new slowness caused by these ads?

NomDePlume · 16/11/2006 09:26

Mine is really slow too.

lemonaid · 16/11/2006 09:45

The basic idea is to trick your PC into thinking that all those files are stored locally, so that it tries to find them on your own PC and just gives up when it can't find them, rather than downloading them every time. So that's what you do by editing the hosts file.

DISCLAIMER: Always backup your existing hosts file first. And while this works fine for me it is not my responsibility if it causes your computer to collapse into a pile of green dust... proceed at your own risk.

  1. Find your hosts file (at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts for Windows XP)
  1. Mine has a very long list with lots of known adservers in it so that I block most ads anywhere (would be happy to email to anyone who CATs me) but I believe the specific line you need to add (under the line that says "127.0.0.1 localhost") to block the Mumsnet ads is

127.0.0.1 adserver.adtech.de

  1. Save hosts file
  1. Restart browser (you might also need to reboot the PC, I'm not sure)
Blu · 16/11/2006 10:03

Franny - yes - it has been slow and stiucky, and the arrow and little hand get all flickery.

Maddening.

I can't be doing with all that wizardry, lemonaid - can't the ads be sorted out??

Original poster
FrannyandZooey · 16/11/2006 12:20

Still pants here and I notice duplicated messages cropping up all over the site which I think are part of the problem - people pressing "post message" twice because it took so long the first time they think it has not worked

OP posts:
FIMBO · 16/11/2006 12:24

I couldn't get on at all at one point due to a "busy server".

AitchTwoOh · 16/11/2006 12:29

snap, fimbo. maddening.

hang on, i'm actually getting quite a lot done...

AitchTwoOh · 16/11/2006 12:29

snap, fimbo. maddening.

hang on, i'm actually getting quite a lot done...

AitchTwoOh · 16/11/2006 12:30

oh wtf?!

FIMBO · 16/11/2006 12:44

LOL!

(bet it happens to me too!)

JackieNo · 16/11/2006 12:46

I have noticed thatif you click on 'post message', once you get a green block in the little bit at the bottom that shows you how far the page has loaded, your message is already there, so you don't actually have to wait for it all to load, you can just hit stop, then go back to active convos and it'll be there (does that make sense?).

AitchTwoOh · 16/11/2006 12:53

testing jackieno's mysterious green box theory...

AitchTwoOh · 16/11/2006 12:54

i don't get a green bit but then i am on a laptop so have removed all extraneous bits of screen clutter.

MascaraOHaraIncredibleSheHulk · 16/11/2006 12:55

I don't get them and it's still slow

FIMBO · 16/11/2006 12:56

I have a blue box, wonder if it is the same thing?

WriggleJiggle · 16/11/2006 12:59

Can you explain the proxy settings bit Lemonaid?

ComeOVeneer · 16/11/2006 12:59

Also testing the theory

ComeOVeneer · 16/11/2006 12:59

It works