How to White-List Ads on Gaia

[Nilla]

Well I have to say my thoughts on why I block most ads now-a-days. I don't mind supporting sites that I really enjoy visiting. I mean they do help out the site with revenue and I have no problem with that. What starts to aggravate me is when these advertisers start to take advantage of the users and don't tend to keep things simple. One of my pet peeves with ads are flash based, sound/talking ads, especially when you can't stop or close them. When I need to look something up quickly or I don't need sound to be on during certain times. Plus some ads are not monitored and can be injected with a virus. I also realize that most ISP are now capping bandwidth so unnecessarily bandwidth is not needed. Flash ads are always blocked because of that. I've been to the point of even removing flash all together since I don't really use flash except to watch a few videos. I love Gaia and I support it the best I can with ads and buying items and Gaia cash.

Flash ads will never be viewed by me though. So those will always be blocked until these ad services place the ads accordingly and not force or place in your face style. I prefer ads similar to Google sense. Simple and non intrusive but one can check them out if something is rather interesting. To be honest, I didn't mind ads back in the starting days of the internet. They didn't bother me and didn't get in the way of what I was doing, making both the host and user happy. The day flash ads came into the picture is where they couldn't leave well enough alone and forced most of the users to just block ads period.

[Madam BlackJack]

Honestly I block adds on most sites because a lot of them are flash and cause my browser to lag, if you could make it so we could have an option of seeing either flash adds or still image adds (and place them in a location that does not stretch the page or alter its appearance) then I will be more than happy to white list gaiaonline.

[v-Vox]

Way ahead of you, Sisky. emotion_yatta

[black_wing_angel]

I don't mind ads, myself. Honestly, I don't.

However, I only ask that we keep them sensible. A number of times, I've had to deal with some that come in video format, and play automatically. Taking me completely off guard, and leaving me searching for it, JUST so I can silence it. Annoying people is not a productive means of advertising your product. I would hope they'd understand that...

And just as I opened up this browser, Yahoo (my home-page) loaded up an ad that was some animated thing that covered my entire screen, blocking my view of what I was trying to do. Kinda pissed me off. I'd recommend Gaia please continue to avoid these kinds of ads. They offer nothing to us except annoyance.

As long as you all can agree to the simple request of avoiding "auto-play" and screen blockers, then I'm happy.

[shikako1201]

I find it funny that this whole thing happened right after I had just installed Adblock on my browser the day prior.
Very suspicious....

[Cedarbox]

If ads were as simple as a modest JPG or even just text and a link to the ad's site, I'd be okay with them and I wouldn't need ad-block. However, that's not how it is. Ads are noisy, they flash and they track users, it's like a competition to see which one can be the most obnoxious.

And, quite frankly, Gaia's been nothing but cash items for a long time. This place just isn't the community led by people that it used to be. When it was more of a community than a for-profit business, I would have been happy to lend a little support if it meant a few more cookies being removed during my regular scans.

If things get better and feel like a community again, I'd be happy to white-list Gaia, provided the advertisers are moderated (and don't get me started on the problems we've had with THAT).

digi162

My first priority with the internet is to protect myself as much as possible, and my property.
You're asking me to remove the shield that's done an amazing job protecting my computer.

NO, not happening, sorry.

If you controlled the advertising content and could guarantee no risk to my computer for turning on ads, then yes I'd go for it. But right now it's a use-at-your-own-risk scenario since you don't have full control of the advertising content.

Wise words.

Gaia, listen to this man. If you want people to look at your ads, you have to be responsible for them. If people get viruses from ads on your site, it doesn't matter if the advertiser put them there, you let them on your site.

It's like complaining you're not getting some because you have an STD and blaming the person that gave you the STD instead of yourself for not getting rid of it.

So the system for advertising sucks? Come up with a new one.

[Skyterror30]

Honestly, I wouldn't mind seen the ads if some of them weren't pop-ups and/or if they weren't harmful, my anti-virus sometimes has to block them.

[Jujubellee]

Doesn't Gaia already get thousands and thousands from people purchasing Gaia Cash? I mean, isn't that enough?

[black_wing_angel]

shikako1201

I find it funny that this whole thing happened right after I had just installed Adblock on my browser the day prior.
Very suspicious....

[xxx_Stabarella_xxx]

If I could find a way to keep the ad off of the meebo bar (which has gotten out of hand since google plus and facebook tools have been added, I might mention) (also, yes, I know meebo is provided by a third party so it's not your fault) while still keeping the ads on gaia visible, it would be exceptionally great. However, I constantly get ads that if I accidentally scroll too close to, I wind up with annoyingly loud sound, which is quite frankly annoying. As well, many of the ads when scrolled over expand to fill my entire screen. Again, extremely bothersome; due almost entirely to my tablet being always plugged in and having a very very very touchy touch sensor that likes to turn itself on at times. (as well as a cat who walks across it). Any ways, ads that aren't extremely bold, bright and loud and exclaim "boobs!" "Date singles in your area" etc, etc, are all good, but loud "BUY THIS" "Finance that!" and such are actually kind of insulting. (I'm rambling, I should stop typing.)

[JohJohTheMahdern]

I have no issue with viewing ads.

It's the viruses that hide inside the ads that I don't like.

I know we can report malicious advertisements. But I only know a virus exists after it has attempted to eat my computer. Or succeeded in eating it. No antivirus security in the world can block everything.

[thackest2k_TFWR2]

i dont mind the ads BUT its just annoying when it pops up from the left hand corner and blocks what you are doing

[Aisu_Huo]

I get that Gaia needs ads to keep running but simply saying so will not persuade some people. Maybe a better incentive like hard to get items? I personally prefer to see Gaia up and running with better perks (like no more bugs >..< ) so either way, not a huge problem...

[Tashimaru Lonewolf]

oO_Ichy_Oo

Mi reason for having the ads turned off is those damn noisy ones. Whilst listening to music or chatting to friends on skype, I don't want to hear these noisy things blasting off in the background, especially the ones which you cannot turn off sad

I've also had certain ads cause a lot of lag here on firefox, making it near to impossible to travel around the site. This was while I was only here on gaia, I didn't have any tabs open with other sites.

This is the same, exact issue I have with ads.