After a week of no ads on Balloon Juice, ads are going to be back today.
We have two kinds of ads.
There are Zergnet ads – the big boxes with photos and articles at the bottom of the post
There are Prosper (sp?) ads that show up at the top of every post and between comments. These are the ones that have the tiny arrows that theoretically close the ad but which are really hard to hit just right, so sometimes you end up clicking on the ads in spite of your best efforts.
We really need your help in knowing exactly which ad-related issues are related to which kinds of ads.
If all goes as requested, just the Zergnet ads will be on for one day, and then just the Prosper ads will be on for one day. John is the person who communicates with the ad guy, so I have no way of knowing which kind of ads will be turned on first.
Here’s what you can do to help, even if you have an ad blocker on.
Ads impact the site even if you have ad blockers on.
Now that the ads have been off for a week+, in the comments below, please describe the changes you have experienced with all ads off.
Once the Zergnet ads come back on, I will put up a new post where you can describe whether you see any changes once the Zergnet ads are back.
Once the Prosper ads come back on, I will put up a new post where you can describe whether you see any changes once the Prosper ads are back.
Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!
Benw
Let’s have an ad reveal party!
Cheryl Rofer
No change, no ads. Adblock Plus.
Second thought: a few little things happening with no ads, like being told that I’ve posted a comment twice, when it’s the first time I posted it.
Steve in the ATL
@Cheryl Rofer: same here, on both Windows laptop Firefox and iPhone DuckDuckGo.
Rob
@Steve in the ATL:
@Cheryl Rofer:
Same for me, I noticed no change. I hardly ever post so I have no insight about Cheryl’s second thought. Firefox 88.0.1, AdBlockPlus & uBlock Origin.
laura
The site has loaded faster on my Android AS20 with duckduckgo and ad blocker over the last week. The zergnet photo of the pregnant woman carrying about 50 fetuses still haunts my dreams. Cannot unsee.
There go two miscreants
Win10 FF 88.0.1, use a big hosts file instead of adblocker. No noticeable change from previous behavior. On the first post I read after a fresh start of FF, I have a high probability of getting the Visual tab working (like right now). Subsequently, less than 20% of the time, although Text tab always works so far. Otherwise site is fine. (I would be very surprised if the Visual tab issue is related to ads. I have noticed on other sites some strange behaviors with the latest — “enhanced privacy” — versions of FF, that I do not encounter here on BJ.)
frosty
No change without ads that I can discern.
iPhone SE, Firefox.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I got no real beefs or gripes except about the endless cycle of “reloading” with safari, but will say this as to content:
Zergnet is like finally getting a date with your biggest unrequited crush and then finding out that they’re really boring the moment the date starts.
WhatsMyNym
What are ads?
Time to send JC some more cash.
Gravenstone
Just wanted to clarify how those ads tend to work…
In potentially more useful feedback, also logged on through my phone and will see how long it takes for the screen hijack ads to materialize, if they do with this batch.
Betty
It seems my kindle loads faster without the ads. No issues otherwise.
PJ
@John Cole:
I understand your position on this (personally, I’d prefer paying a subscription than seeing the ads), but is it possible to get better quality ads? A lot of them feature conservative types (including TFG) and products or links which are aimed at conservatives. Is it possible to at least get some which reflect the readership?
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
I’ve never minded the ads here myself, either on my laptop or my phone (almost always here via my phone anymore). And I’ve hung around regularly (and commented only sporadically) going back to before JC’s “road to Damascus” epiphany in ’05.
Ads are way more annoying over at LGM, to me.
I know this doesn’t help in your efforts to make the ads work “better”, just wanted to note that they aren’t actually bothersome to me (here).
Percysowner
Ublock Origin on a Mac. I have noticed a difference with ads off. With all ads on, Tweets in the main articles took forever to load, or they would not load at all. Without the ads, the embedded tweets load quickly and they all load.
dnfree
@PJ: hah! I like seeing conservative ads, because it means they’re wasting their money.
way2blue
WaterGirl & John,
On my MacBook Pro [10.15.3], Balloon Juice loads w/o difficulty with or without ads. On my iPad Air [12.5.2], Balloon Juice loads so slowly with both types of ads running (prior to current testing) that it’s unusable. Without ads, loading time is fine. I can let you know how the Zergnet versus Prosper ads affect my iPad if helpful…
Steve in the ATL
@Spinoza Is My Co-pilot:
As are the posters!
TomatoQueen
Ads off on the work computer (EdgeWin10HPlaptop) make an elegant site now minimalist. The 405 errors are less frequent as the day goes on. Then I switch to the personal laptop (why is this space here? I can’t get rid of it) (Chrome/Firefox/Win10/LenovoThinkPad/UBlock), where I find an elegant, minimalist site is eminently readable, and no flippin’ ads at all, no 405 errors at all. Oh, and I can see tweets again, by which time they’re stale but never mind, just put in some ducks, or a link to the Jen of the Day. Thanks for all the research&testing.
Ruckus
Mac/Safari with all latest updates, have switched ad blockers 3 times because of Y Tube and all their new auto play ads, which none of the ad blockers do squat for. The ad blockers all seem to work about the same and I don’t see ads here. The site does load better but not a lot. Still sometimes jerky, taking what looks like 3 or 4 attempts to finish loading. But this is not the only site that looks like this so quite possibly it is not related to the site but is the ad blocker. I notice that ad blockers are one of the most installed pieces of software, so I’m wondering how effective ads are in any event. I’d prefer a subscription over ads and I hate subscriptions almost as much as ads. I no longer view the sites I have been following on Y Tube because of the ads. I hope that others do the same.
billcoop4
I’ve never had a problem with Balloon-Juice. Win 10/Chrome for desktop, iPad OS most current and Safari, iOS most current for iPhone, no problem.
BC
bbleh
FWIW, I did notice the site loaded considerably faster last week on my apparently ancient iPhone 6 (AT&T), and it’s now slow again but not quite as slow. But I still think a lot of it is device limitations.
Elizabelle
I am a bad rabbit, but this post reminded me to download AdBlock Plus for Safari for my iPhone. Without it, I can barely navigate the site when not on my laptop.
This bad rabbit sends a small contribution JCole’s way each month, automatically. Not a lot, but enough to not feel badly about missing the ads.
I don’t feel that advertisers have a right to my attention. It is out of control.
Elizabelle
And: anything to lessen exposure to conservative ads and the not yet indicted TFG’s ugly ass mug. Enough. It is sewage.
TomatoQueen
Ugh. The Zergs can get through the gov’t adblocker.
Another Scott
Nothing much to add (heh) here. Mostly Chrome on Win10 with uBO. Brave on my Samsung phone. I haven’t noticed any change in behavior the last week or so – no obvious difference in loading times, still delays on populating graphical tweets, but they always show up. No HTML errors to note, no douible-posting errors. Editor box still tabless (text mode) maybe 25% of the time (but since I prefer text mode it’s not a problem).
For those wanting a subscription option, maybe something like Scroll could be an option (but it would probably mean more code, and that might be dangerous to FYWP)? One picks a monthly amount to send the web site in exchange for not seeing ads. I use it on one laptop with Android Police and it seems fine (even though I still use uBO with it – it’s a painless way to support the site). NOTE! I don’t know how different it is since it got eated by Twitter, if that’s a concern.
Cheers,
Scott.
(“Who sends JC money monthly to compensate for not seeing the ads.”)
PJ
@Steve in the ATL: Every time someone here sends me over there to look at some “important” post, it’s just “the Democrats are fucking up everything, DOOM DOOM DOOM!” I know a lot of liberals or leftists are masochists, but they really take the cake.
Nancy
I appreciate all the effort you put into this site. I have about seven ad blockers–husband is very security conscious.
Haven’t noticed anything. Planning to become a Patreon when I can afford it.
Geminid
I follow this blog on a Samsung phone. I have no ad-blocking, but I really don’t mind the ads. Some can be funny, like when there was another post about attracting white working class voters, titled “Teaching Pigs to Sing.” I got a header ad showing a big metal hog barn. There was an insert of a happy, healthy looking pig.
Mary G
No noticeable difference with or without ads on my Samsung A51 phone running Chrome; same on my PC running Win 10 and Chrome also too.
J R in WV
I have to click on “click here to refresh” in order to use the Visual tab, which has been true off and on for what seems like forever. Not seeing any ads, which is because I have 3 ad blockers running on this LIniux 18.04.5 laptop. Running Ghostery, uBlock Origin V 1.35.2 and DuckDuckGo privacy essentials.
On my Android tablet, I’m nor running any ad blockers, and LGM is virtually unusable and intolerable. I can’t see most of the actual articles, though the comments (agony threaded tho they are) appear OK mostly.
B-J seems OK on the Andriod tablet, though I don’t get pics from Twitter posts, which is OK, if it seems interesting to me I’ll open a tab for the twits, and then I see what I want to see.
Barbara
I have never minded the ads. On rare occasions I have found them to be a bit distracting but I’ve never felt they interfered with the functionality of the site.
ETA: What JR just said. The Visual/Text functionality problem seems to occur irrespective of ads being present or not. It’s an independent issue.
Desargues
This is going to sound classist, but I have to say it.
These Zergnet ads are Trumpy bait pitched at the cracker trash circling the drain in his wake. Near-fascist, low-rent garbage for downscale crackers. Nasty jabs at people who don’t look like them; thinly veiled jabs at everything Democrats stand for; super depressing shit that witless clowns like them tend to buy or “read”; even less thinly veiled blowjobs to Trump and his circle of trash; and so on. I look at those “ads” and I see scams for the sub-Walmart trash that went to his “rallies.” A constant reminder that those animals exist and draw breath in America. Why must we have that reminder on our favorite blog?
OTOH, it’s free money for the blog, so, good. On the other, what halfwit at Zergnet wastes money advertising on a blog for people like us, and why hasn’t he been fired yet; on yet another hand, can’t we find a less depressing source of ad revenue; on an extra hand, what kind of total fucking loser would give a shit in 2021 about what happened to some rando from some 1950s honkey show or to fucking JonBennet Ramsey or assorted victims of white trashitude like that? I have so many questions….
Barbara
@Desargues: I admit to having downscale urges now and again. I don’t mind the Zergnet content so much as I mind its mind numbingly sloooooooow presentation of gossip that is usually not worth the wait.
satby
I realized about a month ago that loading the ads continued after the blog appeared to be done, and I must type fast, because that happened to me constantly. And I think it was mostly the Proper ads. It cut my interaction with this place way, way down. Some might see that as a bonus, however.
Since no ads, normal internet speed and behavior similar to other sights I visit. Loads well, doesn’t endlessly spin, no duplicate comments when it was a sole comment. I would pay to keep ads off.
cmorenc
Occasionally, the ad stream includes material clearly made for an intended audience of RWNJs (right-wing knee jerks), obviously missing their target here at BJ by a few light-years. Of course they are repulsively annoying, but do have the perverse upside of keeping us better-informed what current kinds of putrid bullshit is being fed to the RWNJs.
HinTN
Zergnet is back on. This comment box opened in Visual, as it does 95% of the time. Haven’t tried a post with lots of tweets yet. Samsung S8 with Chrome. It’s all good
ETA – Just checked and the Maple tweet loaded right up, as did the one in Mahew’s post. Still all good.
HinTN
@HinTN: Reply opens in Visual box and editor worked fine. Thanks for all you do, WG!
BruceFromOhio
@There go two miscreants:
“big hosts file,” please tell me more? I do not like ad blockers, and have set up a Win10/FF machine specifically for browsing.
@satby:
Oh, same, same, happily!
BruceFromOhio
@Desargues:
Zergnet probably has an ad just for you.
Another Scott
@BruceFromOhio: “hosts” files let you prevent connection to the listed IP addresses. It’s one way to do ad-blocking.
E.g. someonewhocares.org/hosts/
See the link above for information on where to put it. (Note on Android one would need root access.)
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
Nora Lenderbee
Visual tab works again (Win 10 laptop, Firefox 88.0.1). Yay!
Zergnet ads showing pictures of Melanoma and Chauvin the murderer. Ugh!
TKH
My thoughts and prayers were heard: zergNet ads with a photo of the chauvinist! How did I last a week without? And the best of it: they show up on all of my devices using any operating systems!
satby
Ok, I see the Zergnet ads again but loading performance is fine, no endless reload/spin cycle. I randomly don’t get the visual tab and don’t care, but right now it’s off.
And just to be a PIA, I said it was the Prosper ads weeks, perhaps months ago. Performance right now with them off is still normal.
satby
and test… ok, a quick comment attempt got me the message I’m posting too fast. Whatever, at least not a duplicate comment statement.
There go two miscreants
@BruceFromOhio: I apologize for not explaining the hosts file. It essentially hijacks the DNS (name) lookup of the IP address, and directs it to the loopback IP 127.0.0.1, which of course does not serve the ad. Hosts file requires manual maintenance, and I’m probably going to move away from using it. It is less flexible than the adblockers; it’s really more of a brute-force method.
ET fix spelling.
H.E.Wolf
Thank you for the ongoing troubleshooting effort!
The restoration of Zergnet ads has removed my ability to use the “Visual” option for comments. (I prefer “Visual” to “Text” for its ease of use with quotations and URLs.)
Firefox 88.0.1 on Mac mini, macOS Sierra 10.12.6.