Ads in the middle of the forums

[78F350]

I haven't noticed a difference since the site was down. No ads at all on my PC. On my phone, there's a banner on top and bottom with one ad embedded in the first post of a thread. I expect that the ads that you are seeing are based on your browsing pattern (cookies) and location (IP address). Maybe you can get more relevant ads by opting-in to being tracked and cookied by Google and Microsoft.

The ads could even be unrelated to the site and be riding along on some app or browser add-on that you installed without reading through the 25 pages of fine print.

Want to upload a screenshot of the offending ads and post some details about how you browse the site? Some of the web-savvy people here can help you fix it.

Edit: I was trying to remember what app or setting I used to stop ads on my PCs. It's been a while since I set them up. Now I remember... I use 'host list' blocking.

What it does ...

You can use a modified HOSTS file to block ads, banners, 3rd party Cookies, 3rd party page counters, web bugs, and even most hijackers and possibly unwanted programs. This is accomplished by blocking the connection(s) that supplies these little gems. The Hosts file is loaded into memory (cache) at startup, so there is no need to turn on, adjust or change any settings with the exception of the DNS Client service (see below). Windows automatically looks for the existence of a HOSTS file and if found, checks the HOSTS file first for entries to the web page you just requested. The 0.0.0.0 (prefix) is considered the location of your computer, so when an entry listed in the MVPS HOSTS file is requested on a page you are viewing, your computer thinks 0.0.0.0 is the location of the file. When this file is not located it skips onto the next file and thus the ad server is blocked from loading the banner, Cookie, or some unscrupulous tracker, or javascript file.

Search for a chunk of that text string and you can find where I got most of my list from.