Mid-Thread Ads

[FloatingFatMan]

For the last few days, more and more ads are appearing between posts in threads.  Is this a bug or a policy change, because this is so damned annoying it's making me want to turn the ad-blocker back on and I don't want to have to do that...

 

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

Interesting. I'm not experiencing that here down under so perhaps it's a regional bug.

I hope it's not a policy change for subscribers as you mention though.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I doubt it's a policy change - especially during the term of a subscription!  That would be a bait and switch.  I'm more likely to suggest a bug.

As for regional - I'm not getting it (UK)

 

[+thexfile Subscriber²]

No ads here with uBlock Origin turned off. 

Southern Indiana, US.

[Xenon]

I have been getting them and i don't use a ad blocker with neowin. It really is annoying. 

I am in the northeast US. 

Edit: Here you go. 

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 08/04/2025 at 01:12, Xenon said:

I have been getting them and i don't use a ad blocker with neowin. It really is annoying. 

I am in the northeast US. 

Edit: Here you go. 

You're not a subscriber though. Subscriptions offer ad free browsing.

[Xenon]

On 07/04/2025 at 11:50, Edouard said:

You're not a subscriber though. Subscriptions offer ad free browsing.

Oh. I didnt think of that. That would truly suck. 

[FloatingFatMan]

I'm not an ad-free tier subscriber, but up until a day or two ago I never got ads mid-thread like now; just at the top and the bottom.  It's not the browser (Brave) either as Chrome and Edge are doing it too...

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 08/04/2025 at 02:08, FloatingFatMan said:

I'm not an ad-free tier subscriber, but up until a day or two ago I never got ads mid-thread like now; just at the top and the bottom.  It's not the browser (Brave) either as Chrome and Edge are doing it too...

Oh, my bad. I thought all subscriptions were ad free.

[WiltshireHam]

I've also noticed the huge increase in ads, maybe 2-3 forum posts, then an advert. It is really annoying. Hopefully this is a temporary thing.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Hi Guys,

No, this is not normal or intentional. I have a new contact person at our advertiser and I am not sure if it is even related, but since having a new agent ads have been misbehaving and getting added to member views.

I submitted the requests a week ago for them to fix it and they still haven't. It is making me think I need to turn ads off until they fix it.

It is even worse in Guest view with ads doubled up in the viewport. Needless to say I am very disappointed with the turn around time. 

They fix one thing and then suddenly another ad that is not supposed to appear at a certain place appears!

Ad heights are all screwed up too, so there was tons of empty spaces around ads, days of sending screenshots and complaining about it have not helped much.

[FloatingFatMan]

On 07/04/2025 at 17:42, Steven P. said:

Hi Guys,

No, this is not normal or intentional. I have a new contact person at our advertiser and I am not sure if it is even related, but since having a new agent ads have been misbehaving and getting added to member views.

I submitted the requests a week ago for them to fix it and they still haven't. It is making me think I need to turn ads off until they fix it.

It is even worse in Guest view with ads doubled up in the viewport. Needless to say I am very disappointed with the turn around time. 

They fix one thing and then suddenly another ad that is not supposed to appear at a certain place appears!

Ad heights are all screwed up too, so there was tons of empty spaces around ads, days of sending screenshots and complaining about it have not helped much.

Kinda looks intentional on your ad providers part, probably trying to rake in extra cash.  Obviously I have zero idea what kind of agreement you have with them, but personally, if I wasn't getting the service I contracted them for, I'd consider that a breach of contract...

[Steven P. Administrators]

It started happening last Wednesday, and I have been on them every day since about it. 

I asked them to disable the dynamic ads (ads appearing in between content) until they can fix it properly, lets see how long that takes.

[FloatingFatMan]

On 07/04/2025 at 17:51, Steven P. said:

It started happening last Wednesday, and I have been on them every day since about it. 

My programmer's mind suggests they either changed something in their API etc and didn't tell you OR, they're doing it intentionally...

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 07/04/2025 at 18:55, FloatingFatMan said:

My programmer's mind suggests they either changed something in their API etc and didn't tell you OR, they're doing it intentionally...

Yeah they did. It is why I have been giving them the benefit of doubt. They switched from "Dynamic ads" to "Inteliigent Ad Insertion" last week, but clearly it still needs work.

I have been working with them to remove some hardcoded CSS we did ourselves to fix page jump with ad heights with our fixed ads, and the old Dynamic ads, but they want to manage that all themselves now, and sadly it is not yet fixed across the whole site as well.

This is also why some fixed ads are no longer left aligned in the side rails, if I try to inject our own CSS to fix it, it breaks the ad code, causing a bunch of garbled text to load before an ad does 😂

[FloatingFatMan]

Looks like it got fixed!  Thanks Steven.