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3. Political adds by Google

Why do we have to look at political adds by google. I know that the website makes money doing it. It's so annoying, i'm not coming here anymore until its gone. Sorry, it just makes the whole site look stupid. What does a trout-based website have to do with abortion? Later..Jason

I never even notice, just ineterested in reading and learning about trout flies and flyfishing; could care less about any political message. Doesn't matter to me!

Likewise. I simply ignore advertising; all of it. However, if one doesn't have the discipline to do that, perhaps a more drastic remedy is called for, like denying oneself a life pleasure?

Jason -

Assuming you are even reading this - I'm sorry you feel that your only option is to "check out". Though I sympathize with your frustration at having to endure promotion of products or points of view you find objectionable, that is the world we live in. Consider this, how much has it cost you to have access to all the wonderful material on this site? It's like TV right? I don't think troutnut can control Google ad banners. Why political advertizers would want to pay to appear on this site is beyond me, but Troutnut either accepts the Google revenue or it doesn't. Of course if you and like minded individuals would agree to fund Troutnut, that is something that could be explored perhaps...

Best regards,

Kurt

I logged on today to see how it looked. No more stupid adds. I love this site and ALL of its information and peoples views on things. I'm just getting overloaded everywhere I look with all the political finger pointing and its lack of real lack of problem solving. I guess you can't make everyone happy. Thanks, Jason

Wow just wait untils next year at this time. The political ads havent' even really begun.

I'm not sure, Jason, and it's a frightening thought, but I think these ads are targeted to the people viewing the page. I don't get political ads, I get ads for Cosmopolitan and lip gloss and such. Maybe you spoke to a union rep calling your house, or filled out an "anonymous" survey, or are a member of the NRA, but perhaps for some reason Google thinks you're a politically minded person. Maybe all you did was think a political thought - who knows? This is why I wear an aluminum helmet and swear at strangers who try to talk to me.

-Shawn

Ahh, good tip, Shawn....I'll give it a try! ;)

As some of you guessed, I don't manually control which Google ads appear on this site. I can manually ban ads from specific domains, although that takes a few days to take effect. If anyone sees something especially irrelevant or offensive, please send me a private message with the domain name of the advertiser and I'll ad them to the ban list. Google doesn't give me any way to approve or ban them preemptively.

Choosing which ads to show is all in the hands of a huge automated system that makes Google most of its multi-billion-dollar annual revenue. Normally, Google uses its knowledge of what a page is about to serve relevant ads (like ads about fly fishing for most of this site). Sometimes, however, Google uses its prior knowledge of what it thinks you (or someone on your computer) might be interested in, such as politics, and those ads may follow you around between different sites that use Google's advertising service. Also, sometimes advertisers specifically choose certain sites in stupid ways, and I've been handed some irrelevant ads through that mechanism.

As for generating revenue from this site in general, the explanation is simple: I like money. Who doesn't? I could write a long-winded justification about the costs of this site (about $100/month for hosting, plus over $5000 up front in camera equipment and a year of full time work) but I'll admit the ads more than cover my current site expenses. A grad student stipend isn't very big, and this site helps me pay my bills through its several commercial channels (not only Google ads, but paid links in the left sidebar, and the books linked to Amazon, and the gift shop).

If you really hate seeing all ads online in general, to the extent that you're thinking of leaving sites because of them, then you could use one of the easy-to-find ad-blocking plug-ins for any major web browser. I don't use one, though. I only click useful/relevant ads anywhere online maybe two or three times a year, but I'm willing to view ads in general (albeit mentally tuning 99% of them out) in recognition of the hard work other webmasters put into their sites.

Thanks Jason for explaining how google adds works. I get the same adds on youtube too. I suppose you get different "cookies" from local newspaper sites and such. Then they link their advertising to that. Spooky in a way. Anyway, Thanks Jason for a great website.

You are just a potential consumer to them and they know what you want better than you do...In the non-virtual world we developed legislation to protect you and I...On the computer its katie-bar-the-door...So be careful brother.

Spence

Gees, what a non-problem. If you don't like ads don't read them. When I don't like a TV show I change the channel.

The adds are covering up the website. So you can not read it. Just trying to help out.

Minnesota, that's not supposed to be happening. I can try to fix it, but I would need more specifics. Is it doing that on all the pages, or just some specific one? Can you tell me where on the page the ad is, and which web browser and version you're using? Also, it would help if you could tell me the domain name of the ad when you see that happen, so I can ban it if it's specific to that ad.

Both Jasons -

Perhaps a problem with browser settings?

Kurt

Jason...Under this heading that I've copied here I'm still getting only one word per line of the discussion there...It's a little odd...Each line only has one word and the pictures you have posted in that topic gets one line so I have to scroll down before I get to other's posts...Maybe Kurt is on to something here...Do I need to set something differently on my end?

Spence

For Spence, it's not browser settings, but the browser itself, in combination with the fact that my code has a problem in some browsers. Spence, can you post the link to the topic that's giving you trouble? Your quote above just said what board it's on. Also, what operating system/version and web browser/version are you using? I have some tools I can use to try to simulate what you're seeing if I have that information, which will allow me to track down the problem and fix it.

For Jason, it could be a browser problem, or it could be a problem with the code here or the ad code being sent here by Google. It's hard for me to say without more information.

Either way, there's nothing you guys can do about it in your own browser settings. The fixes are either to give me enough information to fix any problems on my end, or to use a different web browser. Sorry about the trouble!

I fixed the problem Spence had. Still need more information to see if I can do anything about the ad problem.

Sorry, Minnesota.I didn't have that problem. I thought you meant the ads surrounding the site.
Bruce

Minnesota, are you talking about the thin horizontal line of blue ads below the blue top menu? They sometimes get out of position and sit down over the page content just below where they're supposed to be. That's a weird known bug I've had a hard time reproducing and therefore fixing. As far as I can tell it doesn't affect many people. It's the only bug with any ad displays that I'm aware of, unless you've discovered a new one.