Certain Ads

[SSScout]

 

Moderators: Would you care to comment on the fact that we are seeing political ads in our banner areas? And , I might say, of a particular bent, not very "balanced".

On the local TV, we will see poli ads, one after another, of the whole political spectrum. Not here.

 

I know we are of every shade of belief and philosophy here. I value that. But the ads I see here are, to my mind, particularly biased.

 

Is it just whoever pays the bills, or is there something more at work here?

[Sentinel947]

I've seen mostly Romney (Republican) ads and Sherrod Brown (Democrat from Ohio) ads. I'd say the coverage is balanced in my case.

[WAKWIB]

I'm not a mod, but here's my two-cents. The ads we see here and on many other sites (facebook is a good example) are generated by a bot. Usually a key-word will trip a trigger with the bot to throw up a specific ad. In a thread about tents, for example, you may see an abundance of ads for tents and other camping gear. If we started a thread about a particular candidate with his name frequently appearing, you'll likely see an ad for him/her. I've seen political ads on the I&P sub-forum for a race in a state hundreds of miles from me. Likely, that is because the state was specifically mentioned in a post somewhere, or it sniffed out a user's location, cranked through it's thousands of files and out pops "Vote Joe Blow for State Senator."

The mods have absolutely no control over this. The site owner's control over it is slim-to-none. It's the business of hosting a website. To the best of my knowledge, advertising is the sole revenue stream for this web service and you just have to take it or leave it. Thank the Maker that in about 48 hours the whole political circus for 2012 will be struck-down, rolled up and put on the next truck heading for the landfill of history.

[OldGreyEagle]

The Moderators, such as myself , may edit, remove, close or change the location of a thread and nothing else. We don't control the ads, and I dont think Scouter-Terry does either, its a result of what we talk about, as proved in the Llama Llama Ding Dong Experiment

 

Llama....Llama... Llama

[packsaddle]

Ding Dong,

Nope, we have no control over those ads. Think of them as a marketplace cost of getting the rest of the forum stuff for free.

It's also clear that all of us don't get the same ads. Most of mine are related to travel - there's an ad for a hotel there right now. But I'm still hoping to see that 'bad idea' ad (or whatever it was called).

 

[OldGreyEagle]

llama llama llama

[BSA24]

What ads?

 

*pats the ad-block extension on the head lovingly*

 

 

[SSScout]

Yeah, I guess I can understand that. Poli adds are like the weather. Just wait, it'll change.

 

""The Lama

 

The one-l lama,

He's a priest;

The two-l llama,

He's a beast.

And I will bet

A silk pajama

There isn't any

Three-l lllama. ""

 

[OldGreyEagle]

llama llama llama

 

[ntrog8r]

The llama on my page is a llama for a local bond issue. the llama is pitching "kids have a fun place to learn. Its a pretty llama - red, white, blue. Seems like a common color scheme for all the llamas these days. Even the TV llamas and the magazine llamas are using it. Of course, I've never even read the or noticed the llamas until now. That's the problems with web llamas - you never know if anyone sees your llama or not.

[OldGreyEagle]

llama llama llama

[AlFansome]

Instead of chanting for llama ads, you can simply click the little 'x' on the upper right of the banner ads that are most prominent on top and bottom of the page. (Note that some ads don't have this little 'x'). It will "mute" that particular ad. I clicked through about 6 political ads and haven't seen one since.

 

After clicking the 'x', the Google service that provides these ads to the website will also present you with a link you can click that allows you to customize what ads you will see in the future (by topic). After all, the point of ads is to get you to click on them. If you are served up ads that you have no interest in, it defeats the purpose of the ad for the advertiser.

 

In addition, realize that anything you do a Google search on or any little crumb of info that Google gets about your computer's online activity will also feed into the ad choices that you see. (Note in this discussion Google is used since that's the company that is providing the ads to Scouter.com....other sites use other companies to collect data from your online activity to feed into their ad-generating algorithms.)

 

(This message has been edited by AlFansome)

[OldGreyEagle]

Dont think of it as chanting for Llamas, its an experiment to see how many of use has to have llama in out post to have an llama ad run

 

Llama Llama Llama ding dong

[pchadbo]

The llama I have at the top now is telling me that a cat knows that 2 is too complicated and to vote no on 2. I have no idea what state this llama is for nor do I know what this llama is supporting or opposing. I think the cat wants a llama.

[Gunny2862]

All I know is the polling for neither Llama is to be believed.

Llama this, Llama that, I feel a lot like that little girl who is "So tired of the Bronco-bama and the Mittromney, when is it going to be over?" It'll be over when all the Llama's have voted and their little Llama lawyers finish litigating the Llama-fest of litigable Llama selection issues. Electoral Llama College or Popular vote, there's millions of Llama litigation $'s to be had, and they'll all be scooped up like other things Llama's drop.