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NeoGAF is literally not usable for me without AdBlock anymore

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RoadHazard

Gold Member
I don't want to block ads on GAF, I really don't, since I know they are what keeps the forums going. But lately the site has been entirely unusable for me without doing so on my 2011 laptop with 4GB RAM. Pages become unresponsive about every other load or so, and I have to force quit the process and reload it (which may or may not result in the same thing happening again). This happens even if the page I'm loading isn't image-heavy or anything. My work MBP with 16GB RAM and more CPU grunt can handle it, but the one at home simply can't deal. It's just freeze after freeze. Turn on AdBlock (or rather uBlock, but whatever), and it's smooth sailing again. Everything loads quickly, no freezing or anything. There seem to be some VERY heavy ad/tracking scripts running here, and it's forcing me to be a freeloader. Other sites I frequent don't do this to my browser (which is Chrome in W10, FWIW). My laptop, outdated as it is, handles most stuff very well to this day. But not this site.

Anyone else noticed this, or is it some weird thing that is only happening to me? A while ago it was fine without blocking anything. Hopefully this can be investigated.
 

Krakn3Dfx

Member
I've noticed it does that weird thing where an Adobe ad will pop up (I think it's only Adobe?) and immediately the entire page will go down to the bottom. It's especially inconvenient when I'm searching for a specific post.

Not a deal breaker for me, but it would be cool if it didn't do that.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
I've noticed it does that weird thing where an Adobe ad will pop up (I think it's only Adobe?) and immediately the entire page will go down to the bottom. It's especially inconvenient when I'm searching for a specific post.

Not a deal breaker for me, but it would be cool if it didn't do that.

Hmm, that's not something I've ever had happen. And yeah, the ads are targeted at each of us by the almighty Google, of course.

Did you miss your monthly subscription fee?

Oh shit, when was that due? Man, if my GAF Gold expires I'll be pissed...
 

Kthulhu

Member
I've personally never had any issues with ads on GAF. (My home computer is a HP Probook with 4GB of RAM) Is it possible for you to add more RAM to your computer?
 

tkscz

Member
Yeah, the ads have been getting a little out of hand. The adobe ones are the most annoying as any time I start typing, they take over and everything I was typing in the message box gets typed into the ad.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
I've personally never had any issues with ads on GAF. (My home computer is a HP Probook with 4GB of RAM) Is it possible for you to add more RAM to your computer?

I guess it probably is, but with what I use it for these days that shouldn't be necessary. I'm not gonna buy more RAM just to make sure all tracking scripts can run well. :)
 

Futureman

Member
only trouble I've had recently is on Mobile GAF. There's a blank white bar at the top and when I try to click on the NeoGAF orb, sometimes right when I touch the orb white bar jumps away and I end up clicking in the wrong spot. More annoying than anything.
 

soco

Member
Yeah, the ads have been getting a little out of hand. The adobe ones are the most annoying as any time I start typing, they take over and everything I was typing in the message box gets typed into the ad.

holy shit. that's scary.
 

Dio

Banned
only trouble I've had recently is on Mobile GAF. There's a blank white bar at the top and when I try to click on the NeoGAF orb, sometimes right when I touch the orb white bar jumps away and I end up clicking in the wrong spot. More annoying than anything.

There have been times on Mobile GAF where my browser was hijacked and I had to clean my phone of adware. I avoid browsing in mobile if I can help it now.
 
Yep, between the obnoxious Adobe ad and two other ones that send blaring music into my headphones without warning, I wouldn't blame anyone for ad-blocking.
 

ss_lemonade

Member
Ads haven't been a real problem for me but there have been instances where an ad overrides the site's stylesheet and changes some of the styles on the page.
 

Pokemaniac

Member
I've definitely noticed the performance degrading pretty bad lately. I've also had Charter ads which autoplay audio, which is really just unacceptable. I generally try not to block ads, but the amount of strain these things are putting on my browser is making it tempting to go back to blocking everything again like I used to.

Though there was one domain I just blocked outright. Everything from *.adsafeprotected.com was using way too many CPU cycles, especially while idle.
 
I've noticed a lot of ads redirect me elsewhere, usually to some other website or the App Store, whilst browsing GAF on my iPhone. Haven't seen anything too annoying or slow whilst browsing on my PC though.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I don't have this problem and I don't use AdBlock and I'm on a truly atrocious machine here at work - are you sure its not some kind of adware?
 

Fuchsdh

Member
I really wish GAF Gold was a thing. I'd much rather give money directly to the sites I wanna support rather than through ads I'll never click anyhow and that are just dying to track me and serve me malware.

inb4 "GAF Gold does exist.
 

Misha

Banned
Start browsing women's clothing sites. their inevitable ads seem to be non-intrusive


seems like a lot of people are complaining about those kinds of problems these days. you'd think ads would be getting better, not worse. I know it would turn me off of a company/product if their ads were frustrating me
 
My desktop is fine.

On mobile though, every once in a while Neogaf gets overtaken by super intensive redirect iOS ads that take you to the App Store.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Man, EviLore could make a killing if he went the something awful way.

The thing about that model is that paying for a sub (its not monthly on SA - its just a one time fee which you only have to pay again if you get banned) requires a lot more than just "we charge money now." You have to implement a bunch of value-driven stuff like accountability to people who are no longer just users but instead are customers, e.g. tons of full-time moderation, full disclosure of why bans happen, etc.

It's not something that most sites couldn't feasibly do.
 

NYR

Member
Man, EviLore could make a killing if he went the something awful way.

No he wouldn't, it would fracture the community and would lead to a mass exodus of users to a free competitor - a Neo-NeoGAF, if you may. Same thing happened when IGN implemented IGN Insider.
 
Most of the time now when I am loading GAF I get the active audio icon in my tab as in some ad has an active html5 audio element, but with no sound.
 
Are you sure it's the ads? I noticed recently some huge slowdowns when browsing threads that have multiple GIF images, and I assumed it was caused by a dumb update of Firefox.
 
Strangely enough I have a different problem with ads, don't have adblock installed, but they never show up.
Instead of the ad banner there's a blank box.
Clicking on it takes me to adtech.com, which I assume is the advertiser page.
Noticed it about a month ago.
Ads on other sites work just fine.
 

Acerac

Banned
The thing about that model is that paying for a sub (its not monthly on SA - its just a one time fee which you only have to pay again if you get banned) requires a lot more than just "we charge money now." You have to implement a bunch of value-driven stuff like accountability to people who are no longer just users but instead are customers, e.g. tons of full-time moderation, full disclosure of why bans happen, etc.

It's not something that most sites couldn't feasibly do.

I'd pay a subscription fee if somebody would explain why some threads are immune to being sent to community, even if they are years old and literally have community in the title of their threads.
 

emag

Member
No he wouldn't, it would fracture the community and would lead to a mass exodus of users to a free competitor - a Neo-NeoGAF, if you may. Same thing happened when IGN implemented IGN Insider.

There's always the F2P middle ground where some features (no ads) require micropayments.
 
I can tell you that there are some pages on GAF that have a lot of posts with Youtube vid links that basically kill my iPhone 6's browser. Is there some way around this? I'd like to be able to view the page but not autoload all those embedded YT players.


you'd think ads would be getting better, not worse. I know it would turn me off of a company/product if their ads were frustrating me

I'm convinced the whole ad-supported internet content model is going to crash over the next few years. People will always find ways to get the content without viewing the ads, and over time people are getting wiser. It's not just tech-heads using ad and script blockers anymore. The sanctioned arrival of ad-blockers in iOS was the beginning of the end.
 

d00d3n

Member
It would be awesome if you could pay for a version of NeoGAF that comes without ads. Let's call it NeoGAF Gold.
 
Evilore needs a second house ? Now that if you think of it, forums are like huge crowdfunding sources of income. #keytosuccess
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
I don't have this problem and I don't use AdBlock and I'm on a truly atrocious machine here at work - are you sure its not some kind of adware?

If enabling uBlock completely gets rid of all issues, does that seem likely? Guess I should get some anti-adware software though, currently only running antivirus. What's good these days? Malwarebytes? Ad-Aware seems to also be antivirus now, and I don't want another of those (and I know you shouldn't).

Are you sure it's the ads? I noticed recently some huge slowdowns when browsing threads that have multiple GIF images, and I assumed it was caused by a dumb update of Firefox.

Pretty sure, yeah. It will even freeze on thread list pages where there isn't really anything going on. Enable uBlock, and nothing freezes anywhere.
 

pompidu

Member
Do ad delivery networks not filter this type of shit? Like how is this shit get onto ad networks? Gaf mobile isn't too bad sometimes but once in a while, the ads will make the page load supppppeeerre slowwww.
 
I can tell you that there are some pages on GAF that have a lot of posts with Youtube vid links that basically kill my iPhone 6's browser. Is there some way around this? I'd like to be able to view the page but not autoload all those embedded YT players.

Under preferences on the front page, you can choose not to embed videos. This has worked for me.
 

Starviper

Member
I re-enabled UBlock recently because I kept getting OpenGL crashes on NeoGAF. I don't wanna be a dick but I don't wanna have shit ads or stuff making my browser fuck up get loaded in.
Do ad delivery networks not filter this type of shit? Like how is this shit get onto ad networks? Gaf mobile isn't too bad sometimes but once in a while, the ads will make the page load supppppeeerre slowwww.

Honestly, you'd be surprised how easy it is to get malicious ads onto networks. Might only show up for a couple thousand people but that's enough to infect.
 
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