Bobb, as a paid member I don't see the ads as long as I've logged in ... however, on those occasions I don't bother log in, I do get to see those ads, and there's nothing there I'm interested in either. From the comments I've seen in various forums, the women gardeners seemed just as annoyed as the men, maybe more so. (In retrospect, some were kind of funny in a way ... I mean, really ... the best man thong!?!?) Some of those ads were really tacky (at best) to obnoxious (at worst) for a while there, and I made my feelings known to GardenWeb as well as directly to the sponsors of those ads. I'm glad to see that someone seems to have been listening and toned them down a bit. Also glad to see I'm not the only stodgy ol' curmudgeon in the garden :-) Diane

I NEVER get pop-ups anymore since I took the advice of fratelli_can z5 on the plumeria forum...Make sure you are VERY comfortable doing some editing in your Windows operating system files. You might want to try Ademink's suggestion of the google pop-up blocker first. I don't have the google toolbar w/blocker installed. I will go on to say that I have no problems receiving e-mail from GW; I don't know if the two issues are related. Here is the post that fixed the problem for me. I will put the section in bold that I used. Good luck, Char ===================================================================== RE: Ads really getting annoying... Posted by fratelli_can z5 (My Page) on Sun, Dec 25, 05 at 17:52 Once and for all: How to stop the iVillage ad onslaught. First we need to understand how it's done: iVillage doesn't bother to try and buy ads directly from all the various companies that show up on the pages of GW. Instead they use large ad-service agencies like doubleclick, akamai and pointroll. You can visit some of these sites if you'd like to see who's behind the ads. http://www.akamai.com http://www.doubleclick.com/us http://pointroll.com This makes it easy to block out all or almost all of the ads very easily, just block the originating sites. Right now all the ads on GW come from: http://amch.questionmarket.com http://a820.g.akamai.net http://iv.doubleclick.net http://i.ivillage.com http://m.2mdn.net http://tste.ivillage.com http://img-cdn.mediaplex.com http://ads.vmirror.com http://cmhtml.ivillage.overture.com http://ads.pointroll.com The Universal Solution. This will work on Windows systems for all browsers; IE, FireFox and Netscape. The Windows operating system provides a system-level method to block specific IP addresses before they even get to the browser. To effect this solution you need to edit a Windows system file called hosts. This file is located in the directory: Windows XP: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC Windows 2K: C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC Windows 98: C:\WINDOWS Open the file in Notepad. Cut the following from this post and paste it to the end of the file. 127.0.0.1 amch.questionmarket.com 127.0.0.1 a820.g.akamai.net 127.0.0.1 iv.doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1 i.ivillage.com 127.0.0.1 m.2mdn.net 127.0.0.1 tste.ivillage.com 127.0.0.1 img-cdn.mediaplex.com 127.0.0.1 ads.vmirror.com 127.0.0.1 cmhtml.ivillage.overture.com 127.0.0.1 ads.pointroll.com Edit each entry so that there is a tab between the IP address 127.0.0.1 and the URLs. Save the file and you're finished. Close and re-open your browser and all the ads will be gone. Unfortunately, iVillage may in the future buy ads from a new source. In this event the new ad source will have to be added to the list. The IE solution. Most of the ads are placed using Java$cript. You can remove the more offensive ads in IE with the browser settings. You can't however remove them all. To improve GW using IE do the following: From the menu select Tools -> Internet Options -> Security and click on Custom Level. Scroll down to the end of the list and you'll see an entry for Scripting. Disable all the sub-entries. Now select the tab labeled Privacy. In the bottom of the box that appears check on the option to block pop-ups. I recommend you also click on the button Advanced and select the option to block Third-party Cookies. NOTE: By disabling Scripting you will also effect the way other websites behave. You may need to get used to switching scripting on and off as desired. That's why this is the least desirable of these various options. The FireFox solution This is an excellent choice -- it's the fastest performing of the options listed here: FireFox is superior to IE in every possible way. FireFox provides the added advantage of blocking all Spyware, an evil that IE brought into this world. * download and install Firefox 1.5 * in the FireFox address bar type about:config * scroll down the list to the entry xpinstall.enabled * right click on the entry and select toggle from the menu * toggle as needed to set the value to true * go to the Firefox website and follow links to extensions * find the extension adblock and install it * remember to toggle xpinstall.enabled back to false * in Firefox select Tools -> Adblock -> Preferences * use the New Filter field to add the following items: http://amch.questionmarket.com http://a820.g.akamai.net http://iv.doubleclick.net http://i.ivillage.com http://m.2mdn.net http://tste.ivillage.com http://img-cdn.mediaplex.com http://ads.vmirror.com http://cmhtml.ivillage.overture.com http://ads.pointroll.com * enable Adblock The trick with Adblock is to block the domain rather than the specific ad. If you click on Adblock to disable an ad. Select Tools -> Adblock -> Preferences from the menu and then edit the new entry; remove anything that follows after .com or .net. This will block everyting from that source. The Netscape solution. With Netscape you can shut down all the iVillage ads using the browser preference settings. From the menu select: Edit -> Preferences -> Privacy and Security -> Cookies Allow cookies for the originating website only Edit -> Preferences -> Privacy and Security -> Images Accept Images that come from the originating server only Edit -> Preferences -> Privacy and Security -> Images Block unrequested popup windows -- turn this on Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced Enable native object scripting -- turn this off Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Scripts & Plug-ins Enable Java$cript for Navigator -- turn this off NOTE: GW will now be ad free, however disabling Java$cript will effect how other websites behave. You may have to get used to switching this setting back and forth. Therefore I suggest the Universal option above is more appropriate. NOTE: You MAC users out there: Sorry I don't have more info for you except to say that FireFox and adblock are available for the MAC. There's no sense in further complaing, iVillage IS an ad. We need to let them be who they are and stop them on our end. Take care all.

They are contextual advertising and are one of the sources used to pay the bills so Garden Web remains a free website. I understand that, but I still don't like them. Click on the link below to read the announcement about them, and then click on the link in that announcement to Opt Out. Once you opt out, there shouldn't be any contextual advertising popping up in anything that you post. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Vibrant Advertising Announcement

I suppose I'm one of them optimists LOL! Because I think the fact that you got a response at all is pretty amazing considering they were bleeding money and now that is solved, and the site is on the operating table getting an owner transplant. GW has a big purse backing it assuming it goes through without a hitch, and the new owners bring to the table already a large online community which will likely bring new contributing members. I am not blocking the ads anymore, I just wanted to see if it could be done. If the ads are popping up without mousing over them, that is a bug that I can't imagine isn't an artifact of the process of change in ownership and will shortly disappear. I'll give you a made up personal response, which is a parody for entertainment purposes only. No resemblance IRL to anyone, just pure fiction in an attempt to humor you, which we hope won't miss the mark! Please bear with me if you have lost your sense of humor. It sounded to me like you still had it... (Begin Parody)Hi fireduck! We're sorry about that impersonal message we sent. It was just a quick acknowledgement because we care about you, so we didn't want it to go unanswered like other sites do for months. We thought we sorta answered it by letting you know that GW was getting a facelift so we are working on all these problems and are well aware of them. Edit: My colleague says labs got the message too, well, we didn't send it to PC, because you and her posted you might leave, but it sounded like we had PC in the bag, so we didn't send PC diddly-squat. To tell you the truth, half of us are outta here, and I mean gone, and we who are left don't know whose coming or going for the next two weeks. So be patient, please! Whoever stays will be more committed to GW than ever! About that. The old owner lost a boat-load of cash so he's stuffing a couple of $20's in his pocket before the official transition date as he gets into his Honda limo, because he still gets a penny per crap click, but he'll be outta here in a week and will no longer have access to GW. We all love and respect him for using his wallet to bankroll us for so long, so no one is saying anything and we hope that's cool. Please don't be mad at us and please don't leave us for it, since we're all human after you take our computers away from us and we look into the mirror and can't believe it;'s over and wonder what we'll be doing tomorrow to earn a buck. Pessimists have lousy luck growing tomatoes. Come over to our team, the optimists! And give us a break, we have been running this site with ridiculous ads that miss their target so far, and I mean it's like watching Moe, Curley and Larry twisting each others' noses. The new owners won't be pleased, hey though, what's a stubbed toe when you're getting open heart surgery? Did you ever sell a house and have a neighbor come over to complain that the movers stepped on her marigolds in the hellstrip while you were getting in the van to drive away? Yours fictitiously, Yesterday's NOT Management ;-) (End Parody) OK, I hope that doesn't offend, and if it does, please forgive me, let me know and I will edit and delete it because it is meant to be a parody and I have no idea what is happening, and this thread is so off topic (OT) anyway, so whatever we write here has nothing to do with the forum. (What other forum's moderator would let you guys post about leaving and how some things about the site are bad? Don't try that elsewhere. I unblocked everything BTW and am paying attention to the ads which are so ridiculously targeted missing the mark by 180, I can't help understand perfectly well why it is such a good idea to sell. I mean, you were not pleased with how the advertising was being managed that supported the site before: Now new owners that say they have the resources to do a better job are taking over. What's not to be optimistic about? On this site anyone can walk up and join with a few keystrokes, the owners don't mess with posters opinions, and spam is dealt with rapidly, and people are friendly. I like that! One last comment... Houzz are expert webmasters. I fully expect that will make this site a very pleasurable forum to use compared to any other general forums. You can't get the explosive growth they have by offering a second rate product. PC, who has a high opinion of GW and is eternally an optimist because the other option doesn't sound like fun This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Thu, Jan 29, 15 at 12:29