Where is Tom?

August 16, 2012 6:59:51 PM

Is Tom a user of the website? A browser of the content?

Guys - the pop ups are out of control. I know I've read various complaints in years past, in fact I see them pop up now and again after major site refreshes (only been a few...).

I realize they pay for the services, I know all that...

But c'mon. To the guys who actually open up the floodgates to these things - do you guys show off your work to family members, and say "look at what kind of stuff I d...... do. Oh, wait, let me get rid of that, then I'll... show. Wait... hold on. Ok THERE. This is the kind of work I do."

Seriously guys, the site is almost unusable. It takes an average of 20 seconds or so just to assume you've gotta close a ton of pop ups before you can start "consuming".

It is supremely disappointing.

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hunter315

August 16, 2012 7:40:31 PM

We try to take care of the really annoying ones like the ones that pop open and start blasting music at you but there aren't an excessive number here. I'm seeing a pop up ad about every 8 pages.

If you are seeing ones that are definitively not tech related they may be caused by tracking cookies and other advertising cookies that got stuffed into your browser by other websites, my test was with a clean incognito window and going straight to tomshardware.com

Page loads didn't seem to take much longer than normal for me but my internet really doesn't care about how much you try to shove down it.

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SR-71 Blackbird

August 16, 2012 10:47:30 PM

Firefox plus adblock plus and ghostery makes it smooth sailing.

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bigbadjohnnyb

August 17, 2012 2:10:57 AM

hunter315 said:

We try to take care of the really annoying ones like the ones that pop open and start blasting music at you but there aren't an excessive number here. I'm seeing a pop up ad about every 8 pages.

If you are seeing ones that are definitively not tech related they may be caused by tracking cookies and other advertising cookies that got stuffed into your browser by other websites, my test was with a clean incognito window and going straight to tomshardware.com

Page loads didn't seem to take much longer than normal for me but my internet really doesn't care about how much you try to shove down it.

It's not that they're not tech-related. And they don't necessarily clog up the available bandwidth. The downloading of the popup is quite fast, likely on even the low ends of broadband internet access.

My perspective is more relating to the overall experience. It's not that they aren't relevant, because they are. They're disruptive. It's one thing on a home page, or even the banners along the side. In fact, many times I do pay attention to the ads on the side. When they're relevant, I "click through" like they want, sometimes even consciously (for the purpose of helping them by the click, I mean).

What I find disruptive is the giant CDW ad, or Sony, or whatever else, that'll pop up AND grey all the content behind it until I acknowledge it. In fact, my eye searches only for the "X", not comprehending the message they're trying to cram into my line of sight.

Anyway - just my opinion. It's forum/site feedback, and just mine.

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