BPL has Ads now ?

[Sam Farrington]

Roger,
This has always been a great site.
A while back there was an invasion of automated ads being posted on the forum threads, and BPL managed to stop it. Before, during and after that episode I was a paid 'premium' member, and had been for several years.
With the new ad invasion, done by BPL itself, also came a 'doubleclick' feature, but only on the BPL website. This is a feature that I occasionally run into when visiting an unfamiliar site that comes up on a Google search, usually when trying to source some hard to find material or other.
What it does is partially disable the back button. It can be circumvented by right clicking on the back button, and clicking past the doubleclick entries on the list that comes up. But when I do that, I can't go forward to the page I was on before backing up. So, when composing a post, and needing to go back to review other posters' comments, links, or concerns, I can't go back to composing the post in progress, and have to start all over again. This means printing out hard copies from threads in order to address other posters' concerns and ideas.

I filled out and sent in contact forms to BPL several times about the above, and ended up with only a snippy answer, to which I responded as politely as I could, and got no response.

I readily admit to being severely IT challenged. That is because at my age, time is more precious than ever, and I'd much rather spend it donating the skills I do have to others than sitting glued to a computer for hours and hours trying to acquire new IT skills. So it boils down to whether a website is friendly or not. If it's friendly, I can use it as a tool to communicate without wasting much time. If it's not, I'm at the mercy of the system, and would be better off doing constructive things, like building my own gear, working for my trail club, developing workshops for others in my profession, etc.

Currently, I would have to say that BPL is not a friendly site. That's because being IT challenged, and being at the mercy of some of those who are not, too much time is being spent wrestling with the site. That is too bad, because the articles on the site used to be its greatest value, and when that changed, the members took up the slack on the forums, preserving much of the value of the site. But a number of the more experienced backpackers, some quite well known, also stopped contributing.

Lately, the ads have been muted a little, but that is not the real problem here.
I've spent much of this Sunday reading and reflecting on this thread, searching for apps that might allow me to navigate this site, being bilked and having to uninstall a few, and generally, just wasting a lot of time. If this site is unfriendly, it's going down, and you are not going to be able to keep it afloat by yourself.

The next step at this end could be to take the computer to a technician, or several because it's hard to find a good one, blow a lot of money to make sure the computer is operating properly and get the apps to stop the doubleclick. After that, maybe it's time to look for information elsewhere, which is very sad given the great help other backpackers have been here, people like you who are willing to give their time to sharing information and helping the site. But each of us has a breaking point. I got into this site when recovering from major surgery and needed alternatives for spending time without overexertion. But I'm better now, and may try something else. Maybe one of the sites from your country, who knows.

Hope all is well.
Sam

[Sam Farrington]

Doug,
Was not even able to reply to your PM now.
Kept getting the 'not logged in' message, even after repeated logins,
and checking my profile to be sure my email address was still in there.
What was it Scotty used to say on Star Trek – "Captain, she's breakin' up!"

At any rate, thank you for the suggestion. Way over my head, but I can spend some time with your directions and see if I can follow them.
Appreciate your assistance.
Thanks,
Sam

Edit-Update: OK the light dawned. When I'm in the middle of post, and want to check out a product for specs etc on another website, just minimize the posting window, reopen the browser in a new window, go to the other site and get the info, and then restore the window where the posting is going on. Can do the same thing with the BPL thread. Thank you for helping me get the light on. Duh.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Sam

> Edit-Update: OK the light dawned. When I'm in the middle of post, and want to check
> out a product for specs etc on another website, just minimize the posting window,
> reopen the browser in a new window,
Yeah, that works.
But you can also just create a new tab in the current window. For Firefox, click on the little tab near the top located to the right of the current tabs, with a + in it. I am sure something similar works in IE or Chrome.

If you want to click on a URL in your current window, try right-click and 'open in a new tab'. Now you can swap tabs.

Cheers

[Sam Farrington]

Thank you, Roger. Will practice with that.

For the severely IT challenged like me, browsing with Internet Explorer:
Click the gear-shaped icon in upper right for tools.
Move the cursor to safety and select Tracking Protection.
In the window that comes up, select Get On Tracking Protection List On Line.
The new window should be self-explanatory.
OR
On Tools, click on Manage Add-Ons
In the window that comes up, select Tracking Protection
Then select Get On Tracking Protection list On Line
Same as above

Also did some other stuff involving preserving ad choices, but don't know if it was necessary. Got there by Googling double-click and scrolling down until found something that looked helpful, and not just touting Google to advertisers. (Alas, may have blocked some helpful cookies needed for accessing some functions).

So now, not only are the ads gone, but the double-click went with them.
Got to feeling better about all of this by pretending I was out bushwacking through an almost impenetrable forest. Real bushwacking is much more beneficial to mind and body of course. In any event, can now navigate BPL peacefully and simply again. So can go back to doing something constructive. The day was not a total waste after all (I hope).

[Jerry Adams]

My computer has become horribly unrensponsive. I think I should really get more memory which would help, but…

I think the ads on backpackinglight.com and my yahoo email are just killing me

So, I tried Sam's suggestion – tools, safety, tracking protection, get a tracking protection list online, easy list standard

Works much better now, thanks

Hate to do this because I think it takes away from BPL revenue, but I hate having to buy a new PC even more

I just hate yahoo email period, but too much hassle to switch

[spelt with a t]

Reminder to everyone that the support function has supposedly been revamped, and to make your concerns known.

http://support.backpackinglight.com/support/home

I would have to disable about 6 addons to let the ads show, but it seems for those who are seeing them they have made being on the site very frustrating and negative. Something Ryan should be told about directly (imo).

[Greg Mihalik]

I use AdBlock.

Simple settings.

I see no degradation in performance, and I suspect I get an improvement due to less handshaking and loading.

[Nick Gatel]

Jerry,

You have a MLIFE membership so you can turn off the ads within BPL.

Have you tried to remove malware from your computer to speed things up?

There are free programs like AdAware, SpyBot, and MalewareBytes that can do this. I use all 3, because each alone doesn't catch everything.

[Jerry Adams]

thanks Nick

I tried turning off ads within BPL but it seemed to make something else not work

I switched from McAfee to Norton and it seems to work better. What I hated about McAfee is it would occasionally update or scan my hard disk, which totally sucked computer resources so I couldn't do anything until done. Plus, Norton is part of something else I already have rather than paying for McAfee.

Maybe I'll try those free programs, thanks

Why do they do this to us????

I should switch to Linux, but that has problems too, mainly some programs I want to use don't work on Linux (I think)

[Billy Ray]

I switched to Firefox browser and popup blocker plug-in…
easy…

now no ads on BPL or other sites… what a relief

and Firefox is touted as more secure than IE

Billy

[M B]

I use adblock as well.

I was unaware there were any adds until recently when I got a new computer.

How fricking cheesy the site is, for paying members, with ads.

Installed adblock on new computer, life is sweet again.

[Jerry Adams]

There isn't a lot of money to be made to pay expenses

I don't mind looking at ads, especially if it's going to help pay for the site

But if it way slows down my PC, forget about it. Sometimes my PC would just sit there for 30 seconds without doing anything. Sometimes it will just make obnoxious noise when I click or press key – I suspect Internet Explorer is either designed to do this or ad designers have figured out how to exploit IE. One level better than hackers.

[Greg Mihalik]

Jerry –
Something is seriously wrong with your system.

And I doubt if it has anything to do with BPL, ads, or IE.

I think your system is seriously hacked.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Jerry, I extremely doubt your troubles have anything to do with BPL's ads. The ad system here on BPL is operated by Google and it is a system used by millions of websites worldwide and virtually no one accuses this ad system of causing virus's etc because Google makes way too much money of it is to goof around with malware.

You should take some steps to rid your computer of malware or if it's too much hassle/complexity then get a Mac.

Also, BPL makes virtually no money just from the ads being viewed, so blocking them doesn't affect BPL if you aren't clicking anyways. Clicks are really what counts – for about 20 cents each. Also there's no point in scamming the system because Google detects unusual patterns (like 5 clicks from one computer) and just cancels that revenue automatically. The best bet is only to click ads if you're genuinely interested.

[Jerry Adams]

I should try Nick's malware links

My PC is a 5 year old Toshiba Satelite with 2G of memory. Maybe I need to upgrade. I just switched to Norton which says I am using too much of my memory.

It does work much better after turning off ads.

[Jerry Adams]

Okay, used it for a few days now, much better after Sam's suggestion which took 1 minute and was free – tools – manage addons – tracking protection – get a tracking protection list online – click "add" for the first one, "easy list standard" (which is from adblock).

Now I don't have long (30 second) delays when I get to a new site during which my PC becomes unresponsive.

Same for a number of other sites, like yahoo email, that were giving me trouble.

I don't think ads have viruses or anything, just that they consume system resources. I think maybe I have barely enough memory. Turning off ads removes this bottleneck.

I looked into increasing memory. Someone said you can't use cheap memory, you need good one like Kingston. Maybe $60. Maybe I could install, but I'de hate to break my PC. If I got someone to do it, that's more $. New PC is maybe $400. My PC is old and other failures are likely. But, I would hate to have to re-install software and stuff with a new PC. I couldn't use my Office 2003 so I might have to buy new. I hate trade-offs like this. I think my current PC works just fine…

I also installed "Ad-Aware". Free. Took a number of minutes plus restart. It hung on downloading definitions but this worked after restart. I scanned my hard disk and it deleted 61 suspicious cookies. I have no idea if any of this makes any difference. I hate having one more process running in the background, "protecting me", consuming system resources, possibly making things worse.

Sorry for the "ad nauseum" detail. Maybe someone else is experiencing the same problem. Just do Sam's suggestion and don't bother with the malware software…

[BlackHatGuy]

"Just do Sam's suggestion and don't bother with the malware software…"

This is very bad advice, and I think you're foolish for not having malware/virus software on a PC (or on a Mac, for that matter). You don't have to leave it running in the background, you can just run it once a week or so, but malware is so prevalent today anyone who doesn't have some kind of virus/malware checker on their computer is being silly.

[M B]

Since I started hiding the computers behind a router at home, I cant remember the last time I actually had a malware or virus caught by AV software.

Some ISPs run antivirus on their Routers. Im not sure how it works, but I know we have ATT now and it does.

A router is truly the #1 best protection for your computer. AV software is #2.

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