I had to struggle with that thing continuously (!) while typing those 2 posts I just put on here, Kenny.

The internet connection is wireless and maybe that had something to do with the problem but something continued to load/load/load while I was typing.

I belong to another garden forum and had problems with my internet security not liking me visiting. Finally, the entire forum shut down - & not just for me! After nearly 3 weeks being offline, it is back and I notice that a big bunch of its ads didn't come back with it . . .

There can be other problems elsewhere. I understand the owners trying to make some money but with iVillage and NBC, I have always expected better from the Gardenweb. I'm willing to be disappointed with them, I guess. And, right at this moment, the ads aren't interfering with my posting but I darn near gave up earlier this morning!

Steve

It seems to be gone now. It Was over in tomato forum too.
The entire internet is getting so over loaded with ads--Even goggle. I think they are selective for each parson,,I can't even look for a cooking receipt without Ally bank yelling at me. My sea monkey browser has a built in pop up blocker , but they still take up download time.
KennyP.

I saw that for the first time last nite when I checked in to see what was happening and did one short post! Nasty, nasty, NASTY! Whatever the ad was for it was animated and jumping aLl OvEr ThE pLaCe!!! I HATE those things! They are SO distracting! And Safari doesn't have an "animated media blocker" like I had in days of yore with AOL!

I hate tabs, so I use windows, so I just moved the whole window down so the bottom of it was off the screen and I didn't have to try to ignore it, but if there hadn't been "something" I could do about it I would have left the site!

With most other sites, Safari has something called "Reader" where you can click on Reader up on the URL bar and then the "article" you're TRYING to read comes up in front of and blocks all the FlAsHiNg and other junk and and all you see is what you're trying to read, sans-junk! That's a life saver when I go to sites like newspapers or TV sites to look something up--or most other sites too for that matter! Wouldn't be able to stay there long enough to read what I wanted to find out about without "Reader." And recipe sites are usually the very worst of the worst for junk!

Safari can be installed on PCs too now, and I just put it in my teensy-tiny netbook a couple days ago--getting ready to leave on vacation--the only time I use that tiny thing! The only thing I had on the netbook was still AOL (besides IE which I can't stand!) and that was SO slow that it didn't even make sense to take the netbook along with me! I used to think it was the computer that was slow, and compared to my BIG Mac, it still is slow, but with Safari in it now it's just "normal PC slow" and at least it's usable now--at least it will be if I have wifi anywhere out in the wilds where I'm going this year! And with Safari I can now "drag" things where I want them, which I am so used to doing now, and which is SO much quicker and easier than doing things the PC Way!

Right now I just have an iV ad on the bottom banner (moved off of the screen!) and it's not JuMpInG aRoUnD! But even last nite I didn't have the stupid thing "jumping to the middle" of the page, ColoKid. If it started doing that on me I definitely woulda been Out of Here! And, I can think of far, FAR better words for all this junk than "greedy," but my post would be blocked if I tried to put them in here!!!!! Clearly, enough is NEVER enough for iV!

And, ads are very definitely "personalized" these days Kenny---don't they use nice words to make their SPYING sound ok!!? Somewhere in your computer and/or browser settings (or Preferences in Safari) you can click to not "identify" your location! They'll still know you're in Colorado usually, but nothing closer than that!

AND, google tracks EVERYTHING these days, and you can go into their settings and change them to block all (or at least most) of your personal information that they constantly collect too. They do it so they can Personalize your ads! Ain't that just swell of them!!??!!! But even with it blocked that way, they still have so many tracking cookies that Big Brother (spelled with a G!) is still watching most of the time--unless you keep deleting the tracking cookies--which I do! BUT, even if you're blocking "third party" cookies, they have one called Google Analytics---which is a FIRST PARTY cookie!!! So blocking Third Party Cookies won't block that one and the only way to keep it Out, Out D*a*m*n Spot, is to watch your cookies and keep deleting it! (Actually, there is a program, similar to AdBlock, you can install that will block Google Analytics--they say, but I haven't had time to do it yet!) AND, I've discovered that google, and other sites, are now hiding tracking cookies in Flash Player local storage! Enough is NEVER enough! As people figure out how to block them in one place they figure out another way to track you!

I complained to a freiend recently that if I open my front door for a friend--and ten strangers walked in along with them---I'd CALL THE COPS! But with a computer it's legal for any and all strangers to walk right in! Isn't there an old saying: There oughta be a law!

I haven't had any problem with things continuing to load, Digit, but haven't you had a problem with that before? And having your computer "warn" you about a site is freaky! I don't worry about things now with the Mac as much as I used to, but the virus/trojan/worm thing is SCARY! In the last few months I've gotten emails from a bunch of friends and family where their address books had been hijacked and junk/phishing/scam/worm emails were sent to the people in their address books. One good friend had her whole email taken over and couldn't get back into it for a couple weeks! She was the first--that I got at least! SO glad I got a Mac, not that that makes that sort of stuff impossible, but it's far less likely. And now I have very, very, very few "updates," for security or anything. When I turned on the netbook to "update" it, it took almost three hours to get all the Norton (don't need that kind of time-waster in the Mac) and, especially, all the MS updates into it since the last time I had used it--the MS updates took two hours! And you STILL can't trust that something won't get in! I don't know if your "loading" problem might have to do with the wifi since I still use a wired connection, but if nobody else is having that particular problem I do wonder if it might be "something" to do with your computer--or connection/router rather than something to do with the new obnoxiosity from iV.

This was gonna be a short post!!! But all this computer garbage (real word not used!) is a real hot button for me, and.....!!!!! Whatever else is posted here, I'll be back to read, but I probably won't post again--because I MUST finish getting ready for vacation, and if I start another post--even a Short One, I might miss my vacation all together! That's how much of a HOT BUTTON it is for me!

I hope you all manage to find a way to deal with this "New Problem" from iV! Would hate to come home from vacation and find you all gone!

Love you guys,
Skybird

P.S. Heard recently that some stores are going to start using "facial recognition" to "identify" you when you walk in the door (Target was one of them) and then send "personalized ads/discounts" directly to your Smart Phone (I only have a Dumb Phone!) so you can get A Good Deal!!! And all that "facial recognition" will come from the facial recognition "feature" google has on Picasa (I have it disabled) and Facebook and...... So with the "facial" info they collect, connected to all the tracking info about what you buy and where, and the things you look up when you surf, they'll know "what you want," and they'll GLADLY sell it to you! Such a deal! Even your searches can be "narrowed down" these days based on what you're searched for before--and where you're located! My searches were becoming more and more limited until I figured out how to disable the "location services" and all that google collection of personal stuff!

Use the Firefox browser with Adblock plus installed and almost all internet ads will be gone.

Skybird if you're interested in not getting tracked around the net and increasing your computers security I would recommend using Firefox with no-script installed. There is a definite learning curve to using no-script but as long as you remember that it's running and need to sometimes allow some scripts to run it's not difficult.

Thanks, GJ! I have Firefox in this computer, but by the time I installed it I was getting real comfortable with Safari and since they're, overall, very similar I just stuck with the Safari. When I have time I'm gonna go with AdBlock and the application that blocks Google Analytics. Not so much worried about security in the Mac, but I am WAY bent out of shape by the way google--and everybody else--has the chutzpah to think they have a right to our location, and surfing patterns---and FACES! Where I am, and what I do---and what I look like, is none of their business--unless I decide it is, and I have decided it ISN'T!

End of additional brief rant!

Skybird

Notice that the bottom banner is now .

. . missing!

I don't doubt that it, or something like that banner, will be back. But, it is good to have a more pleasant place to talk with gardening friends.

Steve