...how are ads generated?

Comments

  • FemmeLegion
    FemmeLegion
    Posts: 521
    I just did some touch-up work on "my" campaign, and I noticed a political ad in the sidebar. I was just wondering how much control you guys have over what sort of ads show up on OP, and if you can screen those out versus other types.

    Yes, I realize the solution is to subscribe, and believe me I'm considering it, but seeing that one just now really ooked me out. And I promise it would have even if it'd been for the candidate I'm supporting. =)
  • Micah
    Micah
    Posts: 894
    Good question about the ads...

    There are (currently) 2 different types of ads on the site, Amazon Associates ads, and Google Adsense. I'll give a quick rundown on how they work.

    h3. Amazon

    The Amazon ads are a mixture of content sensitive and user sensitive ads. If you go to Amazon's site, they'll place a tracker cookie (small piece of data) in your browser that identifies you. Then, when you go to sites that have Amazon ads on them, they read the cookie, know it's you, and try to place ads for items you've looked at previously, or related items. That's why I see ads for programming books, while you might see ads for other stuff.

    If you're worried about being tracked around the internet, which many people are, then you should look into turning off cookies for your browser.

    h3. Google Adsense

    The Adsense ads use the content of the site/page to determine what to display. Google "reads" your page, tries to figure out what it's about, then display related ads. Since it's all done automatically, it's not perfect.

    If you look closely, you might see lots of political ads, especially on the campaign list page. My guess is that Google is picking up on the heavy usage of the word "campaign" and assumes that we're a site about the U.S. presidential campaign. On pages with a lot of text, especially very specific D&D text such as "Greyhawk" or "Eberron" or similar such specific names, the Adsense ads do much better.

    I've been meaning to look into how much we can screen out. It doesn't do us much good to display unrelated ads, so I would like to screen out the presidential campaign ads.

    Does this answer your question?
  • FemmeLegion
    FemmeLegion
    Posts: 521
    Yup. I do appreciate that you will at least try to get rid of the political ads.

    Hugs as desired!
  • Micah
    Micah
    Posts: 894
    Ok, I've looked into it, and we can filter the ads. Unfortunately, it's on a case by case basis. In other words, we cannot say "block all political ads" We need the individual URLs of the websites to block.

    So, here's what we need: If you find any ads that are blatantly off-topic (ie. ads for political candidates): click through, get the URL (copy it from the address bar in your browser), and post it in this thread. We'll take a look and add it to our list of blocked ads.

    Note: We reserve the right to refuse any removal for any (or no) reason.

    Thanks for your help in this.
  • FemmeLegion
    FemmeLegion
    Posts: 521
    Of course, of course! I'll keep my eyes peeled.
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