The banner ads on the main page was bad enough, but they were mentioned in the terms and conditions and that page can be navigated away from... the PERMANENT ROLLOVER ad for Sony in the lower lefthand corner is HIDEOUS. I can't seem to get rid of it. It lives there. I thought I had paid to not have that kind of screen garbage. It seriously degrades the Chess.com experience. What the hell?

The ad seem to be a function of the "friend" bar or whatever it's called at the bottom of the screen. Is there some way I can get rid of that thing?

Can't 12 bucks a month can't buy a reasonably clean screen? -- I really hate that tumor on the screen down there!

I don't understand where everyone is getting these Sony ads from, I haven't seen any. What browser are you using? I'm on Google Chrome.

JG27Pyth, I have not had any ads. But I absolutely hated that chat thing at the bottom of the screen and I removed it by going to My Account -  scroll down to privacy, and there is a place to get rid of the chat thing.

Looks like we were all right with messaging one another and "chatting" during a game. And we have the forum, too. I think the chat thing is a mistake and I wonder who likes it.

stwils

I ♥ the chat thing, but i guess your right

Thanks!

I agree, seems unnecessary... but as long as it can be put aside then it's there for people who like it and hideable for folks who don't. The sony ad disappeared earlier. I'm sort of shocked at how completely unacceptable it was to me... shocked at myself... I hadn't realized the ads bothered me that much... it's like when you can hear a bassline coming from the next door apartment... just a little thump thump... but it can drive you bananas.

I agree... I thought I was paying for an ad-free experience here... I don't mind the chat thing, since I can choose to just not use it and it doesn't really interfere, but now there's a mini T-Mobile thing that pops crap up every time I accidentally hover over it...

It was pretty clear when I started paying for this that no ads was part of the bargain... as a matter of fact, that was the part that was important enough for me to pay for. Ads are terribly distracting from game play, and that's why I'm paying a subscription cost, so I can focus without things flashing and blinking around the board. When I sign up for a membership plan that clearly states "no ads," I kinda expect that there shouldn't be any ads...

So... what gives?

I have found that turning off the chat bar in the privacy settings also turns off the ads that pop up in the chat bar, so there's the solution I guess... pretty stupid... fortunately I wasn't all that excited about the chat bar to begin with, so no great loss.

I'm STILL not getting ads of any sort, Sony, T Mobile or otherwise. Once again I ask, what browsers are you people using?! Chrome seems clean.

Do you have the chatbar enabled? -- the ads were attached to it.

It is enabled. All I am seeing is a long silver bar, with "Share Page" written on the left, followed by "5 Friends Online", a little internet icon which goes to something called "Updates", and finally a button that allows me to connect to Meebo.

You will likely get ads at some point if you have it enabled, it's part of the service, and they show up even w/ Chrome, which I use almost exclusively.

Well, I have not yet received such ads, but if you say it is so, I suppose it must be true.

I'd like to point out to the OP that the premium membership page says we'll see "very few internal ads" rather than none at all, but whatever. It doesn't really matter, seeing as you can turn the chat-bar off.

the feature list on the Memberships page clearly states "No Ads" (14th line) for the gold, platinum, and diamond memberships, and states in the hover info:

"Premium Members will not see any external ads on Chess.com (other than the main homepage)..."

internal ads are specifically ads referring to chess.com, which the ads in question are not (for Sony and T-Mobile so far) so the allowance for "very few internal ads" really doesn't apply here.

I was annoyed by that too.  I just got rid of all my friends, and the problem was solved.  Maybe there was a better way.  Oh well. 

Annoys me as well. The other thing is when you're signing on to your account and that minimenu superimposes itself over the typing...

But has it made you less or more likely to buy a Sony product?

unfortunately if you want to keep the chat bar, you have to live with occassional ads.

fortunately, it takes less than 10 seconds to disable the chat bar (and thus the ads) here: http://www.chess.com/home/privacy.html

the providers of the chat service (meebo) do not give us an option or way to turn off the ads.

i had trouble with this before.  I wish that the option to remove the meebo bar was more publicly advertized.

I don't want to be annoying, but I'm STILL not receiving ads. What am I doing wrong?! I would put a screenshot here, but it's a little long and if I squeeze it, it looks terrible.

Well, with all the spyware online these days, and targeted advertizing, there's some cookie out there telling advertizers not to bother with you because A) they know you have no money and are logging on from haxxor'd computer in the school basement or B) the only things you'd be interested in buying can't be advertized on a family friendly site like chess.com  

Seriously though... that's odd. You have the chat bar active?