BLOCKING ADS? WELL PLAYED...

I submitted a thread a few weeks ago regarding computer lock-ups I was experiencing on chess.com when ads were loading video/audio. I submitted all data requested regarding my system and received many nice suggestions and support - Thanks All!

However, after all attempts the problem persisted. So, I was left with a decision. Drop chess.com altogether or install ad blocking software. I didn't want to do the latter because I want to support chess.com, but since ALL other suggestions failed I resorted to it, and Walla! No lock-ups. Not once since then.

Fast forward to today. I enter chess.com home page and look what greets me:

Where there were ad place holders, there is now a statement from chess.com basically asking me to remove ad blocking software.

Dear chess.com - I will happily endure advertisements,  and even click on one now and then, but not at the exense of having to reboot my browser dozens of times per hour. So prevent video and audio ads or don't ask me.

I would pay the $30 fee, and might, but I'm married, my wife doesn't play/like chess, and we are both mostly unemployed. $30 for "a waste of time" is difficult for me plitically if I intend to sleep in a bed a night. Sorry. But your policy currently allows free access and I'm somewhat cornered in to accepting that kind offer.

Many regards, respects, etc, etc

wishi

PS: please note the cute girl in the "BLOCKING ADS - WELL PLAYED" chess.com message. It's funny because that's the same "flavor" of message that usually appears in the ads. Why are so many women throwing themselves at me? All my life I've wanted that, and now I'm old and fat and unemployed and here they are. Ah, the irony.

If you are using Adblock Plus, it might be worth right-clicking inside the ad panel. You may be able to block the ad berating you for using the adblocker. More irony.

If only this were an April Fools joke...

@Doggy_Style - Well, well played.

I am looking how to dodge this . I will try to solve this problem in approximately 1 week

I just checked it with Adblock Plus and Chrome, worked a treat... took about eight seconds.

Welll till then u can block the ads by right clicking somewhere on page and Adblock -> Block and ad on this page -> click on the Ad . There are many images that appear on same place so u need to block all of them . DO THIS TEMPORARILY AND ONLY ON THE PAGES U VISIT FREQUENTLY

Well I recently found that blocking each and every ad work on every page , i.e they will not annoy any more on any page , but remember u hv to block all the images that appear in corner , top , bottom and some other places (if any)

I've nothing against the concept of ads to pay the bills. The problem is, and chess.com obviously seems to disregard that, is that these ''flash ads'' slows down computers, by draining virutal memory (RAM) and GPU. It's as if I was playing another game in the background or watching a video!

I simply just can't play chess, on a my low-end laptop with these processes going on in the background. It can't handle it. Therefore I am left with no other choice than blocking the ads on this website.

Sorry but annoying ads have become a plague to the internet (I can't remember how many times my windows computer got infected because of some malicious ads) and now solutions have been found, that does not require us (or shall I say ''force'' us) to pay for removal.

I will not pay for membership since I can't afford it (I've many bills to pay of my own) I do not need all the features that chess.com has to offer neither. I just want to play chess occasionally and discuss on the forums. Why should I pay for that?

I don't mind the ads to help pay for chess.com. The effort that went in to designing and maintaining the site cost money. The servers cost money. They should make money.

I am willing to click on an occasional ad to help the "cause". However like you said the ads today kill performance to an unacceptable level. For instance, I'm listening to music while browsing the forums and all of a sudden I start hearing some schmuck tell me about a video game, and then my browser crashes after I make a post. No good.

You guys kill me :)

My favourite: "I just want to play chess occasionally and discuss on the forums. Why should I pay for that?"

Either pay the subscription or watch the adverts.

Cheapskates!

Well said. Not just cheapskates...but benefit seekers too!

As soon as I saw it I blocked it, took about 2 seconds. I refuse to be trolled.

True, but it about the principle. Why downgrade your site with ads who nobody wants? 

Sure they want money, but just lower the prices for membership. I think they are way to high for working people (i.e. not sufficient time to use all the extra's). Furthermore youtube channels nowadays offer a lot of content which is of equal usefullness. 

I'm pretty sure this is an April Fool's "joke".  I don't think that Chess.com would want their site to be plastered with images of "Scumbag Steve" for an extended period of time.

No. Fascist.

If there would be no ads with audio, video or flashing pictures (because it's hard to concentrate with noisy flashing ads in the background),

if there would be only serious ads without virusses or malware,

if there would not be all this connection interruptions (about 10-20 times a day)

and if there would be a way to pay the bill without extra charging for international money transfer from my bank,

well then, I would not only stop adblocker, I even would think about a premium-membership. But as it is, I am satisfied with a basic membership, no costs, no ads, no problems.

These new chess.com advertisements ARE ADVERTISEMENTS! I will support Chess.com by allowing these specific ads. (I also clicked on it. YAY!)

Also, I think Chess.com gets paid to display ads, and a little more if someone clicks on them, but the most important point is the former. If Chess.com already gets paid to display ads, who cares if I actually see the ads if I never click on them anyway? Let the advertisement companies think I see them. They don't know that I have ABP installed!

Furthermore, if ads can be made to host viruses and malware, then there's nothing Chess.com can do to protect its users, unless they screen every single ad that is going to be displayed BEFORE it is displayed. I doubt Chess.com does this, so the people in charge would just have to wait until people start posting complaints, but by that time the damage has already been done. I think they go through an agency that consolidates these ads into one stream, so that they won't have to worry about negotiating fees with individual companies. I could be wrong, though.

BTW, I do understand the need to have ads to keep the site running, but after those video ads that force audio through my speakers, I finally caved in and downloaded Adblocker Plus from the Firefox website. You have no idea how many times my browser crashed with those RAM-hogging ads.

Do you know what fascist means? It isn't even remotely applicable in this context.