I tried to stop them and am now being asked to pay for an 'ad free package' I am surprised
This is the link https://patient.info/adfree
Get yourself Adblockplus - or one of the other similar add-ons. Mine is free with Google Chrome and blocks ALL ads, not just these. Facebook without ads is much better! Other people say they've had problems with Chrome but I don't find it any worse than other browsers. I can sit and watch the little red sign in the corner clicking over as it blocks an ad!
But to be honest - although I do get WHY ads, it has to be paid for from somewhere - to see Lemsip on a supposedly respectable medical info source is rather like going into a pharmacy and seeing all the rubbish they sell as being the wonder cure!
Thank you Eileen! Am now looking into it.
I can live with 'seeing' the ads, I don't notice them but today, the Lemsip one keeps playing, without being invited, which drives me potty.
Oh, blissful peace!!
Do I gather mission accomplished? We have ad problems on one of the other forums which the "management" deal with by paying. Some people didn't ever get them and were quite confused by the complaints of those that did - lemsip would have been mild, ours were photos of oriental "ladies" offering their wares! Hardly of interest for a site dealing with a rheumatism mainly found in over-50s! I told everyone to get one of the ad-blocking programmes and save the charity's money!
I am in agreement and wrote my concerns to the site managers a couple of weeks ago. The ads with audio are the most offensive and cause me to suddenly stop to turn off my speakers. I thought that they were taking great measures to keep us free from offensive advertising and that's why we are so frequently moderated and can't mention commercial links. Is this not the case? I wonder too what can be done. I understand that it costs money to run the site, but if we could just get the audio ads removed, I think that it would be a great improvement!
Ha ha! Yes, mission accomplished, I used the program you mentioned and got the extn for Opera and all of the ads have vanished completely, so I don't even have to look at a cooked turkey!
I don't know why Lemsip would suddenly decide that today it would start singing to me at every click on the page but, it did!
I have now installed Eileen's suggestion of Adblock Plus and it is wonderful and, thus far, hasn't caused any problems with other sites I use, though I have yet to see what it does to my Bank's site.
I will look into it--thanks!
Doesn't appear to affect hubby's banking.
The bans on commercial links and dodgy ads in posts are more because this is a site also used by doctors and they want to retain its air of respectability I think. Alternative therapies (especially the wackier ones) are also to be kept strictly to that forum and not strewn through the others. You CAN mention links if it is in the context of what you have found helps you - but it will almost always be captured to be examined, if regarded as safe it will appear eventually, the post may appear with what they disapprove of removed.
IMHO, Lemsip doesn't belong here either but obviously they think it's OK.
Did you know by the way that the main reason for people's smartphones batteries lasting a mere few hours is all these automatic play videos, especially on Facebook? Some of them drive me up the wall as they set off as you scroll down to see earlier posts.
To be honest, these days any website carrying 3rd party advertising is asking for trouble. This website uses the Adwords supplied by Google, so you should in theory only see advertisements from Google based on your browsing.
However, this has not been the case this year.
Google's security has been breached twice in the past 6 months, and both times it involved Google Adwords advertising, with trojans being sent around the various websites. The easiest way to infect a computer, place code using 3rd party advertising, in this case this was the doubleclick.
The security headline that appeared at the time was "Google’s DoubleClick ad network abused once again in malvertising attacks". Many people are not technically minded to know how to switch off such features in a browser alone, therefore Ad Blockers came along to alert you of such sites, and what they can do to you.
Just today, the number one hackers tool was yet again aimed at Malware - so blocking any chance of this code getting through, is wise to use such software to stay safe. Commercial websites really need to take a step back, and use other alternatives, than Google.
Regards,
Les.
Talking of Google, I try to use the search engine Duck Duck Go because it doesn't track you and gather data but, the downside is, sometimes it just doesn't have the answers that I am looking for and it does have an American bias.
However, they want us all to help to make it better.
Hmmm - don't like American bias! And I have Google so well trained for my medical stuff!!
I use Google Scholar a lot and I don't like the American bias either, maybe bias isn't quite the right word, they need someone British to work for them to remind them that there is life over this side!
I have a friend who works for them freelance - but given her usual subject matter I'm not sure our prescence should be flagged up! What comes up is based on the number of clicks it has had historically - move on to pages 100+ and you'll perhaps find the Brit stuff ;-)
Hi Mrs mop,
I only I only use Google, but not the standard way by entering keywords and Boolean expressions - that way gives you better results, and you can check out sites, how well they are doing, etc.
There is a well known hack, that allows redirects you on your first visit from a search engine, yet if take the same path again you will get the correct site showing - on your visit initial a cookie is placed on your computer, it does actually harm you as such, but causes mayhem for people running the website, since they will lose visitors very quickly. Google will eventually pick it up and place a 'red flag' on it.
You cannot call them hackers that do this to websites since all they do is inject code into the site using tools made by proper hackers. I guess they have nothing better to do. It always increases around school holiday times which is typical.
Regards,
Les.
Hi all,
Just to let you know the Lemsip ad has been sorted. No ads should display with sound on the site. If you get anything like this again or have any issues with the site can you please message me or if you do post a discussion like this use the Report link to draw it to my attention. I only saw this one in passing.
I haven't read all of this but noticed comments re Google and American bias - you can filter Google to only show UK pages if it helps. See image below and click Country: UK. You will need to do this each time you close and open Google but it does stay on UK within the same session. If I've misunderstood your meaning ignore this 
Regards,
Alan
It's OK Alan - we're doing our best to avoid ALL adverts!!
I know about choosing national pages but when you look for medical stuff having US journals etc is useful. When I want German answers and do a search with German spelling google kindly suggests I filter to get just English! Not entirely the idea but it is kind of them.
By the way - did you notice, suzanne00 says she reported it to managers a couple of weeks ago?
Hi Eileen,
Yes Suzanne reported an ad via the Uservoice site which was sorted at the time. As I said no ads should play with sound but occasionally one may slip through. Once an ad is reported it does not take long to block it or get it fixed. I reported the Lemsip one this morning and it was fixed in about an hour. Unfortunately I was off yesterday otherwise it would have been sorted sooner. Also, if any user feels any ads are inappropriate then let me know and I can ask if they should be removed (but can't guarantee they will).
Regards,
Alan