my assumption is that the feed is looking at what is on the page and matching adverts to that content.

Oh sorry yes, in terms of who gets paid, what I was going to say was when I tried opting out there seemed to be a dizzying list of anonymous companies harvesting data, which I had not heard of.

leaving hugs, sending pm's, chatting

or doing anything else." LOL

That pretty much covers it. Except for virtual flowers, virtual candy bars, virtual, "likes'' etc etc and yada yada

Facebook was in the news recently:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/facebook-world-teens-pictures/story?id=20668712&singlePage=true

I think the ads have something to do with the cookies you pick up along the way as you browse the internet. You can clear your cookies anytime you want to through your web tools - or something like that. Out own vet would know more about that.

Also if you go to your "help" section in your menu - that will help take you to your "cookies" section and tell you how to delete you cookies.

Oh and I assume that DS gets paid to allow people to advertise on their site - just like other sites charge for the use of their sites to advertise.

"" Oh and I assume that DS gets paid to allow people to advertise on their site"

I'm sure you're right----- because we don't have to pay to belong and they deserve to earn money on this site.

Just wish they would fix 'some of the things' :)

Debbear and I used to post bullshit stuff to see what ads we could get to pop up.. It was quite entertaining..
But then again.. Simple minds are simply amused.. :)

I have adblock - so I don't know if this still happens - but when this did happen - I mean when the ads would roll out across the page - often times in the Alcoholism forum - those roll-out ads would roll out across the page, advertising Budweiser, most often, and block the comments made about not drinking anymore.

I found that to be somewhat odd and somewhat amusing.

Being that this is a free site there is the possibility that DS gets some of its revenue through advertising. I remember complaining about Triton advertising and the Triton company soon toned down on the excessive exposure of the female anatomy on this site. This is what happens on free sites Advertising for revenue and not all of it in good taste. Making LEGITIMATE complaints about such tasteless advertising is the best way to go, irregardless who gets paid. Might be nice to see advertising of treatment centers for addictions and the like for a site like this one that caters to those NOT wishing to continue in their addictions and pain and advertising that builds up people as opposed to tearing them down. Such would be compatible with a site with a mission such as is the one of DS.

Douglasn, I think you mentioned these risque ads before and I really do believe it has less to do with DS and more to do certain sites visited on whatever computer you're using. You use a public computer, right? So think about the different sites visited on a public computer. Also, a lot has to do with what kind of ad block you have on your computer .

Well we can safely exclude pornographic sites being visited on this computer as pornographic viewing is not allowed! Nor am I into that viewing. The only time about that I came across a porn site on these computers was when I checked out a pseudoname of a former member. That pseudoname came in large part from that porn site. I did not need fifteen minutes to be convinced that it was a porn site. That member is a former member as a result of my complaint against him. Back on track free sites do tend to need the advertising for revenue. But advertising that is of no helpful value ought to be exempt from chosen forms of advertising, or find more edifying ways to advertise. Especially as this is an international sight with an international membership. Not all countries allow for "risqu" advertising.

Every time I'm online searching for a pair of jeans or something for one of my horses it will briefly show up when I get on DS.

AdBlock (free with Chrome and maybe other browsers) takes care of most of the ads.

Not sure what the answers are but I AM QUITE SURE that the ad for the toenail fungus is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen on this site..... yep. Love it when that one shows up!

Ha ha ha!! I've seen that one!