AdChoice Ads

[theGerhard]

Long time user of w3 schools, a great reference tool on hand for myself and all my developers. I work in a rather large IT shop and often suggest using w3 schools for reference, but the Google Ad Services running on the right of the page contains an ad for Snorg Tees T Shirt company of a woman standing in her underwear, which I have no problem with at home, but it’s pretty inappropriate for a workplace. Here is a SC of the actual ad: http://i.imgur.com/bGUcf.png. There is a time and a place for looking at women standing in their underwear on the internet, but at work in my office (and probably 80% of all other offices) isn't the time or place. In an age where any misstep can be considered sexual harassment and in an industry where many developers are of conservative backgrounds (In this case I'm speaking of Indian women in my office) Having a junior developer looking over my shoulder while I try to show them a good example for JSON structure and then this ad coming up... this is the last thing I need when a dev is mad at me for harking on their lack of following standards; the second I suggest this page and they go here and get to tell my boss this is what I am having them look at... no bueno. I've since recommended that everyone in the office use adBlock when traversing w3 schools. I would like to continue supporting the site but not at the risk of getting yelled at by my boss for someone complaining about this. Anyways, just a suggestion to help increase the professionalism of this site.

[Paul67]

I have to agree. Today I used the site to lookup something whilst at home with my g/f sitting right next to me, and the page included an ad for a 'mature dating' website, with an unnecessarily graphic photo of a 40(50?)somthing woman, in a very short skirt with her legs apart, and touching herself in an inappropriate way. I found this very embaressing, and I struggled to explain to my g/f that W3Schools is not a dating/###### website, and I also cannot understand it because I never visit those type of websites anyway so why would it choose to show me such an ad.

[Paul67]

Addendum: Ironically my reply above includes that three letter word that starts with an s, ends with an x, and has an e in the middle, and the forum software deems it so inappropriate as to replace it with a string of hash signs, but the website thinks it is OK to show a very suggestive photo of an old lady doing something that sounds like mass debate!

[DarkxPunk]

I use ad blockers so I never noticed this but damn... Yeah switch your ad service guys!

[davej]

I have a hosts file so I never see these ads, but I have to say that the bundling of ads has gotten out of control. I have seen some slimy and dishonest ads appear on sites that you would think would never allow such rubbish.

Edited November 18, 2012 by davej

[justsomeguy]

Online advertisers have a history of abusing anything that is otherwise useful (popup windows, animation, Flash, etc), so I have them blocked by default in my main browser. I haven't even seen the ads on the site. I don't care if I see text ads, but since advertisers insist on making Flash ads that flash or scream at me then I insist on not seeing them. I don't think advertisers understand that if their ads were less intrusive, then less people would block them.

[skitterm]

I agree with the above statements. Honestly, I don't mind at all the developer ads or anything programming related. However, I find some of the dating/other ads suggestive and unprofessional. I'd recommend switching ad providers or filtering out the ads that don't in any way relate to w3schools.