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I have "Do not show me more advertisements" checked in my preferences, which also inform me:

You have earned the Reduce Ads privilege. If you'd prefer, you can re-enable them here.

Nonetheless, SE seems insistent on blaring a loud and prominent dumbass advertisement for Amazon at the top of all screens.

I can hide the dumbass advertisement using uBlock origin's eyedropper tool, but seriously?

Why the dumbass advert, and where is the setting to hide adverts that will actually be honored?

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    $\begingroup$ This has bothered me, too: it's almost impossible to read or think clearly with those insistent ads flashing in the margins. Notice that "reduce" does not mean "hide all," though. I installed AdBlock Plus just to handle these nuisances on SE. It has been working well. As far as I'm concerned, a non-negotiable condition of moderating on SE is that in return for my time and effort, the ads must behave themselves. $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Commented Jan 3, 2020 at 20:32
  • $\begingroup$ I only see a small image with a logo/text 'sponsored by AWS machine learning'. It looks a lot like the ugly/silly logos that Edward Tufte complains about in his essay the cognitive style of PowerPoint But is that the "loud and prominent" advertising that others see? I do not see a flashing add but maybe it is my computer (although I've never installed add blockers). Would it possible to add a screen shot, to make sure that we all talk about the same thing. $\endgroup$
    – Sextus Empiricus
    Commented Jan 5, 2020 at 16:32
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    $\begingroup$ @SextusEmpiricus Yes! To be particular, though, that is the "loud and prominent dumbass advertisement" in my question. It is loud because it breaks from the visual coherence of the rest of CV.SE and CV.meta.SE. It is prominent because it is located directly under the profile/actions button bar which I use every session. It is dumbass both for the reason Tufte mentions (nice cite), and because fuck the contemporary incarnation of capitalism. $\endgroup$
    – Alexis
    Commented Jan 5, 2020 at 18:15
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    $\begingroup$ @SextusEmpiricus Update: loud and prominent dumbass advertisement now featuring garish color choice! $\endgroup$
    – Alexis
    Commented Jan 9, 2020 at 17:28
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    $\begingroup$ @Alexis: Crikey! Some person - whose job this is - was actually sitting there, thinking "Great logo, but something's lacking - I know! ...." $\endgroup$
    – Scortchi - Reinstate Monica Mod
    Commented Jan 9, 2020 at 17:49
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    $\begingroup$ @Scortchi-ReinstateMonica maybe it was artificial intelligence coming up with this colour choice (Or the AI is still learning in some sort of AB testing. What colour do you get? I have some strange bright green colour). $\endgroup$
    – Sextus Empiricus
    Commented Jan 9, 2020 at 18:37
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    $\begingroup$ Actually the colour green is the same as in the logos like the images in your answer. So probably the previous darker green colour was an error and the bright colours should have been used from the start. $\endgroup$
    – Sextus Empiricus
    Commented Jan 9, 2020 at 18:41
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    $\begingroup$ @SextusEmpiricus: It's a lurid colour, somewhere between that of Soylent Green & what I imagine to be that of radioactive waste. You're right: it seems to be the same throughout now. $\endgroup$
    – Scortchi - Reinstate Monica Mod
    Commented Jan 9, 2020 at 19:50

2 Answers 2

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The company is shifting to behave more like a standard profit-seeking enterprise and less like an idealistic start-up. There's no doubt that it takes a lot of money to run SE, and that money has been provided by venture capitalists who want a return on their investment. There's a new CEO, I think there's been a lot of turnover elsewhere as well. Jeff is long gone, and I think Joel is gone now, too. More specifically, this seems to be an extension of the new ad policies SE has been rolling out.

I certainly don't like it (and it's not my only complaint). That said, other than the new AWS thing, I've never had issues with ads: I've had adblock plus forever. Personally, I like the 'acceptable ads' feature. I recognize that sites need revenue, and ads are ultimately going to be necessary, but there should be limits on their nature (e.g., no animation).

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    $\begingroup$ Thank you! Has there been any movement to creating/migrating CV to an SE-independent site? $\endgroup$
    – Alexis
    Commented Jan 3, 2020 at 21:21
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    $\begingroup$ @Alexis: Codidact sounds promising, but it's still in its early stages. $\endgroup$
    – Scortchi - Reinstate Monica Mod
    Commented Jan 3, 2020 at 22:26
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    $\begingroup$ I think it should be clarified whether the CV community has any relationship to the sponsors and if it affects in it in any way. Do they get to appoint moderators or special privileges to ask or allow certain questions, for example. $\endgroup$
    – James
    Commented Jan 7, 2020 at 10:49
  • $\begingroup$ @James, no. They aren't sponsoring the site in any way like that. It's just an ad. $\endgroup$
    – gung - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jan 7, 2020 at 12:21
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It reads to me as if AWS are now sponsoring our site. Perhaps we should contact them to find out the implications.

After looking around a bit—no, no-one from SE bothered to tell any of us—I found a post on Meta SE about site sponsorships, which shorn of ballyhoo, says:—

A sponsorship generally entails enabling ads relevant to the subject and affixing a small "sponsored by..." logo in the upper-right corner

We're assured that:—

[...] sponsors do not own these Q&A sites. Sponsors work alongside our communities who ultimately build these sites. Communities ask the questions; communities create the tags; communities conduct elections as they do now, and we are not renaming our current sites like a garish sport stadium to the highest bidder. Any ads a sponsor submits still have go through our crazy-strict [sic] ad editorial process… as it has always been. Companies do not have access to personal data, and all Q&A content remains irrevocably licensed under Creative Commons for sharing and attribution.

To a casual visitor our site now looks like this:

enter image description here

enter image description here

This represents a considerable advance over SE's home-grown efforts at uglification, though I've not yet come across any AWS adverts flashing or beeping at me.

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  • $\begingroup$ See also meta.stackexchange.com/questions/341662/… for a list of other sponsored sites. $\endgroup$
    – mdewey
    Commented Jan 6, 2020 at 13:27
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    $\begingroup$ In my case those black-green coloured banners are not showing. Also not when I am logged out. The block and logo on the right may be called ugly or awkward but I would consider it fair use by stackexchange to earn a little money in exchange for their service hosting the site. However that banner inside the question connects the work of the author directly with the advertisements and changes the presentation of the work considerably. This is undesirable and violates the author's rights. $\endgroup$
    – Sextus Empiricus
    Commented Jan 9, 2020 at 8:19
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    $\begingroup$ "though I've not yet come across any AWS adverts flashing or beeping at me" Huh... I wonder if anyone has told them about the MARQUEE tag? :) $\endgroup$
    – Alexis
    Commented Jan 9, 2020 at 17:30
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    $\begingroup$ @Alexis: Don't tell them! $\endgroup$
    – Scortchi - Reinstate Monica Mod
    Commented Jan 9, 2020 at 18:33

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