[kmspla1952]

For everyone having a problem opening up the classified ads I have figured out a "work-around". You have AdBlocker Plus or AdBlocker Ultimate installed on your computer. To get by this:
1. You need to be on the Talk of the Villages site.
2. Click on you AdBlocker icon on the top of the page.
3. Change the setting from "Enabled on this site" to "Disabled on this site".
4. It will not be pretty. You will get all the google ads and extra junk but at least you can see the ads now and your AdBlocker will only be disabled for the TOTV site.
5. Good Luck.

[Lovey2]

Thanks!! I think.... I can't find the AdBlocker Icon on the TOTV page. I can go into google setting and add/remove it, but you know that only causes me to have "junk" everywhere I look. Please help.

P.S. I can't believe TOTV cannot help us with this. I have written to them more than a few times.

[kmspla1952]

Hi - the AdBlocker icon is actually not on the TOTV page. It is USUALLY on the top right of your toolbar (it would be near the earth, down-arrow, house and it is a shield with a lock on it. But you need to be "on" the TOTV site to disable it.) The unfortunate part is after you disable the AdBlocker, there IS junk everywhere for ads but at least you can view the classifieds. I do wish the webmaster/administrator would fix this but for now at least I can get to the ads.

[perlsvilla]

God bless your little heart! Haven't been able to see an ad for 2 month! I have a chromebook!

THANK YOU>>>>THANK YOU>>>>THANK YOU!!!! Perl

[Navymommy]

Thanks!

[surgees]

Originally Posted by Lovey2

Thanks!! I think.... I can't find the AdBlocker Icon on the TOTV page. I can go into google setting and add/remove it, but you know that only causes me to have "junk" everywhere I look. Please help.

P.S. I can't believe TOTV cannot help us with this. I have written to them more than a few times.

My AdBlockerPlus has been working perfectly for as long as I can remember. It stopped working as a result of a system upgrade they did mid-May.

Since that time many, many customers of this site have experienced the same issues with the classifieds. Many of the workarounds explain differing ways to disable the ad blockers on this site. Some workarounds even suggest you change your ad blocker to a completely different product to get things to work.

From my perspective, I don't feel that the users of this website should have to change technical components every time there is a website software update!

Therefore I shall choose to stay with my ABP until such time that they can figure out what they did to break it and implement a fix.

TOTV is a great resource and I visit it daily... but, as others have noted, when these types of things happen the value to the user community is significantly diminished.

I truly hope the TOTV support team can get to the bottom of this quickly!

[SFSkol]

P.S. I can't believe TOTV cannot help us with this. I have written to them more than a few times.

I do wish the webmaster/administrator would fix this but for now at least I can get to the ads.

until such time that they can figure out what they did to break it and implement a fix.

TOTV will never reply to you about this. It is not their issue but one that lies on your equipment. No reason to fix an issue that is not theirs.

[Lovey2]

Originally Posted by SFSkol

TOTV will never reply to you about this. It is not their issue but one that lies on your equipment. No reason to fix an issue that is not theirs.

I don't believe that to be true. I changed nothing and have been on TOTV for several years without this issue. Suddenly, no classifieds and no contact page. After a week or 2 (with NO CHANGE BY ME) the contact page was functional again. I'm fairly certain they can do the same for the classifieds. Also, I am suddenly gettin classifieds on my Facebook page from TOTV. Yes, they have done something different....I HAVE NOT!

[SFSkol]

(No need to yell, dear.)
The most common user comment I received as IT support was: “It worked for me yesterday, but now it’s not. And I didn’t do anything!”

And yes, you most likely did not. There are so many background updates; operating system, security patches, anti-virus suites, mail portal, browser, Ad blocker filters, browser plug-ins, social networking add-ons, etc, that may come unannounced to your equipment. True, TOTV is using an older vBulletin system, version 4, I believe, not updated since 2010 (5.1 is out now), but it is an older tried and true (ugly) interface. I’ve never seen one littered with soooo many ads. This type of BB system either works or doesn’t. Isolated issues that particular users have must be related to their equipment, otherwise, everyone, thousands of casual users, would be having problems. For your free usage, it works quite well.

In regards to your four mentioned, I believe unrelated issues.

1. Suddenly, no classifieds – likely due to a filter installation/update for your browser. Or some sort of Malware / Adblocker protection. Could be a browser update. All these utilize some sort filters to protect you from going to bad sites. Anti-virus suites include a web protection feature, again a set of filters. Most people don’t realize that web protection filters have ad blocking features and usually reply that they don’t have a blocker installed. SpyBot is a package that comes to mind that installs web filters directly on your PC to a primary Windows system file and effects all your network connections, browsers included, other security protection software do the same. AdBlocker filters must be installed for each browser and can be disabled for specific domains/websites.

( Wasn’t this a good thing; suddenly no ads? TOTV sometimes took minutes to load before, now seconds. I install it on all my client PCs, but I also explain how to disable it)

2. and no contact page. - Likely a coding error on a web page, HTML document Possibly due to not applying a software patch to some element of vBulliten by TOTV. Or an incompatible HTML document version. It was eventually fixed.

3. I'm fairly certain they can do the same for the classifieds – A completely different issue. A web page is made up of HTML text that instructs your browser how to display the text document. It contains text instructions to go to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, (or AdsRUs.com), internet location and get an ad to display. Blockers and other filters say, no don’t go there, and no ad appears. These major ad database internet locations don’t change too often, (difficult since billions of web pages have them hard coded already) so it’s easy to block them, Occasionally the ad providers change their location (they despise blockers) and the blocking filters need to be updated.

The issue with TOTV classified ads is although the pictures are located locally, you can see a thumbnail, they are also tied into the major ad providers and then get blocked. See 4 below. (I’ve only taken a cursory look at their HTML code.)

4. Also, I am suddenly getting classifieds on my Facebook page from TOTV – Welcome to the world of targeted advertising. It appears that TOTV has shared their classified ad database with Facebook. The facebook web bots have finally connected you World with you The Villages.

In summary, there is no reason for TOTV to fix anything, as nothing is broken. The complaints should be a to why they haven't upgraded to a more user-friendly version.

BTW – I am not affiliated with TOTV, or The Villages, but have been in the computer world since the 70’s. Over the years I’ve also maintained a couple of small Bulletin Boards. Just trying to clear up, or add to any confusion.

[SFSkol]

Interesting article from today in regards to ad-blocking

Google prepares publishers for the release of Chrome ad-blocking | Ars Technica

Looks like Goggle (The prime advertising resource) wants to police how ads are displayed in its browser.

Curious to see how TOTV will handle this,

[aninjamom]

I, for one, refuse to disable my AdBlocker. I enjoy ad-free internet! I guess I won't be browsing the classifieds on here anymore. Oh darn. There is another website-not-to-be-mentioned, that seems to carry many of the same classified ads anyway.

[Lovey2]

Was the caps yelling? Hmmmm...guess I learned something else from you. I thought it was just for emphasis. Mea Culpa.
I'm glad you understand all that, I really don't. If you say it's not their problem, I must believe you. All I know is...I did nothing different and something is different. I'm with the poster above, I will simply skip the TOTV ads, as I enjoy not seeing all the other ads every where I look.
Oh, well...I've gotten some nice thing there, and sold some nice things there. However, I'm sure I can live without it.
Thanks for your advice and explanations SFSkol.

[capecoralbill]

Originally Posted by SFSkol

TOTV will never reply to you about this. It is not their issue but one that lies on your equipment. No reason to fix an issue that is not theirs.

Who else is to blame, of course it is TOTV web that should fix this. I cannot tell you how many; times i've been locked out of the classifieds, they used to have a different classified platform, but the;y ditched taht in favor of this one. I am still unable to post or edit an ad. But they certainly can censor you in a hurry. I'll bet this does not get posted, or it will be removed shortly. Guess Craigslist is the way to go. Too bad they're killing the goose.

[capecoralbill]

Now it is working, i changed nothing on my end.

[Mikeod]

Originally Posted by capecoralbill

Now it is working, i changed nothing on my end.

I guess they must be working on it.