Why was the login box blocked by a Google ad?

[Glider]

Finally I was able to log on to the forum! The first couple of tries had the login boxes blocked by an ad. When I closed it, it was replaced by a Google site explaining why I closed it and requiring a Google login.

I love this forum and appreciate the need for ads to pay the bills. But really!!! What clown would place an ad in that position? And then create difficulty closing it with such self-centered justification about the benefits of targeted promotion.

is it possible for those responsible to be counselled?

mick

[malb]

Immediately below the Username portion for logging in there is a small box with a Remember me or similar legend. If you tick that, fill in your user name and password, then click on login, you will log in on the computer and your browser will automatically log you in next time you come to the Forums, provided that use the same device and allow it to store stuff.

I wouldn't to this for security critical stuff, but for forums, youtube, etc there is not a lot of damage potential if someone else did come along and use your login without authority. I actually use two browsers, one for general access which I keep reasonably open security wise, and one for things that need to have have high security (banking etc) which are not allowed to remember anything, no usernames, passwords, cookies etc, and flush themselves every time you close them.

To the best of my knowledge, the forum operators can dedicate some spaces for google to advertise in to generate revenue, but cannot prevent them placing ads outside those areas, particularly if users are not logged in. Therefore using auto login can help avoid the issue. As for counselling, I doubt that Google could be convinced to accept that anything it does might not be in someone else's best interest.

[Glider]

Thanks Malb. My problem was that the ad covered the whole login including the Remember Me section. It was the silliest thing I've seen for a long time. Anyway it hasn't occurred since whether by intentional correction or otherwise.

I generally tick this box but have never seen that it made any difference.

mick

[damian]

Resize your window. The page layout will move around and at the right size you can access the login boxes.

[poundy]

I'm not an admin, but I've seen this has happened a few other times in the past, but only to certain people not everyone.

The problem is that sometimes googs decides how it'll display stuff. I have a suspicion that this arises when one of their ad servers thinks the forum isn't the forum and wants someone to invoke an admin-step to link it. It usually just goes away (otherwise there'd be a lot of commentary about the fix from the admin team - I'm guessing in most cases this self corrects) most likely as the googs server figures out what it was missing before.

As Damian suggests, the complex layout in any of the forum pages means that resizing the page can often let you get to a screen area hidden behind one of these. I honestly don't think there's a sensible way to block the possibility of this happening, pages are just complex beasts....

[damian]

pages are just complex beasts....

It's the way html works and has from the start. All formatting is relative so the browser can apply the most appropriate settings for the viewer. Unfortunately it doesn't always work.

*damian, who remembers surfing the internet before there were browsers, or a web...