getting fed up with LiveJournal

[dbskyler]

So, I am one of those people who has a free account, and as a consequence I see ads displayed on pages when I am on LiveJournal. I have no problem with this. It is a way for LJ to make money off of me, and it's fine, and I fully accept that it is the trade-off for my not forking over for a paid account.

BUT, recently there has been a new type of ad that darkens my entire screen and interferes with my ability to see what I am looking at. It started around the time of the no-email-alerts-on-comments debacle, and it's been gradually happening more and more frequently to the point where I am getting seriously pissed off. It's all right to show me ads, but NOT all right for those ads to keep me from the content on the site! (And by the way, I always close out my browser immediately so I have yet to even see what the ad is for -- something you folks might want to consider, LJ-gods, because I'm sure I'm not the only one.)

I would go ahead and just pay for an account except for two things: 1) I really, really do not want to link my RL identity with this blog. I admit to a certain paranoia about it, but I simply never want my professional identity and my fanfic-writer identity to meet, and I do whatever I can to support that firewall. 2) The more LJ pisses me off with their new "no, we won't let you see the page" style of advertising, the less inclined I am to want to support them by giving them any money.

Anyone else having these issues? (I think a lot of you have paid accounts, so maybe not.) Also, if I do decide to capitulate, does anyone know if a manual payment through PayPal would do a good job of hiding my identity, or would my real name (which I obviously need to give to PayPal in order for them to process my credit card) show up?

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Well, I pay manually via PP and so far as I know, there's no way for anyone to know who I am if they don't already know my RL name and LJ name - and those who do know are trusted anyway... No one else can see your PP details, so how would they know who you are?

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

No one else can see your PP details, so how would they know who you are?

Ah, see, this is what I wasn't sure about, since I don't know much about how PayPal works. All I know is that PayPal knows who I am, but the set of information that gets passed along during a payment is a complete mystery to me. You think LJ just gets the money without it getting tied to the payee's name?

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Well LJ will know who you are, but they won't care! You're just one of thousands (millions?) of customers. No one could trace you via a PP payment to LJ - your account info is secure/private...

[paranoidangel]

The solution I have is that I use Firefox and the AdBlock Plus plug-in. So I never see adverts anywhere - and on the occasion I go to my LJ in another browser I'm so shocked to see adverts because I've forgotten they exist!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Ooh, interesting, because I do have Firefox but don't use it as my default browser. I'll have to look into that.

[primsong.livejournal.com]

I second this fix - I have ad-blockers and I totally forget there *are* ads, it's SO worth it.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I don't mind ads that just sit there on a page, but once they start interfering with my use of a site, then yes, definitely worth it!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Just added AdBlock to Firefox, and that was easy! And even better, it appears to be working!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

[primsong.livejournal.com]

Yaaay!

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

(It also works if you refresh the page as soon as the screen goes dark. *normally uses public college-lab computers*)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Good to know! The Firefox Adblock solution is still working for me, too.