I recently happened to visit SummitPost in someone else's browser, without my normal filtering, and was disgusted:

A bunch of "social" trackers/buttons and ads for mail-order brides? Really? I expect this sort of web turd if I'm trying to pirate something, but is it really necessary to treat people without proper ad-blockers this badly?

Seems to be a thing with outdoor forums. Here's one I got from a different outdoor forum:



Apparently I'm old now.

seano wrote:I recently happened to visit SummitPost in someone else's browser, without my normal filtering, and was disgusted:

oh yah, women, terrible things for sure

Montana Matt....You were supposed to remove this crap. Women are beautiful though

Scott wrote:Seems to be a thing with outdoor forums. Here's one I got from a different outdoor forum:



Apparently I'm old now.

I see these on other outdoor-related sites as well. Maybe they figure climbers and the like are so antisocial that we need to pay for it.

Women or no women, I too have been disgusted by the increase of ads over the last several months. I actually had several of my pages redirecting to offsite pages without being logged in. Thankfully Matt fixed that. But i was tempted to do something drastic to fight back against advertising. I understand that there are people behind the scenes who need to make money, but for gods sake let's not run SP into the ground. Who's with me on that?

The ads seem to be less of an issue when I sign in. At times I would surf SP not signed in, but with the plethora of ads recently that seem to come across when I do that, I almost always sign in now, and the problem goes away.

For you young farts out there, you probably don't see the adds with the women that are aimed for us older gentleman - they probably think we're more desperate .

All kidding aside, the volume has become a bit obnoxious and distracts from the site...

Oh, I don't know. Right now I'm seeing an ad asking if I want a sugar mommy. Come to think of it, that would be great!

And I frequently get the one about chatting with Russian girls. The girl in that ad is so hot, I could look at her all day. Sometimes I do.

It seems like the joking around about ad content is intentionally downplaying / defocusing from the present issue. I'm not the only one who has noticed the change and increase of ads. Why should we have to log in for the site to function properly? And how do we expect to attract new members when each page viewed is loaded from top to bottom with distractions and false search bars and whatnot?

Message received.

I'm not the only one who has noticed the change and increase of ads.

True. To be honest a lot of people are annoyed with it including some of the staff.

gimpilator wrote:Why should we have to log in for the site to function properly? And how do we expect to attract new members when each page viewed is loaded from top to bottom with distractions and false search bars and whatnot?

My biggest concern is with how non-members will perceive SP. Just like so many others, I discovered SP while searching for beta (nearly 10 years ago)...and I never remember having to deal with this volume of ads. I'm curious about how I would have felt about joining SP if what I am seeing now is what I saw back then.

FYI - I originally read gimpilator's post while not logged onto the site - ads galore! I logged on and they all amazingly disappear. Just reiterates my point...non-members are seeing all these crap ads...and it has to at least somewhat impact how they perceive SP.

Scott wrote:True. To be honest a lot of people are annoyed with it including some of the staff.

Since neither the "About" nor "Contact" pages are even vaguely useful, here are the whois records. Evidently Josh Swartz is still "responsible" in some sense. I don't know who's paying the hosting bills or collecting the ad dollars, but maybe some phone calls could help to clarify.

Code: Select all

Domain Name:SUMMITPOST.ORG
Domain ID: D104457474-LROR
Creation Date: 2004-05-25T00:45:28Z
Updated Date: 2014-04-25T17:39:16Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2016-05-25T00:45:28Z
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, LLC (R91-LROR)
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 146
WHOIS Server:
Referral URL:
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Registrant ID:CR30870553
Registrant Name:Josh Swartz
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street: 8111 6th ave NW
Registrant City:Seattle
Registrant State/Province:Washington
Registrant Postal Code:98117
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.2062185940
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:webmaster@summitpost.org
Admin ID:CR30870555
Admin Name:Josh Swartz
Admin Organization:
Admin Street: PO Box 2831
Admin City:Stateline
Admin State/Province:Nevada
Admin Postal Code:89449
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.5206038494
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email:webmaster@summitpost.com
Tech ID:CR30870554
Tech Name:Josh Swartz
Tech Organization:
Tech Street: PO Box 2831
Tech City:Stateline
Tech State/Province:Nevada
Tech Postal Code:89449
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+1.5206038494


I am tempted to include a line in each of my mountain/rock pages that all ads and mouse-over callouts are not of my doing. I also intend to inquire to those placing the ads why they keep showing me ads for my own book, as if I wanted to buy one when I can get them for free.

But I agree, and made my own post about this a few weeks ago, the myriad of ads and hyperlinks detract from the page. It's ugly, plain and simple.

If ads are a necessary evil to keep the page solvent, then place them in discrete spots like along the side or bottom, not crammed into every available white or gray spot or within the page content itself.

surgent wrote:But I agree, and made my own post about this a few weeks ago,

Sorry, I should have paid attention before making my own thread. I haven't contributed much here, but I can't imagine contributing anything more unless this is fixed. (J., you know my suggestions.)