We'd welcome your feedback!

[jssailem]

Do you Love.... or Hate this statement.

"Thank you for visiting our website. You have been selected to participate in a brief customer satisfaction survey to let us know how we can improve your experience." Foresee.
​

It never fails. I go on line to a site I use all the time and up pops a survey request. From Practical Sailor to My bank accounts, it seems everyone is insecure about their product and needs you to validate their existence.

Once or twice maybe. But every friggin visit? Give me a break. Put on some adult pants on and just do a good job... I you suck, you don't need a survey to tell you you suck. All it takes is a little monitoring. If people never come back... You Suck.

What is with Practical Sailor. They ask you to log in.You log in. You should be recognized as having an account. They got to know your logged in.... Why do they need to ask you to get their email messages?

"Don't sail alone - have Practical Sailor at your side with FREE tips, gear and boat reviews, sailing advice and more."​

Click the NO I DON'T WANT YOUR EMAIL MESSAGES. I LIKE SAILING ALONE... and before you have a chance to select the story you want to read. BANG another "Don't sail alone..." Message intrudes in your space.

It is a tiresome experience. Reminds me of "the Circle". How staff spent as much or more time rating each other as they did doing any work.

SO what nuisance on websites bugs you and how did you cope with it. I am still looking for an app or add on that will deny all the surveys before they pop up in to my space.

 

[LeslieTroyer]

Once every 2-3 months is ok. Practical sailor is known to be very in your face.

 

[Michael Davis]

SO what nuisance on websites bugs you and how did you cope with it. I am still looking for an app or add on that will deny all the surveys before they pop up in to my space.

Consider yourself lucky John . I only get the ones asking for money!

 

[Brian D]

Nope. If there is a pop-up like that I just go somewhere else. There are plenty of fishes in the deep blue sea...

 

[Meriachee]

The email that is triggered by something you did, or looked at. I've had no less than 4 emails from a "sale" for something that I bought a month ago. Maybe remove the entry from the marketing database? How many of these do you need?

 

[Leeward Rail]

If there is a pop-up like that I just go somewhere else. There are plenty of fishes in the deep blue sea...

I agree.
Though.. i do have no script and other addons to help prevent that crap.

FWIW, I answer "anonymous" surveys occasionally.... usually falsely. If I get the same surveyover and over ? ratings of 1 across the board.
I can't be the only person, so I take any "survey results" with a grain of salt.

 

[uncledom]

The email that is triggered by something you did, or looked at. I've had no less than 4 emails from a "sale" for something that I bought a month ago. Maybe remove the entry from the marketing database? How many of these do you need?

The part I don’t get is that after you watch me research something and then buy said something, why would you try to sell me another? Do you really think I need another?

 

[dlochner]

I'm willing to give PS a little slack since they don't accept advertising and rely on subscriptions to fund the publication.

The part I don’t get is that after you watch me research something and then buy said something, why would you try to sell me another? Do you really think I need another?

The good news here is that they may not be tracking your purchases, just the things you are looking at. One less piece of data being collected.

The most annoying pop-ups are the ones showing up after following a link from an email. I subscribe to a couple of news aggregator services, I'll follow a link and I immediately get a pop-up asking if I want to subscribe to the service. Wouldn't it be easy to add code to the link to suppress this particular pop-up?

On a related note, I've given up on google searches, too many ads and too much tracking. I now use DuckDuckGo.

Still get ads on the search results page, but fewer ads and ones only relevant to the search words. And they claim they do not track and sell data.

 

[JamesG161]

I actually filled out one on the Veterans new "Secure Messaging" system that sends Messages to key members of my Medical Team. I told them of a feature that "sucked" [this was about 3 years ago]

Evidently, at that time, it was rare that someone filled it out.

The world of technical support descended on my head!!!
They, in a series of emails, told me I was wrong and gave me 3 different "work arounds".
So, if I was wrong, why the work arounds?

Todays VA "Secure Messaging" system is excellent.
The training of their Message responders is mixed, but improving.
____
The old problem was that if I was composing a complex message and went to get a cup of coffee, the secure line had a "time out" of about 30 seconds and my message was deleted.

Jim...

 

[JamesG161]

I've given up on google searches, too many ads and too much tracking. I now use DuckDuckGo.

I finally figured out how they came up with that name!
You Duck this ad and you Duck that "pop up" and Go about your "forced Secure link" search.
Jim...

PS: Nothing "google" are on my internet devices.

 

[ggrizzard]

I'm no IT geek but, I stumbled on a section in my Internet system that allows me to delete cookies from ad posters, et al. Look at the top right of your browser. Three little vertical dots
appear. Hover and select "Settings" near the bottom. Scroll through the resultant list.
There's an item that gets you to a list of 'cookie monsters' which you can individually delete.
Maybe this will help.

 

[Leeward Rail]

Without a script tool like no-script, or a popup blocker, and some type of ad blocker, you usually still get ads, surveys etc.

In fact, deleting (or blocking) cookies can allow popups to appear again, because data in the cookie can effectively say "this user has seen the popup so don't show it again".
In that case, by deleting the cookie, the website assume you haven't seen the survey/ad/popup.
For this reason, blocking cookies can, in some cases, make surveys and ads show up repeatedly.
It all depends on how the site is coded.

It's a PITA to get these type of addons configured, so that places you want to support (like this forum) have full functionality, and crap doesn't show up elsewhere.
Once you whitelist sites, and have them configured, you rarely see ads, or popups. But it's a hassle initially.

Simply blocking everything is not great because it can limit website functionality, and prevents sites you regularly visit and are willing to support, from making revenue. (or make more popups show up as mentioned above)

 

[Meriachee]

@Leeward Rail , since it's winter, and the folks from Calgary will be positively insufferable for the next 8 or 9 months, finding all the little snippets of code that Google leaves laying around may get elevated to a new pastime.

 

[ggrizzard]

addons configured

Once you whitelist sites

Well, I said I was no IT geek...
So what does all this mean for the rest of us?

 

[Leeward Rail]

@Leeward Rail , since it's winter, and the folks from Calgary will be positively insufferable for the next 8 or 9 months, finding all the little snippets of code that Google leaves laying around may get elevated to a new pastime.

No worries. They are already getting record snow to pre-punish them for winning the cup.

 

[Leeward Rail]

So what does all this mean for the rest of us?

Nothing, or varying degrees of something.. depending on your level of computer knowledge ?

"Whitelist" is the opposite of a blacklist.
In this web browsing case, it refers to allowing (whitelist) or blocking (blacklist) specific websites, or individual content piece (elements) of a website.

Both Firefox, and Google Chrome web browsers, allow additional features be installed in the web browser software. (extensions/addons/plugins)

For example, you can install addons like "ublock origin" (blocks web content, aka Ads, videos, images,), and "noscript" (a more "techie " tool that blocks websites from doing specific things), in Firefox.
With that software, you can configure your browser to show, or block, websites or individual content on websites.

Use duckduckgo.com to search for "ublock origin" and maybe "noscript" for more info.
searchign for "blocking ads in your browser" or "blocking javascript in your browser" would also find some good primers.


Your question hits the nail on the head...
The problem here is...
Installing programs that can customize/block website content, is not difficult to do.
OTOH, configuring them so they work well for the websites you use, can be difficult, depending on your knowledge.

----------------

"Cookies", which can be blocked or not, have a similar.. "it's not always simple" problem.


In @jssailem example.. he may simply be running into that problem with the Practical Sailor site, because he IS blocking cookies or website content. If he is, their website may simply not realize he has seen the survey or ad before.

So by deleting the wrong cookies you can actually get MORE popups.

What he could do, is keep the cookies from the Practical Sailor site, and remove any from sites he doesn't subscribe to.
That won't eliminate ads, but it may help with his specific problem.