Community Chat

[CelticCrafter]

Are you using your phone or tablet to access FB?

The ads are unbearable on mobile devices.

I use my laptop 99.5% of the time and I have an extension that allows me to filter out by keywords who and what I don't want to see. 

It's called Social Fixer.  Works like a champ but not available for phones or tablets.

I also use AdBlock on my PC.

[mrshckynut]

My choice is to focus on reading content. Not the rubbernecker type

mrshckynut 

[BoopOMatic]

I put an ad blocker on my laptop one time but then I couldn't see web pages. When I'd go to a website, I'd get a message:  "We can tell you're using an ad blocker. Disable it for full access."

[catmama]

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@chrystaltree wrote:

They are ads for various products and you get them because you click on them and read them.  The Facebook bots assume you want to see more ads like that because you read them.  Go to the three dots at the top of the ad.  Click and you will see various options. Click on HIDE AD.  Do that on ads that don't interest you and you will get fewer and fewer.  Also just stop reading everything that pops up on your page.  I get tons of fashion and cosmetics ads because that's what I read on Facebook and Instagram.  The bots know that I shop.

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Theses are ads that are embedded in the news article, so you don't see them until you open and read the article.

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@chrystaltree wrote:

They are ads for various products and you get them because you click on them and read them.  The Facebook bots assume you want to see more ads like that because you read them.  Go to the three dots at the top of the ad.  Click and you will see various options. Click on HIDE AD.  Do that on ads that don't interest you and you will get fewer and fewer.  Also just stop reading everything that pops up on your page.  I get tons of fashion and cosmetics ads because that's what I read on Facebook and Instagram.  The bots know that I shop.

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[catmama]

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@dooBdoo wrote:

@catmama, I've seen those repugnant promotional posts. Different from the usual ads that pop up in the newsfeed, the ones I've seen are replies to posts on someone's page.

The images, unfortunately, appear immediately so you can't help but see the disgusting photos.

They're pervasive and ugly.

They originate from people/groups/companies creating Facebook accounts and then finding legitimate Facebook users who do not restrict reply access to friends only (or friends of friends only). 

Also they post on the public accounts which don't restrict who can add comments to their pages. 

My experience is that Facebook/Meta doesn't care and the only recourse is to report and block the accounts doing this.  You use the "report" on the posts and in some cases you can go to the posting account itself and report it.

And, of course, the people whose Facebook accounts are being abused this way do have the option to completely delete the offensive posts and block the accounts.

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I went to Report, but none of the options for the reporting issue pertain.  I can only say that I want to see "less" of these types of articles.

[catmama]

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@Stevie Nix wrote:

When I get pictures I'd rather not see I "X" them out.  A message comes up saying pictures of that type are banned for 30 days.  I haven't explored yet a way to remove the  permanently.

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How do you X them out?

[snipsnapsnur]

I use uBlock Origin on my laptop and never see what you're describing.  Just the annoying Sponsored post from Facebook.  If you do alot of the quizzes people share or click on stupid stuff, you will get stupid stuff.  I don't click on any of that.  Also, in 20 years on FB, I've never ONCE been hacked.  This is all on my laptop.

[Sage04]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

@catmama.  No, I haven't seen anything like that.  I'm besieged with ads for the "Icon of the Seas", the new cruise ship being launched this week.

@Kachina624  I haven't seen the ads but I know it sails the Caribbean, St. Kitts, St Thomas and the Bahamas the last week of January. The largest ship in the world. Why do they need another one?

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[chrystaltree]

Facebook isn't for everyone.  

[dooBdoo]

Lots of great info and advice here!😊

I probably should clarify what I was talking about, and maybe it wasn't what @catmama was referencing, so my apologies for any confusion.🙃

In general, there are 2 types of Facebook ads, related to this discussion at least. 

1  --  The traditional Facebook ads we've seen over the years typically show up in the newsfeed. 

I haven't seen those in years, probably because of my blocking extensions, and also the Brave browser does a great job blocking unwanted content. 

I hadn't thought about it 'til this thread, but I can't remember the last time I saw one of those ads in my newsfeed.

2  --  The other type -- the promotional posts I was referencing in this thread -- show up as individual replies on a person's page (or a public page). 

They are not in the general newsfeed.

They're added to the reply chain on someone's post or video so they're intermingled with other people's responses and they're unaffected by any ad blocking extensions.

Also, they don't require clicking on anything to see the repulsive images. 

They don't stand alone, they're comments on posts or videos, mixed in with legit comments,

and they're designed with the image at the top of their comment/reply so everyone sees them as they're reading along.

This is probably clear as mud🙃😜😉😉, so the next time I see one I'll get a screenshot (blurring out the icky image) as illustration.

Also, I want to echo the warnings about clicking on those posts or ads that aren't clearly associated with your truly trusted friends, groups, business accounts. 

Proceed with caution.

It's an invitation to trouble, to put it simply. 

In addition, it's always a good idea to clear all cookies/cache/website data after browsing Facebook to avoid surreptitious tracking or even data harvesting.

(After spending most of my life in IT support in the medical field, I clear all browser cookies/cache/website data for everything on my devices at least once a day.  They're not meant to be permanent storage, and the Security Officers at our hospitals and clinics have advised this for a very, very long time.)

Hope this makes sense!  As I said, I'll watch for the next example of this and post a screen shot to clarify. 

Have a lovely evening, everyone!  I hope you and yours are safe and warm!🤗