# Site is freezing up to often



## gmc2003

Every since the latest upgrade to the forum. I've been experiencing a few issues that are frustrating as all heck. The latest one which has been going on for a week or so is just to much of a pain to deal with. The problem I think is with the AD space at the bottom of the page. When there is an ad showing the site works fine. When the ad disappears I get some type of landscape scenery photo running across the top of the page. This photo freezes, and basically renders my screen useless(except scrolling up and down). I can't reply to any posts and I cannot open anyone's thread to read it. Heck, I can't even log out when it happens. The only fix on my end is to refresh my screen, and sometimes that takes 3 or 4 tries. This is an intermittent issue, but is starting to occur more frequently. It happened while writing this note. Now I realise that I'm not a paying member so I shouldn't complain to much, but this is basically the end of my participation on SMF. I'll check in every so often to see how folks are doing and get some new ideas, but that's gonna be about it. I've played with my Ad-blocker, but it doesn't seem to help. I do not experience these issues on other forums that I frequent, so I don't think it my computer. 

It's been a nice ride since 2012, but all thing must come to an end I guess. 

Chris


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## BrianGSDTexoma

Might try changing Browsers.  I use FireFox and been having several problems last few weeks.  Have to keep going to Chrome for certain sites.  Guess I going to have to just change to Chrome.


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## Winterrider

gmc2003 said:


> It's been a nice ride since 2012, but all thing must come to an end I guess.


Hate to see you walk away Chris. Always appreciated your input as I'm sure others do also.


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## SmokinAl

Sorry to hear that Chris.
I know Brian is working on this, but just joining eliminates most of the problems. However I have to disable my ad blocker to get on here, which is a PIA. This is the only site I have to do that for. I have asked Brian if this will change, but he did not know. I hope we don’t loose too many members over this, but it looks like we will loose a bunch!
TOO BAD! This has been a site where we could all exchange recipes & advice without egos, and I hope that doesn’t change. I hope you will check back in a couple of months to see if things have changed.
Al


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## GonnaSmoke

I'm not seeing any of the problems you guys are talking about, everything seems to work fine. DuckDuckGo browser on my laptop and using a VPN...


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## sandyut

GonnaSmoke said:


> I'm not seeing any of the problems you guys are talking about, everything seems to work fine.


same here.  no problems at all  on Chrome.


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## dr k

gmc2003 said:


> Every since the latest upgrade to the forum. I've been experiencing a few issues that are frustrating as all heck. The latest one which has been going on for a week or so is just to much of a pain to deal with. The problem I think is with the AD space at the bottom of the page. When there is an ad showing the site works fine. When the ad disappears I get some type of landscape scenery photo running across the top of the page. This photo freezes, and basically renders my screen useless(except scrolling up and down). I can't reply to any posts and I cannot open anyone's thread to read it. Heck, I can't even log out when it happens. The only fix on my end is to refresh my screen, and sometimes that takes 3 or 4 tries. This is an intermittent issue, but is starting to occur more frequently. It happened while writing this note. Now I realise that I'm not a paying member so I shouldn't complain to much, but this is basically the end of my participation on SMF. I'll check in every so often to see how folks are doing and get some new ideas, but that's gonna be about it. I've played with my Ad-blocker, but it doesn't seem to help. I do not experience these issues on other forums that I frequent, so I don't think it my computer.
> 
> It's been a nice ride since 2012, but all thing must come to an end I guess.
> 
> Chris


Bingo. Exactly. I'm on my mobile device and there are ads overlapping ads with the partial green ad on top and double/triple ads on top of each other below. There's only 3.5 lines of SMF copy to try to scroll up and down but doesn't work and freezes since the video of peach cobbler etc was added.and clusters of ads. If you leave the site after a few minutes and come back so does the clustering of ads. I wonder what visitors do. This may only be on mobile. I don't think this site is for mobile users. The x to close the ads to veiw the site doesn't work once clustering freezes the site.


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## checkdude

I use Google Chrome and no issues so far.


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## JckDanls 07

I use Chrome as well...  and have the same issues Chris has ... 

I understand ads are needed to make money...  but this has gotten ridiculous...  It's a cheezy way to get you to pay to be a premier member...


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## kilo charlie

I too have been around for awhile.. and yea.. it's time to move on as well. . It's more of a hassle and please don't tell me to fork over money. I belong to multiple forums with no ads or ads that are unobtrusive and 100% free. 

So much more to say about this subject but it seems no one will listen when there's money involved.


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## chopsaw

I'm not getting the ads popping up anymore , but it hangs and slow to load pages . When this happens I open another window and go to another site . No issues there . 
Come back here , slow to join , navigate or join in .


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## Bearcarver

My "MacBook Pro" has been working perfectly, since that one day when Jeff was showing us how to make the Peach Dump Cake.

Stick around---They'll get it fixed Chris!!

Bear


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## MCQSmoker

Works fine on the phone!


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## smokeymose

I had an issue a few weeks ago where as soon as I logged in to the site my computer locked up. Used my I-Pad a couple of days and tried again.
No problems since and I use Firefox.
Ads are getting more aggressive every day on all sites.


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## pineywoods

Maybe 

 TulsaJeff
 or 

 bmudd14474
 might have some info on this. I'm having no problems with any of that


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## DougE

chopsaw said:


> I'm not getting the ads popping up anymore , but it hangs and slow to load pages . When this happens I open another window and go to another site . No issues there .
> Come back here , slow to join , navigate or join in .


The pc in my office gets slow after I've been on the site awhile. I just click out and open the site again in a new tab and it's fine. I only seem to get the slow down with firefox, but chrome causes me issues with other sites, so I can live with it. Not that big a deal to click out of SMF, and reopen it every so often. 

Right now I'm on the barn computer which runs windows10 using edge and never have issues. I run linux on my office pc, and that is the one that slows down every now and then.


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## bmudd14474

We are looking into what changed with the ad blocker thing to see what we have to change to fix it


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## Brokenhandle

Hate seeing anyone frustrated and leaving because of these issues... with that said I have learned alot from you Chris and many others and hate to see you go but if you do please come back and visit. Each one of us has to do what's right for ourselves.  Probably 90% of the time I'm on my galaxy s6 phone with no issues.  My desktop runs windows 10 using edge, no issues for what little bit I use it. And I am quite computer illiterate! Maybe it is because I paid to be a lifetime premier member long ago before any of the latest upgrades... but back then I'd had enough of the ads and wanted to help support this forum. I've learned more than enough on here to easily make that worthwhile to me!  But I also smoked cigarettes for 30 years... that's only about 15 days worth for $100.  I do have faith they will get to the problem causing this... they always do! 
Sorry for the novel! Better go, Metv has super colossal cartoon Christmas on!!   
Ryan


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## cmayna

If the site is freezing up then tell the seniors to turn up the heater.........sorry

No problem with my cel or using Chrome on my laptop.   Hope it gets resolved.


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## Brokenhandle

cmayna said:


> If the site is freezing up then tell the seniors to turn up the heater.........sorry
> 
> No problem with my cel or using Chrome on my laptop.   Hope it get resolved.


I'm sorry... but that made me laugh!   

Ryan


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## DougE

The people having the freeze problems are non-premium members. Premium members(myself included) pay to not see the ads that otherwise generate income for the site, so we wouldn't expect to have the problem that guests and non-premium members are experiencing.

A few observations, if I may:


People browsing the internet despise ads interrupting their perusal of an article, or whatnot.
Sites depend on ads to generate revenue.
If the ads become so cumbersome as to make the site unusable for guests, they will just move on, rather than becoming members. 
There needs to be some happy medium where the ads are not so annoying that they turn potential members, who might pay for premium membership away before they even join.


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## vipgenesis

I just joined and it makes using this forum unusable. With ad blocker I was able to actually use the site just to finish writing this but on mobile chrome it freezes when the top ad appears and I have to refresh. After having to restart my browser 4 times just to read some old brazos posts why should I even continue....granted I just joined so who cares about me. I had to restart the page just to post this. Seems like a good community but this is unacceptable. Good luck keeping new users like me.


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## DougE

vipgenesis said:


> granted I just joined so who cares about me.


We do and should care. The whole point of the site is for all of us to learn from each other, and for those completely new to smoking, to learn from the more experienced.


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## Brokenhandle

vipgenesis said:


> I just joined and it makes using this forum unusable. With ad blocker I was able to actually use the site just to finish writing this but on mobile chrome it freezes when the top ad appears and I have to refresh. After having to restart my browser 4 times just to read some old brazos posts why should I even continue....granted I just joined so who cares about me. I had to restart the page just to post this. Seems like a good community but this is unacceptable. Good luck keeping new users like me.


If you could read the whole post then you'll see the mods are trying to fix this problem.  BUT maybe you couldn't read through it all because of the ads, I'm not sure. I was a newbie here once also, and can guarantee this site and it's members want you to stay, as they did me. But weren't having these issues back then so I understand your frustration.  I'm sure you know not everything works perfectly...especially websites and computers. 

Ryan


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## TulsaJeff

As most of you know, we have a new ad company and they are still adjusting ads and trying to find the sweet spot between ad revenue and user experience.

Our old ad company is closing up shop and we had to find a new company. They are a great company with good ads, lots of clients and they are willing to work with us. You really can't ask for more than that.

I have the ads on and off depending on what I am testing and I haven't had any trouble on anything I'm using but I do hear your complaints and I just fired off an email to them letting them know that we have to dial it back more than we have so far.

It is really cheap to go ad-free with a premier membership which is the best way to help SMF as well as help yourself but I don't expect new people do that before they've had a chance to find how great this place is.

Ads are an absolute necessity but we do have to continue to adjust so it's not locking up on people. That's completely unacceptable if it's due to the ads.

Thank you for your patience, we'll see what they say and go from there.


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## SmokinEdge

I’m pretty new here, but I gladly paid to support this site. This site is much like an invaluable book on smoking, curing and bbq. The search feature alone is worth every penny, let alone the ability to post a random, mostly redundant question with no researching, and receive some of the most comprehensive and detailed answers found anywhere on the webs by folks who can and will go there with the receipts to prove their knowledge and experience. This place is fantastic.

That said, I really don’t think that the long timers that actually helped write this SMF book of knowledge should have to pay to continue their involvement. If the management doesn’t step back and realize these people‘s contributions to this forum and how their knowledge and interaction is what took this site from where it began to where it is today, then soon all of us will just have the search option, but no real people behind it. Chris, I believe rises to these ranks, and should be rewarded for his years of participation and the building up of the site by not being inundated with ads. No reason to run these guys off, or say “sorry” when they leave. Management needs to go back and reflect on some of these long standing and active posters, make a list, talk it over and reward them with membership. life time achievement, if you will. This site would be nothing without its members, but that older core, at least some of them, helped build this house. Why would you lose them or forsake them? I can think of no reason to watch these long standing members walk away Over money. Most all of them contributed more than 100 bucks worth of experience and knowledge forever now owned by and enshrined in the SMF search function. They gave that knowledge freely.

I‘ll get off my box now.

Eric.


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## Brokenhandle

SmokinEdge said:


> I’m pretty new here, but I gladly paid to support this site. This site is much like an invaluable book on smoking, curing and bbq. The search feature alone is worth every penny, let alone the ability to post a random, mostly redundant question with no researching, and receive some of the most comprehensive and detailed answers found anywhere on the webs by folks who can and will go there with the receipts to prove their knowledge and experience. This place is fantastic.
> 
> That said, I really don’t think that the long timers that actually helped write this SMF book of knowledge should have to pay to continue their involvement. If the management doesn’t step back and realize these people‘s contributions to this forum and how their knowledge and interaction is what took this site from where it began to where it is today, then soon all of us will just have the search option, but no real people behind it. Chris, I believe rises to these ranks, and should be rewarded for his years of participation and the building up of the site by not being inundated with ads. No reason to run these guys off, or say “sorry” when they leave. Management needs to go back and reflect on some of these long standing and active posters, make a list, talk it over and reward them with membership. life time achievement, if you will. This site would be nothing without its members, but that older core, at least some of them, helped build this house. Why would you lose them or forsake them? I can think of no reason to watch these long standing members walk away Over money. Most all of them contributed more than 100 bucks worth of experience and knowledge forever now owned by and enshrined in the SMF search function. They gave that knowledge freely.
> 
> I‘ll get off my box now.
> 
> Eric.


Now that there is a thought! Kinda like it myself. 

Ryan


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## SmokinAl

pineywoods said:


> Maybe
> 
> TulsaJeff
> or
> 
> bmudd14474
> might have some info on this. I'm having no problems with any of that



Do you have an ad blocker installed on your computer?
Al


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## pineywoods

SmokinAl said:


> Do you have an ad blocker installed on your computer?
> Al



No I don't I'm on my laptop with windows10 and edge


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## motocrash

SmokinEdge said:


> I’m pretty new here, but I gladly paid to support this site. This site is much like an invaluable book on smoking, curing and bbq. The search feature alone is worth every penny, let alone the ability to post a random, mostly redundant question with no researching, and receive some of the most comprehensive and detailed answers found anywhere on the webs by folks who can and will go there with the receipts to prove their knowledge and experience. This place is fantastic.
> 
> That said, I really don’t think that the long timers that actually helped write this SMF book of knowledge should have to pay to continue their involvement. If the management doesn’t step back and realize these people‘s contributions to this forum and how their knowledge and interaction is what took this site from where it began to where it is today, then soon all of us will just have the search option, but no real people behind it. Chris, I believe rises to these ranks, and should be rewarded for his years of participation and the building up of the site by not being inundated with ads. No reason to run these guys off, or say “sorry” when they leave. Management needs to go back and reflect on some of these long standing and active posters, make a list, talk it over and reward them with membership. life time achievement, if you will. This site would be nothing without its members, but that older core, at least some of them, helped build this house. Why would you lose them or forsake them? I can think of no reason to watch these long standing members walk away Over money. Most all of them contributed more than 100 bucks worth of experience and knowledge forever now owned by and enshrined in the SMF search function. They gave that knowledge freely.
> 
> I‘ll get off my box now.
> 
> Eric.


Amen Brother.


 bmudd14474


 TulsaJeff

Here's a good site "Upgrade"  - You become an OTBS member on merit for sharing knowledge, why are you not rewarded with an ad free site?
This might help with attrition


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## flatbroke

Started seeing them today


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## chopsaw

Popping up for me too . They must be working on it .


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## TulsaJeff

Okay..we have made some changes to the ad load. You should be seeing better performance now. If you know how to empty your cache, you can do that otherwise the changes will start to show up over the course of the next little while.

I had them be pretty agressive with it so I'd like to hear some good reports


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## flatbroke

Hobilit Dodge  is having a good sale, where ever that is.  The robotussin Naturals looks interesting


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## cmayna

As I'm repllying, I see adchoice over on the right.   Then it disappears.  Then a  Vrbo ad,  and now another adchoice briefly appears.     Where's my dart gun!!


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## flatbroke

cmayna said:


> As I'm repllying, I see adchoice over on the right.   Then it disappears.  Then a  Vrbo ad,  and now another adchoice briefly appears.     Where's my dart gun!!


0% on dodge though


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## TulsaJeff

For you ad-free members, I have let them know that some of you are seeing ads, they will take care of that right away.


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## chopsaw

I just cleared my cache , logged out then back in . Haven't had any in the last 5 minutes . It's was constant .


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## TulsaJeff

SmokinEdge said:


> I’m pretty new here, but I gladly paid to support this site. This site is much like an invaluable book on smoking, curing and bbq. The search feature alone is worth every penny, let alone the ability to post a random, mostly redundant question with no researching, and receive some of the most comprehensive and detailed answers found anywhere on the webs by folks who can and will go there with the receipts to prove their knowledge and experience. This place is fantastic.
> 
> That said, I really don’t think that the long timers that actually helped write this SMF book of knowledge should have to pay to continue their involvement. If the management doesn’t step back and realize these people‘s contributions to this forum and how their knowledge and interaction is what took this site from where it began to where it is today, then soon all of us will just have the search option, but no real people behind it. Chris, I believe rises to these ranks, and should be rewarded for his years of participation and the building up of the site by not being inundated with ads. No reason to run these guys off, or say “sorry” when they leave. Management needs to go back and reflect on some of these long standing and active posters, make a list, talk it over and reward them with membership. life time achievement, if you will. This site would be nothing without its members, but that older core, at least some of them, helped build this house. Why would you lose them or forsake them? I can think of no reason to watch these long standing members walk away Over money. Most all of them contributed more than 100 bucks worth of experience and knowledge forever now owned by and enshrined in the SMF search function. They gave that knowledge freely.
> 
> I‘ll get off my box now.
> 
> Eric.



Thank you for your insight, Eric. I couldn't agree more


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## Winterrider

Yep just started seeing today. Continuous back to back ads in corner


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## 912smoker

chopsaw said:


> I just cleared my cache , logged out then back in . Haven't had any in the last 5 minutes . It's was constant .


My wife is well trained and experienced in clearing out my cache


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## TulsaJeff

912smoker said:


> My wife is well trained and experienced in clearing out my cache


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## cmayna

Logged out, cleared cashe, logged back in and yes, my ad buddies are still there.


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## TulsaJeff

cmayna said:


> Logged out, cleared cashe, logged back in and yes, my ad buddies are still there.



It should be fixed shortly.. hang tight


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## Winterrider

Computer illiterate , how to get to and or clear cache and does that loose any vital info ?


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## TulsaJeff

Winterrider said:


> Computer illiterate , how to get to and or clear cache and does that loose any vital info ?


It sort of depends what device you are on and what browser you are using… post a little more information about this and that will give someone the information they need to point you in the right direction.


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## chopsaw

I can walk you through chrome if that's what you use .

Mine are gone now .


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## Winterrider

Just use a Kindle


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## Winterrider

Watched youtube vid how to clear. Still getting pop up ads but will patiently wait.


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## chopsaw

chopsaw said:


> Mine are gone now .


Well , it lasted 26 minutes anyway .


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## SmokinAl

OK Jeff, I’m using an iPad with safari. I have Norton 360 as a security suite.
It has a built in ad blocker. If I don’t disable the ad blocker, all I get is a white screen. If I disable it, everything works just fine. But until the upgrade I didn’t have to disable it. So as I said before it’s kind of a PIA to disable it for just this forum, then remember to enable it every time I go to another site. And disable it when I come back. Sometimes I get on here 4 or 5 times a day, and have to go thru the process every time. I sure hope your IT guys can fix it.
Al


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## Alsta

The adblocker I use on my home PC ( I'm at work ) allows me to "whitelist"  specific sites that I trust ( Such as this one ) so that it will manage itself when I go to certain sites that have issues with adblockers.


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## normanaj

Alsta said:


> The adblocker I use on my home PC ( I'm at work ) allows me to "whitelist"  specific sites that I trust ( Such as this one ) so that it will manage itself when I go to certain sites that have issues with adblockers.



Same here. Both Adblockplus and Ghostery allows for that option.


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## GonnaSmoke

Talking about how to stop ads on a forum where they help pay the bills seems counterintuitive to me, but as I said earlier, DuckDuckGo browser, Norton 360 with VPN and Ad Blocker Tracking turned on and I'm having absolutely no problems with ads. I don't see any at all when I'm logged in...

Not relevant here, but the only issue that I do have is that a couple of the fishing forums I frequent occasionally won't allow me access with the VPN turned on...


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## Displaced Texan

No ads here. New MacBook pro, Safari browser. No ad blockers, virus blockers. None of that. Have never needed that stuff in 13 years of using Macs.


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## Bearcarver

Displaced Texan said:


> No ads here. New MacBook pro, Safari browser. No ad blockers, virus blockers. None of that. Have never needed that stuff in 13 years of using Macs.




Amen!


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## yankee2bbq

So, looks like if you have a Mac all your problems go away. Cool.
Added an item to my Christmas list.


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## Brokenhandle

Can I get some cheese to go with my mac?   
Sorry,  but I just had to! Lol

Ryan


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## JckDanls 07

Brokenhandle said:


> Can I get some cheese to go with my mac?
> Sorry,  but I just had to! Lol
> 
> Ryan



Extra Big Mac sauce to please


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## Displaced Texan

I read about people who buy a mac and then install anti virus software. That seems to screw up the computer. All I'm saying is I have never used any of that, and I have never had a virus on any of my macs. 

And, I do make a really good baked mac and cheese. Maybe I will smoke it sometime.


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## Bearcarver

yankee2bbq said:


> So, looks like if you have a Mac all your problems go away. Cool.
> Added an item to my Christmas list.



You want Fries Wit Dat ???

Bear


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## normanaj

I've not had any issues but I'm also a Linux user. My browser is usually FF and on occasion Chromium. The only issue I've had is that Adblockplus and Ghostery break this site unless disabled.


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## smokeymose

Windows 10, Mozilla Firefox, McAfee, no ad blockers and no issues for a few weeks now. 
I had an issue a few weeks ago where my lap-top froze as soon as I logged in but it went away (I did use the I-Pad with Chrome for a couple of days to be safe).
They must have fixed something or my computer was having issues. Who knows.
My daughter switched to Mac while she was working from home because she was tired of issues with Microsoft and as far as I know she still uses Mac.


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## pineywoods

Laptop with windows 10 edge and Norton and no ads I do get them while they are tweaking things but then they go away when they finish and I clear the cache


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## DanMcG

Its funny I never had a problem until just now, small ad in the lower right corner about 1"x2" on my pc.
'


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## smokeymose

DanMcG said:


> Its funny I never had a problem until just now, small ad in the lower right corner about 1"x2" on my pc.
> '


Yeah I get that, too, but I let it go because it doesn't seem to intrude on anything much.....
And whataya know, now it's gone LOL!


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## cmayna

So after I logged out and in, then cleared my cache, I thought those ads were gone for good.  Nope.......we're back.


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## DougE

I'm also getting them again. It's not a constant thing, they just randomly show up. They have usually been in the lower right corner, but the last one came up in the middle of the text box while I was typing a reply.


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## TNJAKE

Not a big fan of paying for a service that I'm not receiving so premier is cancelled until further notice


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## JCAP

Not adding anything new, but I'm also getting ads in the lower right corner.


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