[Darqref]

Today, a political ad caused me much annoyance.

first, I realize that if I log in, I don't see any ads. Regardless, I usually don't log in until I want to post something. Today I followed my normal pattern, and did not log in (until now, to post this).

In every thread that I opened, the ad after the first post on each page showed an ad for a local political event. Once made me grimace, since I don't agree with the ad. Every freakin page made me more annoyed. After about the tenth time I saw it, I checked to see if I could block the ad, and discovered of course that the only link I could block would have blocked all the ads on the pages.

None of the previous ads displayed have been an annoyance, and I remember a thread or two that tried to manipulate the ads being displayed, which obviously meant they were context-sensitive. Even when the same ad is displayed a lot, it doesn't seem to bother me because they are commercial, and usually topical to the discussion. This one was political, against a local (state-wide, anyway) politician. Dunno why that annoys me more, but it does.

I could wish that, along with our general reservations about political discussion getting too heated, we could restrict political advertising. It might make me log in more, but it's more likely to make me block all the ads.