Friday Q&A

Questionable Compression

Greetings, crickets and trolls. Welcome to another edition of the Friday Q&A. This week, we witnessed the unpopular debut of ads on Totalfark. Until now, freedom from advertisements was a major selling point of the TF subscription. In this week's post, we'll be looking at why Drew chose to make the change.

Q: Why do we need ads on Totalfark?

A: It's all about money. Drew apparently needs the revenue generated by the sale of these ads to keep the site running. If this truly is the case, then TF ads are a necessary evil. The layout certainly isn't new. Farklite users have dealt with extra ads and an extremely narrow comment section since the site's redesign. Avoiding such annoyances was a key selling point of Totalfark. Now that the "kinder gentler" edict has ruined TFD, the last real enticement is early access to the contests. That's a fine lure for PSers, but what about the rest of the community?

Q: Why are people so mad?

A: I don't think anyone is questioning the actual presence of the ads. We all know that the economy is in the shitter, and Drew has to do what it takes to make ends meet. We want Fark to survive, and if that means the inclusion of a few banners, so be it. However, there is no excuse for ignoring the problem of the layout. The large gray area on the right hand side of the screen is a joke.

Fark's ad space isn't nearly as obtrusive or annoying when compared with some other sites I've seen. However, it also seems to be poorly utilized. Once you scroll past a certain point, the banners aren't even visible. Why they refuse to alter that layout is beyond me.

Q: Is there anything we can do to fix the problem?

A: Thankfully, yes. By using Firefox and a couple of plug-ins, you can completely ignore the new Totalfark reformatting. This workaround was posted in the PSAEF and the Squirrel Forums, but I'll go over it here in case anyone missed out. You'll need the Firefox browser, as well as the Adblock and Stylish plugins. Once you've installed these programs, open up the options menu for Stylish and click the button to write a new style. Give it a description and paste the following text into the appropriate box:

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml); @-moz-document domain("fark.com") { #topAd728x90 { display: none !important;} #bodyRightSideContainer {width:150px !important;} #rightAd300x250{display: none !important;} #rightSideRightMenubar{display: none !important;} #bodyHeadlineContainer {margin:0 170px 15px 0 !important;} }@-moz-document domain("totalfark.com") { #bodyRightSideContainer {width:150px !important;} #rightAd300x250{display: none !important;} #rightSideRightMenubar{display: none !important;} #bodyHeadlineContainer {margin:0 170px 15px 0 !important;} }

Thanks to the TFers who helped provide this workaround. Once it's enabled, you won't have to worry about your comment sections getting compressed. You'll also find that all banners have been removed from the Fark main page. The stylish plug-in is a must, even for Liters. You won't be able to see the classifieds, but who the hell reads that crap?

That's all for this time, gentle reader. Next week, I'll be discussing the new Totalfark features intended to make up for the unwelcome presence of ads. Hopefully, these trade offs will be enough to keep subscribers on board.

Stay tuned for more wishful thinking from the Doctor!