As the regular reader knows, there.. are.. quite.. a.. few.. posts.. on.. crap.. articles.. in.. the Guardian here. (That's not even all of them.)
There may be slightly fewer for a while.
Not, I hasten to say, because they've improved, but because when I go to their site, I see what I'm looking for and then this replaces it:
Oh no, has my recent OS upgrade broken something? A look at the source of that page, reveals that no, it didn't:
<table class="adblock-nuke-message" style="width: 700px; margin: 70px auto 0 auto; text-align: left; font-weight: normal; border: none;" id="_ophdr">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 70px;" valign="top">
<img src="http://www.freeiconspng.com/uploads/error-icon-3.png" style="width: 60px; margin: 5px 30px 0 0;">
</td>
<td style="max-width: 500px; text-align: left;" valign="top">
<h1 style="margin-top: 0;">Unable to load page</h1>
<hr>
<strong>This may be happening for a number of reasons:</strong>
<ul>
<li>One or more of your browser extensions is interfering with this page, e.g. ad-blocker</li>
<li>There is a network connectivity issue</li>
</ul>
<strong>How to resolve this issue</strong>
<hr>
<p>Check your network connection and then click the refresh button below. If the problem continues, try turning off one or more of your browser extensions and refreshing the page again.</p>
<form method="POST">
<button type="submit" style="padding: 10px; cursor: pointer;">Refresh</button>
</form>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Nice try, but when your code starts by saying it's an 'adblock-nuke-message' don't pretend that what you're doing is anything other than stopping people who don't want to run arbitrary unchecked code from seeing your site.
It's also interesting to see where they get the image from. Here's freeiconspng.com's copyright policy (my highlighting):
Please do not ask for permissions to use these images in your projects, as we do not own the copyrights for them. All images displayed on the site are provided only for personal use. In case of an error where you are the owner of an image and feel it is used unknowingly, please email us at info@freeiconspng.com so we can immediately remove it from our website. We do not intend to display any copyright protected images.
.. so they're getting their image via 'hot-linking' – using someone else's bandwidth – via an insecure link, even though the site does use https, and in contravention of its copyright policy. Perhaps they'll argue that it was stolen from somewhere else, so it doesn't matter.
I get that the Guardian needs money. I get that it comes from several sources, including selling paper copies, selling ad space in those paper copies, selling subscriptions. and selling ads on the websites.
When it cuts the bi erasure, the biphobia, and the transphobic crap, I'll subscribe. There is no sign of doing this though.
Until then, unless you're prepared to personally, jointly and severally, indemnify me from damages caused by letting anyone who pays you send me arbitrary code in an 'ad', the adblocker stays.
It will doubtless only be a short while before someone works out how the adblocking-blocking is done and blocks the adblocking-blocking 🙂
Oh, another source of income is dating website Guardian Soulmates. You know, the one that has bi erasure from the very opening (not to mention not covering the real gender spectrum):
This is what bi erasure looks like.
See also the 'Dating Categories' links at the bottom: Mature dating, Professional dating, Single parents dating, Gay dating, and Lesbian dating…
