Dear Audiogon,

Political posts, if they don’t take over the thread, are left alone quite often. Same with cloths, cars etc..., however once these off topic ramblings completely take over a thread they certainly can and has been removed.

Exactly Grannyring
I can think of a couple of current popular threads that contain off topic elements including the ones mentioned but as of yet they have not been booted and I think as long as they get steered back on topic and it does not get to charged it does not hurt matters too much.

Of course there will always be those who think as this is an audio forum then absolutely NOTHING bar audio should ever be discussed!

Kinda boring not to have some other worldly injections at times imho.

uberwaltz,
I agree that there is no harm in sidebars about other subjects, but politics in particular becomes so venomous that there is just no fun in it.

I use Adblocker on Google Chrome.
I don't see any of the ads you are mentioning.
B

This may be the result of something called "retargeting."  It's controlled by cookies from sites you visit and your browser settings.  I used this process with a directory ad my company placed on a well-known non-profit professional trade organization's site.  The way it works is say you visit a Ford dealer site and then navigate to AudiogoN.  If the dealer is using retargeting and your browser settings allow it, you very well may see an ad for a Mustang or similar on the AgoN page.  The effect can be very disconcerting.  I noticed it when I'd double check the ads I was running and then pop over here later in the day only to see ads from my competition show up.

Something to keep in mind as you browse, no matter what you're looking at.  There is no way to escape being tracked online.