The Ads that are showing up on the big screen, I hope are only a test. Some are right in the middle of the screen.
Thanks
I was about to comment that I’d seen no pop-ups … and then there it was.
There were two identical banner ads, one below the other. They took the top third of the map. Worst of all is that there were no ‘close’ buttons. I had to close the map and open again in a new window.
The URL of the ad is
[edited out]
I believe the sponsor was Best Western Motels.
It’s a damned shame, considering how great a site FlightAware is. Tribalfusion.com is a known pop-up spammer.
[Note: I’ve just deleted the banner ad URL. It no longer serves a purpose in this topic, and only forces everyone to have to scroll horizontally to read the postings. I hate having to do that, so I deleted the URL. – tobyz]
Hopefully the ads will less intrusive, but I can live with ads as long as we keep getting the great free data. A few ads never killed anyone. 
It looks like these ads aren’t really pop-ups that can be closed. They seem to be standard banner ads, similar to the top of most Yahoo pages, permanently a part of the web map page.
However, they force the bottom of the map (with the distance scale) to slide below the edge of the frame. Since the frame does not have a scroll bar it is lost UNLESS you use a mouse with a scroll wheel. With a scroll wheel, you can force the visible part of the frame downward, retrieving the distance bar and pushing the top half of the banner ad out of sight.
I think there is some confusion about these ads and what’s popping up. Just to clarify, there are now advertisements on the top of the pop-up page for the zoomed in map. However, those ads should not ever pop-up beyond that window. I believe the confusion stems from the fact that the ads are on a “pop-up” map window to display the 800x600 zoomed maps.
The ads should not cover any FlightAware content and should not interfere with the user experience. When the ads were first enabled, the size of the pop-up map window was too small to display the ad if you already had the window open, so the map was offset for the top ad. If you closed the pop-up map and brought up, refreshed a tracking page, and then clicked on a map (to load another pop-up map), the new window should be correctly sized to display both the advertisement on the top and then the full map below it. It should display correctly for any new pop-up map windows, too.
We’ve worked with Tribal Fusion to display relevant, appropriate ads with no pop-ups, pop-unders, ridiculous animation, or inappropriate content such as adult or tobacco ads. If anyone ever sees anything to the contrary, please e-mail us an explanation and screenshots so that we can resolve the problem immediately.
Thanks for the explanation, Daniel. I think the initial negative reaction is because the new banner is such a surprise to us. However, I think we can live with it.
FlightAware is such a great FREE service that we all want to keep you in the very best of financial health.
I’d rather pay. The ads have really junked up the site and blocked content. Not scrollable and I can’t see the botton of the big screen.
Jeff, as I said, the ads should cause non of what you describe. If they’re doing so, it’s a problem and a mistake and something that we want to fix immediately. I already replied to your e-mail with the screenshot requesting more information. Thanks for your feedback & help.
It’s such a great site I can live with the banners…
It’s giving me lots of fun time at work…whoops I didn’t say work and I was never here… OK
hey if you guys want banners than do it. What ever pays the bills.
The banner goes above the map, not over the content.
On my monitor, it pushes the bottom of the map below the viewable window, but I found that a scroll-wheel mouse will raise the entire map back into view and push about half the banner above the top of the viewable frame.
I don’t like banner ads, but in the grand scheme of things, I prefer that FlightAware be well funded to do the things it is developing, instead of becoming a site that folds up from running out of cash. If that means tolerating banner ads, I will tolerate them well.
And, further, I am ecstatic that FA does not have to become a pay site to give us those enhancements that we are so eagerly waiting for.
Toby, how far is the bottom of the map pushed down below the viewable arae? It’s unacceptable that you have to scroll. You’ve re-opened the pop-up map window, right? Does this occur on the airport map or the flight map or both?
Thanks for your support and I promise we’ll continue working on both the features and the ability to generate revenue while keeping the site free & with minimal distractions.
Daniel, the map I speak of is the large pop-up that opens when you click on the smaller map on the top right of the Airport Activity page. That map has no resizing controls. It does not narrow or widen by pulling on the window edge with a mouse. It can only be minimized or closed. It can not be maximized; thus, it does not take the full available monitor window size.
When I brought that map to the top a few minutes ago, there was a double banner for Best Western hotels – two identical banners taking appx. 2 3/4 inches in height. It was quickly replaced by a new single banner, for Ad Council (Teen Help Hotline), measuring appx 1 3/8 inches in height.
With a single banner, the bottom 3/4 inch of map is displaced below the bottom edge of the window. I lose flight tracks and ID blocks in that bottom 3/4 inch, as well as the legend about blue and green flights. It all comes back into view when I raise the window with my mouse scroll wheel – and then I lose the top 3/4 inch of the banner ad (a loss I can live with 
)
Are you sure your Global Crossing problem is solved? The latest auto-refresh of that big map window has just given me this:
Error: Host Not Accessible
The web host flightaware.com is not accessible.
Possible sources of this error:
* The host name is invalid * There was a DNS error * The web site may be unavailable * You may not be connected to the internet
Please edit the URL, or search for it using Google.
Re Error Message noted above:
I am no longer able to access Airport Activity and Flight Tracking, but I can access the discussion forums.
Access restored by 1245 CST.
Here we go again.
tobyz1–please don’t reply to my posts. You just seem to want to argue.
On my monitor, the ads ARE overlaying content. I just sent Daniel several screen shots taken in the last few mintes and the add DO cover content…
OK, folks. Here’s the story.
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We had a brief glitch while expanding the network. Given capacity requirements and our growing popularity, we’re constantly adding hardware and capacity to our network. I dropped by the data center around midnight last night to see an equipment installation and as of now, migration and upgrades are still going on. The big changes resulted in some glitches and that resuled in an outage that was our fault and we apologize.
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The problem with the overlay ads seems to be only affecting folks with displays that are not large enough to display the map and the ad, likely these people have their resolution set at 800x600. In those cases, the map was already truncated (since the image itself is 800x600, not counting the window space, any operating system interface, etc). Now, it’s further truncated with the ad overlay. We’ve implemented a trick that may help alleviate the problem and I’d be interested in feedback.
Please continue sending feedback and include your browser type and screen resolution (i.e. 800x600, 1024x768, etc) in your reports.
Hi, Jeff. I’ve received your latest e-mails and it seems that now the ad will no longer overlay the image, but the size of your screen/resolution setting is making it impossible to display everything. Even before the ad, your screen was not able to show the entire map. Have you tried changing your resolution to 1024x768 or higher?
Still overlaying–a new copy (KONA) on your e-mail now. I’m at 1024x768. Still truncating bottom of window.
After a bit of discussion we think the best solution is to make the pop-up window size a profile option.
I’ve filed it in our issue tracking system (open to the public) so you can see our progress and provide input. Please vote for the bug if the current window size creates a problem for you.
Daniel, I’ve been viewing FA with 1024 x 768 resolution on an 18-inch (diagonal) monitor.