Ads on my forum dont always fill and sometimes Google isn’t able to find an ad atm, so it just shows blank. This is fine, but I believe the advertisement text and the white space taken during this scenario should be removed since it leads to some confusion (eg. people thinking the above post was a promoted advertisemnt)
AI-generated summary
The discussion revolves around removing blank space and advertisement text on unfilled ads in Discourse forums. codergautam pointed out that when Google can’t find an ad, it leaves a blank space with advertisement text, causing confusion. Lilly suggested a workaround to hide the text, but codergautam wanted a solution that only hides the text when an ad is not showing.
codergautam eventually found a solution using CSS and shared a tutorial on how to implement it. However, Firepup650 found a potential issue with Google incorrectly filling out a field, but codergautam clarified that the behavior is consistent.
Firepup650 shared a personal experience where an ad was marked as unfilled but still present, but couldn’t replicate the issue. Canapin warned that the CSS :has selector used in the solution isn’t widely supported, particularly in Firefox.
I am not sure about the white-space but I think this works for the text:
I guess that is a workaround for now, but the text is now always hidden. I would prefer to have it when an ad is showing, hidden when it’s not. I will mess with the css and see if I can make a selector that runs when ads are empty.
I figured it out!!
It will keep the Advertisement text hidden by default, and only show it after confirming the ad is filled and displayed. This way I can ensure there is no confusion.
If you want to enable this on your forum, take a look at the detailed tutorial I posted on my blog
https://blog.codergautam.dev/how-to-hide-unfilled-advertisements-in-discourse-adplugin/
Edit: using revised version of working code after Firepup found a bug
Hope this helps someone!
And apparently you can’t just check for the iframe either, as sometimes it adds a practically empty iframe.
I can’t cause this anymore, must have been a one-off.
No I tested it a lot, when its unfilled it still adds an iframe but keeps it empty. When its filled however the iframe is populated. It’s not a bug.
There was at least once I manually un-hid the AD, and there was actually an AD there, even though it was marked as unfiled. I couldn’t cause it again after that though.
Just in case you wouldn’t be aware of it, the CSS :has selector isn’t widely supported, notably Firefox: