Bad Ad Reporting Thread

[~Smugleaf~]

I'm having the same issues as the above user. Whenever I go onto an article on the Wiki, this annoying video always pops up and automatically starts playing. It is usually something to do with Pokemon GO.
I don't know if it is a bad ad or anything, since it does say it's sponsored, but it's annoying nonetheless. It seriously slows down my computer, and it makes scrolling down the page a nightmare. Well, on my computer at least.

Spoiler: Pic

 

[ReturnofMCH]

I seriously can't visit bulbapedia or wikia anymore thanks to ads running out of control
wikia especially said when I signed up that they loathe spam and will never sell my info or something like that
then 7 years later I get ads that send spam to my email usually targetted at the wikis I frequent,
and yet the higher ups wonder why so many wikis leave wikia or split into a wikia project and a independant project.
but I am having the same video issues as everyone else.

 

[Tiddlywinks]

@Arcorann, @GlitchedNightmare, @returnofmastercrazyhand, if you have intrusive video ads, as much detail as you can provide on them can only help us. Like screenshots of the advertisements, the URLs of the ads, and the URLs they're directing to. Without this sort of info, we're hard pressed to solve anything.

 

[Beth Pavell]

To everyone really getting annoyed at the ads - I've found I can browse the wiki alright so long as I sign in, as suggested to me as a workaround. I will say that without that possibility, I simply wouldn't use the wiki at all. I would respectfully suggest that losing the ability to run a giveaway once in a while is a price well worth paying if it means a reduction in ads

 

[ShougaTouki]

I unfortunately don't have a screenshot of it but all of a sudden, while I was looking at a page, it transfered me to another page that immediately downloaded what I presume would have been spyware of some sort. Windows Defender immediately blocked and deleted it thankfully. I don't believe I clicked on anything by accident but still. Ads having malicious links attached to them on a site I go to basically every day is rather unsettling.

The name of the page it sent me to was "ohkehbaby-country .net/1541180471339/ab3d6f88825109798c1ca401899201f9 .html". I was also looking at the page for Komala if that helps at all.

 

[Arcorann]

The image posted by GlitchedNightmare is what I was referring to. The video can be seen by visiting pretty much any article while not logged in and with ad blockers turned off, such as the Palkia article above. It always appears in the same place in the article.

The video code is not visible in View Source (likely due to being inserted later using Javascript), so I copied some stuff from the element inspector (sorry about how it turned out):

<div id="mid-article-ad">

<div id="__kx_ad_5490"></div>

<script type="text/javascript" async="" data-connatix-token="b4bf453a-3cbb-4cfd-a5cc-60101ca75d21" src="//cdn.connatix.com/min/connatix.renderer.infeed.min.js" data-initialized="true" cnx-id="884e8afd93c6714de1461470360667647"></script>

<div class="connatix rad-box" style="width: 50%; margin: 20px auto; position: relative;" cnx-creative-type="VideoContent">

<style>.connatix img{width: 100%!important;}</style>

<div style=" text-align: center;font-weight: 900;background-color: #c4e673;border-top-left-radius: 20px;border-top-right-radius: 20px;padding: 5px 10px 15px;font-size: 14px;">

<a href="" style="color: inherit;" data-islink="true">Sponsored Content</a>

</div>

<div style="">

<a href="" data-islink="true">

<div id="cnx-video-image" cnx-video-ratio="16:9" cnx-video-width="undefined" style="width: 100%; position: relative;">

<div class="cnx-ratio" style="padding-bottom:56.25%"></div>

<div class="cnx-video-content" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%">

<img src="//i.connatix.com/s3/connatix-uploads/ab9f19cd-0380-4e66-be91-64ab34a75563/Contents/11824/c2113fa2-e6e3-4909-9033-4fe8c2555fd8.jpg?mode=stretch&amp;connatiximg=true&amp;scale=both&amp;height=365&amp;width=648">

</div>

</div>

</a>

</div>

<div style="padding: 10px 10px 20px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 18px;">

<a href="" style="color: inherit;" cnx-title="7" data-islink="true">Easy Pokémon Go tips to become a Pokémon trainer</a>

</div>

<div id="cnx-adUnit-overlay" style="position:absolute;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);left:0;top:0;width:100%;height:100%;cursor:pointer"></div>

</div>

</div>

 

[Dr. Greg Forbes]

An ad was a link to a dating site, children view the Wiki and I got one from eharmony.com eHarmony #1 Trusted Singles Online Dating Site - More than Personals im only 15 please block this site.

 

[celadonk]

I, too, have been getting lots of ads.



In this image I have two ads: "Notify me about Pokémon GO Plus!" at the top under the title and a video usually somewhere in the middle of articles or at the top of category pages. Both are ads and not part of the actual page as far as I can tell - the first links to the "releases.com" virus ad I see a lot on Pokemon sites, and the video links to "connatix.com" which from what I can tell from this forum is not safe. These both still appear when I am logged in.

Most ads only mildly bother me but these are becoming a problem for me especially as it becomes harder and harder to tell whether these types of things are real or not.

Before Pokemon GO the "Notify me about Pokémon GO Plus!" part read "Buy related Pokémon products" and led to what I think is Amazon. (Thanks, Wayback Machine!)

 

[Astateria]

I have been using Bulbapedia a long time, but i'm getting two different porn popup ads on the site really pisses me off >.>

I don't know if I should post the two sites at here or contact an admin about these two popup ads since I don't want to be responsible that younger audience is looking at these sites because I posted them at here..

 

[Pokémon Spectrum]

Any idea what's causing this? It's not as bad as the pop-up ads from a few weeks ago, but it's still kind of annoying...

 

[Kharixi]

On mobile, there are ads that take up around a quarter of the page:

Is this intentional?

 

[Archaic]

I'll look into that for you @MatrixChap. Can I get an idea of what kind of screen size device you're on there? If you're on a phone, you should've been put on the mobile skin, not that full desktop skin. Try adding "m." before the URL. Should make it a bit easier to work with.

 

[Kharixi]

It's a tablet, and I've noticed the bar seems to vary in size; occasionally it'll be about half the page.

 

[Archaic]

It's a tablet, and I've noticed the bar seems to vary in size; occasionally it'll be about half the page.

How big of a tablet? 7 inch? 10 inch?

 

[Kharixi]

How big of a tablet? 7 inch? 10 inch?

About 7.5-8 inch, I'd say.

 

[Archaic]

Alright, thanks. While we have had those sort of ads from time to time (which are meant to display instead of other ads on screen, so that you can more easily read the page once you dismiss it), that does appear to be taking up a disproportionate amount of your screen space. I'll look into it, see if we can get that sorted.

 

[Meetas]

Hi! Your advertisement in mobile view from cell network (not wi-fi) redirects page into a paid subscription. Not sure if it is related to my region (Russia, Moscow) or to my cell carrier (MTS-Rus), but this thing is frustrating. It also redirects in a way that you cannot go back (no history saved). The final link has moipodpiski.ssl.mts.ru domain and it says that I'm about to pay for access to filesgood.pw. The price is about 30 cents $ per day.

 

[PaulTheProtist]

Spoiler

Found this beauty on my iPad. Seems like one of those malware traps.

 

[SpikOriundo]

Not sure if this were to count as a "bad ad", but lately, there is a mini window of Twitch streams that plays automatically whenever I'm in any page, other than the home page. They are all Pokemon Streams...
But seriously, my internet is bad enough as it is, I don't really need a Twitch stream playing automatically when I'm in any page.

 

[st753m]

Not sure if this were to count as a "bad ad", but lately, there is a mini window of Twitch streams that plays automatically whenever I'm in any page, other than the home page. They are all Pokemon Streams...
But seriously, my internet is bad enough as it is, I don't really need a Twitch stream playing automatically when I'm in any page.

I've been getting these too. I'm not sure if they are ads or not, but whatever they are I came here to complain about them.