Bad Ad Reporting Thread

[Nitro Indigo]

Recently, I've been having a recurring problem where a page on Bulbapedia or the archives will suddenly turn into a scam website (phishing?), and clicking the back button takes me to the page I was on before, not the page that got replaced by a scam website. I also sometimes get images covering text. This is the only site where I have this problem.

 

[lbr5539]

Everytime I accidentaly click in your ads. They redirect me to a link named buzzmage.top, saying that my phone have 4 viruses and I need to install a app to remove them. Please, if you guys can search for these ads and remove them, it'll be a great improvement for the security of your users

 

[Raltseye]

Sometimes when I open my browser (vivaldi) and loads a Bulbapedia page for the first time, only the first one the first time, I get send to these links: https://bcp.crwdcntrl.net/5/c=3614/rand=611206322/pv=y/int=#OpR#34130#bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net : Total Site Traffic/int=#OpR#54046#bulbapedia : 30 Day Total Site Traffic/rt=ifr

https://bcp.crwdcntrl.net/5/c=3614/...bulbapedia : 30 Day Total Site Traffic/rt=ifr

Any help?

 

[Fakeymon]

When browsing on my iphone or ipad, if I leave the page alone for a little bit and don't touch anything, in a short time the browser will redirect to a suspicious site (probably due to one of the ads on the page running JavaScript). The chain of redirects is not shown in the history but today I ended up at us.6023.date/amz/amz.php?brand=Apple&model=iPhone&ip=XXX.XXX.XXX.XX&city=XXXXX&browser=Mobile%Safari&os=IOS&osversion=IOS%2010.3&browserversion=Mobile%20Safari%2010&isp=XXX

So they're doing device sniffing, browser sniffing, ISP sniffing, IP geolocation -- all great for setting up a phish or malware download.

 

[Fakeymon]

I also get three autoplaying videos: one twitch stream, and two travel ads (for San Fransisco, France, Italy, etc). The twitch stream can be closed and it stays closed. The travel ads can only be paused; a few seconds after pausing them they disappear, then a new travel ad video loads in the same place. Taking a screenshot is of limited use.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Ads are covering the content.

 

[easyaspi314]

I see it isn't me. Three video ads per page is awful for my data plan, and it slows load time and scroll speed to a halt.

I would like to share my views about ads below. Wall of text alert.

Spoiler

I am a former graphic design student and programmer, and I studied advertising on the web. Hear me out, please. And before you ask, no, I am not associated with anyone.

I use ad blockers on my laptop. But I have a reason: My laptop is old. It is a night and day improvement in my already-lackluster performance and battery life with an ad blocker enabled.

But there are people with 16 GB RAM, Core i7 processors, solid state drives, 250Mbps+ internet, and no battery issues whatsoever who use ad blockers. There has to be another reason.

There are basically two types of ads. Annoying and passive.

Annoying ads consist of…

• Popup ads. The ones that actually open a new window are kind of irrelevant nowadays, but ones that cover the page until closed still count as them.
• Video ads unless in a place where videos would be expected to play (such as YouTube)
  • Especially ones with audio. Ever been in the library, forgot to turn your speakers down, and hear that?
  • A waste of data for fixed data limit users (like me)
• Ads that intentionally (or, rarely, unintentionally) load after the content causing the content to jump.
• Ads that impact performance:
  • Chrome (as well as some other browsers) don't handle scroll repaints well, and some ads (especially ones that stay on the bottom of the screen) will cause those repaints. In Element Inspector in Chrome, press the menu icon, More tools, Rendering, and check Show scrolling performance issues or whatever (this was off my head).
  • Video ads should go without saying.
  • "I don't mind ads, and I don't mind buffering. But when ads buffer, I suffer". Don't let ads slow down page load time.
• Ads that cover or split up content — the latter can be more annoying than you might expect.
  • Turn a 4" iPhone sideways. If an ad in the middle of the text covers the screen, it is too big. It can sometimes make the user have to reread because they lost their spot.
• Enormous ads, especially ones that are placed right next to the tiny button that you are supposed to press.
• Tiny X button.
• Ads that scare the user, especially the fake virus ones.
• Ads that redirect the current page and overwrite browser history so pressing back goes to the page before instead of the page you were on.
• Ads that spawn more ads or have like ten redirects.

Am I saying Bulbapedia has all these? Definitely not. Those are basically what I consider to be "annoying".

Many websites get stuck in a Catch-22: You don't get enough revenue, so you put more flashy and annoying ads up to try and get more clicks. Annoyed by the ads, users are more likely to either block the ads or just not use your website at all. And, as a result, you get fewer clicks. So, you add more ads, and we go back to the beginning. It just is detrimental the overall user experience.

Annoying ads are harmful to the entirety of the Internet, not just the website that has them. Think about it. Ad blockers block ads on all websites. You ruin it for one site, they install the blocker, all websites suffer.

Am I saying to get rid of all ads? No. Just make them less annoying.

Passive (a.k.a. non-intrusive) ads benefit everyone in the long run. Sites become more pleasant to use without the use of ad blockers. Sure, there won't be an immediate benefit, but it helps prevent new users from installing ad blockers. Think of it like picking up litter in the park. Are you going to get rid of all of the trash in the world? No. But every contribution helps.

Additionally, ad blocker blockers are just another roadblock, and it sucks for people with network-based blockers that they don't have control over. However, if you do make your ad experience better, a one-time message to blocker users saying that you have made your ads better and suggest whitelisting wouldn't hurt.

Overall, I have no power over your decisions, and if you don't like my suggestion, that's fine, but I hope you at least consider it. It will make Bulbapedia's user experience improve significantly.

Bulbapedia is a very useful source of information, and it really disappoints me that it has gone down the path of other wikis such as Wikia with its ads.

 

[Grandwigg]

I was on the Drampa page, and after letting the page sit for several minutes, the page redirected to a automatic full screen takeover scam page claiming to be from 'Microsoft Super Support' 'Level 9 Technicians' 'Don't even push a button before calling us, the virus is that bad' and so on.

[Edited to remove extraneous rant, apologies to those who witnessed it]

 

[Mijzelffan]

Spoiler

I don't know where you guys draw the line for inappropriate ads but I was kinda surprised to see ads like this on bulbapedia so I thought I might as well post it here just in case

 

[Mr. Daikon]

Spoiler

Now normally this ad wouldn't be too bad, however, there's one problem: it's appearing while I'm logged in! It's not immediately obvious by looking at this image (thanks to the huge search bar on mobile blocking the space where the user page/user talk/contributions etc. are shown, which is another huge problem that needs to be fixed), but I'm logged in here, and this ad is still showing up on every darn page. According to multiple pages on Bulbapedia, the FAQ for instance, I'm not supposed to be seeing ads when I'm logged in, so why is this ad always showing up?

 

[sc190191]

It seems to me that today the site was completed overrun with spam ads. I couldn't hardly get any page to load, because each page loaded a video advertisement that roamed across the screen, as well as numerous obnoxious banner ads. I had never experienced anything like it on bulbepedia before and I have been frequenting the site for a very long time.

It honestly was so obnoxious that I think it could turn a lot of people away from the site. I hope this is a mistake, and not a long term issue, because this many ads and pop ups is really a problem, especially when it makes the load time on an article 20-30 times longer than usual, and the advertisements cover up information in the article.

Anyway, I thought I would mention it in case others are experiencing the same thing, or if there is something wrong with my computer?

EDIT: I guess I had accidentally gotten logged out and that's what happens? It seems like we are free of ads as long as we are logged in, I guess I didn't realize that.

 

[BigRockerEnding]

I have to agree that these ads are causing problems. I am very familiar with random things redirecting me to sites with some annoying scam trying to happen, and seeing ads that do this on Bulbapedia isn't fun.
In addition, while making an account made the ads disappear on a regular computer, on mobile this doesn't really work.
I really hope that this is an issue that can be resolved soon because I don't want anybody to stop trusting the site.

 

[Malmadork]

Every time I open bulbapedia I get this ad.

 

[Malmadork]

Every time I open bulbapedia I get this ad.
View attachment 110018

(Just so you know this is mobile)I’ve even tried requesting desktop mode and after a few seconds within loading and or clicking on a button/drop down box, it pulls up this ad every time. Love bulbapedia but this prominent issue is very frustrating because I cannot use it.

 

[Malmadork]

EDIT: I guess I had accidentally gotten logged out and that's what happens? It seems like we are free of ads as long as we are logged in, I guess I didn't realize that.

But I made an account as people have said, and even then it happens to show ads every time, then I reload bulbapedia and it happens again.

 

[sc190191]

But I made an account as people have said, and even then it happens to show ads every time, then I reload bulbapedia and it happens again.

Sorry, I only use desktop, and I am certainly not an expert. I hope someone else will be able to help you with your issue.

 

[Wowy]

Bad ad:
ezgzz.74dhvyxppo3k.j2sgn.site
Got redirected to the ad before I could even log in

 

[Mr. Daikon]

More ads occur while I'm logged in, and this one even plays a video, with audio, the moment I enter a page! The mobile version is a mess.

 

[Frostcat]

I'm getting an Amazon "You are a winner" redirect on the mobile site.

 

[lbr5539]

After navigating for about 20 seconds in the mobile site, I get redirected to a site called y631fx43cl.pw, with a popup message "We detected that your Samsung J7 Prime (my phone model) is 28,1% damaged because of 4 virus of adult sites, then, it will corrupt your SIM Card and delete all your files". You guys seriously need to revise your ads provider to avoid situations like that