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Bad Ad Reporting Thread

Here is a copy of a message I sent to Neo Blaze, trying to report an ad issue on Bulbapedia to an admin. He said that he couldn't see the issue, and suggested that I report it here. The links should all work, and if they don't, let me know. Thanks in advance guys! Also, Gabo 2oo seems to have been cleared of all guilt or assosiation with this. I'm just quoting the messages
"Hey Neo Blaze, sorry to bother you here, I couldn't find any means of contact on Bulbapedia itself, so I was forced to check here. I was browsing the above mentioned page, (Pokémon anime - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia) and found that a couple of the images showed an anatomical chart of a private part of the human body, shown here:
Dropbox - Screenshot of Questionable Images.png


I was wanting to edit it myself, but I don't understand the programming language, nor do I know which one it is, so I figured I should tell somebody about it. I suspect that the user "Gabo 2oo" (Gabo 2oo - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia) was responsible, but I don't have any proof. It said that he was the last editor though. I recommend that you replace said image with this one:
Dropbox - Indigo League Episode 1.jpg

Thank you for your time and potential action,
CaptainDirt
P.S. Sorry if this seems a little short. My browser flipped out and dumped my previous message, so I had to retype it, and I don't remember the finer details of it. Also, sorry if the second image is from the wrong episode. I got it from a Google search. Thanks again!"
Here is his reply:
'
Hello CaptainDirt,

I don't see the image in question on the page, it just shows the image of EP001 for me. I checked the history of the EP001 image and it hasn't been replaced with said image. I also checked the history of the Pokémon anime page and no changes were made regarding images.

My guess is that it was either a glitch you encountered, or an advertisement. Unfortunately, Bulbapedia has to deal with those. I suggest installing an AdBlocker on your browser. They are free and make sure you won't encounter ads like this again. Furthermore I suggest reporting this in this thread: Bad Ad Reporting Thread

I hope I have helped you enough, if you still have any questions, feel free to respond."

This actually isn't a glitch or an advertisement issue. We've had a vandalism issue over on the Archives about a month ago, but all of the offending images have been deleted (explaining why you can't see the images in the image history). The images have been manually purged from the server, so they really should not be appearing at all. I believe the issue arises partly from the fact that you seem to be using Bulbapedia on a mobile device, and if I recall correctly, there's been an issue with images not updating properly when viewing Bulbapedia on mobile devices. @Kogoro would be able to offer more on the matter.
 
This actually isn't a glitch or an advertisement issue. We've had a vandalism issue over on the Archives about a month ago, but all of the offending images have been deleted (explaining why you can't see the images in the image history). The images have been manually purged from the server, so they really should not be appearing at all. I believe the issue arises partly from the fact that you seem to be using Bulbapedia on a mobile device, and if I recall correctly, there's been an issue with images not updating properly when viewing Bulbapedia on mobile devices. @Kogoro would be able to offer more on the matter.
Here's the image locations of both of them.
File:EP001.png - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia (right)
File:EP001.png - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia (left)
It looks to me like someone just replaced the original image with this on-site. But what do I know? It's just a theory. Plus, Neo Blaze said that he checked the edit history and didn't see anything of the sort. I don't know about the mobile thing for sure, but if you think that's the issue, you're the experts. I don't know much about anything with this issue.
 
Here's the image locations of both of them.
File:EP001.png - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia (right)
File:EP001.png - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia (left)
It looks to me like someone just replaced the original image with this on-site. But what do I know? It's just a theory. Plus, Neo Blaze said that he checked the edit history and didn't see anything of the sort. I don't know about the mobile thing for sure, but if you think that's the issue, you're the experts. I don't know much about anything with this issue.
If you missed my previous response, please try finding out the URL of the image/thumbnail that you are seeing. (Not its location in our Archives.) That should mean something like a right-click on the image you're seeing, and then Copy Image Location, or View Image and then copy the URL it's at. If you can give us that, it should be helpful.
 
PC.png My bad. I thought I was copying the image location. I was copying a link. I copied the image location this time, and it took me to the image linked below. I tried both of them. I can't seem to find anything off-site. There didn't seem to be a "view image" option.
cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/1/13/EP001.png/150px-EP001.png
On a PC it doesn't show at all. It looks totally OK.
 
View attachment 99584 My bad. I thought I was copying the image location. I was copying a link. I copied the image location this time, and it took me to the image linked below. I tried both of them. I can't seem to find anything off-site. There didn't seem to be a "view image" option.
cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/1/13/EP001.png/150px-EP001.png
On a PC it doesn't show at all. It looks totally OK.
It doesn't look like you're doing exactly what you were before. If you can still try to recreate the circumstances you showed in your first post and find the URL of that image, that would be great. But if you can't tell us the URL for the actual, offending/offensive image, there's not much we can do... (Especially if it's not just your cache, like you said. =P )
 
I can recreate the circumstances all you like. I can still go to the page on my tablet and the image is still shown, but no matter what I do I can't seem to get a source for the offensive image. I only get the image that's supposed to be there. On the PC it doesn't show up at all, and it wasn't a cache issue as far as I can tell. I think we're out of luck. If you think of anything else, let me know, and I'll see if I can help, assuming that the problem is still there at that time. Thanks you guys! And thanks to @Neo Blaze for the original help!
 
@CaptainDirt

In order to know which thumbnail needs purging, we need the specific image URL from the device that's showing the incorrect image. On a smartphone or tablet, you should be able to get the URL by holding your finger on the image in question, until an interface pops up. It should either give you options to copy the image URL, or list the image URL at the top of the interface. On my phone, it looks kinda like this:

Screenshot_2016-03-12-19-42-05.png (Click the thumbnail for the full image)

The image that appears on my phone is 300px, as you can see from the top of the interface, so I've force-purged that version. Let me know if that's solved the problem for you. If it hasn't, I need the specific thumbnail size that you're getting on the device showing the problem image.
 
Reloading, nor clearing the cache, nor rebooting the browser, in that order have resolved the issue.
 
Reloading, nor clearing the cache, nor rebooting the browser, in that order have resolved the issue.
Here's a nuclear option... Have you ever heard of Wireshark? =P If you could install that (and if you can manage to handle it, it's definitely a bit sophisticated) or some alternative packet sniffer on your tablet, you should be able to figure out what images your tablet is downloading and figure out which one is the offending pic.

There are apparently tutorials for Wireshark out there, even for capturing images (just search wireshark tutorial images), or if you have to use something else there might be tutorials for that too.
 
I've never heard of Wireshark, but I have heard of packet sniffers. I'm afraid that will be a bit out of depth, but I can certainly look into it.
 
That's what I thought, but I wasn't certain. I'll keep looking around, and let you know the results, if I don't need help.
 
This seems to be the best I have so far, but I'm not sure about it. Screenshot_2016-03-13-01-19-14.png Am I to assume that a packet capture is the same as a packet sniffer? I also have this, but it only seems to work in test mode.

Screenshot_2016-03-13-01-22-14.png
Does it mean anything to you?
 
This seems to be the best I have so far, but I'm not sure about it. View attachment 99589 Am I to assume that a packet capture is the same as a packet sniffer? I also have this, but it only seems to work in test mode.

View attachment 99590
Does it mean anything to you?
Packet capturing is the same process as packet sniffing, yeah.

I don't know enough about Android and packet sniffing and VPNs, or about the Packet Capture program, to at all tell you whether to trust it. From the bit I've gathered, creating a VPN may be necessary for some Android packet sniffers, but I don't really know any details (i.e., again, I can't say how safe it might be).

And unfortunately, I don't really understand Sniffer either. I can manage Wireshark, but Sniffer's not giving me enough that I recognize to have any hope for it.

Don't feel like you have to keep pushing if you don't feel comfortable or anything, though. =P We're at least lucky enough that this one image isn't affecting a large part of our user base, and it should go away by itself given some time (if it's still a problem a few months down the line, then there's almost certainly something out of the ordinary wrong).
 
Yeah. Since neither of us have a clue, it's probably a good call to see if it resolves itself. Thanks for trying though!
 
For the last few days, every time I visit the wiki, an uncloseable video ad pops up and covers most of the screen, like this -
 
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