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subego · Jun 29, 2015, 07:32 PM

0/0/0

Yay! Good job!

reader50 · Jun 29, 2015, 08:06 PM

sshhh! it's too quiet - they're up to something.

Mike Wuerthele · Jun 29, 2015, 08:17 PM

Miscreant ad purging.

subego · Jul 6, 2015, 12:54 PM

They're all back. All three.

Mike Wuerthele · Jul 6, 2015, 12:55 PM

Okay, I'll see what's changed over the weekend.

subego · Jul 6, 2015, 06:47 PM

Many thanks!

Thorzdad · Jul 9, 2015, 08:49 PM

There's a big damned banner ad for Snapple covering the bottom of every page of the forums right now (8:48pm eastern) At least it has button to dismiss it, but the ad pops back up when you go to a new page.

Mike Wuerthele · Jul 9, 2015, 09:04 PM

THanks, Thorz. Will look into it.

Not here. I run vanilla with no adblockers and no special permissions or anything.

Thorzdad · Jul 10, 2015, 07:40 AM

Mike,
I should add that I was getting that banner while on my iPad, not on the desktop. I don't know if some of the ads target mobile exclusively. If that banner showed up on a desktop browser it would be gigantic.

Mike Wuerthele · Jul 10, 2015, 07:56 AM

I think they probably do. We've got a LOT of server/behind the scenes stuff going on right now, I'll see what i can find out.

Thorzdad · Jul 14, 2015, 09:54 PM

Tonight, there's an HP banner invading the forums. It's really random. It pops up on some pages but not others.

Mike Wuerthele · Jul 15, 2015, 07:54 AM

Sent up!

subego · Jul 20, 2015, 07:53 PM

I figure me complaining overly much isn't going to accomplish anything, but anything you've mentioned about getting redirected to the App Store has either fallen on deaf ears, or if it was taken care of in some way, immediately reasserted itself.

Mike Wuerthele · Jul 20, 2015, 08:40 PM

Immediately reasserted itself. I wish there was a way that somebody could submit like a google profile, to see exactly what the problem is. I don't have any special ad-free privs or anything, and this hasn't happened to me in literally years.

Thorzdad · Jul 20, 2015, 09:08 PM

Big-ass Target banner at the bottom of the page tonight. Complete with a "hide" button that doesn't work.

subego · Jul 21, 2015, 08:23 AM

Originally Posted by Mike Wuerthele

Immediately reasserted itself. I wish there was a way that somebody could submit like a google profile, to see exactly what the problem is. I don't have any special ad-free privs or anything, and this hasn't happened to me in literally years.

It's "newish". Much newer than the banner problem. My other thread on it is pretty close to when I'd first experienced it.

What's your mobile usage profile? Over 99% of my time here is on my phone.

Chongo · Jul 21, 2015, 12:32 PM

I'm getting them on my iPad using Safari.

Mike Wuerthele · Jul 21, 2015, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by subego

It's "newish". Much newer than the banner problem. My other thread on it is pretty close to when I'd first experienced it.

What's your mobile usage profile? Over 99% of my time here is on my phone.

After I've done about 10 hours a day on my Mac, I check on you bastards on my iPhone. Few hours a night.

subego · Jul 21, 2015, 02:51 PM

It's plausible then you haven't seen it then, I'd say the rate is about once every two days with my usage pattern, and I spend a scary amount of time here on the forums.

Thorzdad · Jul 21, 2015, 03:16 PM

FWIW, I haven't been hit with a redirect in a couple weeks. I hit this place on my iPad just about every evening. The banners, though, have been increasing in frequency.

Safari in iOS 9 is supposed to finally have some level of ad/redirect blocking.

subego · Jul 22, 2015, 12:58 AM

Got one (redirect) today and yesterday.

reader50 · Jul 22, 2015, 05:48 PM

I finally whitelisted the forums. I don't use AdBlock, but ghostery and a couple other items were in play that block ads in practice. I'd planned to whitelist for some time, but kept getting distracted.

Regular ads and banners again, but no misbehaving ones. Yet.

Thorzdad · 09:54 PM

Originally Posted by reader50

I finally whitelisted the forums. I don't use AdBlock, but ghostery and a couple other items were in play that block ads in practice. I'd planned to whitelist for some time, but kept getting distracted.

Regular ads and banners again, but no misbehaving ones. Yet.

I get the impression, though, that the offending ads and redirects are mobile only. The redirect I've seen most often is to a game in the iOS App Store. The big ass banner I see all the time is pretty obviously intended for a mobile screen, too. So, I'm not surprised you aren't seeing any misbehaving ads on the desktop.

And, honestly, these big banner ads are starting to really piss me off. They're convincing me to not try to hit this place on mobile, ever.

subego · Jul 24, 2015, 08:53 AM

It feels like redirects have stopped for the moment. I'll sound-off on the next one I get.

Of course, it's been weeks since I've gotten a floating banner ad, so who gets hit isn't necessarily consistent.

subego · Jul 27, 2015, 02:11 PM

Add "giant banners" to the list.

Thorzdad · Jul 27, 2015, 06:52 PM

Originally Posted by subego

Add "giant banners" to the list.

Does that monster at least scroll with the page? Those big banners I've been getting at the bottom of the pages don't scroll. They stay at the bottom of the screen, blocking content.

This stuff really is out of hand. None of the other forums I frequent have ads like these giant banners.

Mike Wuerthele · Jul 27, 2015, 07:43 PM

That big-ass banner isn't our ad. The space for our ads is the same size as the MacNN forums banner. That's in place of our ad.

Thorzdad · Jul 27, 2015, 09:10 PM

I just noticed that subego's big-ass banner is a Target ad. The big banners I'm seeing at the bottom of the pages are also Target ads. That can't be a coincidence.

reader50 · Jul 27, 2015, 09:30 PM

Must be a mobile issue, like you guys say. I'm getting normal banners for:

paperless billing from Edison
Hyundai Memorial Day Sales Event

I had no idea it was May already. And why is a car sale an event? I've found car purchases less eventful and more expensive.

Thorzdad · Jul 27, 2015, 10:01 PM

I have this app on my iPad called View Source, that allows me to (duh) view the page source in mobile Safari. I've used it on the forums home page with no trouble. However, whenever I use it on a page with one of those banners displaying (hoping to maybe find some odd script or something) the app crashes. I've never had the app crash anywhere else.

subego · Jul 28, 2015, 08:26 AM

Originally Posted by Thorzdad

Does that monster at least scroll with the page?

It does. It's squeezed into the normal banner spot.

Thorzdad · Aug 5, 2015, 10:13 PM

Annnnnd, after several days of relief, those goddamned big-ass bottom banners are back tonight. Target. Cripes.

subego · Aug 6, 2015, 01:40 PM

I'm getting these Amazon banners, which while close to the right size, are borking the page layout. Note the right edge.

reader50 · Aug 7, 2015, 06:55 PM

Got a desktop hit!

The banner for Amazon Preschool loads at 970 x 415. Plays through a few different images over 10-15 seconds, then shrinks to 970 x 90 and stays there. I don't know if there was sound, my sound was off at the time. It's an iframe, loaded from this address.

Clicking the ad produces a new window/tab, which redirects through the doubleclick network. Not sure of the ultimate destination. The forums are whitelisted, but Ghostery stopped things once we left friendly space.

Also ... not sure why a preschool ad came up on a new-posts search. It is possible ad networks can now determine our mental ages.

Thorzdad · Aug 7, 2015, 07:08 PM

So, that big monstrosity only popped-up after you purposely clicked on the banner ad?

reader50 · Aug 7, 2015, 07:11 PM

Nope, it loaded at "Huge" size. Ran through it's sequence, then shrank to merely "Wide" size.

Edit: clicking the "expand" part resumes the Huge size and restarts the video sequence. With sound. So I think it had sound on the original page-load run.

Edit 2: the Huge size apparently only appears on page load once per day. Subsequent page loads that day always appear with the wide-but-short banner.

Edit 3: I'm OK with the wide-but-short version, especially since it doesn't make noise. It might not be so good for laptop or phone users.

Mike Wuerthele · Aug 7, 2015, 07:56 PM

Hm. That doesn't look like anything of ours. I'll look into it.

ISPs are causing us some issues, injecting their own ads into our spaces, and we don't get the impressions (which is a bad thing). Could this be the case?

subego · Aug 7, 2015, 08:12 PM

I'm not getting the video part, but I'm getting that same oversized Amazon banner.

My ISP is Comcast. Unless reader switched, his ISP is not.

Thorzdad · Aug 7, 2015, 09:00 PM

I'm not gonna turn off AdBlock long enough to see the monster myself.

subego · Aug 7, 2015, 09:27 PM

I don't want to seem like a jag, but I need to make the following observation.

Number of times I've heard "ISP injection" floated as a possibility for a given MacNN problem? At least a half-dozen.

Number of times ISP injection was actually the problem? Zero.

I posit evil, conspiratorial ISPs take great pains to replace like with like.

subego · Aug 7, 2015, 11:27 PM

For the Amazon banner, I now have definitive results.

Appears over Comcast and AT&T.

Thorzdad · Aug 8, 2015, 08:01 AM

If it were an ISP issue, I think I'd be seeing this on other sites as well. But, MacNN is the only place I'm getting these ads.

Mike Wuerthele · Aug 8, 2015, 11:53 AM

Seperation of church and state (editorial and advertising) is a good thing. Most of the time.

I'll see what I can find out.

subego · Aug 11, 2015, 06:03 PM

The Amazon ad appears to have been purged. Thank you!

reader50 · Aug 12, 2015, 04:34 PM

Got the expanding Amazon Preschool ad just now, so the purge didn't hold. Same as before - it auto-expands & plays once per day. Further page loads that day remain passive. The iFrame address is slightly different.

I'm currently on Charter, btw.

Thorzdad · Aug 12, 2015, 05:02 PM

reader...Was this on mobile or desktop?

reader50 · Aug 12, 2015, 06:45 PM

All my reports are on desktop. I don't have a smartphone, for assorted technical reasons. Mostly importantly, the screen would get broken frequently.

subego · Aug 13, 2015, 12:46 AM

Phone experience has been clean for the last few days, but I stopped by on an iPad and got two fisted.

subego · Aug 13, 2015, 03:15 AM

Amazon just kicked in on the iPhone.

subego · Aug 18, 2015, 03:22 AM

The Amazon stuff was gone for long enough, I was tempted earlier today to post it had been purged, along with some snarky closer like "that means we all know what to expect in 3... 2...", but I didn't, because I decided not to be cynical.

Guess what...