Unable to report malicious ads

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:Has anyone seen these ads over the last couple of days? I haven't been seeing them.

Yes. Just now. It’s always an Amex Ad and often, but not always, in the college forum, if that helps.

iPad. Happens on Chroma and Safari. Also, about to give up. This problem will not die.

Similar experience here. iPad mini, Safari.

I’ve been using portrait mode, and that helps, but it’s inconvenient. I would prefer to be able to use landscape mode.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:Has anyone seen these ads over the last couple of days? I haven't been seeing them.

Yes. Just now. It’s always an Amex Ad and often, but not always, in the college forum, if that helps.

iPad. Happens on Chroma and Safari. Also, about to give up. This problem will not die.

Last week I discussed this issue with our ad partner and because of the problems we are having with the Amex ad, they are going to block Amex as an advertiser completely. I don't know if that block is in effect yet. But, I can check tomorrow.

That block seems to have failed, as I just had the AmEx ad pop up and not only block content but then disrupt scrolling on this page: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1191922.page#2

#audit doesn’t work on this ad; it’s been great on other ads and I’ve seen significant improvement in my experience of the site since using it. But adding #audit to the url when the AmEx ad shows up does not produce the report buttons.

Then when I can here to report the AmEx ad, it was on this page, as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:Has anyone seen these ads over the last couple of days? I haven't been seeing them.

Yes. Just now. It’s always an Amex Ad and often, but not always, in the college forum, if that helps.

iPad. Happens on Chroma and Safari. Also, about to give up. This problem will not die.

Last week I discussed this issue with our ad partner and because of the problems we are having with the Amex ad, they are going to block Amex as an advertiser completely. I don't know if that block is in effect yet. But, I can check tomorrow.

That block seems to have failed, as I just had the AmEx ad pop up and not only block content but then disrupt scrolling on this page: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1191922.page#2

#audit doesn’t work on this ad; it’s been great on other ads and I’ve seen significant improvement in my experience of the site since using it. But adding #audit to the url when the AmEx ad shows up does not produce the report buttons.

Then when I can here to report the AmEx ad, it was on this page, as well.

More: I went back to the page linked above, and the AmEx ad showed up again. I added #audit to the URL, and the report option appeared on all of the other ads on the page—but the AmEx ad disappeared.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:Has anyone seen these ads over the last couple of days? I haven't been seeing them.

Yes. Just now. It’s always an Amex Ad and often, but not always, in the college forum, if that helps.

iPad. Happens on Chroma and Safari. Also, about to give up. This problem will not die.

Last week I discussed this issue with our ad partner and because of the problems we are having with the Amex ad, they are going to block Amex as an advertiser completely. I don't know if that block is in effect yet. But, I can check tomorrow.

That block seems to have failed, as I just had the AmEx ad pop up and not only block content but then disrupt scrolling on this page: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1191922.page#2

#audit doesn’t work on this ad; it’s been great on other ads and I’ve seen significant improvement in my experience of the site since using it. But adding #audit to the url when the AmEx ad shows up does not produce the report buttons.

Then when I can here to report the AmEx ad, it was on this page, as well.

More: I went back to the page linked above, and the AmEx ad showed up again. I added #audit to the URL, and the report option appeared on all of the other ads on the page—but the AmEx ad disappeared.

I assume that you are using an iPad. Maria got the Amex ad on her iPad last night and was able to report it. She also got a screenshot which I sent to our ad partner. They are probably working to stop that right now but I have not heard anything so far.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:Has anyone seen these ads over the last couple of days? I haven't been seeing them.

Yes. Just now. It’s always an Amex Ad and often, but not always, in the college forum, if that helps.

iPad. Happens on Chroma and Safari. Also, about to give up. This problem will not die.

Last week I discussed this issue with our ad partner and because of the problems we are having with the Amex ad, they are going to block Amex as an advertiser completely. I don't know if that block is in effect yet. But, I can check tomorrow.

That block seems to have failed, as I just had the AmEx ad pop up and not only block content but then disrupt scrolling on this page: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1191922.page#2

#audit doesn’t work on this ad; it’s been great on other ads and I’ve seen significant improvement in my experience of the site since using it. But adding #audit to the url when the AmEx ad shows up does not produce the report buttons.

Then when I can here to report the AmEx ad, it was on this page, as well.

More: I went back to the page linked above, and the AmEx ad showed up again. I added #audit to the URL, and the report option appeared on all of the other ads on the page—but the AmEx ad disappeared.

I assume that you are using an iPad. Maria got the Amex ad on her iPad last night and was able to report it. She also got a screenshot which I sent to our ad partner. They are probably working to stop that right now but I have not heard anything so far.

Yes, I’m on an iPad.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:Has anyone seen these ads over the last couple of days? I haven't been seeing them.

Definitely not fixed. Ads jump every couple minutes on my iphone using safari. Taking a break because it’s just annoying

[Anonymous]

iPad mini using chrome. I do #audit, report ad without requiring my email address, and then I refresh. Problem is it’s very temporary. Once I tap to next page it starts again. Gotta say, that bottom up scroll ad was less miserable. Hated it, but I knew when it was coming. I dunno man. May be time for a significant system reboot/update or an exorcism. Smoke it out with sage? It doesn’t happen in website feedback. What’s up with that? Can we pay for ad free?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:iPad mini using chrome. I do #audit, report ad without requiring my email address, and then I refresh. Problem is it’s very temporary. Once I tap to next page it starts again. Gotta say, that bottom up scroll ad was less miserable. Hated it, but I knew when it was coming. I dunno man. May be time for a significant system reboot/update or an exorcism. Smoke it out with sage? It doesn’t happen in website feedback. What’s up with that? Can we pay for ad free?

When you report the ad with the #audit tool it does not automatically remove it. A person has to review it. I am not sure how diligent they are about checking. I have personally reported the same ad about 10 times and I still get it. I have regular zoom meetings with out ad partner and I raise the issue of bad ads every time. It seems like iPads are getting his more than any other devices right now. The people responsible for removing the bad ads are another company that is supposed to specialize stopping malicious ads. I am not impressed with them. I'll keep pushing our partner to push them.

[Anonymous]

I’m on an iPad and diligently reporting all of the problematic ads, which have been more prevalent the last couple of days. It had been better for a while. The AmEx ad is really bad; I’ve reported it at least five times in the last day or so. Considering how long that ad has been a problem, I’d say you’re right to be unimpressed with the vendor responsible for stopping malicious ads.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I’m on an iPad and diligently reporting all of the problematic ads, which have been more prevalent the last couple of days. It had been better for a while. The AmEx ad is really bad; I’ve reported it at least five times in the last day or so. Considering how long that ad has been a problem, I’d say you’re right to be unimpressed with the vendor responsible for stopping malicious ads.

Thanks for reporting the ads. The issue of repeatedly reporting the same ad is something that we have encountered also. I raised that with our ad partner yesterday.

[Anonymous]

I tried to #audit, but it wasn't working.

[Anonymous]

I posted upthread. The site (for me) at this point is not usable. It is far worse than before the update. Website forum seems to be the only one that’s more stable due to static ads— no jumping around or other annoying redirects. Can you do an analysis of this forum? What’s different here and why? Is it by design? I do think you’d benefit from a fresh perspective. So many DMV college students available for summer internships. Doesn’t GMU have an excellent pool of undergrads working toward their BS in IT. Create a LinkedIn profile and post the details. This is a remote opportunity.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I posted upthread. The site (for me) at this point is not usable. It is far worse than before the update. Website forum seems to be the only one that’s more stable due to static ads— no jumping around or other annoying redirects. Can you do an analysis of this forum? What’s different here and why? Is it by design? I do think you’d benefit from a fresh perspective. So many DMV college students available for summer internships. Doesn’t GMU have an excellent pool of undergrads working toward their BS in IT. Create a LinkedIn profile and post the details. This is a remote opportunity.

The website uses templates and the same templates are used for every forum. As such, there is no difference between this and any other forum on the site.

I really am not sure what you are describing when you say talk about "jumping around or other annoying redirects". The issue with the page redisplaying due to ads of difference sizes has been significantly decreased and there should be no redirects. Can you please describe in more detail what type of ads you are getting that are problematic?

I am sorry that the website experience has been bad for you, but it does not appear to be the same experience most users are having. Far from being "unusuable", we are seeing the highest usage numbers ever.

[Anonymous]

I use a Samsung Galaxy S23 and a chrome browser. I tried to report this with the #audit, but nothing came up to report it.

[Anonymous]

Letting you know I have been getting the black “rotate your screen” box followed by an ad for Los Angeles every couple of minutes in the College forum. The ads also make the page jump around so it is entirely unstable, I am on iPad in landscape mode using Safari. I have been having this problem for months but today is particularly bad. As others have said, it really is unusable like this.