Ads - About & Problem Reports

Remove all ads!

As you've probably noticed, we've got advertisements up on Sorcerer's Place and Boards o' Magick. This isn't because I'd particularly like to irritate anyone with them, but because they're a necessary evil that helps to pay the bills that SP generates every month. For more information about the costs and the ways through which you can help, please check this link. If you donate for an SPS account, you are able to disable all the ads on Sorcerer's Place.

While the majority of the ads that you will see on SP and the boards are decent enough, occasionally an ad will show up that will not meet the minimum acceptance criteria for displaying on this site, and in such a case I will remove it during my regular inspection of the ads in the system.

HOWEVER, as there are quite literally hundreds of different ads that show on the site & the boards (and new ones are being added by our advertising providers on a daily basis), a very annoying and/or malicious ad can enter the system relatively easily. In such a case it's best to remove the offending ad right away, as I might not spot it during my regular check of the ads.

While the annoying ads are merely an inconvenience, any malicious ads (i.e. any browser session hijackers, auto-installers, trojan/spyware-carriers and the like) can turn out to be much more than a mere inconvenience. While our advertising providers for the most part do a good job of making sure that no such malicious ads enter the system, every now and then such an ad appears in every provider's system. Given the huge number of ads in the system and the fact that they are geographically targeted (this means that you see different ads depending on your geographical location), tracking down a single problematic ad can be hard even when the ad is properly identified, and next to impossible unless certain vital information about the ad can be acquired.

This is where all of you can help me out, but first, let's take a look at what is actually considered to be an ad bad enough that it warrants reporting to me:

• Malicious ads. This includes browser session hijackers, auto-installers, trojan/spyware-carriers and the rest of the crap that won't be tolerated here.
• Non-user-initiated audio ads. This means any ads that make any sound on their own, without any action on your part. (This does not include the infamous "Hellooooo!!!" smiley ads which only make a sound if you move your mouse cursor over them. Such ads are annoying, but their sound can be avoided.)
• Adult ads. This means any ads with nudity and the majority of suggestive ads.
• Excessively flashing ads. Any ads that flash ridiculously fast and/or with colours hard on the eyes are bad.
• Pop-ups that make closing them difficult. Any pop ads that don't want to immediately close after clicking the [X] in their window's top right corner are considered bad.
• Pop-ups that spawn another (or more) pop-ups. Each pop-up should be unique and a single ad. For example, a pop-up that spawns another pop-up once you close the first one is bad.

So, now that you know what to be on the lookout for, how do you report it?

Here's the holy trinity of good reports about problematic ads:

1. Take a screenshot of it.
2. See where the ad points to (target url; you'll usually need to click on the ad to see where it leads to), and copy the url.
3. Describe what the ad is doing that is problematic.

Then send me an e-mail with all of the above (screenshot, target url of the ad, description of why it's a problem) to sorcerer -AT- sorcerers.net and I'll look into it.

If there are any other ad-related problems anyone is having, feel free to discuss them here. Feel free to also ask any other ad-related questions either here or via PM. Thank you!

 

You just probably see it a lot because many websites use the same major advertising provider as we do, and because the ad is geographically targeted in such a way that you get to see it. There are quite a few different "test" pop-up campaigns simply because people in general love to take any kind of online (IQ) tests, so I'm sure all such ads get a good response. Usually, such ads simply promote the websites running this kind of tests.

 

joacqin, it sounds like you have cookies disabled. Pop-ups are cookied to show only once every 12 hours or so.

Iku-Turso, I doubt it. I've certainly never seen or heard of an issue like that I've got all the ads enabled.

 

That's been happening for about 2 years now because two of our advertising provider's ads overlap for some viewers, but not for others... as it only happens for about 1/3 of people sorting it out wasn't a priority because it'd require me to look into a different advertising provider that would give me more control over what's showing. I'll do it one of these days, but there's always something more pressing to be done.

But in short, yes, 2 popups at times are normal behaviour in this case. If you have an SPS account, they're both disabled.

 

That's very odd... and it only happens with pop-ups?

 

It doesn't really matter which ads it loads as I can't really do anything about it. I guess it's redirecting ads like that for a reason and as long as they eventually show, it's probably working as intended.

 

Snook, they should be gone now. Oh and the ads are only targeted geographically.

Silvery, you need to be logged into your SPS account in order to control the ads. This is separate from your board login.

 

Then you probably don't have cookies enabled on that computer... cookies need to be enabled because your ad display settings are stored via them.