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Ugh. I hate those.

If you notice ads that do any of the following, let me know--they shouldn't be happening:
- automatic redirects
- auto-expanding bigger than the size of the ad "frame". I'm okay with ads that expand when you roll your mouse over them, but only if you've actually moved your mouse over them.
- auto-playing audio (I hate these). I'm okay with auto-playing video, as long as it's muted.
- any kind of popup/interstitial. I might turn on a popup for guests at some point, but only for guests, and I'd probably frequency cap them to once every 24 hours.

These are all turned off by default and I haven't enabled them (I just doublechecked), so anything showing up is violating the ad network policies. The ad buyer will be banned from the network as soon as someone reports them.

In order to report these to the ad networks, I need a screenshot of the ad or even better grab the ad url. Don't click on the ad--that gets counted as a fraudulent click. Right-click and select "Copy target link" (cc @SnarkShark )

As far as the targeted links, I'll turn the frequency down from "Default" to "Lite", and we'll see how it goes.

 

Is it an automatic redirect or do you think it's because you're accidentally touching the ad as @cranberry suggested? My hunch is it's a spammy automatic redirect, but if it's accidental clicking I can respace things so that doesn't happen.

Last night I fiddled with the code a bunch and made it so the ads adjust to the sizing of the page--if you're on mobile, you shouldn't see the massive ads.

Hmm... I view SJ on Chrome, and not having any issues with ads enabled. I do notice that with ads enabled, if I open a ton of tabs things slow down because all the ads are getting loaded, but if I keep it to 5-10 I'm fine.

Are you on Windows or Mac?

 

This is one of those times when it sucks to be right. The spammers keep shifting to new domains and the ad networks aren't staying on top of it.

So what I'm going to do is temporarily disable ads for anyone who's posted at least once. Hopefully this makes your lives easier until the ad networks get things sorted out. I'll try turning them on again in a week or two and hopefully it's not such a problem then.

You will have to login for it to take effect though. Hopefully you don't hit a redirect ad when you first hit the homepage before you have a chance to login.

 

A couple of days ago, Google fixed the main vulnerability that spammers were using to create ads that auto-redirected the viewer--it was a problem with Flash-based ads. Since then the only folks who have reported issues to me about ads automatically redirecting them are using the Chrome browser on iOS devices.

So I've posted a notice to avoid using the Chrome/iOS and re-enabled ads for registered users.

If you are still encountering spammy redirects, and you are using something other than the Chrome/iOS combo, let me know so I can look into it. Very curious to hear if anyone is having problems with Safari on iOS.

Sorry this has been such a hassle. Also, if you notice ads that auto-play sound, grab the url of them so I can report them to my account reps, as they are violating TOS.