Subject: Looks like someone's taken notice
Author:
Posted on: 2015-07-20 12:31:00 UTC
I'm using my tablet right now, instead of my computer. And so far there's only been one attempt at a redirect, and the browser managed to prevent it. So things seem to be getting better. Let's just hope it lasts.
I've been struggling with the Board in recent weeks and I'm curious to see if anyone's encountered the same problems. First off, overall loading times are completely shot. It typically takes ten to fifteen seconds for a page on the Board to load regardless of whether its a typical click through, opened in a new tab, or even just reloading. Even at its best, I'm typically waiting for five seconds. At worst? Up to a minute. This is not a problem with my Internet connection. I've checked it, it's fine.
Ads have also become more obtrusive. I've noticed that the site is using more side scroll-in ads that cover a good chunk of the links. They can also sometimes repeatedly layer themselves, meaning that there is still an ad there even if you click the "hide" tab. I had eight copies of the same ad layered on top of themselves at one point. Relatedly, sometimes the site runs ads that will automatically redirect me to the App Store if I'm browsing via iOS. I'm sure someone will suggest that I use some sort of Ad Blocker, but making stuff for YouTube has made me dislike those programs on principle.
Has anyone else been noticing this stuff, or is it just me?
What follows is the second, revised-and-updated version of a new thread I tried to post on the help forum yesterday. If what I put up yesterday eventually goes through, I'll add the new stuff from this in a reply; otherwise, this will be my second attempt.
If it hasn't appeared by Monday, I'll be opening up a discussion of Our Options From This Point.
hS
I'm using my tablet right now, instead of my computer. And so far there's only been one attempt at a redirect, and the browser managed to prevent it. So things seem to be getting better. Let's just hope it lasts.
Looks like the auto-redirects don't even always kick in straight away. I often check the Board in the mornings, and open up any interesting looking threads in new tabs so that I can come back to them at my leisure.
I had 7 tabs open, and I'd viewed all of the earlier, but left them open. Just now 3 of them had redirected me to a page telling me to update my flash player. This page looked totally legitimate (identical to the page you get when you really do need to update Flash Player), apart from 2 things:
1) I know for a fact that my Flash Player is up to date
2) The url of the page began with a bunch of gibbersh, and didn't include any reference to Adobe.
So yeah, some of the advert stuff may be intentional (and just poorly optimized), but I would hope that viruses aren't.
- Irish
I ran into the uncloseable-redirect problem about a year ago, and I wondered at the time why nobody else reported something similar and whether it might be a regional thing only happening for Germans.
My way to deal with it:
Firefox has a built-in phishing report. So, whenever I’m redirected and there is no way to go back and continue what I intended to do, I report the URL, explaining in the comment that this site obviously wants to force me to do something silly no reasonable person should do, like clicking its okay-button.
This doesn’t make it go away, but it certainly undermines the ad’s purpose, because in Firefox and probably also in other browsers, the ad is replaced by a message saying that this site is not save.
Over the last twelve months, such redirects occurred less and less frequently for me. Apparently, aggressive advertisers are able to learn from experience what is acceptable and what is too annoying to work. (And apparently they are doing their aggressive advertising in the USA rather than in Germany now.)
Concerning long loading times, I don’t believe that it’s related to the new server. Sometimes a page loads immediately, and sometimes it looks like the browser gathers data from about two-hundred ad servers before it displays the page, and I didn’t watch this only during the last few weeks.
HG
Seven identical ads all stacked on top of one another in one go kicked it off, and now every time I go to the main Board, I get a side-scrolling ad (or several) to deal with. 
So much for the laptop being my safe haven. :/
But after having my computer infected by a virus thanks to an uncloseable pop-up banner even if I didn't click on it and closed the browser right away with Task Manager...
I decided I wouldn't take chances anymore, ever. Ad blocker, with additional element hiding helper addon in case something slips through.
Or in case the site shows a big "Disable AdBlock" banner. I either block the hell out of that banner too or, if that doesn't work, go to a different site.
Also, to me the Board loads really fast to me (less than five seconds at most.) I suspect that the reason is the excess of ads - they bog down the browser. Preventing them to load frees up bandwidth for the actual site to load up.
So, I might be an evil unsupporter of Youtubers and similia, but I'm not going back.
And this is to everyone, not just Sergio: You CAN turn AdBlock off when viewing content you want to support. Just saying. There is a middle ground here. You can be safe AND ethical.
~Neshomeh
That pop-up ad appeared on a site for which I would've made an exception if I was already using an ad blocker.
The truth is, infected ads can pop up everywhere and everywhen. It's like a mummy, you gotta bring down the hammer on every single nail of the coffin to make sure it doesn't find a way to get out.
And then put the coffin in an armoured sarcophage. Then put the sarcophage in a water-filled safe. Then put the safe into a rocket and shoot it straight into a black hole.
Tl;dr: No exceptions. Ever.
I use it (the Mac version) and I see them at the fronts of videos all the time.
With the pop-up blocker extension and the Element Hiding Helper extension.
Nothing gets through. And, if it does, it won't a second time.
Which adblocker do you use? I use Adblock plus on Chrome.
To the point where I stopped using my computer to read the 'Board - there was just too much risk, I either had to have NoScript and Adblock, and even then I worried. So on my phone (iPhone), about 1/3 of the time, I get an ad that covers the entire screen, and can only be removed by refreshing the page and hoping it doesn't pop up next time. 1/3 of the time, I get redirected and the App Store opens. What I usually do to combat this is as soon as the content of the page loads, hit the "stop loading" button on the URL bar. Not always, but usually, this stops the ad from loading.
I mean, I still read the posts that interest me, but the subject lines have to clear a pretty high bar of interest for obvious reasons. :P This has been the case for about… I dunno, at least the past few months. Several months probably.
At best, it's a minor annoyance on my computer. However, twice now I've had a new tab created for me saying that my computer has a problem, and that it's very serious. The ad looks official, and the only way to close it is to use Task Manager and shut down your entire browser.
Sometimes I can't even touch the page without it redirecting to something on the app store, and I have to hit the back arrow SO many times to refresh the page. Fun times.
There's also instances when the page takes several seconds to load, which is probably because of the server migration thing. It's good to see that I'm not the only one with this problem, though I haven't had a "close the browser" situation myself... yet. >_>
Granted, I've had the same browser (Firefox) and OS (...Windows 7, I think?) for the past few months, with no problems. And I only use my desktop for browsing on the Board, so I wouldn't know how it is for any other combination.
Though I use Chrome. I also have an ad blocker, which may also be part of why the problem is not noticeable on my end.
I don't get those problems with my computer, but I avoid checking the Board on my phone whenever I can because I get ad redirects or the App Store randomly opens, and it's probably the most frustrating thing I've had the displeasure of encountering.
What's also frustrating is on the phone, adds randomly appear (and yes, I supposedly have them blocked), and they're so huge they fill the entire screen, and for some reason there's often no X to click, forcing me to reload the page. When there is and X, it just takes me to the ad's main site.
I know Darkotas has had these problems as well, which is partially why he's been asking me to relay posts while he's at camp: too much reloading involved eating up his data.
Funnily enough, a pop-up for facebook appeared when I tried to read your post.
For whatever reason, it is significantly worse when browsing on my phone or tablet. My computer gets the pop-ups or redirects occasionally, but mobile devices seem to get them a lot - I've basically given up reading the Board on my tablet. I've also had the problem of some ads filling the whole screen and not having an option to close them, but only on my tablet.
- Irish
Just got redirected *three times* to the Google Play Store, for a 'Wizard of Oz Free Slots Casino' app. Not even kidding. I didn't click on anything besides Irish's post, but a redirect page (just a URL) came up and then I was redirected to the Google Play app. Now, I will give you that I watched a clip of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on YouTube either yesterday or the day before; that's the only connection I know of, and it seems pretty random otherwise. When I hit the back button, I ended up first back at the redirect page (which didn't redirect me again) and then on Irish's post when I hit it again. Of course, I was promptly redirected in the same way twice more from his post until I hit the reply button. I took screenshots--same notation as my previous post.
Speaking of the previous post: that set of adx3 showed up while I was in the Plort costume thread. There's generally nothing to link the post with the ad.
Another type of annoying ad, which mainly appears on the laptop, is that random words will be hyperlinked, I think with some sort of search thing. There are also random tags at the bottom of posts, which will get little temporary popups if you hover over them. I use Chrome.
And I think that's all for now. Here's hoping no more ads today...
~DF
Interestingly, I get a similar redirect for another generic gambling app called "Big Fish Casino". I know I have not watched or searched anything involving gambling, fish or the Wizard of Oz recently, so I think these are not targeted ads.
I use my phone to check the board fairly often when I'm on my break, and these redirects occur, I'd say, at least a third of the time when I click on a post. At worst, though, they appear at double that rate and make it nearly impossible to navigate the board since the redirects create a queue of at least three blank web pages before sending me back to the page before> the one I was trying to view.
This has been happening for months now. I'm pretty sure it's not always happened, but I can't recall when it started exactly. Whatever the case, it's incredibly intrusive and irritating.
It's a Moto G running Android 4.4.4. I definitely get auto-redirected sometimes, plus things that pop up and want me to do something or go somewhere else that can only be got rid of by reloading, and then there are the infolinks. These come with words turned into links that can be accidentally clicked on, occasional popups, and also a banner at the bottom. The banner and popups can be closed, but since the former appears frequently, it's quite irritating.
I just tried ten refreshes, and so far I've gotten the infolinks banner twice, plus a closable popup from them; and a full-page splash ad about AT&T, in Spanish, closable. I suspect I'm having less trouble than usual because I'm on my home network, which is secure, as opposed to the free Wi-Fi at my workplace, which is not. Unfortunately, I can't test very well at work, since a) I may not have time, and b) the connection is really terrible and doesn't always work.
~Neshomeh, who uses AdBlock on her computer.
Just got that full page malware/antivirus ad twice in a bloody row while trying to see Nesh's post above. Exactly the same as what I described in the first post, but twice instead of thrice. Screenshotted again, heaven alone knows why.
And now to see if I can get to hS' reply without more of this...
~DF
Unfortunately, I don't think we can persuade them to get rid of what's clearly a deliberate advertising choice. The banners are particularly annoying, because of the way they crawl up onto the screen at a glacial pace.
Thanks for the data; a ~20% hit-rate of full-screen ads is pretty bad, isn't it? And the banners take that close to half...
Ugh. All of which reminds me: has anyone seen Tomash recently?
hS
Only if you have free data/a wireless connection/whatever on your phone that means you wouldn't be paying actual money for this, of course.
If you can, could you take a large sample of Board loads, recording for each:
-If a full-page ad loads
--If so, what it's for
--If you can X it
--If the X takes you to the ad site
-If it just redirects
--And where
I don't know what constitutes a large sample; well, I do, it's 100 times, but I doubt you have the patience. ;) Nor should you. Enough to get a feel for it, I guess.
I intend to do the same for Chrome and Internet Explorer tonight; that way I can give Tamara at least some actual data.
hS
I just got a full page ad (I'm on mobile) three times in a row. There is no x. It's for some kind of antivirus thing, supposedly. When I hit the back button, the popup saying that my phone 'has a risk' disappears, but the thing underneath remains and some sort of loading bar fills up. There's no way I'm clicking on it, so I don't know where it leads. When I hit the back button again, I don't end up on the page I was trying to view (which often loads fine right before the ad comes): I'm at least one page back, and have to navigate back to the page--going forward generally just brings the ad back. (And yes, I've seen this one often enough now that I can say what generally happens). I've got screenshots from it this time, and can try to get them from my phone to the Board or to an email; I'm pretty sure that's possible.
Some more notes: on both my phone and my computer (I have Android on my phone and Windows 7 on my laptop), pages do occasionally load slowly. Sometimes it's just a delay of several more seconds than usual; other times, the page takes so long about loading that I end up closing it and trying again. A simple reload doesn't usually work.
More on ads: on my computer, there is generally an x to click, which doesn't tend to redirect me. Some of the ads I get are for shopping of some sort--I'll keep an eye out, I haven't been paying too much attention. The shopping ad sometimes pops up on my phone, and I think it can be xed out of without a redirect. On both, there's also a half page ad that looks like it's for Facebook. It's annoying on mobile, because when you move down, it flickers out of sight and then comes back until you x it. On the laptop, it stays constant until xed, and is a banner at the bottom of the page. The x doesn't redirect in either case.
There's another ad, the contents of which I don't remember right now, that sort of pops up in the middle of the screen and moves around with you, but... I'm not completely sure that's actually on the Board. It may well be on one of the mission-hosting sites.
One thing is good, though--I've never had an ad pop up on the reply page! :)
Also: this isn't constant, the ads. There are always the ones in the place designated for them--sometimes these are really large and can distort the page layout--but the majority of the time, I'm able to use the Board without seeing the full-page ads. Maybe even 8 or 9 times out of 10. (I think. I'll start keeping an eye out--it may be more frequent and I'm just used to ignoring it now. I'll let you know if it turns out to be more prevalent than I currently think).
Hope that helps,
~DF
I think I'll take some of this over to the help forum (not on the server thread, it's clearly unrelated to that). Thank you for the thorough description!
(I think the 'middle of the screen' ad may be the one on The Lost Tales, though obviously I don't know for certain.)
hS
...just trying to get to the main page of the Board. I double checked that going forward brings me straight back to the ad; I tried closing the tab and opening a new one--same thing. It's pretty bad this morning.
I have managed to view a couple of posts without ads, and I had seen a number of them without ads earlier. Last night, I don't remember any ads, though I think it may've loaded slowly once or twice. This, though, this is a bit much.
~DF
I've put a thread over on the help forum - don't know when it'll show up, but you can keep an eye out for it here (and they don't have ads there, naturally!). I've stuffed it full of quotes, about half of which are probably from you - thank you very much for reporting so thoroughly!
I'd say you can probably stop taking screenshots, but don't delete the ones you have - I don't know if Sean or Tamara will want to see them.
I'll keep reporting back as and when I get any information.
hS
It definitely dropped me back a page when I hit the back button. This is... a pretty high concentration, actually. Normally it doesn't happen so many times in a row... Or maybe I just get annoyed and take a break from using the Board faster :D Who knows.
Would the screenshots be of any use if I can get them to you? Or should I just stop taking them?
~DF
Over here. She says:
DiscApp 199610 loads quickly on both my computer and IPhone. As far as we can determine, the new server is faster than the old server. I would need to know what OS and browser he is using to cause the issues you describe. On the iPhone, there is only a banner ad and he would need to click it to be redirected to the App Store. There are no auto redirects.
(Sorry for messing up the link last time, don't know what was going on there.)
If you want to chat directly to find out if it's a problem at their end, you can; or I can relay messages.
hS
At least on the iPhone.
On June 29th,, they apparently migrated disc.yourwebapps to a new server. That probably explains the load times. (Previously we've had problems with loading the Board's css, because it was hosted on Freewebs; since I moved it to Google, I don't think that's come up).
The cover-everything ads are annoying, I agree, though I've not seen them layered. There seems to be no way to turn them off without paying $92 per month for premium access, though.
I'll mention your observations about loading times over on the support forum - I've noticed it a bit as well. For that matter, I'll mention the layered ads! There might be a problem they don't know about.
hS
Looks like they've got it set up to require replies to be confirmed by an admin, so I don't know when it'll show up; but I promise I've sent it.
hS