Deceptive adbanners on B3D

[Guden Oden]

There's a "an error has occurred in your computer" windows error-box-impersonating adbanner flashing every now and then, usually from the bottom of a page. This is clearly illegal advertising meant to trick the user to click it, and will likely lead to a site that wants you to install some "helpful" "free" software to "fix" whatever problem they claim exist.

I just think it is some kind of adspam program instead.

 

[London Geezer]

There's a "an error has occurred in your computer" windows error-box-impersonating adbanner flashing every now and then, usually from the bottom of a page. This is clearly illegal advertising meant to trick the user to click it, and will likely lead to a site that wants you to install some "helpful" "free" software to "fix" whatever problem they claim exist.

I just think it is some kind of adspam program instead.

It's definately a spambot thing on your computer, never happened on mine here at work and also at home...

 

[_xxx_]

Yup, here neither. You should check for some "coolbar"-variant with SpyBot and AdAware or comparable.

 

[Rys]

Maybe those not seeing it block ads

See, it's at the bottom of the page in the following image (ironically of this very thread):

It's an ad banner that B3D is running, that's impersonating a Windows dialog, as Guden says. And I agree with him that maybe it's not appropriate here.

 

[London Geezer]

Maybe those not seeing it block ads

See, it's at the bottom of the page in the following image (ironically of this very thread):

It's an ad banner that B3D is running, that's impersonating a Windows dialog, as Guden says. And I agree with him that maybe it's not appropriate here.

Ooooh that! i never scroll down to the bottom of the page, never noticed it. But yes, it is there.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I now block falkag.net after regular problems with their ads. I use Firefox with Adblock and the "support sites" option, so B3D still gets ad revenue, but I don't see their dodgy ads.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Please don't block Falk, they are the main source of funding. I'm sure you wouldn't want us to reciprocate.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Please don't block Falk, they are the main source of funding. I'm sure you wouldn't want us to reciprocate.

I appreciate what you are saying Dave, but as I said, I use Adblock's "site support", so you still get the ad revenue, I just don't get to see the ads in Firefox. They are still accessed, just not rendered on screen.

I only started blocking Falk after continuous obnoxious sound-loaded ads and drive-by downloads of mp3's and other junk - not just here, but at other sites too and over a period of several weeks . Makes it pretty difficult to open half a dozen tabs at once when they all insist on loudly playing music and sound effects at you.

I don't even bother to block other ads like Mediaplex, because they arn't as offensive and intrusive as the Falk ads, such as the fake windows error being complained about at the beginning of this thread.

 

[_xxx_]

Maybe those not seeing it block ads

See, it's at the bottom of the page in the following image (ironically of this very thread):

It's an ad banner that B3D is running, that's impersonating a Windows dialog, as Guden says. And I agree with him that maybe it's not appropriate here.

Oh, that one! I thought he's talking about some kind of pop-up ad.

Frankly, whoever conciously clicks on that has deserved an imediate full low-level format of all his hard drives

 

[_xxx_]

I appreciate what you are saying Dave, but as I said, I use Adblock's "site support", so you still get the ad revenue, just I don't get to see the ads in Firefox.

What? Where is that neat feature? I can't find it in the AdBlock options.

EDIT: nevermind, just found out about AdBlockPlus

 

[Dave Baumann]

I appreciate what you are saying Dave, but as I said, I use Adblock's "site support", so you still get the ad revenue, I just don't get to see the ads in Firefox. They are still accessed, just not rendered on screen.

I only started blocking Falk after continuous obnoxious sound-loaded ads and drive-by downloads of mp3's and other junk - not just here, but at other sites too and over a period of several weeks . Makes it pretty difficult to open half a dozen tabs at once when they all insist on loudly playing music and sound effects at you.

I don't even bother to block other ads like Mediaplex, because they arn't as offensive and intrusive as the Falk ads, such as the fake windows error being complained about at the beginning of this thread.

And these still defeat the purpose of ads/ad revenue, since revenue is accrued on a per click basis on some campaigns. Under no circumstances can a site owner support any type of ad blocking.

As for the type of ads - we have very strict instructions for our agencys that no pops-up/unders are allowed (something that is very well adhered to, unlike most other sites) and no multimedia ads. When a new set comes through, sometimes something will sneak through but it usually get acted upon quickly.

As for the ad in question a.) this has been in rotation frequently before and b.) the ad positions in the forum have virtually never changed so to should be bloody obvious they are ads from their location!

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

And these still defeat the purpose of ads/ad revenue, since revenue is accrued on a per click basis on some campaigns. Under no circumstances can a site owner support any type of ad blocking.

Adblock Plus does alow whitelisting of a site, so I will unhide these ads, as long as they don't start getting obnoxious and intrusive again. For a while it was actually so unpleasant as to make it impossible to browse the site, which prompted me to find Adblock in the first place.

It has to be said though, I don't often click on the ads on any site, because there's rarely anything that actually interests me. There's also so many obnoxious ad agencies out there that it's become second nature not to trust any ad not to try and install spyware or jump you to a malware laden webpage.

 

[_xxx_]

They try to open pop-ups all the time as well, but these are at least easily blocked.

I'm not so annoyed by ads as such, the problem is that their server is often lame as hell and prevents the page from loading, so you actually can't browse B3D comfortably. And that is indeed very annoying.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I'm not so annoyed by ads as such, the problem is that their server is often lame as hell and prevents the page from loading, so you actually can't browse B3D comfortably. And that is indeed very annoying.

Exactly. I really don't mind ads at all, and rarely bother to block anything, but when you click on a load of links to the various threads, and each one plays sounds at you, so you can't hear the music you're listening to, or each page does a drive-by download of some junk ringtone MP3 that I have to then go and delete, that goes beyond advertising and into nuisance.

I thought it would simply be better to use Adblock to edit my surfing experience instead of complaining to Dave after the fact, while still using "support sites" to make sure B3D got the ad views regardless.

 

[_xxx_]

A very cool feature indeed, this "site support"!

BZB: what I meant is that literally the page won't load sometimes because it waits for some ad which doesn't arrive while their servers go bonkers or have no more bandwidth. You can see what it waits for in the status bar right away. So in this case, B3D gets even less clicks because in the time the pages load I would have read new posts in fifteen threads and replied on five of them or such. So it's definitely a lose-lose deal IMHO.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

A very cool feature indeed, this "site support"!

BZB: what I meant is that literally the page won't load sometimes because it waits for some ad which doesn't arrive while their servers go bonkers or have no more bandwidth. You can see what it waits for in the status bar right away. So in this case, B3D gets even less clicks because in the time the pages load I would have read new posts in fifteen threads and replied on five of them or such. So it's definitely a lose-lose deal IMHO.

If you're using Firefox, I think there are options that you can tweak that change the timouts before FF starts rendering pages. If you set it too short, you will get lots of redraws as more page data comes in, but it's a way of stopping the page waiting for that late element from Falk before rendering the page.

As you say though, in that case the ad still doesn't get shown, but at least you're not left looking at a hung page waiting for that last pesky ad to come in from Falk's unresponsive servers.

 

[Guden Oden]

Under no circumstances can a site owner support any type of ad blocking.

With all due respect of course, but this is really an extremely one-sided view. Some ads are extremely intrusive - especially those that open flash animations on top of the page, and/or play sound or music. Any surfer of sane mind and fluids would go nuts being pestered repeatedly by such nonsense. Fortunately, B3D isn't too badly infested, but there IS an illegal adbanner displayed on the site right now - the one I mentioned at the top of the thread. You have that ITC (I think) standards organization in the UK, and I can assure you they would look upon this particular ad as dimly as I do...

There is ALSO a stupid annoying smiley multimedia ad doing the rounds which whines "helLOO!" each time it's mouse-overed - which happens every once in a blue moon for me when I reach for the forum list combo-box, but I don't really care all that much about that since it's rare that I touch it even by mistake.

What does irritate me however is these downright deceptive ads, that even though I'm not fooled by them still manage to insult my intelligence by their mere existence on the site... I think it puts B3D as a website in a bad light to show illegal deceptive adbanners such as the fake windows error requester ad, and I hate to see that happen since I love this place.

 

[Dave Baumann]

As I said, we ask our advertisers not to put any multimedia ads through rotation and when they do occasionally slip through we ask them to trawl through the codes and remove them - rarely are the here for long. The particular ad in question is not illegal either.

And, personally I find it an extremely selfish point of view to be blocking ads when they are the only means of a sites support - how much do you lot pay for this resource? Not a bloody bean, thats how much. And then you complain about the few meagre ads that there are here - as I said, you have an easy life here in comparison to other sites and the level of ads, pops, text link ads in the middle or articles and yet you choose to whine about the two banners on the forum (that are in easy to ignore locations, unlike other forums).

If you can't be arsed to even allow us these to support the site, then theres a simple solution - we'll close the forums.

 

[Ghost of D3D]

I personally think a lot of the participants here are intelligent enough to recognize that "deceptive ad" to be, well, an ad.

I have always found it easy to ignore "inappropriate ads" and/or even pop-ups in sites I love visiting (the anticipation of good reading overrides those ads). I'm sure the thread starter means well (albeit perhaps a bit selfish) but IMO if you like this site then the current ad situation at Beyond3D is both well under control as well as being far better than a lot of "3D sites". If the thread starter is "concerned" that Internet newbies (and not himself, obviously) may click on that deceptive ad and may therefore spoil the reputation of this site by complaining about this elsewhere (but not here), perhaps all he needed to do was send a PM or email to Dave Baumann (and definitely not persue this as he has in his subsequent posts in this thread).

Just my observations and MHO.

 

[Ghost of D3D]

Under no circumstances can a site owner support any type of ad blocking.

With all due respect of course, but this is really an extremely one-sided view.

I think Dave Baumann should have used the words "can" instead of "should"; and "encourage" instead of "support"... the difference can be quite telling.

I don't know how exactly this site makes money but from Dave Baumann's frustration in his post, it appears the majority of it comes from ad banners. As it is, this site's ads are more than tolerable and I found the thread starter's subsequent comments to be grating, far too altruistic (he wants the perfect site? Tell me this isn't so!) and not at all helpful in an attempt to help make this a better site (if that was his intention).

We're not talking about a 3D-centric site that consistently displays ad banners that promote pornography. If this was the case and Dave Baumann has absolutely no control over ad abnners here, then I'm sure he'll actually recommend you block ads at this site. That's not the case and this thread's starter is just being totally un-understanding (does such a word exist?!).