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Report Problems with Ads Here!

I am young(ish), tech savvy, and know my way around a computer. This has crossed a line that makes it a negative experience to come here. It's not an age thing. There is no reason whatsoever to have ads that prevent you from getting through a full page on a text-based forum. It's just straight up poor site management. This isn't some clickbait "news" article, it's a forum where people of all ages and levels of technical expertise can come together and share information. Having to wade through fake paywalls is not acceptable.
 
I have been working with the Advally tech team to correct the issues with the ads.
Here is a request from the team to help them with researching the problem.

1) Including your members' screenshots are currently a better lead because there can be information in the screenshot.
2) Include the time and their time zone when they post one, that materially improves the odds of naming the advertiser responsible.

Remember not all members are in the same time zone and this can be important in finding the advertiser.
 
Ms Grumpy said:
I have been working with the Advally tech team to correct the issues with the ads.
Here is a request from the team to help them with researching the problem.

1) Including your members' screenshots are currently a better lead because there can be information in the screenshot.
2) Include the time and their time zone when they post one, that materially improves the odds of naming the advertiser responsible.

Remember not all members are in the same time zone and this can be important in finding the advertiser.
Click to expand...
Thank you Ms Grumpy for keeping us in the loop! You and Mr Grumpy are much appreciated (at least by me!).
 
Ms Grumpy said:
I have been working with the Advally tech team to correct the issues with the ads.
Here is a request from the team to help them with researching the problem.

1) Including your members' screenshots are currently a better lead because there can be information in the screenshot.
2) Include the time and their time zone when they post one, that materially improves the odds of naming the advertiser responsible.

Remember not all members are in the same time zone and this can be important in finding the advertiser.
Click to expand...

Here is an example just now of an ad that prevents use of the site. Time stamp at top left is CDT.
IMG_1727.png
 
C’mon you all. Let’s fix this. This just popped up as I was scrolling through General Audio Discussion.

I am certain this is not the sort of malware, ransomware, etc. scamming you want on this site.

You would think though they would want to get better at their ESL skills. Good grief…

IMG_7250.png
 
In advance of anyone saying it: “That was already on your phone,” I want to say as I was scrolling, my thumb slowed accidentally on one of those ads in between posts and the above opened.

Kind of reminds me for some reason of the scam “IRS” phone calls. Over the years I have had two.

The more recent was “Jimz” or something like that with a south Asian accent.

“Hullo. I am Jimz from Eye Are Ess. You must pay $3,000 with credit card.”

“Oh yeah?”

We went back and forth briefly upon which he said, “I now senting police to your house.”

“Sounds good. Are you leading the stack because I have some fun surprises for you,” and I detailed what they were.

“You are in very much trouble, sir!”

Geez, these guys… :rflmao:
 
M70AB2 said:
C’mon you all. Let’s fix this. This just popped up as I was scrolling through General Audio Discussion.

I am certain this is not the sort of malware, ransomware, etc. scamming you want on this site.

You would think though they would want to get better at their ESL skills. Good grief…

View attachment 3813923
Click to expand...
“1-877” numbers usually go to a call center purgatory. I have all of them blocked.
 
Last edited:
Ms Grumpy said:
I have been working with the Advally tech team to correct the issues with the ads.
Here is a request from the team to help them with researching the problem.

1) Including your members' screenshots are currently a better lead because there can be information in the screenshot.
2) Include the time and their time zone when they post one, that materially improves the odds of naming the advertiser responsible.

Remember not all members are in the same time zone and this can be important in finding the advertiser.
Click to expand...
The button sits on an element named goog-content-pause-scrim, created by Google's own ad script (gpt.js), which the site loads directly, and which fills a slot the site's ad account explicitly defines as "interstitial". In other words, the site loads Google's script -> site's config requests the full screen format -> Google's script enforces the block. Every link in that chain is the site's choice.

Ads breaking out of browser sandboxes hasn't been a thing for nearly a decade. This, like nearly every other instance of ad issues on this site that I've seen in the past few years is due to a site issue. Of late, most likely caching errors due to poor configs that leak sessions among different users. This ad behavior is your designed and intended "not logged in" experience being served to logged in users.

Logged-in page loads never even stage the interstitial element in the DOM; guest page loads pre-stage it and arm it before any interaction. So there's a hard binary between the two serving paths. The wrong page scaffolding is making it to the browser.
 
JP said:
The button sits on an element named goog-content-pause-scrim, created by Google's own ad script (gpt.js), which the site loads directly, and which fills a slot the site's ad account explicitly defines as "interstitial". In other words, the site loads Google's script -> site's config requests the full screen format -> Google's script enforces the block. Every link in that chain is the site's choice.

Ads breaking out of browser sandboxes hasn't been a thing for nearly a decade. This, like nearly every other instance of ad issues on this site that I've seen in the past few years is due to a site issue. Of late, most likely caching errors due to poor configs that leak sessions among different users. This ad behavior is your designed and intended "not logged in" experience being served to logged in users.

Logged-in page loads never even stage the interstitial element in the DOM; guest page loads pre-stage it and arm it before any interaction. So there's a hard binary between the two serving paths. The wrong page scaffolding is making it to the browser.
Click to expand...
You would think, working with a responsible ad vendor, something like this could get quickly resolved. That's what publishers pay an ad partner for — so site operators don't have to be ad-tech experts themselves.

Of course that would involve Advally actively reviewing this thread but that does not appear to be the case. They haven't responded to anything since March and haven't visited Audiokarma at all in two weeks.

I also wonder about the long-term hit to Ak's reputation and growth if every potential new user stops by and gets bombarded with "click to continue" ads if this is the working model for guests even if it does eventually get resolved for those who have already joined.
 
Posting this from my tablet which is using a hotspot from my phone. Phone cant get past cloudflare, and I eventually got a screen that stated the "clock" was off. The phone gets it's date/time automatically from the cell network.

If that is off, how can I log in from my tablet which is using the phone's wifi and data?
 
JP said:
The button sits on an element named goog-content-pause-scrim, created by Google's own ad script (gpt.js), which the site loads directly, and which fills a slot the site's ad account explicitly defines as "interstitial". In other words, the site loads Google's script -> site's config requests the full screen format -> Google's script enforces the block. Every link in that chain is the site's choice.

Ads breaking out of browser sandboxes hasn't been a thing for nearly a decade. This, like nearly every other instance of ad issues on this site that I've seen in the past few years is due to a site issue. Of late, most likely caching errors due to poor configs that leak sessions among different users. This ad behavior is your designed and intended "not logged in" experience being served to logged in users.

Logged-in page loads never even stage the interstitial element in the DOM; guest page loads pre-stage it and arm it before any interaction. So there's a hard binary between the two serving paths. The wrong page scaffolding is making it to the browser.
Click to expand...

Further review with Safari, it doesn't look like cache leakage but the browser gating not working to pace the scroll block and interstitial, both of which look to be very much intentional regardless of logged-in state. Death spiral.
 
I don’t see the ads when logged in but the space left blank is unacceptable.
iPad Pro, duck-duck-go
The main page has a few blank bands where the ads might have been.

Opening one of the many forums last night was 7-8 threads listed and a wide blank ad space, then 4 more threads and another blank. The blank space was enough to list 5 threads. This recurs until the first page threads are contained. BUT NOTICE THE BLACK SPACE IS MORE THAN THE THREAD SPACE which I deem as not acceptable.

Today the blank space is smaller and the opening salvo of threads is 17 but then the black space and 4 threads repeats to fill the first page. This is marginally better what with less scrolling but my carpel tunnel thumb is getting tired of scrolling through these blank spaces. If they were ads on my screen, distracting me from doing my work on ak, I would find somewhere else to use up my day.
 
jheu02 said:
Posting this from my tablet which is using a hotspot from my phone. Phone cant get past cloudflare, and I eventually got a screen that stated the "clock" was off.
Click to expand...
After going thru my settings and deleting all cookies and site data, I was able to get my phone past cloudflare. I had the same issue on my home network vs data only, which is when I looked for other things that may be causing it. So, whatever cookies are left by AK must have been preventing my phone because THEY were out of date somehow.
 
jheu02 said:
So, whatever cookies are left by AK must have been preventing my phone because THEY were out of date somehow.
Click to expand...
Old cookies do become obsolete as a site makes changes. Frequent clearing of cookies allows a site to drop a newer cookie to help things run smoothly.
 
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