Advertisements that take over AUDIO

[BossLady]

The past 2 days my forum has been plagued with advertisements at the bottom of the page that automatically start playing audio.  The only way to shut them off is to click it and open the page - which then looks to the advertiser like someone is interested in their AD.  
This is not ok.  We will have to move to another forum-provider if this sort of staging continues. 

[Scott]

BossLady
You are right this is not ok and we do not sanction these types of ads. No matter what site/forum you visit on the internet this can happen if these ads make it into the rotation of the ad providers. We take violation of our ad criteria very seriously and do our best to eradicate them as soon as we are informed. Unfortunately its' not like we have list of what ads play on what forums that we can turn off like a switch.  However once are able to identify the ad we are in contact with the providers immediately.  

There are two ways to help us stop these ads:

1) Report the ad using the ad reporting feature.
- take a screen shot of the ad and save it on an image host site.
- press ctrl+alt+R and the ad will turn into a reporting box.
- type in the URL of the hosted screenshot image and the reason ("ad auto plays sound")
- Click the submit button.
If you encounter more than one ad that does this, a report needs to be filed for each offending ad.

2) Use our ad-debugger tool:

   - Please visit ads.proboards.com/ad_debugger.html
   - You should see an enable button. (Not all browsers work with this tool, so try a different browser).

   - If the button is there, click enable and then in a different tab (or different page for mobile browsers) go back to the forum with ads. Once you get the offending ad switch back over to the ad scanning tab/page and then use the copy button and copy the data and then post it here. With that information in hand we can block the ad causing the issue.

   - You should occasionally hit the "Clear Logs" so that you don't end up with a massive log. This is simply just for ease of use and viewing; do not clear if you encounter the auto sound ad and have not copied out the log yet.



Thank you for your help!

[Lynx]

BossLady,

Just to add a little to what Scott said above if you go the ad-debugger tool route.

- It will look like gibberish to you, but the PB Admins are able to "decipher" it and make use of it to locate the offending ad so they can have it removed.
- Be sure you copy the log in its entirety (also why clearing the logs occasionally is suggested). If they don't have the entire contents, it may be missing information for them to properly decipher it.
- If the log's contents is too long for a post, you can save it to a text file (with no formatting - Notepad is good for this) and post it as an attachment.

[BossLady]

Lynx and Scott
I will follow your directions and send reports the next time this happens.
Interestingly it's been fairly quiet the past couple hours.
Thanks very much, I'm glad to hear it's not sanctioned by PB.

-BossLady-

[Scott]

BossLady
Glad it's calmed down for you. Yours was not the only forum and we've been working around the clock to stop these.

[BossLady]

Scott - Lynx
It just happened again. Bottom right hand corner of a thread. Audio & video for a video game with Arnold Schwartzenager on it
When it's clicked I'm taken to this iTunes site for a video game: itunes.apple.com/app/id934596429?mt=8

I reported it using the Ctrl-Alt-R feature and left the following comment:
"This advertisement plays audio autmatically and the only way to turn it off is to click on it and open it. Clicking on it takes you to this site: itunes.apple.com/app/id934596429?mt=8  There is no other option but to click on the ad or leave the page I'm working on. This is unwanted advertising which is intrusive & disruptive! "

 Hoping this will be of some help.