Annoying auto-play ads

[mariannemarlow]

Forum URL: budgerigarsforum.proboards.com

I just had this query from a member, hope you can help:

Hey Marianne Marlow.

Could you ask Proboards support if they can fix/ban whoever is placing the auto play ads? It's the ad down on the bottom Right of the forum. I've had an Australian Unity (insurance I think) and a Borderlands Game ad - those are the two I can remember, but it will be some company who is placing them.

Read more: budgerigarsforum.proboards.com/thread/9730/annoying-video-ads-on-forum#ixzz3H4u83XjS

[CheatAreZee]

Hi mariannemarlow,

If the member receives the ad again, have them take a screenshot of the ad, and then use CTRL + ALT + R on their keyboard. This should replace the ads with an ad-report tool where they can paste a link to their screenshot along with a description of the issue, and our ad team will be able to remove it from there

[mariannemarlow]

Thank you so much! Passed the message on.

[stace1]

Hi there, I'm the forum member who's reported the auto play ads, and I'm still getting them. They are really loud, really annoying, and are playing almost continually. It seems to be only affecting Australian members if that helps you.

I've brought up Proboards ad-report tool and reported around five ads so far. But they still keep coming.

Perhaps it's pertinent to note that it's not just a problem with one particular ad. It's many different ads from many different companies. All are playing in the bottom right hand corner of the forum.

One screenshot showed some kind of supplier called "Adotube" - "an in-stream video advertising solution that delivers interactive brand experiences, uniquely designed to achieve maximum impact… connects consumers to brands by creating, delivering, and syndicating engaging in-stream ad units throughout our publisher network".

Well, they are not very engaging, but they are certainly having maximum impact.

I understand that Proboards does not allow these kinds of in-stream auto play advertising. Is that right? And if I report an ad, does your ad team just "fix" that one particular ad, leaving others to follow in their wake?

This has only begun happening in the past week. Prior to that I haven't had an issue.

[CheatAreZee]

Hi stace1,

Correct, we don't allow ads that auto play without your interaction with them. Any ads that you report is brought to the attention of our ad team so they can be blocked. Our ad team investigates the ad tags that are sent by the reporting system to track down the specific ad and will block that ad. If multiple reports are made with multiple ads and it is found that they are coming from one ad network, that ad network will be blocked all together, or at the very least paused until their ads are in compliance.

May I ask how long prior to your post here did you make a report? Also, just to be sure, when using the ad report tool were you filling in the box on the ad placement that held the auto playing ad? (ie. if it was coming from the square ad found in threads, did you fill out the form in that square after bringing up the ad report tool? Or did you fill out one of the other ad placements?)

[stace1]

Ahhh, Ricky. Gotcha. I may have filled out the box just beneath the square ad template a few times. Drat. That would have been for the banner ad.

Oct 25 was the first ad-report. Australia time.

It's certainly not just one ad. It's many different ones in rotation - all in the square bottom box. The only ones that don't play are PB ads - OR when the ad appears to be frozen video - even then I think it just fires up a bit later.

[stace1]

Just sent in a barrage of ad-reports and it looks like they may have squashed the culprit. Thanks for your help, CheatAreZee.

Hopefully that's it sorted.

[CheatAreZee]

Glad to hear, stace1! Thanks for checking back on it (and reporting)