How do you deal here with possible malicious content or adds

[Rocky_Ruud]

Forum URL:


Hello, together with my colleague Admins I am considering moving our existing Forum elsewhere to your ProBoards platform. The appearance and the possibilities to start your own Forum here are very promising!

The main reason for this consideration to switch is the fact that one of our Admins can no longer log in to our Forum.
Instead he gets a popup saying "Possible Malicious Content!". He suspects that this has to do with one or more of the ads, but the host Admins are not bothered by that to enter our forum and say that the problem will probably be caused by an outdated version of his antivirus software. However, this is not the case, which is very annoying for the Admin concerned, but we also do not know whether we and our members are at an unnoticed risk.
Of course you cannot solve this issue for him there.

So an important question before I take the next step here is how do you deal with these types of reports, do you and / or your members have experience with this and if so, how is this resolved?

Ruud

[Craig]

Hi

Like most sites, the occasional problem ad does appear, but ProBoards offers a tool to report the ads ( link at bottom of every page ), and they also actively monitor ads for any potential problems, and these are promptly dealt with.

Does the message he receive have any further information? Sometime an externally loaded [ so posted ] image can produce that error. The error message sometimes indicates the source site of the image, which you may then be able to search for on your site, if that is the cause.

Craig

[Rocky_Ruud]

Hi Craig,

Thank you for your quick and clear answer.

I had indeed already read something about it here in Support.

Thank you for confirming that course of action.

It means that we look forward to the transition with growing confidence.

I took a screenshot of the message of my collegae including the pop-up image.

I hope this is clear enough to find out exactly where the problem is.

Ruud

[Scott]

Rocky_Ruud, unfortunately without having access to the forum it would be difficult to determine the cause. It could from a posted image, some script or code on the forum, or from a bad ad.

[Rocky_Ruud]

Scott,

I contacted my collegae about this and he wrote:

"I was able to capture the entire page that was sent to my browser as a text file. I’ll attach the entire file but the relevant part that calls out “DiscoverNative.com” is below, part of their generated javascript. Feel free to post this on the support forum to clarify for support that we did in fact investigate this and know where the problem lies.

function AT_adFillSlot(){document.write('<div id="awn-z3133087" style="display: inline-flex;"></div>
<scr' + 'ipt data-cfasync="false" type="text/javascript">
var zoneNativeSett={container:"awn",baseUrl:"discovernative.com/script/native.php",r:[3133087]};"

We are very aware that you cannot solve the problem on another Forum.
But if I translate this issue into our quest for a safe new home, the question is whether, if this were to occur here, you would recognize this and be able to solve it?

That you are serious in providing security for your users is already clear to us!

[Scott]

Rocky_Ruud, we take the security of our forums very seriously and should an issue arise, we work diligently to resolve it.

[Former Member]

Rocky_Ruud, just to add... You might find this thread helpful:

support.proboards.com/thread/579224/advertisements-over-audio

Specifically, this part of Scott's post:

Apr 9, 2016 7:58:58 GMT -8 Scott said:

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.

I've been using ProBoards off and on for many years, and I can vouch for what he said. The ads on PB forums are not intrusive or annoying, but when they are, they are swiftly removed. ProBoards is second to none when it comes to dealing with ads.

---

Hey Scott, while I'm here and on topic, if ad blockers are against the ToS (link), how does that square with VS Admin's statement that PB "will not prevent anyone who uses an ad blocker from visiting any ProBoards forums"?

[Michael]

Jan 12, 2021 15:37:12 GMT -8 jcarter said:

Rocky_Ruud , just to add... You might find this thread helpful:

support.proboards.com/thread/579224/advertisements-over-audio

Specifically, this part of Scott 's post:

Apr 9, 2016 7:58:58 GMT -8 Scott said:

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.

I've been using ProBoards off and on for many years, and I can vouch for what he said. The ads on PB forums are not intrusive or annoying, but when they are, they are swiftly removed. ProBoards is second to none when it comes to dealing with ads.

---

Hey Scott , while I'm here and on topic, if ad blockers are against the ToS (link), how does that square with VS Admin 's statement that PB "will not prevent anyone who uses an ad blocker from visiting any ProBoards forums"?

The context there is that using ad-blockers will not prevent you from visiting ProBoards, which they don't. You just get a message about whitelisting us or purchasing PB+.

This doesn't change the fact that they're against the TOS.

[Former Member]

Jan 12, 2021 15:40:23 GMT -8 Michael said:

Jan 12, 2021 15:37:12 GMT -8 jcarter said:

Rocky_Ruud , just to add... You might find this thread helpful:

support.proboards.com/thread/579224/advertisements-over-audio

Specifically, this part of Scott 's post:

I've been using ProBoards off and on for many years, and I can vouch for what he said. The ads on PB forums are not intrusive or annoying, but when they are, they are swiftly removed. ProBoards is second to none when it comes to dealing with ads.

---

Hey Scott , while I'm here and on topic, if ad blockers are against the ToS (link), how does that square with VS Admin 's statement that PB "will not prevent anyone who uses an ad blocker from visiting any ProBoards forums"?

The context there is that using ad-blockers will not prevent you from visiting ProBoards, which they don't. You just get a message about whitelisting us or purchasing PB+.

This doesn't change the fact that they're against the TOS.

I had been under the impression that while a forum can't be designed or coded to block ads, members can use ad-blockers. Thanks for the clarification. Makes me feel better about a recent ban of someone who incessantly posted detailed instructions on how to block them and make the forum "as it should be."

[Rocky_Ruud]

I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this discussion.

This will certainly help us in our decision to move our Forum.