Clicking on SDMB link redirects my mobile device to porn site (WAS: Should SDMB obey own rules?)

[Mangetout]

This is mostly a complaint about ads, but led me to wonder about a point of principle…

The SDMB has rules, quite a lot of them. Is it reasonable to say that if the SDMB membership is to be bound by these rules, then the visible manifestation (the mods, the admins and the board software itself) of the SDMB should lead the way?

Thus if we have a rule about the C word, it applies to members, mods and admins alike - and furthermore, the board software will never be configured to respond “you must wait 120 seconds between searches, you motherf*ing ct”.

Seems perfectly reasonable, and as far as I know, that’s actually how it works. One rule applies to all.

Except… ads don’t observe the two click NSFW rule.

Of course I dont even see the ads very often, because of my membership (and because of adblock on my own browser), but that’s not even the point - today, I happened to be using a borrowed machine, and a single click took me to a full page image of full frontal female nudity (actually, I don’t remember clicking at all, but the device is a tablet, so it could have happened when scrolling)

Now I don’t mind looking at naked women, although it’s a bit embarrassing when it happens on someone else’s ipad, but if the SDMB has a two click rule for members posting NSFW links, the board itself should observe the same rule.

Of course ads are external content, blah blah etc. Doesnt matter. When you embed something in your website, its effectively part of the site.

[engineer_comp_geek]

I am not at all involved with the advertising here, but I’m pretty sure we don’t allow pornographic advertisements.

Since this is the first that I have heard of pornographic advertising being delivered by the SDMB, my first thought is that the tablet in question is infected with malware. If that’s not the case, then it could be something like the DNS server of that ISP has been compromised and is adding content to some of the more unscrupulous pornographic sites in the internet. Another possibility is that one of the advertising servers has been compromised. It’s also possible that an advertiser pulled a switcheroo, signing up to serve perfectly fine ads to the ad brokers and then changing them after the fact to something more pornographic.

If anyone else is seeing this problem, please let us know ASAP. A single incident on a single tablet isn’t likely to be server related, but if others are experiencing this then it is much more likely to be server related.

In the meantime, I will check with those who actually do have some control over the advertising here to find out exactly what classes of advertising we do permit here.

[Justin_Bailey]

@engineer_comp_geek

I am not at all involved with the advertising here, but I’m pretty sure we don’t allow pornographic advertisements.

You would be wrong. On the this page right now I can see ads for…

“Female Athletes With Better Butts Than Kim Kardashian”
“Hottest Cheerleaders Showing Off A Little More Than Just Their Pom Poms”
“37 Hottest Bodies Painted! You Won’t Believe This…”
“40 Sexiest and Most Revealing Celebrity Selfies!”

These are most definitely not malware as they appear in the advertisements bar of the SDMB after the first post. Worst of all, I use AdBlock and they appear to be on that add-on’s “whitelist.”

[Bullitt]

@Justin_Bailey

You would be wrong. On the this page right now I can see ads for…

“Female Athletes With Better Butts Than Kim Kardashian”
“Hottest Cheerleaders Showing Off A Little More Than Just Their Pom Poms”
“37 Hottest Bodies Painted! You Won’t Believe This…”
“40 Sexiest and Most Revealing Celebrity Selfies!”

These are most definitely not malware as they appear in the advertisements bar of the SDMB after the first post. Worst of all, I use AdBlock and they appear to be on that add-on’s “whitelist.”

I don’t get those ads because of membership, but if that list is representative of the ads, that’s disgusting.

[engineer_comp_geek]

Since this seems to be affecting multiple machines, that makes a malware infection much less likely (unless Justin_Bailey’s machine just happens to be infected too).

I sent out a request to have someone with knowledge of the advertising here to look into this.

As for what ads get served, I don’t know their actual algorithms, but it is my understanding that they use a combination of things like the page content, tracking cookies on your PC, and your location (based on your IP). Since this thread mentions pornography, I would expect the ads displayed here to be significantly different than the ads displayed for a thread about puppies. I wouldn’t take the ads displayed on this particular thread to be representative of the ads displayed throughout the SDMB.

[Digital_is_the_new_Analog]

@Justin_Bailey

You would be wrong. On the this page right now I can see ads for…

“Female Athletes With Better Butts Than Kim Kardashian”
“Hottest Cheerleaders Showing Off A Little More Than Just Their Pom Poms”
“37 Hottest Bodies Painted! You Won’t Believe This…”
“40 Sexiest and Most Revealing Celebrity Selfies!”

These are most definitely not malware as they appear in the advertisements bar of the SDMB after the first post. Worst of all, I use AdBlock and they appear to be on that add-on’s “whitelist.”

If I read this page without logging in, and turning off my various adblock pieces, then I see a similar set of ads.
May I suggest that one of our mods or admins does a similar test on a regular basis, just as a sanity check on the system? Maybe once a week or once a month?

[Joey_P]

@engineer_comp_geek

Since this is the first that I have heard of pornographic advertising being delivered by the SDMB, my first thought is that the tablet in question is infected with malware.

Is that what Tuba teaches you to say when she hands over the jackboots and free mug.

You’ve been here nearly 14 years and this is the first time you’ve heard of pornographic advertising being delivered by the SDMB…something we’ve had countless problems and ATMB threads about over the years?

[samclem]

Just logged out and got the same ads you did.

Page source–

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd”>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv=“content-type” content=“text/html; charset=UTF-8” /><link rel=“stylesheet” type=“text/css” href=“http://staticd.cdn.adblade.com/css/zones/zone622.css”/>
<style type=“text/css”><!–
.zone, .ad, ul {background-color:#ffffff;} a.title {color:#000000;} a.title {font:#Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;} a.description {text-decoration:none;color: #4440e6;font:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;} a.description:hover { color:#e31b1b;text-decoration:underline;;} .zone { border: none; }
–></style>

</head>
<body>
<div class=“zone " ><h1>Trending Offers and Articles</h1><div class=“advlabel”>Advertisement</div><div class=“subzone”><div class=“nb” id=“nb1”>
<div class=“ad” >
<div class=“image”>
<a href=“http://web.adblade.com/clicks.php?appId=10351&zid=54873a9b8ce35&adId=160476&pos=1&impt=1419780326&zoneId=622&algid=1&reqid=52a460218b40d062&ord=1419780326&url=http%3A%2F%2Fboards.straightdope.com%2Fsdmb%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D744640” target=”_blank"> <img src=“http://staticd.cdn.adblade.com/banners/images/145x109/25748_54873add7ca01.gif” border=“0” /> </a>
</div>
<div class=“text”><a href=“http://web.adblade.com/clicks.php?appId=10351&zid=54873a9b8ce35&adId=160476&pos=1&impt=1419780326&zoneId=622&algid=1&reqid=52a460218b40d062&ord=1419780326&url=http%3A%2F%2Fboards.straightdope.com%2Fsdmb%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D744640” target=“_blank” class=“description”>37 Hottest Bodies Painted! You Won’t Believe This… </a></div></div></div><div class=“nb” id=“nb2”>
<div class=“ad” >

Something called adblade

[Mangetout]

The ads I saw were: One with a full page nude. Don’t recall the intent, as I closed it real fast, but I also recently (on my own tablet, which I do not keep logged into the SDMB by default) got an ad that took me to a page called 'Find horny singles in your area - better than fuckbook" that had an image (a line drawing like a textbook diagram) graphically depicting penetrative sex. Again, I did not deliberately click on this - so it either launched itself, or it could have been a fat finger problem when I was scrolling.

I’m not actually concerned for my own sake, as I’m a grownup and in any case, seldom see the ads anyway, but just feel these are out of keeping with the intent of the board, especially, as I say, in view of the two-click rule that applies to posts.

[Joey_P]

@Joey_P

Is that what Tuba teaches you to say when she hands over the jackboots and free mug.

You’ve been here nearly 14 years and this is the first time you’ve heard of pornographic advertising being delivered by the SDMB…something we’ve had countless problems and ATMB threads about over the years?

Okay, that might have been a bit harsh and looking back, there might not have been ‘countless’ threads, but certainly some, here’s two I found quickly:

when did we start getting porn ads?

Anyone else getting porno google ads?

To be honest, what bugged me more was the very quick ‘it’s not us, it’s you, we don’t know what you’re talking about, nope, doesn’t happen here. Ads? Us? What’s a straight dope?’

[samclem]

@Joey_P

To be honest, what bugged me more was the very quick ‘it’s not us, it’s you, we don’t know what you’re talking about, nope, doesn’t happen here. Ads? Us? What’s a straight dope?’

I think you’re mischaracterizing what engineer_comp_geek posted.

He seemed(to me) to be offering suggestions as to the possibilities.

[Digital_is_the_new_Analog]

@engineer_comp_geek

As for what ads get served, I don’t know their actual algorithms, but it is my understanding that they use a combination of things like the page content, tracking cookies on your PC, and your location (based on your IP). Since this thread mentions pornography, I would expect the ads displayed here to be significantly different than the ads displayed for a thread about puppies. I wouldn’t take the ads displayed on this particular thread to be representative of the ads displayed throughout the SDMB.

I opened up an incognito window without logging in, and turned off my ad blockers. Went to the Test, Chess board thread.

Ads showing include:
“Female Athletes With Better Butts Than Kim Kardashian”
“Hottest Cheerleaders Showing Off A Little More Than Just Their Pom Poms”
“37 Hottest Bodies Painted! You Won’t Believe This…”

I then tried Are parents in kid’s shows always absentee/neglectful?

I got:
“40 Sexiest and Most Revealing Celebrity Selfies!”
“Biggest Cheerleader Wardrobe Fails!”
“20 Most Embarrassing Wardrobe Malfunctions of All Time!”
I’d also note that even if it were true that these ads were showing up because of thread content, they seem likely to violate the two click rule. I don’t know for sure - I’m not about to click on any of the links.

[Digital_is_the_new_Analog]

@samclem

I think you’re mischaracterizing what engineer_comp_geek posted.

He seemed(to me) to be offering suggestions as to the possibilities.

Let me preface this with the comment that I have a lot of respect for ECG’s knowledge and his service as a mod. And he admitted up front that he isn’t involved with the ad process, and has since requested some assistance from those who are. I don’t mean this as an attack on him in any way - just my view on why some might feel he was quick on the trigger on his response this time.

Based on past history, I’d say it’s way more likely that we have bad ads on SDMB than an infected DNS server. We’ve had that problem periodically. Heck, we’ve been flagged by Google as serving malware in the past.

In this case, I’d have rather seen two minutes of experimentation to see if it was happening before what is widely perceived (regardless of the intent) as the party line of “It’s probably the users fault.”

[Joey_P]

@samclem

I think you’re mischaracterizing what engineer_comp_geek posted.

He seemed(to me) to be offering suggestions as to the possibilities.

He might have been, but he seemed(to me) to be suggesting that it wasn’t us, it was him.

Perhaps, in the future, the mods could just go to the page in question (as three other people here did) and say ‘oh, you’re right, I’ll see what I can do’ instead of just dismissing it as being malware on the users computer as has been status quo (unless you have a screen shot, a time, date, three forms of ID and Ed is awake at the controls that day) for as long as we’ve had ads here.

I guess it would be nice if the mods would just believe the users when they say ‘I’m getting bad ads’ instead of just blowing them off’.

Either way, I’ll say it again, as I do in all these threads, AdBlock Plus, it’ll knock them out.

ETA, I see D/a said pretty much the same thing I did.

[dropzone]

@engineer_comp_geek

Since this thread mentions pornography, I would expect the ads displayed here to be significantly different than the ads displayed for a thread about puppies.

The algorithms don’t know the difference between asking for pornography and asking for less pornography, so they default to the internet norm. I think we need a different ad service, one more tuned to mixed, adult company. This one is obviously inappropriate for the market and will generate fewer click-throughs, earning the SDMB less money.

[Clothahump]

@dropzone

The algorithms don’t know the difference between asking for pornography and asking for less pornography, so they default to the internet norm.

And that would be Nothing But Pornography.

[Ed_Zotti]

@Mangetout

The ads I saw were: One with a full page nude. Don’t recall the intent, as I closed it real fast, but I also recently (on my own tablet, which I do not keep logged into the SDMB by default) got an ad that took me to a page called 'Find horny singles in your area - better than fuckbook" that had an image (a line drawing like a textbook diagram) graphically depicting penetrative sex. Again, I did not deliberately click on this - so it either launched itself, or it could have been a fat finger problem when I was scrolling.

I’m not actually concerned for my own sake, as I’m a grownup and in any case, seldom see the ads anyway, but just feel these are out of keeping with the intent of the board, especially, as I say, in view of the two-click rule that applies to posts.

We run an ad service called AdBlade that often features photos of scantily clad celebrities; I won’t claim this is the most elevating material in the world, but it’s not pornography, and in any case what you can see in the initial ad box is a thumbnail that shows very little. The only full nudity I’ve seen is a series of photos of women in trompe l’oeil body paint; again, I don’t think most people would describe this as pornography, and the initial ad box shows an unrevealing thumbnail only - you have to click on it to see more. So in general the ads don’t violate our rules.

If you’re seeing nudity in an ad without clicking anything, pls provide more detail - I haven’t noticed this personally. Likewise, references to fuckbook, diagrams of penetrative sex and so on - this isn’t supposed to be happening. Please send a Windows screen capture of the offending material if possible and we’ll beef to our ad provider.

[Revenant_Threshold]

@Ed_Zotti

We run an ad service called AdBlade that often features photos of scantily clad celebrities; I won’t claim this is the most elevating material in the world, but it’s not pornography, and in any case what you can see in the initial ad box is a thumbnail that shows very little. The only full nudity I’ve seen is a series of photos of women in trompe l’oeil body paint; again, I don’t think most people would describe this as pornography, and the initial ad box shows an unrevealing thumbnail only - you have to click on it to see more. So in general the ads don’t violate our rules.

I’m having a little trouble parsing this, my fault though I’m sure; are you saying that the ad boxes show very little, and also that even when clicked there’s no pornographic content to be found there?

[hajario]

@Ed_Zotti

We run an ad service called AdBlade that often features photos of scantily clad celebrities; I won’t claim this is the most elevating material in the world, but it’s not pornography, and in any case what you can see in the initial ad box is a thumbnail that shows very little. The only full nudity I’ve seen is a series of photos of women in trompe l’oeil body paint; again, I don’t think most people would describe this as pornography, and the initial ad box shows an unrevealing thumbnail only - you have to click on it to see more. So in general the ads don’t violate our rules.

Wouldn’t it violate the “two click” rule? Of course, no one should be surprised about what they get if they intentionally click on one of those links but the rule is there, at least partially, to prevent inadvertent clicks.

[Ed_Zotti]

@Revenant_Threshold

I’m having a little trouble parsing this, my fault though I’m sure; are you saying that the ad boxes show very little, and also that even when clicked there’s no pornographic content to be found there?

Yes. As I said, one of the photo series shows apparently naked women in body paint; possibly this is the “full page nude” referred to above. More commonly the photos show a lot of cleavage but that’s about it.