New Ad Type

I guess I'm just posting this because I want to make sure this isn't caused by some type of malware on my phone. I've noticed on a number of occasions now that after a forum page loads, Google Play opens up to a game download page. I'm totally supportive of monitizing the site and hopefully it is not malware on my phone, but it is one of the most annoying ad types I've come acrose.

I've been getting some ads that downloads something to my computer but then I delete it. Chrome automatically detects it as something potentially harmful. It hasn't done it in a few days though. This is the one site I disable AdBlock Plus on.

Occasionally I have the page suddenly switch to the app store and it's always a game to download.
I'm on mobile, either the iPad or the iPhone.

Yeah, that's super lame. These ads sometimes leak into the stream because ad networks often buy inventory from other networks to fill space. Obviously they can't monitor the quality that way, so there are times when crap sneaks in. Sometimes I can prevent it, sometimes I can't, but understand we're not putting that crap in front of you intentionally.

Thanks Jeff, I didn't think it was intentional.

This has been happening a lot to me on my phone, recently. Actually, just about every time I open the site, before I even click on anything it either opens up the App store, brings up an ad that takes me entirely away from the site (often the type that won't go away until you click "ok"), or both. It repeats any time I click a link, but often does it without me clicking anything at all.

Sometimes it stops if I wait awhile before touching the screen after I open the site or any of its pages. Very odd. Technology, amirite?

^Same thing happening here.

Same thing happens to me too. I had to reopen Pointbuzz twice before posting this comment.

Those ads are evil and make me immediately stop browsing PointBuzz. I have little patience for intrusive advertising.

Just putting that out there for what it's worth..

I've given up browsing this site on my mobile device. I have an ancient iPhone 4 though that may have an outdated browser that allows more ads to sneak through, but at it's worst it would continue to redirect me every time I reopened Safari to get back to the page I was viewing and it was impossible to read for more than 10 seconds without being redirected again. I believe it has been brought up before but I would certainly pay for an ad-free premium version of the site if that were possible and made fiscal sense. I just hate complaining about ads since I know how necessary they are for the site to operate.

Exactly- the ads aren't really a bother, to me. Just the unfortunate side effects. I hesitate to complain too much when I'm using a pretty rad site for free, on a device I can use while I'm, like, taking a bubble bath or sitting at the DMV [can we talk later about how spoiled we all are?]. It just sucks when it loses all functionality because of the weird, forceful glitches.

For now, I'll just stick to browsing on my laptop.

Yep, almost impossible to access this site on my phone due to ads popping up which ends up taking me away from the site.

topthrilldragster4lyf said:

Those ads are evil and make me immediately stop browsing PointBuzz. I have little patience for intrusive advertising.

Just putting that out there for what it's worth..

What is it that you suggest we do? We use Google as our first ad provider, which is generally clean ads, and when Google doesn't have an ad, it defaults to another provider. As best we can tell, they buy third-party remnant inventory and sometimes someone is able to sneak something in that will exhibit the behavior you're describing. We try to track it down, and it's a fruitless effort.

I'm not saying this to be confrontational, I'm just telling you how it is. You not browsing the site and us not having ads are essentially the same outcome. We can't keep the lights on for free. So what do you suggest?

Thanks for posting the question! I also thought there was something wrong with my phone.

I'm not the expert on advertising revenue, however this is one of few sites that I visit (not just regularly) that has ads that automatically either redirect you to another page or an app store. Nobody is telling you not to run ads to support the site, just that we do not appreciate this certain type of ads.

My point in mentioning that these ads drive me away wasn't to complain. It was to emphasize that people are turned off by these tactics which keeps them away from the site. I'm pretty sure that more, less obtrusive ads result in more revenue in the end, but again, I'm not an expert in this area. :)

Well no kidding. You aren't telling me anything we don't know. For years we've been trying to nail down ad providers that don't suck, and they all keep getting worse. We don't have a sales staff to self-sell ads.

It probably won't make anyone feel better, but I browse this site on an iPhone and I'm dealing with the same frustration everyone else is. When it happens, there's never enough information on my phone to track down which specific ad is the problem. And even if we could, I suspect it would just be a never-ending game of whack-a-mole.

We're not alone. Big websites like Reddit and Reuters have the same issue. I partially agree with this article - it's on Apple to fix. However, I think the ad networks need to step up as well.