Pop ups, wtf

[mondhasen]

I submitted a request to the LJ group for some help or information with the pop up ads which appear when I sign on to my friends page using the iPad. I've only see this garbage in LJ since the recent ios updates. Vdopia is the ad company and at least it's not pr0n, but it is truly annoying and might be the final act that drives me off this site.



Even previewing this post triggered an ad.

Note: not seeing this trouble at all on the pc. Mozilla has scripts blocked, but IE does not.

Comments

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Haven't had these myself, but good on you for filing a request. From what little I know, websites usually don't buy ads directly; rather, they interact with brokers/aggregators (who in turn may do the same thing!), and it only takes one bad apple somewhere for a site to start showing ads it doesn't actually want to display. LJ may not even be aware of the issue, so hopefully letting them know will allow them to find out who's responsible and (directly or indirectly) cut ties with that ad provider.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

I've been in communication with LJ and by the response I imagine this is considered a problem at my end. I switched browsers tonight and will see how that goes. I had a similar problem on another forum last year, only that time it was pr0n ads, and very graphic. That was fixed after complaints by several users. I wish I could scan this tablet as easily as the pc.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

It might be on your end, of course, but on an Ipad? That sounds less likely to me.

Has this ever happened on any other devices? FWIW, can you borrow someone else's Ipad and see if it's also happening on theirs?

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

I don't have any other iPads at my disposal, and I wouldn't try to duplicate this if I did only because if this really is something living online I don't want it setting up a new home on the borrowed device as well.

Nothing went awry using Chrome, but I wasn't on it for long. Nothing shows up on my pc, or the work pc I am on now. If this is something via 'brokers/aggregators' then perhaps they'll sweep it away on their own (or under the proverbial rug). Vdopia boasts about its advertising capabilities, but nowhere have I seen anyone claim that they are actually a malware propagator. Android users complained about them in 2009, and that, too, was site specific: that particular site managed to resolve the issue.

Finally, not to drag this out, but I've had advertising issues with LJ in the past where the continuous background slow-loading ads would all but stop my page. No advertising pop'd up, but one could see in History where the pages were coming in: this was the death knell for my paid account. LJ didn't respond to my questions that time: it was after they had revamped last year. That issue was eventually resolved: one could still see the History but it wasn't slowing everything down.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

but I've had advertising issues with LJ in the past where the continuous background slow-loading ads would all but stop my page. No advertising pop'd up, but one could see in History where the pages were coming in: this was the death knell for my paid account.

You got advertising with a paid account? That should never happen.

Also, have you ever considered using an ad blocker?

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

I block ads in FireFox on the pc. Generally the ads on Safari aren't too bad, but Vdopia takes over the whole screen. So far I haven't seen the problem today in the ten minutes I've browsed LJ with Safari.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping it's fixed for good, then!