[Closed] Pop-up & redirects are back

Yes. I started a thread last week sometime. It's annoying.

URLs and screenshots would be helpful.

Funnily enough I had one from the adblock thread. Websites a joke, glad a cancelled my P years ago.

Was viewing the forum earlier while waiting for some friends to turn up for lunch and a redirect crashed my phone! Wouldn't reboot without giving me an error message and launching in a restricted mode. Currently doing a factory reset on it then reinstalling from a backup. The redirect was the one that warns your phone is infected then going to the Play store for an antivirus download when you exit out of it. This issue is a complete and utter joke now.

Was on a Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo while on wifi if that helps in any way.

Nope.

screenshot from just now

[img] ?raw=1[/img]

I had the same as Milky. Redirect to "virus" then playstore. I always kill the browser as quickly as possible.

Cheers. I've notified tech.

[img] [/img]

As as I understand it STW sign up to ad networks which then deliver their ads and these networks occasionally deliver this shit. It's the job of the ad network to prevent this so I don't understand why they don't just drop that network as clearly there is as issue

Or is the problem that there is an ad company on top of that so STW don't have any control of their networks :(. In any case it's completely crap

Just had same thing on Moto 2 running Android 6 whilst browsing chat thread. Don't have web pic hosting but warning and URL looks similar to above (edited so not posting full link to a viral pop up!)

http://us.czwx.date/tlp/0_index0.php?brand=Motorola&model=Moto%20G%204G%20(2nd%20Gen)&ip...

I've been getting loads like hatter posted. Use the forum less now because of it.

I’ve suggested this every time this subject pops up...
Has anyone tried using a different search engine in their browser? I don’t use Google, I use DuckDuckGo as my default, although that might go against the grain for anyone using Android, which is a Google product after all...

A different search engine wouldn't have any effect on browser pop-ups once you're on a sight though, Count.

If you do end up on the Play Store, scrolling to the bottom of the page reveals a "report this app for inappropriate content" link.

I keep getting the same as Hatter's screenshot. Moto G5. Please sort it out.

Just had it again, please sort it out it's flippin' annoying.

Just had a similar experience to the above - scrolling through a page whilst it was loading, then the virus warning popped up, then Google Play appeared, offering an app. The url that appeared was http-clinkadtrackingDOTcom/tracking?camp=50947167&pubid=3673&sid=(then a load of session ID numbers). This was on an Android phone.
(Edited to break the URL!)

*waiting to be victim blamed*

My credit card for my subs has lapsed so I'm back to ads and just had that virus alert 3 times I the last 5 minutes. Now I can see what all the plebs are moaning about 😉
Sort it out please, starting with using ditching the offending ad network

Did I miss the bit where someone from STW apologised?

You might've missed the bit where it's Christmas and New Year, and people have lives and families.

As as I understand it STW sign up to ad networks which then deliver their ads and these networks occasionally deliver this shit. It's the job of the ad network to prevent this so I don't understand why they don't just drop that network as clearly there is as issue

Or is the problem that there is an ad company on top of that so STW don't have any control of their networks :(. In any case it's completely crap

It's the former. Mark explained this at length on a previous thread (and I've seen it in action first-hand).

There are several ad networks, and there's an algorithm which offers you the 'premium' adverts first. The ones which are specific advertising campaigns and such like. As you revisit the site, it rolls over to the secondary networks, and so on. It's the lower-quality ads that can be problematic occasionally. And ad networks [i]do[/i] get dropped and changed around.

So theoretically at least, the people most affected are potentially the heaviest users of the forum, or (I'm speculating now) people who are blocking advertising cookies so the site has no notion of what it's already served. Deleting your cookies for the site might fix it for a while if you're a heavy user.

No doubt everyone's going to disagree with me that that's not how it works for them, but that's my understanding.

Just had it again, please sort it out it's flippin' annoying.

You're a Premier user, you can opt out of the advertising. Click the Premier option on the menu bar and change your settings.

Does P stand for [i]Premier [/i]or for [i]Protection Racket[/i]?

Cougar I know you're doing your best, but it would have taken hardly any more time at all to make a slightly less terse response than this:

URLs and screenshots would be helpful.

There are no other sites I use regularly where this keeps being a problem (hmm actually there might be one or two dodgy video streaming sites that are [i]nearly[/i] as bad 😆 ) - I've been away from here for months and come back and it's STILL happening. I'm not having a go at you, but it is pretty crap really.

There are several ad networks, and there's an algorithm which offers you the 'premium' adverts first.

It's doing it again, crashed my phone. Please bring back the Russian brides ads, they were better than this virus shit. Jesus h christ ive never used a website with such spammy Shite-guff as this, it's an embarrassment.

So why is it affecting some people and not everyone? It appears more prevalent for non-premier users but some premier users are affected.

Is it targeted at a particular device or version of the OS or similar?

Cougar: I don't think blocking advertising/third party cookies has anything to do with it, it's one of the first things I set up in a browser and I haven't had a single popup/redirect on any device.

it would have taken hardly any more time at all to make a slightly less terse response than this:

What would you rather I said? "URLs and screenshots would be helpful, [b]please[/b]"? (-:

There's not much else I can say. There's nothing we can do about it and posting a thread going "I'm getting a pop-up" tells us absolutely nothing. It's like taking your car to a mechanic going "it's got a fault."

There are no other sites I use regularly where this keeps being a problem

I can assure you that any other commercial sites you use as heavily as STW which are supported by advertising to pay wages will have this problem.

it is pretty crap really.

I don't disagree.

So why is it affecting some people and not everyone? It appears more prevalent for non-premier users but some premier users are affected.

Premier users have the option to opt-out of advertising, those who do so are unlikely to be affected by a rogue advert.

Cougar: I don't think blocking advertising/third party cookies has anything to do with it, it's one of the first things I set up in a browser and I haven't had a single popup/redirect on any device.

Dunno then. As I said, I was speculating.

This website is the worst website I use for this problem and that includes porn sites. The fact that it is far worse than any other site makes me think that there is more that the owners could be doing to prevent it. I am considering sacking it off for good, if the forum wasnt so useful I would have done ages ago

Its quaint that any of you thinks anyone cares,the forums for advertising cash,they just put up with and laugh and you guys 🙂

Sure, that's exactly how it works.

It appears more prevalent for non-premier users but some premier users are affected.

I've had the one that hatter posted above 3x today....

Ive been getting this and also adverts for some kind of magnetic pants 😯

@countzero - I use Google as my search engine and don't get the popups so it's not entirely down to that. My iOS devices are fairly old so can't run the latest versions of the OS. The only ad related problem I get on them is the occasional "Unable to complete the operation" popup which is probably an ad using a new feature in Javascript that the installed engine can't cope with.

There's not much else I can say. There's nothing we can do about it and posting a thread going "I'm getting a pop-up" tells us absolutely nothing. It's

So do something useful and state what device and OS and browser you have the problems on.

Just saying it's crap is, well, crap and about as much use in sorting it out as a chocolate fireguard or a fishnet condom.

Moto G5, chrome.

It's taken me 4 attempts to open this thread due to the popups.

This
https://ibb.co/iBpVhG

Which leads to this
https://ibb.co/hoiO2G

I don't have this problem on any other website.

You're a premier user, you shouldn't have it on this site either. You can opt out of advertising.

So leave off with the nothing can be done crap.

That's not what I said. I said there's nothing "we" - ie, the moderation team - can do.

You're a premier user, you shouldn't have it on this site either. You can opt out of advertising.

There are no other sites I use regularly where this keeps being a problem

You aren't a visitor to road.cc then? They don't even acknowledge it as an issue

Wrong. They deal with it properly.

http://road.cc/content/page/227406-reporting-annoying-or-intrusive-adverts-roadcc

[quote=ransos ]
I keep getting logged out. Something else that hasn't been fixed.

no pop up ads, but by golly jingo the regular logout is so annoying

The sooner your snowflakes realise the powers that be don't care about your whining the better you'll be.

For a more productive time, try herding cats or nailing some fog to the wall.

I've had this a lot recently (I'm talking weeks), and ironically twice while reading this thread! I havent bothered reporting it as I always love the almost unapologetic "its your own fault for not being a premium member" tone of the mods whenever this topic crops up 😉

I don't want to be a premium member but I will donate occasionally when I sell stuff on here. And no, I don't get this on any other big sites (pinkbike for example). I don't mind the ads usually even though they catastrophically slow the site down at times, but for these to be popping up for so long with nothing done (does anyone do regular testing?), shows a distinctly disinterested attitude by the tech team to what must be their main revenue stream.

Oh, and it's a oneplus 5 using a chrome browser if that's any use...

(No, I have no life at 11.30pm on NYE either)

Wrong. They deal with it properly.

Just had it again while reading this. I'm off to pinkbike for a bit. Maybe post a stickie on the top of the forum if you can ever be bothered to sort it out

can assure you that any other commercial sites you use as heavily as STW which are supported by advertising to pay wages will have this problem.

Nope. I go weeks at a time not visiting here as
1) I'm more of a roadie now
2) this is the ONLY site it happens on so the issues tend to drive me away.

When I do tend to browse here it's at work, on an archaic IT system with all sorts of restrictions and blockers - I regularly get 'stop long running script' and recover warnings there. On my phone I suffer these viral pop ups.

Aaaand literally as I posted the above I got hit with another one

http://us.grot.date/tlp/0_index0.php?brand=Motorola&model=Moto%20G%204G%20(2nd%20Gen)etc

I'm off, see you in March.

I was having a mooch about and the page turned into one of those "your mobile is riddled with viruses" and a pop-up I couldn't get rid of. That's the kind of crap I would expect from dodgy gentlemens sites, not a mountain bike forum.

I get the need for advertising, but perhaps funnel some of that cash in to some security against this stuff

I dont know why I bother to post this , but I guess its in the vain hope that someone at STW will actually bother to sort this out - They havent so far despite repeated reporting by many different people of this issue over the last year or so.

I'm getting these popups and redirects too, its exceptionally annoying and will lead to people leaving the site , not to mention the exceptionally unprofessional/dodgy impression it gives you of the site itself.

This has been happening for ages now , no other sites I visit have this issue, it needs to be sorted ASAP.

This website is a business , it not like its run by the local village community fete team who havent a clue what a computer is, why is this issue not being dealt with?

I'm a premium member but got it last night when logged in. How does that work?

I’m only wading in on this because STW forum has suffered redirects and pop ups for yonks, there have been plenty of single threads detailing the issues and plenty of folk asking for a sticky thread which would contain all the issues a single place/location where every issue could be captured and contained and possibly dealt with..

So..

Why no sticky thread ?

It seems logical, however by making a sticky thread does open up that STW accepts redirects and pop ups occur very frequently, and users are affected.. which might not be in the interest of the owners to admit too.

Total speculation but I wonder if the dodgy ad servers pay better? Would explain the reluctance to get rid of them.

Been a couple of years since I witnessed the death of a popular forum... 🙂

I don't have pop ups or adverts, but it's a little slow today, instead of 2s it's 7-8s each time a open a page.

Android latest version using Chrome

Suddenly gone very slow for me as well. The change to slowness happened this afternoon. I'll get about ten seconds of a completely black window before the thread appears. (Or I hit submit)

I don't know why 'they' punish us with these low-rent ad networks...its the barrel scraping advertisers that pay a pittance, surely ST is not desperate for cashflow that they need to stoop to these levels?

If the site is propping up a hugely loss making office/magazine business then perhaps eeking out every penny of ad revenue is not really the answer.

If they really do need to use these ad networks, can they not just be served to guests, i.e. those that login become little P's that do not have to suffer the popups. I even had one the other day that started issuing a verbal warning about viruses, had to reboot the phone as my browser was auto-loading my recently closed tabs.

The hamster has clearly been overfed and is running very slow today, and I'm 'P' so no ads.

Yup been sluggish for a few hours tonight, guess their hamsters are hungover.

Chrome on Android and sloooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Also the pop up as earlier in the thread.

28.1% infected and my phone is critically infected.

(a) I'm happy to pay the pittance required to stop the ads and I think it's remarkably cheap of some folk to grudge it, especially those who are regular users.

(b) I visit other forums and websites that I don't subscribe to as I don't use them regularly but I don't have these intrusive ads. That means it IS possible to select ad networks of a higher quality.

(c) I really don't care about the "high quality journalism" on STW, especially in a mag I don't read in either paper or electronic format. Sorry, but I can't see why the forum should subsidise the mag, if that is what is happening.

The fact that this has been going on for years without resolution suggests that it has become an acceptable part of the business model. No sticky, and relying on the regular intervention of the mods, merely helps to confirm this.

OK, I've had enough.

My phone has just been compromised [i][b]again[/b][/i] by rogue ads from this site. No screenshot as the phone is stuck showing the rogue page and not responding whatsoever but the address it's gone to is us.grot.date/tip/(then my phone model followed by my name in full). I'll have to do another factory reset as I cannot guarantee the phone is safe.

For the love of God sort this out! This place is full of useful information [b]provided by the forum users[/b] and I have been a regular user for the last few years. While I have not had a P I have helped you by generating a lot of ad revenue, it was only recently that I have used an ad blocker on my laptop due to the ads sucking the life out of my laptop's CPU. My phone has not had one installed as it was bearable on there and I mainly accessed here on there anyway. Now it's painfully slow and continuously causing me grief so I can safely say I will no longer be visiting for the foreseeable future.

I will reiterate again that this is the only site I have problems of this kind on.

I hope everyone has a great 2018 and that the tech bods do finally get a grip on this issue but as of now I won't be visiting again. Hopefully this won't happen:

Been a couple of years since I witnessed the death of a popular forum...

Perhaps those whining about how the Powers That Be can’t be arsed to do anything about their issues might like to explain how and why it is I never get these problems, and I’ve posted exactly what devices, OS and browser/ search engine I use.
Seeing as how I’ve got no explanation as to why I don’t get them, and people like Cougar don’t seem to know, and it appears there are plenty of other members don’t seem to either, then bitching about it seems to serve no useful purpose, does it.
I just don’t have these issues, haven’t for ages, and I made just one change, swapping Google for DuckDuckGo as the default search in Safari.
Explain, please, because I can’t.

Total speculation but I wonder if the dodgy ad servers pay better?

Quite the opposite, AIUI. And they aren't "dodgy servers" so much as they have lower quality control than other networks so rogues accidentally slip through occasionally. "Hey, let's sign up to a dodgy ad network for the luls" said no-one ever.

I don't know why 'they' punish us with these low-rent ad networks...its the barrel scraping advertisers that pay a pittance, surely ST is not desperate for cashflow that they need to stoop to these levels?

I think it's more to do with trying to avoid serving the same ads repetitively. But I'm not 100% sure TBH.

The hamster has clearly been overfed and is running very slow today, and I'm 'P' so no ads.

The last I heard was that the hosting provider was suffering from Denial of Service attacks. Unrelated to this issue and outside of STW's control short of changing providers.

@CountZero - it isn't clear why you don't get these issues but assuming that you do see ads then the best guess is that you are both using an Apple device that doesn't seem to get served these ads as well as not being such a heavy user so you don't get down to the bottom of the barrel ads where these lie. As far as I can see all of the problems are on Android devices. I've never had any of these problems either even when I'm not logged in and am seeing ads so I'm not sure DuckDuckGo and IOS by itself is enough. I normally use Win10, Chrome and Google

It is interesting though but it's not clear that it is the solution

The last I heard was that the hosting provider was suffering from Denial of Service attacks.

Why not sticky this info while the forum is almost unusable?
I'm sure STW's customers would appreciate it.

As far as I can see all of the problems are on Android devices.

It's been iPhones too

Oddly, on my android I've only ever had the pop-ups when clicking on images hosted by imageshack.

I haven't even had that in months.

Forum had been slow tonight (normal now) but that's not the norm for me. Usually speed is ok.

Still getting the virus pop ups today

Pretty obvious they (not Cougar) don’t give a shit really Which is weird when it’s drivIng people away from the site. Guess they get enough new visits that it doesn’t matter.

Redirects on Android a lot at the moment for me, including a highly entertaining/annoying example- must have left a STW page open, went for a ride, something woke it up enough for a redirect and my camelbak started warning me I had a virus or somesuch. Took about 10 minutes of 'how fast can you open Chrome and close a tab' before I could get it to shut up. Not using STW on phone at the moment (oh, the horror).

Summary- Chrome, Android, no, I won't try and get a screenshot without half locking up my phone!

Android, Chrome.
Fine if logged in, instant redirect if not.

My phone often runs out of charge so I log in quite a lot.

They do give a shit grum to, they're never happy when this happens.

Yesterday on my Android phone I was getting redirected to a virus scam page telling me download something or other.Happened on every topic page after about 2 mins of browsing so gave up trying.

Drac - Moderator
They do give a shit grum to, they're never happy when this happens.

I’d agree with that, they really can’t be happy at all.

I mean, we moan like billyo when it happens because we’re used to them.. but think of all those new users or users who visit the site once, maybe twice every year to read an article, or those that are unique one hit users that get the redirects and popups..

B’aint nevva coming back are they.. and they’ll spread the word “have you been on the mountain bike site STW? Don’t bother I got popups and redirects to porn sites and virus scan pages.. took me ages to get the damn things off the phone/device”
As an example.

I can understand the frustration of trying to use a free forum, and the wealth of knowledge and information that it contains, and the reluctance to pay for that service. Even the fact that the owners are sat laughing at those effected, whilst rolling in their dirty, filthy, ill-gotten gains from he advertising revenue.

Just support the forum by buying a "P" and never get advertised at again.

Mark? If you can find time between glugging champagne and deciding on your new yacht could you find one of the minions to work out the following?

I wonder how many Premier memberships it would take to turn the forum into a no advertising part of the website?

B’aint nevva coming back are they.. and they’ll spread the word “have you been on the mountain bike site STW? Don’t bother I got popups and redirects to porn sites and virus scan pages.. took me ages to get the damn things off the phone/device”
As an example.

That’s a real threat yes but casual visitors won’t be hit by them, Cougar explains these rogue ads pop up when a a visitor has attracted the other ads that aren’t effected it’s one reason why some people are effected more than others.