[Closed] Pop up video ad

I feel your pain mate, occasionally I get logged out and it's not pretty on my mobile.Lol

Honestly not being a dick here, for me it's a good investment to be a digital member of STW, worth confusing anyway.

I know outs not something everyone can or would want to do but it's so cheap it makes sense for me anyway.

On a more positive note, you didn't wake your wife up with pornhub noises, so it could be worse.😉

It's something I've considered. I've a few too many other subscriptions and outgoings at the moment so need to weigh the the value of any new ones very carefully.

The decision would be easier if I was confident it would give me access to a slicker interface and better functionality all round. If I do sign up, it will be access to the magazine which swings it I think.

Fair point on pornhub. According to a mate, he would remember to mute his phone in such a hypothetical situation 🙂

My missus would think I was less of a weirdo if she caught me looking at porn than she does seeing me interacting with random people on a cycling forum.

Thanks for reporting it Ad issues get looked at pretty quickly as it’s ‘easier’ to resolve normally. @mark will hopefully take a peak.

Did you report what it was advertising as this will help track it.

Thanks Drac. I think it was a car advert of some sort when I reported it (3 or 4 days ago btw), but I may not have mentioned that on the report form.

Thanks. Have you seen it anymore since?

@drac - I just popped on the forum and had a pop-up / noisy ad from PayPal appear at the bottom of the screen. I wasn't logged in at the time (though I was 30 minutes ago).

I've had it a few times recently. One was a Bentley Bentayga ad. Ads, fair enough, even video ads, but they should at least be muted

Thanks. Have you seen it anymore since?

Last night it happened, but I managed to close it before I got an elbow in the ribs so didn't clock what ad it was. Today to be fair, I am still getting the video pop up (a Bentley ad), but the sound seems to be muted by default which is great 👍

Praise where it's due, thanks to whoever sorted that out 🙂

I am getting them constantly, about every minute and at times every 30 seconds. Bentley, mg cars, some health supplements. I did report it about a month ago I think but to be fair I thought it was just me as no one had posted up! I don't mind ads at all but they are dreadful. Also I'm the last person to want a Bentley 😅
They are crazy loud too! On my phone they cover half the screen

Thanks guys I’ll report this back.

Something is clearly wrong with the delivery here. We always specify muted ads on video. I am waiting for a response from the provider now and we'll get it sorted asap.

Cheers Mark

They appear to be muted for me now 👍

I had this this afternoon but I had a million tabs open so it took a while.

Noisy websites reminds me of Geocities (midistylee), which reminds me of this website convertor which regrettably doesn't work with STW. Have a go anyway. Under Construction fun!!

https://www.wonder-tonic.com/geocitiesizer/

EDIT - have pinkbike instead - https://www.wonder-tonic.com/geocitiesizer/content.php?theme=1&music=1&url=http://www.pinkbike.com

Good grief that’s a reminder I didn’t need to see.

Same here. Chrome on android. Haven't seen it on opera.

vid-io-cle.springserve.com
??????????????????????????

And another just now for PayPal. As above, Chrome on Android

Happened to me whilst browsing without being logged in.

Seems to be a Singletrack advert (starts with some sort of greeny/black map looking panning video with a drum and cymbal music overlay), but Edge blocks it due to taking too many resources before I can find it and screen grab.

Windows 10 fully up to date and Edge browser.

Follow on from the above.

It is definitely the latest STW video advert and although the audio now no longer comes on automatically, the Edge browser deems the advert too hungry to display more than 4 seconds.

This is the screen it leaves.

[url= https://i.postimg.cc/5jkYvYyj/Edge-closed-ad.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/5jkYvYyj/Edge-closed-ad.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

My laptop is a half decent i7 with 16GB ram from a few years ago and kept clean. I wouldn't expect a small video to be that much of a resource hog (nothing other than Edge running).

If admin/devs want more info I'd be happy to share, although not over the public forum.

Even subscribing doesn't stop the ****ing things.
You'd think they'd manage to design a website (like many others) that auto logs you in with your details.
But no. So every time I visit here I'm logged off, then one of the stupid ****ing video ads pops up at full **** volume, and often that freezes my phone, so I have to close the window and try again.
It's shit.

every time I visit here I’m logged off

Which  is a different issue. I log on about once a month?

Which is a different issue. I log on about once a month?

No, I'd say it's all linked.
Either poor website design or management leads to intrusive ads and a system that won't keep you logged in.

On my iMac, windows laptop and phone I have the same logging in issue. Google remembers my details, but I'm logged out every time.

Only reason I'm not getting the popups on my computer is I'm running ad-blocker.
STW is far and away the site with most blocked popups. About 30 per visit according to the log.

We have no popups on the site. Not even house popups.

The site is Wordpress 5.6 (soon to be updated to 5.7) the login cookie is standard wordpress with a default 2week lifespan. If your device has any restrictions on any wordpress cookies then this could be the issue. We are literally running the user login authentication as out of the box wordpress as it comes.

The browser shutting down hungry ads is become ever more common across the web. This is very good thing. The providers of that ad campaign will be noticing the delivery and response rates are tanking and they are wasting their money on it. They will adjust their next campaign to be lighter on browsers because if they don't their ads won't be seen.

The ad market is changing because browsers are forcing them too. It's also declining in terms of what it pays to publishers. I am looking forward to the day they are pointless and we can turn them off. In the meantime.. Join us and fund what we do so that ads don't have to.

Is the video ad still causing sound issues to anyone still? The provider is aware of the issue and I'm hoping they have fixed it. They are supplied by Vidoomy if anyone wants to google who they are.

Is the video ad still causing sound issues to anyone still? The provider is aware of the issue and I’m hoping they have fixed it

Happened to me this morning, about 8 am.

Only reason I’m not getting the popups on my computer is I’m running ad-blocker.
STW is far and away the site with most blocked popups. About 30 per visit according to the log.

It’s possible you’ve also blocked the script that keeps you logged in too.

the login cookie is standard wordpress with a default 2week lifespan.

... with a bug I told Andy about way back pre-upgrade which overwrites the persistent cookie with a session cookie. Which could be wholly unrelated to this issue of course, I don't know for certain, but it was still there the last time I looked.

It’s possible you’ve also blocked the script that keeps you logged in too.

I've posited this for years also. "When I install a bunch of plugins which piss about with website functionality the forum doesn't work properly." Well, film at 11.

Just heard back from Vidoomy, they have added a fix to ensure the ads don't start unmuted.

Let me know if that fix is percolating through.

I have an update on the logging out issue from tech. It's techy..

The login cookie is standard and default, but as Cougar pointed out it is sometimes being overwritten by a session cookie.

Session cookies are initiated by a limited number of the plugins we have on the site and with these plugins being vital to the function of the site it means a fix is far from simple. One way would be to remove the plugins that initiate a session cookie. For example one plugin that starts a session cookie is the Ultimate members plugin that manages many of the members functionality of the site. Also, some of the plugins that we use in the shop are on that list. The plugin that manages the downloads in our members mag archive are also on the list.

I'm told we could alter the code in the plugins that set session cookies but this would remove them from the ability for us to implement updates to them from their respective developers. Every update would overwrite our fix and plugins are updated all the time.

This doesn't mean it can't be solved but it's not trivial. It's laid out as a task in our project plan which is based on tasks and development that are deemed high priority. This bug is a few months away currently.

We have no popups on the site. Not even house popups.

Thats the sort of pedantic semantics my development team do which mean I stop them talking to customers. You have hover over or whatever you call them - ads which sit on top of content. If you don't think you do - you need to go and test your site on some fairly standard set ups.

The site is WordPress 5.6 (soon to be updated to 5.7) the login cookie is standard wordpress with a default 2week lifespan. If your device has any restrictions on any wordpress cookies then this could be the issue. We are literally running the user login authentication as out of the box wordpress as it comes.

The browser shutting down hungry ads is become ever more common across the web. This is very good thing. The providers of that ad campaign will be noticing the delivery and response rates are tanking and they are wasting their money on it. They will adjust their next campaign to be lighter on browsers because if they don’t their ads won’t be seen

. Personally I think that's a pretty weak answer: "The web will fix this for us so that the people who pay us learn not to piss off the user". Presumably there are rules either with you or your agency for what ads can and can't do - if they are abusing those rules you need to toughen up, not wait for the entire browser industry to clamp down on it.

I am looking forward to the day they are pointless and we can turn them off. In the meantime.. Join us and fund what we do so that ads don’t have to.

you had this customer as P member years ago but failed to make the login properly persistent (it still isn't IME - and I don't have any plugin installed or any blockers running that will conflict with it) so why would I assume I'm going to benefit more now.

Is the video ad still causing sound issues to anyone still? The provider is aware of the issue and I’m hoping they have fixed it. They are supplied by Vidoomy if anyone wants to google who they are.

I've not noticed it this afternoon - but I have seen a few "ad boxes" which are just plain white - perhaps a blocked ad?

I do persistently notice an issue on iOS (Safari) on an iPhone7 when trying to write a reply/post that the phone gets hot (so is obviously doing some serious work) and then if its a long reply it will crash the page and reload. Been happening for months. You are missing out on content because of it. I'm so frustrated by it that I rarely reply on my phone now.

The login cookie is standard and default, but as Cougar pointed out it is sometimes being overwritten by a session cookie.

FYI, I have http://singletrackmag.com/wp-login.php?redirect_to=forum/forum/off-topic bookmarked. This takes me to the Chat forum* if I'm logged in and to the login page if I'm not. But in the former case it also overwrites the persistent cookie with a session cookie. I give zero damns about this behaviour personally because Chrome does something froody with regards to session cookies and I rarely close the browser, so it's actually better for me than a persistent cookie as it's constantly being refreshed. I have to log back in about once every six months.

Other pages / plugins / features may exhibit similar behaviour but if so I've not noticed. It was specifically that page / workflow process which caused it for me.

(* - Or it did up until a couple of weeks back. Something changed and it dumps me at /my-account/members-area/ now, which is a bit of a pain. I reported this in the Moderator Chat group at the time.)

Thats the sort of pedantic semantics my development team do which mean I stop them talking to customers.

Except, it's not, the accusation is hyperbole at best.

I've monitored ad blocker behaviour on STW. It might appear to block a dozen "adverts" or more, but that figure includes non-intrusive things like Skimlinks and tracking tech such as Google Analytics which is no more insidious than providing Mark with site usage statistics. And I know for a fact exactly what they can and can't see via this because I've viewed the other side of it inside of STW Towers.

This is a far cry indeed from "blocking 30 pop-ups" when the actual figure is "zero."

Ironically the noisy STW ad just started up (with noise) when I opened this thread. It also started on another thread during my lunchtime peruse.

I've been on the fence for years about whether it's worth subscribing, I don't read the magazine anymore and don't use the forums that much so struggle to see the return. Interesting that subscribers also see problems with ads and general resource hunger (my fan is often spinning madly while browsing STW).

Interesting that subscribers also see problems with ads and general resource hunger

There are no ads as a logged-in subscriber.

There are ads as a logged-out subscriber. Because, eh, the site doesn't know that you're a subscriber.

Some people complain of being logged out repeatedly. In the ten years I've been on this forum and on many, many threads discussing it I've not been able to replicate this behaviour (and please believe me I've tried) and neither has STW Tech so I've no idea beyond speculation and 'it has to be a problem at your end because it's fine for everyone else'. Any suggestions to try a different browser are usually met with howls of derision.

I've just got the popup, chrome on Android.

Screenshot attached thought I'm guessing you can't see it.

Most noticeable is it's an advert over an advert.

The STW ad came on loud as you like as I scrolled through the new top gear thread whilst not logged on - 90 seconds before posting this.

[url= https://i.postimg.cc/mtz0t1YG/STW-ad.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/mtz0t1YG/STW-ad.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

Any suggestions to try a different browser are usually met with howls of derision.

tha's because people use one browser. I use Chrome for my browsing. I have various other browsers installed that I use for work purposes, but browsing is Chrome, fullstop. If your site doesn't work in chrome then it's broken. (disclaimer - official stance for my work is that we try to make it work in all browsers but the experience / display is optimised for IE11 as it's the most widely used browser for our product given that we have an exclusively corporate market and many places have locked down their installations stuff. I suspect that will change soon as IE11 is no longer supported. )

Anyway - If you're asking users to try another browser so you can narrow down a problem and fix it properly then that's fair enough, as a dev myself I've often asked for some help like that (but not often received it)

If you're saying "the solution is to use a different browser" then the solution is wrong

Try it coming on at 3am when you've just finally got the baby to sleep - feel my pain!!

The same ad that @twonks posted to 3 above is still autoplaying with audio at 12:50 today.

If you’re saying “the solution is to use a different browser” then the solution is wrong

I'm not saying it's the solution, as a dev in a past life myself I'm well aware that it isn't. I'm saying that it's an option which may be preferable to a user than sitting there griping that it doesn't work properly. For ten years.

It has to be related to either something they're doing or something they have configured / installed otherwise it would be affecting everyone. I've repeatedly offered to work with an affected user to attempt to narrow down exactly what is different with their workflow or environment so I can report it to Tech and not once has anyone taken me up on it. So, what else do you suggest to fix an issue that no-one with the ability to fix it has ever been able to replicate?

Try it coming on at 3am when you’ve just finally got the baby to sleep – feel my pain!!

Why have you got your phone volume turned up at 3am with a sleeping baby in the house?

Settings / Sound / Do Not Disturb / Schedule (on Android at least, iPhone probably has something similar).

@cougar - what @mark said was:

"We have no popups on the site. Not even house popups."

Whilst that may be technically accurate its clear than things appear with popup like behaviour that are in front of the browser tap - a modal dialogue box reminding me that STW still care about my privacy, or a video at like Podge has screenshotted on his phone...

Arguing whether they are popups is a semantic argument for techies to get excited over - at the end of the day the site has them and they appear to the lay user like they have popped over your browser (and not infrequently interfere with the usability of the site). Time to value the feedback, because without content contributors and viewers of that content there will be no ad revenue.

Why have you got your phone volume turned up at 3am with a sleeping baby in the house?

Settings / Sound / Do Not Disturb / Schedule (on Android at least, iPhone probably has something similar).

And once again we see the technologist blaming the user, for not using their phone the same way as they do... I'm not sure DND actually stops video playing anyway? it stops alerts/notifications.

Arguing whether they are popups is a semantic argument for techies to get excited over

As I said,

My point was that complaining that your ad blocker is blocking two dozen [pop-ups / modal windows / cheese sandwiches / whatever euphemism for 'adverts' you want to come up with if you're unsure of the correct terminology] is bogus. It's also blocking a lot of things which aren't adverts, such as statistical analytics. Some of which may cause unpredictable site behaviour if knobbled.

And once again we see the technologist blaming the user, for not using their phone the same way as they do… I’m not sure DND actually stops video playing anyway?

So, what, we embrace ignorance and no-one ever learns anything? Carry on knocking in screws with a hammer and get all pouty crying "but I use hammers!" when someone suggests trying a screwdriver?

DND mutes the phone. You can then add exceptions if, say, you still want the phone to ring. It's literally built in to the phone for exactly this scenario. Problem fixed, permanently, for STW, Facebook, YouTube, the Guardian, the Daily Mail and every other website on the planet that might accidentally or intentionally have auto-playing videos.

... on my phone at least. Yours might be different.

I may have missed if anyone mentioned this in other replies but why not just Mute the site in settings in Chrome? It's drastic and means you'll need to open posted videos in their native site (YouTube, vimeo etc) but it works.

At this point I've done all I can do at my end. The house video that shows our mag cover being created is set to mute at two separate places. It's an embed directly from Youtube. It's set to be muted there. The software we use to embed it also sets it to mute. So at this point to find the issue I need anyone who is still getting the problem to use this form as it asks for specific info about your browser. We've tried here but we can't replicate the issue so it may be something with specific browsers. It may not. But we'll only find out if we collect that information.

https://singletrackmag.com/help/

Most definitely not fixed as of this morning. Scantily clad ladies, too, which seems a little off trend

I got a blurt of polish the otherday. I think it was toothpaste.

Scantily clad ladies sounds terrible

*Turns off add blocker*

Just had a blast from under armour. Will report the form too

Thanks for the vol/dnd tip in a mildly patronising/accusatory tone, I wasnt expecting it off the back of a jokey passing comment. Obviously I generally have the phone on silent at appropriate times, fully familiar with how phones work thanks, but sometimes need vol up in the day... And then life happens and you maybe just fail to make the change back, then get ambushed by some random AD at inappropriate times. Hope that clears things up.

Yup, loud autoplay ad just popped up now, before I could even log in. Caused browser to freeze too.
On Android phone/chrome browser.
Seems to be a lot of 'we've done all we can do, must be your fault'.
Not going to cancel my subscription or anything, but it makes the user experience less than enjoyable.

The whole site is a glitchy near unusable mess for me. Constant video and banner pop ups every 3 seconds. Its worse than any other site i visit..

I cant send pm's either, the blue buton does nothing, I dont need baby food or a bmw....

and despite lurking here for over a decade apparently my profile tells me ive not made any comments or posts...maybe i imagined it all.

A load of wimmins in underwear and blaring music. Really, it not 1999 anymore, any ad that appears and makes noise is totally unacceptable these days.

I had it yesterday. Was involved in a dull MS Teams meeting so thought I would see what’s going on here.

Next thing music blasting out of my laptop speakers for everyone in the meeting to hear. Yes school boy error I should have gone on mute.

No idea what it was, had to close window immediately.

PC - Chrome

Thanks for the vol/dnd tip in a mildly patronising/accusatory tone, I wasnt expecting it off the back of a jokey passing comment. Obviously I generally have the phone on silent at appropriate times, fully familiar with how phones work thanks, but sometimes need vol up in the day… And then life happens and you maybe just fail to make the change back

Or you could set a schedule for it. Then you never need to touch it again. Let alone have to remember to 'change back' anything.

Which is what I said. And what you presumably already knew as you're seemingly a previously undisclosed expert. So I can only conclude that you're wilfully making things more difficult for yourself.

I was trying to help, albeit in an irreverent fashion.

and despite lurking here for over a decade apparently my profile tells me ive not made any comments or posts…maybe i imagined it all.

The Comments / Posts refer to the rest of the site, not here. You need to look under the 'Forums' section.

The whole site is a glitchy near unusable mess for me. Constant video and banner pop ups every 3 seconds. Its worse than any other site i visit..

sometimes the truth hurts