The Video Game Critic

VideoGameCritic wrote:I just replaced all the ads from a 3rd party provider with plain google ads.
This may help narrow things down a bit. Uploading all the files now.

Dave, knock on wood but that seemed to do the trick. I just wish that the issue could be isolated because it would stink if you lose revenue over this.

Seems to be fixed now!

This is a relief. This was totally stressing me out the other day. I was getting close to ripping every last ad off the site. I would rather have no ads than chase away readers.

The problem is, when you sign up for these services like GoogleAds you have very little control what they display. And since Google has never said they "vet" the ads, they probably don't know either. If Google screwed up, they probably swept it under the rug as soon as they could. You'd think a big company like Google would be a little more responsible.

I don't think the third-party provider was at fault this time (didn't use them with forums) but I'm reluctant to reinstate them now that everything is working.

I think the ads industry will improve, but right now it feels like the Wild wild west.

So my buddy Chris, who helps me review games all the time, tells me tonight "I'm not going to your site anymore!" Apparently he was encountering the same issues you guys were a few days ago! I explained to him that I had taken measure and it appears to have been resolved.

But if my best friends had that reaction I can certainly understand how casual readers must have felt!

VideoGameCritic wrote:So my buddy Chris, who helps me review games all the time, tells me tonight "I'm not going to your site anymore!" Apparently he was encountering the same issues you guys were a few days ago! I explained to him that I had taken measure and it appears to have been resolved.

But if my best friends had that reaction I can certainly understand how casual readers must have felt!

Well in my defense, when I started this thread, I was tired, frustrated that I was getting redirected, and most importantly, drunk out of my gourd

noah98 wrote: on the mobile version the banner ad at the bottom of the page advertises "Hot Arab Women"

I've been sitting here in my underwear all night trying to recreate this problem...

Paul Campbell wrote:

noah98 wrote: on the mobile version the banner ad at the bottom of the page advertises "Hot Arab Women"

I've been sitting here in my underwear all night trying to recreate this problem...

VideoGameCritic wrote:The problem is, when you sign up for these services like GoogleAds you have very little control what they display.

Third party ad networks are malware delivery systems. You know this. By adding them to your site you are deliberately exposing people to malware.

You have mods pre-approve every post on this forum, but you allow third parties to serve up whatever in the hopes of making ad impression revenue.

Gentlegamer wrote:

VideoGameCritic wrote:The problem is, when you sign up for these services like GoogleAds you have very little control what they display.

Third party ad networks are malware delivery systems. You know this. By adding them to your site you are deliberately exposing people to malware.

You have mods pre-approve every post on this forum, but you allow third parties to serve up whatever in the hopes of making ad impression revenue.

Personally, I've resorted to ad blockers in chrome to avoid this type of stuff. When I remember I'll click through the critic's Amazon links instead to give a little and make up for disabling ads.

Appears the malicious ads are back. When I clicked on Dave’s latest skiing review, 4 times I got redirected to a scam site ($1000 free gift card or something).

Using my iPad. Didn’t notice which ad was causing this (FYI back in August I believe the malicious ad was Pattaya Hotels).