Questionable Ads Showing Up in Physics Forums Threads - Investigate Now!

[DaveC426913]

See thread https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=610179
and attached screen grab.

Is this an ad? Or something else? It's directly PF-related. It's a "related searches" Flash thingy in the body of my message.

I wasn't logged in so I know why I was getting it, and I'm sure once logged in I won't see it.

But.

This is worse than intrusive; it's damaging. It potentially completely changes the content of a post. Readers of the thread will refer to the inclusion and try to figure out what I'm talking out. I know I did, and I wrote the post!

Can anything be done?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Next time you see it, copy the URL and I'll ban it. thanks

 

[DaveC426913]

Well it's still there. All I have to do is log out and I see it again.But I'm not concerned about my specific post as much as I am about the problem in general of putting ads inside a post where they can be easily confused with the post content.

I know this is all pretty automatic, and I don't know how much control you have over where/when/what ads are placed.

Anyway, it's a Flash element. The src URL is
h t t p //tag.contextweb.com/TagPublish/GetAd.aspx?tagver=1&ca=VIEWAD&cp=513282&ct=58108&cn=1&epid=&esid=&ifurl=&tppg=&cf=300X250&rq=1&dw=1475&cwu=http%3A%2F%2Fphysicsforums.com%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D610315&cwr=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.physicsforums.com%2Flogin.php%3Fdo%3Dlogout%26logouthash%3D1338481902-0db6b5ec6ddaa60696136e6311a9b5970ba4a833&mrnd=7361948&if=0&tl=2&pxy=247,465&cxy=1475,732&dxy=1475,732&tz=240&ln=en-US

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Yes it is ad space. I'm saying I can ban the specific ad if warranted, but the ad space will remain.

 

[DaveC426913]

Yes it is ad space. I'm saying I can ban the specific ad if warranted, but the ad space will remain.

Yeah. That's what I assumed.

I guess the confusion lies in the fact that the ad ... is advertizing ... PF?

 

[AlephZero]

I guess the confusion lies in the fact that the ad ... is advertizing ... PF?

I guess if you push Targeted Advertising to the limit, you reach Tautological Adverstising: "People who bought XYZ are interested in buying XYZ"...

 

[Borek]

I guess if you push Targeted Advertising to the limit, you reach Tautological Adverstising: "People who bought XYZ are interested in buying XYZ"...

 

[Danger]

I guess the confusion lies in the fact that the ad ... is advertizing ... PF?

Just how, my friend, do you think that Greg supports this site considering how few of us actually pay for a membership as opposed to the thousands who indulge for free? Sometimes I snoop around without logging on, and the ads are irritating but not lethal. I prefer to log on so that I might respond to something or be alerted to things that are new since my last viewing, but sometimes I just snoop.

 

[DaveC426913]

Just how, my friend, do you think that Greg supports this site considering how few of us actually pay for a membership as opposed to the thousands who indulge for free? Sometimes I snoop around without logging on, and the ads are irritating but not lethal. I prefer to log on so that I might respond to something or be alerted to things that are new since my last viewing, but sometimes I just snoop.

I wasn't not complaining about any intrusion, as if I have some right to be ad-free. I was just concerned about the ads affecting the message of the posts.

 

[DaveC426913]

Speaking of sending the wrong message ...

It occurs to me I should not have used the Complaint label. I'm not complaining. I should have used the Feedback label.

 

[Kholdstare]

I have attached two bad ads repeatedly appearing in Ryan's post.