All Advertising Questions

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CR Reina
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All Advertising Questions 

Post#1 » by CR Reina » Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:16 pm

We consulted with an expert in the field and we have quite a few new answers regarding our advertising, which should prove helpful and constructive going forward.

First off all, I would like to mention that we take this stuff extremely seriously. We think it works to everyone's benefit to have an ongoing dialogue that addresses all issues to make sure there are no problems with the ads of any kind.

For several years now we have had policy not to run any pop-up ads, sound ads or intermission ads. I think you will find that we are in the 90 percentile when it comes to these policies compared to other sites across the web. We don't want the ads to interfere with your experience on RealGM in any way. We also have been sensitive to your comments over the years in regards to suggestive ads and have a policy against those.

Most of the ads that appear on RealGM are through a third party. We work with only the most reputable ad networks and are in frequent contact with them to make sure the ads that appear meet our standards. The nature of this, however, is we almost never see any ads before they appear on the site, so sometimes we have to play catchup if there is something we don't like.

These advertisers have been in business a very long time and typically work good brands. They are not the type of advertisers who run any type of malware. We've searched through sites like this one (http://www.anti-malvertising.com/recommended-reading) and they are in good standing.

As far as potential malware and viruses, we as a host cannot determine where these things came from without your help. If there is a blanket statement by a user about a problem, the only thing we can do is contact each ad network individually to see if they have had any problems.

We need users to provide something conclusive in order for us to determine if there is something we can do, or if it is even coming from our ads at all. We need to know what virus and the source page/request according to the virus scanner. Many times viruses are received elsewhere and pop up at random times; this has been what we have noticed from our experience.

The complaints we have received have been random and isolated, which suggest the ads that appear on RealGM are completely safe.

Also, a number of harmless things can be identified as viruses and false-positives are possible, which is something we've seen frequently with the warnings about user's avatars.

It helps to have latest updates and/or Mozilla, as Internet Explorer has long had vulnerabilities. Computers that aren't frequently updated run the risk of having problems when on unsafe sites, so we encourage you to update.

If you look up 'advertising virus' in Google, you will get very little back in terms of results. We don't run any advertising networks that aren't across hundreds of other sites, so if this were actually an advertising problem, it wouldn't be isolated to RealGM and it would be all over the news and blogs.

Try instead to look up 'Internet explorer virus' and you will get a ton of results. You could also potentially get viruses from email.

Our consultant has reviewed RealGM and also our advertisers and firmly believes that it is a safe place on the Internet.

We greatly appreciate your continued help and patience.

This topic will remain stickied, so please put anything ad related in here.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#2 » by CR Reina » Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:26 pm

I noticed a 'Datethewealthy.com' ad that crosses the line in terms of being suggestive, which is coming from Google and it has been removed.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#3 » by CR Reina » Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:36 pm

Here are a few more things I took away from our consultant:

Internet browsers are designed to be ecure in displaying content however as with any piece of software, security bugs may exist. It is wise to ALWAYS keep your computer, internet browser, plugins (Java, Flash, etc), and virus scanner up to date in order to prevent known security holes from being exploited by any malicious party. Doing so will protect your computer from all Web sites on the Internet.

Problems may linger on the computer some time, remaining dormant until some other action triggers them. This can be a virus received from a file, an e-mail, or anything else that is triggered due to time or some text in the Web page. It's important to identify the true cause of the virus. Most virus scanners advise what Web site request included the virus (including what ad server), which is the information we need (if you sincerely believe it may have been caused by RealGM) to weed out this advertiser and ensure the safest possible experience for our users.

The ads are displayed based on context including the location of the user, page content, and hundreds of other factors that the advertiser may use. Accordingly, an advertiser may show for one user and not another. This is why it's even more important to assist us in determining which advertiser needs to be dealt with on the issue.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#4 » by Storm Surge » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:46 am

Sorry, but this is totally not isolated to Internet Explorer. I JUST got the virus webpage and I am on a MAC! Obviously the virus won't do anything but I still got it. I got it while on google Chrome beta as this forum DOESN'T EVEN WORK on my Safari 4. Some other people had that problem with Safari 4 too but I don't think it was ever addressed.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#5 » by Jakay » Wed Jan 20, 2010 8:27 am

I still have random red screens with Chrome warning me of malicious ads every now and then. I couldn't possibly tell you which ones they are though because of how Chrome works.

This is worth stickying too, forever.

I am, however, quite disappointed to find that my chances of incidentally finding a sugar-mama have gone down dramatically.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#6 » by CR Reina » Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:57 pm

Jakay wrote:I still have random red screens with Chrome warning me of malicious ads every now and then. I couldn't possibly tell you which ones they are though because of how Chrome works.

This is worth stickying too, forever.

I am, however, quite disappointed to find that my chances of incidentally finding a sugar-mama have gone down dramatically.


The red screens from Chrome have nothing to do with malicious ads. These are warnings about users avatars or signatures being hosted on a dangerous site. Since they are jpeg files, they represent no harm to your computer provided you are not on an old version of IE.

Whenever these warnings happen, we have been deleting the avatar from the user's account and letting them know that they need to select one from a site like photobucket.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#7 » by Miklo » Wed Jan 20, 2010 6:45 pm

CR Reina wrote:
Jakay wrote:I still have random red screens with Chrome warning me of malicious ads every now and then. I couldn't possibly tell you which ones they are though because of how Chrome works.

This is worth stickying too, forever.

I am, however, quite disappointed to find that my chances of incidentally finding a sugar-mama have gone down dramatically.


The red screens from Chrome have nothing to do with malicious ads. These are warnings about users avatars or signatures being hosted on a dangerous site. Since they are jpeg files, they represent no harm to your computer provided you are not on an old version of IE.

Whenever these warnings happen, we have been deleting the avatar from the user's account and letting them know that they need to select one from a site like photobucket.


I, too, get malware/spyware alerts from my Avast antivirus suite - when the only thing I am doing and have been doing all night on my computer is browsing RealGM Basketball Team Forums (I know, quite the life). The avatar/signature issue you mentioned must be the problem if none of the ads do in fact have this problem.

There have been a few sound ads in the last couple months but nothing I've noticed in the past week or so. There was also an ad in the last couple weeks that was one of those "YOU ARE A WINNER! CLICK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE" scams. Haven't seen that in probably the past week either, so I assume that was dealt with.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#8 » by RoyalCourtJestr » Wed Jan 20, 2010 6:51 pm

I managed to get my work computer stuck with this virus because I was on RealGM at work. Nasty bugger to get off too. This was about two months ago though, and what I got was something called "Windows Police Pro" or something of that nature.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#9 » by MartyConlonOnTheRun » Wed Jan 20, 2010 7:21 pm

I think I have it. My computer won't load webpages despite being connected to the web.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#10 » by rrravenred » Wed Jan 20, 2010 8:31 pm

Got the "Malware Defenswe" Virus from here (yeah, it WAS from here) on 2 January and found my desktop adorned with Porn Links. Was a real pain to get rid of.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#11 » by D21 » Fri Jan 22, 2010 7:31 pm

CR Reina wrote:Most of the ads that appear on RealGM are through a third party. We work with only the most reputable ad networks and are in frequent contact with them to make sure the ads that appear meet our standards. The nature of this, however, is we almost never see any ads before they appear on the site, so sometimes we have to play catchup if there is something we don't like.

These advertisers have been in business a very long time and typically work good brands. They are not the type of advertisers who run any type of malware. We've searched through sites like this one (http://www.anti-malvertising.com/recommended-reading) and they are in good standing.


I am not sure if they control all the ads they send.
Why, because I already got some kind of these supposed Security Alerts in the past, trying to say you "hey, download this thing because you have a security problem on your PC", and I mainly got this from RealGM (maybe one more website, but I am not even sure).
And more important, you don't get the same kind of ads if you go on RealGM from different countries (I can confirm it).
That's why I say that I don't know if you can trust your ads partner. Do they really manage all the ads for RealGM all over the world (while htere is RealGM reader and user all other the world) ?

Result: I use Firefox with Adblock Plus and Adblock Element Hiding Helper, and did not receive the ads and these alerts anymore.
But if we all use these software, you will loose money, and one day the website can be closed.

Just look at this thread I opened two years ago:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=753760&start=0#p15242099

DiamondX wrote:can it be our Avatar or Signature?


The other possibility is the images used for avatar and signature.
It would be interesting to know on which threads it appears, and see there are some same images (same user) on the pages. The user is not necessary the guy who send the malware, but the website that keep the image can.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#12 » by CR Reina » Tue Jan 26, 2010 12:19 am

Here is an article about the problems people across the web have been encountering with anti virus pro 2009. It includes some tips on how to avoid encountering problems with it.

http://www.komonews.com/news/consumer/82604762.html
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#13 » by Narf » Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:26 pm

The ads play on firefox as well
If you are working with a 3rd party, it's time to drop them and find someone who will actually do the job.
As I said a while back, I no longer post here at work because ads pop and play on the PC. 10 minutes ago an Avatar/Coke add just popped up (I'm at home) so that's still a problem.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#14 » by CR Reina » Mon Feb 1, 2010 5:42 pm

Narf wrote:The ads play on firefox as well
If you are working with a 3rd party, it's time to drop them and find someone who will actually do the job.
As I said a while back, I no longer post here at work because ads pop and play on the PC. 10 minutes ago an Avatar/Coke add just popped up (I'm at home) so that's still a problem.


Pops of any kind should not happen on RealGM. Can you please take a screenshot if it happens again so I can track down the cause?
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#15 » by CR Reina » Tue Feb 2, 2010 8:02 pm

I was able to locate the source of the pop and they have now been disabled.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#16 » by Heat3 » Sat Feb 20, 2010 10:44 pm

There was a video ad that played the other day on one of the forums. I think it was next to the wiretap. It was for some medicine and features....a family of boogers...lol.....I've seen it on TV before. Anyway, it's distracting because of the sound. I use my computer to watch nba games and am usually on realgm at the same time. It's very distracting when a video/sound ad comes on. I can't mute the computer because I'm watching the game so I always end up closing the realgm window. It's happened less frequently now than in the past but this one came on within the last few days.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#17 » by CR Reina » Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:14 pm

Heat3 wrote:There was a video ad that played the other day on one of the forums. I think it was next to the wiretap. It was for some medicine and features....a family of boogers...lol.....I've seen it on TV before. Anyway, it's distracting because of the sound. I use my computer to watch nba games and am usually on realgm at the same time. It's very distracting when a video/sound ad comes on. I can't mute the computer because I'm watching the game so I always end up closing the realgm window. It's happened less frequently now than in the past but this one came on within the last few days.


We have a strict policy against sound ads. We'll try to find out where it is coming from. Thanks for letting us know.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#18 » by MajorDad » Wed Mar 3, 2010 8:49 pm

CR Reina

in one post , you say pops of any kind should not happen on real gm. then you say in the next post that the pop-up problem has been disabled. So obviously pop up ads do happen on real gm. I've also noticed a lot of your posts seem to be pointing the finger at the internet in general rather than admitting your site might be a cause of people's problems. perhaps the viruses come from the advertisers. perhaps the viruses come from people uploading avatars. I don't know where the viruses are coming from. but i do know they exist and they exist somewhere on your site. my computer has been attacked at least 5 times directly from this site in the past month just from reading people's posts. I realize you are doing your best to protect your subscriber's computer security. but I' m not getting a very warm fuzzy that your "consultant" is giving you his best efforts, or is telling you the entire truth about what he has or hasn't been able to detect. I once took my computer to Best Buy geek Squad to eliminate a virus and restore my hard drive.. when I got my computer back, my programs worked once more, but the virus was still on my hard drive. rather than taking the computer back to Best Buy, I eliminated the virus and its hidden files myself. A lot of viruses have traces that can go undected. Spybot used to be a good free virus detection software. Today , Spybot allows a lot of malicious viruses to go undetected. I believe you are doing the best job you can. but sometimes that's just not good enough. I believe you are being truthful. But I have serious reservations about your supposed computer consultant's ability to identify and fix the problems and provide this site the security it requires. the people who come here and complain of virus attacks are not coming here to lie about it. they are telling you the truth. the virus attacks are real. they did occur.

- about a month ago, one of the site admins came to the Bucks forum and asked us for inputs/feedback about the virus problems we've experienced on this site. That thread generated a lot of reponses from posters on our bucks forum. A lot of the responses were very positive and insightful with constructive critisim and specific examples and corrective instructions. admittedly, there were a lot of negative feedback posts as well. the site administrator who started the thread was very much in denial at first and became rather defensive about this site and its virus problems. and then, poof , the entire thread was deleted.

i'd like to know why the thread was deleted. I'd also like to know if any of the recommendations we suggested were acted upon. it would have been nice if you would have provided a second global notice to all posters, and admitted there did exist viruses from some of your advertisers or avatars and what actions you have now implemented to ensure our computer security safety. i personally have a lot of virus protection, but many of your readers do not , and many people suffered a lot of hard drive losses because of your advertisers/avatars.

rather than deleting the thread, it would have been nice, and a common courtesy to thank your posters for their inputs, and also admit to all of your users a problem did exist and what actions you are taking to resolve it. A little courtesy feedback goes a long way to customer satisfaction.

rather than this small thread addressing the issue, it would have been better to issue a global message to all users of the potential security issues and what actions you're taking to address those issues. rather than hiding in this thread/forum, this message needs to be told to everyone. Your custmers/subscribers need some feedback and assurance.

I think you need a new computer consultant. I've seen those same buzz phrases used by a lot of other computer web sites trying to ignore the problem. the viruses exist. it's not your fault they exist. and the viruses have expanded and are now attacking sites that are not just porn sites. But as a reader of your site, it would be nice to know you are trying to agressively eliminate the viruses and all future viruses from attacking your site and your readers. As i said, i don't know where the viruses are coming from. i don't really care. But i do care about going to a site and reading your information without worrying about possibly being attacked. i do believe this issue needs to be addressed , and i do believe some type of global message needs to be sent out to your forums admitting the possible secuity proble m does exist and what actions your are taking.

I will repeat, it's not your site's fault. But i will blame you and will sue you if i ever get a virus infection directly from your site. I' m not a lawyer, but I am a knowledgeable computer geek. and this entire internet virus issue could result in a class action lawsuit against the virus maker/originator and those sites that allowed it to pilferate. Computer viruses are no longer just annoying. they can be very harmful and involve a lot of financial cost to repair.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#19 » by CR Reina » Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:37 am

I can't reply to the contents of the thread of the Bucks forum because I didn't see it and don't know why it was removed.

Malware is something that is very common across the internet and we are constantly staying informed of what is going on out there to ensure that RealGM is as safe as possible. We only work with the web's most reputable ad networks and are frequently checking in with them. Anytime we have our site looked at and evaluated, we are told that it is a very safe environment.

We have brought in more support to be proactive and it is a constant battle that I know we will absolutely make sure we stay ahead of. A safe browsing environment and a user experience is extremely important to us and that is why we don't run pops, suggestive ads, sounds ads, etc.

We are able to make sure the ads that appear on our site are fine by the constructive communication and patience from our users.
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Re: All Advertising Questions 

Post#20 » by MajorDad » Tue Mar 16, 2010 6:03 am

CR - that's very odd, because I thought it was either you or the other site admin that keeps refering issues to you that initiated that thread. it was posted as a global thread by a real gm site admin person such as yourself above all of our other posts. it was there for about a week, and then it was deleted as if you had received your inputs, and either didn't like them, or had used them as proof to the software people you deal with as to what problems need attention.

the problems identified addressed the virus issues and the pop-up adds. And there were at least 50 responses, with about 40 of them being very informative including actual software code fix actions.

I feel it's a shame if the other site admin person who initiated that global thread didn't show you the inputs of that thread or inform you that requests for inputs were being made. there were more contructive posts made in that thread than you ever see in the feedback/issues forum. I feel bad the thread was deleted as a lot of computer software coders provided some excellent "FREE" code/advice. they also provided some real examples of the problems experienced.

I am led to wonder who deleted the thread. like all threads, it had some sarcastic disses, and some zingers thrown at you. but there were many outstanding posts made that were aimed at keeping this site a safe and secure site. Do you have the capability to look back in your archives and retrieve deleted threads? I'm serious. There were a lot of constructive posts made in that thread that fell under your jurisdiction. the ones by me were probably sarcastic, but the other ones were very informative.

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