We occasionally get reports of ads that trigger antivirus warnings or infect computers that are browsing the wiki. This FAQ is an attempt to consolidate all the information about such things into one thread. Please read the below before reporting any incidents.
This thread may also be used to report ads that violate our policies in other ways, such as being too "adult" or NSFW, automatically playing audio/video, etc.
REPORTING: try to get a screenshot of the console as well as this will help identify where it's coming from.
REDIRECTS: Its very tricky to get the first URL of a redirect trigger because they are designed to hide where it came from. So you need a redirect plug-in
active while the redirect happens so you can find the first URL, not the last. Where you were directed to doesn't help track down the source.
- TV Tropes, as a site, does not contain malware. We are a text-and-image wiki; viruses and malware cannot be uploaded to or embedded in the articles. As always, however, beware of any external link that you don't recognize, since we cannot automatically screen edits or posts for malicious links.
- 99.99% of the time, any suspected malware will be related to the wiki advertising.
- TV Tropes does not directly control the ads that are displayed. We use third-party ad providers and we determine things like the size and placement.
- We instruct our providers not to serve ads that redirect your browser, take control of the screen from you, forcibly scroll your screen, play audio without being clicked on, install malware, "pop up" or "pop over" your screen, or in any other way interfere with your browsing experience.
- We have custom software designed to detect ads that do these things and automatically block them.
- Malicious entities are constantly trying to sneak ads through the providers' networks in violation of these instructions. As providers have little incentive to proactively detect and block them, it's up to websites to report these sorts of problems.
- We rely on our users to report ads that get through these measures.
- Just because you see a particular ad doesn't mean everyone else sees it. Ads are customized by the ad providers to your location (by IP address), the content of the page you're viewing, and your browsing profile, which is tracking data accumulated by third parties over the course of all your internet browsing.
- Just because you get a malware warning or infection that seems related to an ad on TV Tropes does not necessarily mean that it is caused by one of our ads. Pre-existing malware on your computer can intercept ads and replace them with malicious ones.
- Ads containing malware, obviously.
- Misbehaving ads, such as ones that load a pop-up or pop-under, redirect your browser to another page, hijack your screen or automatically scroll it.
- "Adult" or NSFW ads. Scantily clad women alone may or may not qualify, depending on context, but we want this site to be work-safe.
- Ads that automatically play audio — that is, the audio starts without you clicking on the ad first. Video ads are acceptable.
- Note: Political content is not grounds for rejecting an ad. However, an ad that contains or implies hate speech, disinformation, or outright falsehoods may be objectionable enough to be blocked.
- First and foremost, maintain current, updated antivirus software, and keep your operating system and browser up to date with all patches offered by the software vendors. This includes Adobe Flash, Java, and other rich media plug-ins. Turn on your software's automatic updates if they are not already on and act immediately when prompted to install them.
- Never click on pop-ups purporting to have detected a virus, offering to "tune up" your PC, or otherwise inducing you to click on a link that you were not expecting. Any genuine message of this nature would come from your antivirus software and not from a web page.
- Be careful clicking on external links. These are identified with a small icon next to them. Example: Google. TV Tropes does not endorse or control the content of external links and you open them at your own risk.
- Never respond to any email or web page that asks for personal or financial information, including passwords, unless you have verified its identity. No reputable company will ever ask you for your password(s), other than to log in.
- You may choose to opt out of having tracking information collected by ad providers. This does not stop malware but helps you maintain your online privacy. See here for additional information.
- TV Tropes requests that you do not use ad blocking software while visiting us, as this site depends on advertising revenue to operate. If you do run an ad blocker, please add tvtropes.org to its exception list, or consider donating to the site to have certain ads removed.
- We (or the ad provider) place a "Report advertisement" link next to most advertising frames. Clicking on this will generate an automatic report and is the best way to do so. If you cannot click on this link or do not see it, continue for more advice.
- Try to identify the source URL of the suspect ad (see below). You can also use the target URL (if you are redirected), but note that this may be intentionally obfuscated by the ad provider to hide the source.
- Identify the ad provider. Some ads have a small area that links to the ad provider's page (like Google or AOL). In other cases, you can tell from the referral URL or you can look it up in a search.
- Go to the ad provider's contact/abuse page and fill out their form. Below are some links to common providers' abuse pages:
- Scan your computer for viruses. If your antivirus software will not operate (many malicious programs attempt to disable your antivirus software), you can download a scanning tool on a known clean system and run it on your infected machine from a read-only CD-R or flash drive.
- If you suspect that you've been tricked into divulging personal information to a phishing attempt or other fraud, change your passwords to affected sites immediately and contact your bank, credit card companies, and the credit bureaus to request a fraud alert.
- Please note that TV Tropes cannot assist you with the specifics of maintaining your computer. That's your responsibility. You may request general help in the appropriate forums, but please don't post new threads in the forums dedicated to wiki operation (Wiki Talk, Frequently Asked Questions, etc.).
- Sometimes, the wiki administration can get better results from the ad providers in dealing with malicious ads. If you can identify a malicious ad by referral URL, you can post the link in this thread, but please omit the "http" component so it doesn't create a hyperlink that someone might click on inadvertently.
- For image ads, right-clicking (or a long tap on mobile devices) should give you the option to view and copy the URL that clicking on it will send you to.
- For Flash, Java, or HTML 5.0 ads, it may be difficult to identify the source or the URL by right-clicking. In these cases, you need to view the page source to identify the ad so we can report it.
- In Internet Explorer, you can right-click in a blank or text area of any web page, and choose View Source from the context menu. Firefox also has this option. In Chrome, you can use the Inspect Element menu option, which interactively highlights the portion of the page whose code you are hovering over. You can use this to identify the ad frame and its source URL.
- For embedded ads, there will be a "frame" element with a "src" parameter. Drill down until you get to the lowest level. All we need to identify the ad is the "src" URL from that frame.
for more information or to discuss the service.
Edited by kory on Nov 15th 2023 at 10:36:27 AM
I just got one while editting George Carlin. I did not use the preview functionality either.
How sweet it is
Got an autoredirect while I wasn't looking.
https://news-shopping.doubledvideo.com/?Flow=8315965358879663&uid=c9c0a016d03ac177d00215e8e496efce&access_token=diTZyglj0bVg0hX0HOioHMChzbXfCXROzhljEgGFyckcHtTNxf1DznV1kgX4GZlp0ZigzbEo4YEi7gljNhzZycHRztWiihoP1m4g4gKZ0ZioFYjwznIkGbFa8fxQIx3RBrIB1wCGwv4btqIJ2tqB5LGR-dG57nTMCZFOxnVY9vy9cqn11kmGlmpUxoYhOu6FJQFVDdWR=ojfDMRy4iCTNgjIEb0kAhTpk
she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
now @ worldwidewoomy
Got auto-redirected to this while on Moral Event Horizon:
flag edit: nonbinary flag but Luigi
Got an auto-redirect to some site telling me that I need to update my Flash Player. I'm on a mobile device.
The Unpayed and Overtime
Got a force redirect when reading Improbable Age. Wasn't looking what ad was on the page though. Restarted Firefox and there wasn't any need for an update.
Got an auto-redirect to phishing site on the forums and on Trope Pages on both PC and iPad:
Edited by Shaoken on Aug 16th 2020 at 8:33:54 PM
Repeatedly dealing with very large and disruptive ads. Discovery, Xfinity and Lendtree ads are the most common and troublesome. One of them even showed up while I was making this message.
I do not think it is right to require paying TV Tropes to not have to deal with obnoxious gigantic ads.
Edited by NickTheSwing on Aug 17th 2020 at 5:40:10 AM
kiby :]
While the giant ads are a problem, TV Tropes does need the income to keep the site up.
(Don't) take me home.
Yes, but I think even so the ads should at least be small and down to the sides and not actively interfere with posting at all.
Yeah I'm just getting absolutely nothing but gigantic intrusive ads, one after the other.
Edited by NickTheSwing on Aug 17th 2020 at 11:23:52 AM
There is no Planet B
I also get repeatedly giant ads that cover more than half the page and can't be closed. It's annoying.
Yeah. The ads are a problem. They don't even cover the screen right when you get to a page, but pop up repeatedly. So I'm getting to a page, dismissing the ad, beginning to type, then I have to stop to close the giant ad again.
They're terribly disruptive.
I also suspect that they're causing a great deal of Chrome telling me to kill tabs, but I can't be certain, since it keeps trying to kill the page I'm currently on and two pages of random characters which I'm fairly certain are the ads.
Edited by Larkmarn on Aug 18th 2020 at 2:43:22 PM
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
Not to mention that the business model of "pay us so the interface is not disruptive and terrible" isn't exactly a good business model. People can barely type or do anything with these gigantic ads running rampant.
I've been getting overlarge ads as well. Here's a pic.
And that isn't even the largest I have had.
Showtime!
I keep getting absolutely massive ebay ads on Desktop. They're in the position of the bottom banner ad, but they're tall enough to reach halfway up the screen
Absolute destiny... apeachalypse?
The giant ads really do take away from the browsing experience.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Yeah, that's why I bought another subscription. The ads really harmed useability.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Google Rewards scam redirect: https://fortifyconstrue.club/?td=track.advancemerging.com&data2=wl53tmjmsrar47k12jmhvaao&city=Balch%20Springs&cep=QygPz1aD-skk0D17xHO43Wauk5RWphd6xA7sAoIlPGZc0AhE2fppMxFtGmOuY3K5StidTnNdWoucwNHnfD4LrVMRVu4LwAyKgQngmjEu5Cpm8_sZ9aQmtvE_KFA-k3O12X0Z05SotYvzQeneM1KY1cPYZuXY9T1pdcKdTN1UR60PzLADVdbtGUb8UFTFO2i6fRmC6HvXkJbzcHM5tuic6tQ2gqVmC0BcHg5Ru15WZD2t_F6IUO1GgHdhqc-qeyqvxT2GV7WBzSwMdmPovKRJg5DRob0HuOkNpSXzntPEymmaS86gTla_y25BtED2udWuueA2govn3N8WeZvkkz8GvlkNr72FirZnTGNNfbo0bWXsWfaYnd3G4IQrgqB1kOlJRFprmeawUiNalAq4TbgXBCGF037Sl3mubTSTqTaaaFo1vE-ikFWVGIVpIZRE4Ujw&lptoken=1530989b94767920898d#
『 』
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
That add shows your location. May want to edit that out.
If I lived in Balch Springs I would have, but I don’t, so I didn’t. It’s in my state, but I’d literally never heard of it until the phishermen decided I lived there.
Edited by Midna on Sep 1st 2020 at 2:53:23 PM
Getting redircted to https://unitvisitorsandtravellers.xyz/ on the forums
Getting a fake Adobe Flash download prompt on my computer.
Rock'n'roll never dies!
#BoomSilverTheVampire4Lyfe
Got this:
Content Warning: My posts may involve my actions dealing with R-rated or Not Safe for Work content. Same for my edit history.
I'm getting persistent webpage errors on mobile, forcing the page to reload. Since this happens only before ads load, I think this may be a problem with an ad.
TRS Wick Cleaning
Edited by sgamer82 on Aug 2nd 2020 at 11:30:33 AM