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
Chaotic Greedy
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/VigLink
Edit: Here is the full text of Fighteer's Google link, just in case there's IDs that could help track down the source (hxxp'd to avoid it being treated as a link):
hxxps://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_163188008522311&key=2fb71997bcb17ebf9a993e4e95e8886f&libId=ktob9hg60103eegs000ML233qabk3&loc=https%3A%2F%2Ftvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fposts.php%3Fdiscussion%3D13223684920A10189100%26page%3D117&v=1&out=https%3A%2F%2Fgoogle.com%2F&ref=https%3A%2F%2Ftvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fposts.php%3Fdiscussion%3D13223684920A10189100%26page%3D118&title=Advertising%20and%20Computer%20Security%20Issues%20on%20TV%20Tropes%20-%20TV%20Tropes%20Forum&txt=https%3A%2F%2Fgoogle.com
Edited by Medinoc on Sep 17th 2021 at 2:04:01 PM
"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."
486-powered rotating frosted cherry Pop-Tart
I just noticed the VigLink thing myself, and it seems to be getting loaded from a script called tag.min.js, which is getting loaded from OneTag's CDN. OneTag and VigLink seem to be owned by the same company.
Edited by lee4hmz on Sep 18th 2021 at 8:36:43 AM
online since 1993 | huge retrocomputing and TV nerd | lee4hmz.info (under construction) | heapershangout.com
I believe that OneTag script was only supposed to be for analytics so not sure why the VigLinks code was being called from it as well. I removed it for now until I can look into it.
Edited by itcdr on Sep 19th 2021 at 8:17:02 AM
AI with access to the console
a ad for Nivea deomilk has consistently popped up for me and over flows and covers sections of the site including its own report button
I look to the stars... but that's mostly because there isn't anything else interesting
AI with access to the console
yep thats the ad im talking about
I look to the stars... but that's mostly because there isn't anything else interesting
I get incest vibes from this.
"Listen up, Marina, because this is SUPER important. Whatever you do, don't eat th“ “DON'T EAT WHAT?! Your text box ran out of space!”
Keep on getting redirected to
I'm using a Samsung 5G a24.
uwu
Criminy, the ad on the right side looks way too NSFW for this site.
The one on the bottom is also rather suggestive and suspect.
Yet another suggestive ad, this time it's from a webtoon.
Edited by Excessive-Menace on Oct 23rd 2021 at 7:43:58 AM
THE GOLDEN AGE WILL RETURN AGAIN!
Using Chrome app on Samsung S20 FE and I keep getting a full-screen ad for Mercedes-Benz.
EDIT: Seems like it cycles through different ads, but it's the same full-screen autoplay video format. Pops up almost every time I load a page.
Edited by danime91 on Oct 28th 2021 at 3:52:14 AM
"Can you see what I see?"
I'm getting one for Lexus, and I'm getting one for Cafe Bustelo coffee. The circumstances are basically the same.
Lord Barglebroth, Come For Your Souls!
I’m getting ones even while editing or making posts. I’ve got ones for Stop and Shop, Avast, Airheads, Intel, and Qwo. This can’t be allowed, can it?
Edited by AjWargo on Oct 28th 2021 at 7:18:42 AM
Check out my fanfiction account here!
@AjWargo, @JankyKong - those ads aren't supposed to show up for members. We just fixed that. You shouldn't see them again while logged-in
@danime91, @Playing_with_boy - we pay a company to try and stop those bad redirect ads but they can't get them all. We'll let them know they missed those
@Excessive-Menace - that ad that is overflowing on other ads shouldn't happen. Let us know if it happens again and we'll try to track it down.
Edited by itcdr on Oct 28th 2021 at 5:15:29 AM
Let's Hop to It!
Was browsing on mobile just now using Chrome and twice was hijacked and redirected to another page in the middle of reading the trope page for Forgets to Eat (edited to correct that it was this page I was reading and not Big Eater.) I didn't really catch what the first one was about, though it asked me to allow notifications (which I of course blocked) and then sent me to a page with something that looked like a video player. However, when it happened a second time, I kept that one open to report here. That one took me to a page on the URL "cleanphonefast.com" and displaying this here:
Edited by JMQwilleran on Oct 30th 2021 at 9:08:21 AM
The Draftsman of Doom
The Draftsman of Doom
I've been getting ads for Cafe Bustelo and a Mercedes ad before I logged in
@itcdr So wait, non-members ARE expected to get full-page ads like those? But...why?
The Draftsman of Doom
On Sandbox.Monster Night Huntress.
Also on One Grave at a Time (Night Huntress #6).
Edited by SkyCat32 on Nov 1st 2021 at 10:27:53 AM
Rawr.
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
Have the mods said anything to indicate they consider these suggestive ads to be a problem worth reporting?
A procrastination in of itself
They’re clearly advertising for a porn comic with incest themes, two things I’m pretty sure we’re trying hard not to be associated with.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
I checked out Toptoon, and, judging from the covers most is softcore/erotica at worst. The mature section, is a very different (and yuckier) story. The Mature off switch even has a "Try me!" annontation.
Edited by Delibirda on Nov 3rd 2021 at 1:45:15 PM
"Listen up, Marina, because this is SUPER important. Whatever you do, don't eat th“ “DON'T EAT WHAT?! Your text box ran out of space!”
The Draftsman of Doom
Lord Barglebroth, Come For Your Souls!
Hey, just like to advise you that the full page pop ups are happening for me again. I saw one advertising visiting Georgia.
Check out my fanfiction account here!
I wanna be a cowboy, baby
Was browsing TVT on iOS Chrome and suddenly got hit with a full-screen video ad on WebAnimation.Hololive. Didn’t catch the link before the ad went away unfortunately.
Edited by worldwidewoomy on Nov 6th 2021 at 12:27:10 PM
Stan GaruKaru for clear skin
I have the same link problem on my smartphone (using Samsung Internet, with Adblock Plus as sole extension installed) — gonna check if Chrome has it too.
Weird thing is, so far I've only seen this on TV Tropes. Not on Quest Den, not on webcomics linked from the forum... And not on internal links, only on links to other sites.
Edited by Medinoc on Sep 17th 2021 at 1:49:41 PM
"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."