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
Basically canon
Still getting mid-paragraph ads. I'm also seeing these fullscreen ads, like one for the US Army on Arc Fatigue. On mobile, can't tell you which ad platform is serving them
For fun, I decided to count how many ads I ran into while scrolling down Arc Fatigue. I got to 52 before the tab ran out of memory and had to reload. Like… 52? Seriously? This seems excessive
Might just go for the sub at this point because I use the site on mobile about as much as on desktop and I have had basically no positive interactions with this site's advertising. I either don't remember the ads I see at all, or remember them for being placed between a word and a comma/fucking with the scrolling/being fullscreen/redirecting the page to some phishing scam
It's like coming home after a long day of work and finding out someone has built one of those changing electronic billboards inside your house, without your consent, in a location where it will cause the most irritation possible. And also whenever you turn your head it telepathically forces you to turn your head in the opposite direction for a bit first
Edited by Midna on Mar 4th 2024 at 6:33:28 AM
pearlina brainrot affects millions of people worldwide. if you or a loved one are suffering from pearlina brainrot, call 1-800-GAY-NERDS
I'm getting more auto-redirects claiming I won free gift cards. This time, the site is "blessed-chance.life".
Serial Cut Lister
Thankfully, no more ads between the title of the page and the image or first line of text. Thank you Kory, very cool.
However, this time an ad pops up and covers most of the screen (again, I am on my phone):
It's not as bad as other tropers here, bit still kind of breaks the experience.
Yo soy el futuro, luwawanu mu sadila kisalasala kio.
Not as bad as some of the others, but I’ve been getting this “Evernorth Health Services” ad on the bottom of my screen that takes up a decent chunk of the screen, has no visible way to close it, and puts the folder formatting OVER the ad image (it doesn’t seem to do this with anything else on here). It also makes my screen jump down on the page when it goes away, but it doesn’t do that all the time (though it is pretty frequent). Here’s an image of the ad I’m talking about:
I’m on mobile (iPhone, specifically) so I can’t see which provider is showing this ad, but I have been seeing this ad on the mobile version of this site a lot over the past few days.
Y'ALL JUST GOT SHREKT
I wanna be a cowboy, baby
the ads are breaking boundaries and throwing off scrolling again. i know this isn't as serious as the redirecting ads, but it's still mildly annoying.
(noticed on Series.Forensic Files. i had to zoom in a bit to get a better shot, but (hopefully) you can see where the ad space pushes out and makes a gap that throws off the page's screen size.)
Edited by worldwidewoomy on Mar 19th 2024 at 5:33:00 AM
Stan GaruKaru for clear skin
Very Spooky
Got the same screen-covering ad multiple times on one (lengthy) page, and it’s still coming after me:
The Author
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
You beat me to it, I was coming here to report the same thing. I also want to point out that the button to exit the ad doesn’t initially show up, which is annoying to say the least.
The sleepiest good boi
I was literally just coming over here to report that ad as well. It keeps showing up even after I've already closed it on my current page.
Edited by lbssb on Mar 20th 2024 at 9:09:38 AM
Disney100 Marathon | DreamWorks Marathon
The Author
I’ve been getting it on every page I try to visit, even across multiple attempts (close the website, go do something else, come back).
Basically canon
Also getting the full-screen Spanish Volkswagen Atlas ads. Glad I'm not the only one
pearlina brainrot affects millions of people worldwide. if you or a loved one are suffering from pearlina brainrot, call 1-800-GAY-NERDS
You guys are not the only ones who are encountering this ad, because I've also encountered it myself.
These ads are the second worst kind on this site, with the virus redirect ads being the absolute worst kind.
Lord Barglebroth, Come For Your Souls!
So am I. I am quick to get annoyed, and I don’t want to see these ads.
Check out my fanfiction account here!
she/her, ace
Still getting the Volkswagen ad here. It’s quite a pain to browse the site with it popping up every few scrolled paragraphs. Hoping to see it gone soon.
happily wallowing in fiction
Getting some sort of FDIC ad that automatically plays at the bottom of the page and can't be gotten rid of....
I wanna be a cowboy, baby
Basically canon
I don't think whoever made this ad understands that ruining my reading experience (site is a chore to use now on mobile) just to shove cool flashy images of cars I can't even afford in my face will not make me want to conocer más
pearlina brainrot affects millions of people worldwide. if you or a loved one are suffering from pearlina brainrot, call 1-800-GAY-NERDS
Admin
All ads on the site are from ad networks and aren’t directly involved with tvtropes or any of the sites they are on. So unfortunately some bad ad designs make it through and disrupt the user experience and we have to contact them. As I said above, this ad has already been reported. Hopefully tomorrow it’ll be removed.
Now monitoring Wishlist and Bugs
Basically canon
Here’s hoping!
pearlina brainrot affects millions of people worldwide. if you or a loved one are suffering from pearlina brainrot, call 1-800-GAY-NERDS
Can shapeshift (probably)
It seems to have gone away for me. Don't want to jinx it though.
Silver and gold, silver and gold
he/him | Image Pickin' regular
It's still showing up for me.
Keet cleanup
Very Spooky
I present to you all the Great Wall of Kroger:
Which is already quite large when it first appears and then autoexpands if you’re focusing on it:
Edited by jandn2014 on Mar 23rd 2024 at 11:33:46 AM
back lol
The sleepiest good boi
When I was on YMMV.Twisted The Untold Story Of A Royal Vizier, a Sensodyne ad appeared and covered the screen. I took a screenshot of it, if it helps: