Nasty Adverts - HELP!
Hi Folks,
Just under 1 year ago, we explained how different adverts are shown on StatCounter in different parts of the world. This means that here in StatCounter HQ, we don’t actually get to see every single advert shown to our members.
We like to think of StatCounter as a “family show” so we do our best to screen out any nasty adverts. Despite our efforts, however, we had a report last night of another nasty advert being shown on our site to a member in the United States… so now we are asking for your help to eliminate these offensive ads!
If you spot a nasty advert on StatCounter here’s what to do:
- Right click on the advert and select either Copy Shortcut (IE) or Copy Link Location (Netscape) to capture the URL of the advert.
(Please make sure only to RIGHT CLICK on the advert - left clicking would result in you inadvertently supporting the ad.)
- Paste this link or URL into a text editor (e.g. Word or Notepad) to keep it safe until you’re ready to paste it in our blog.
- Please then come here to our blog and post a comment and tell us:
- The type of advert i.e. what’s offensive about it.
- Where the advert was on the StatCounter site e.g. on the left hand side of the homepage.
- Paste the URL info you captured earlier into the comment also. (This allows us to block the advert)
As we explained last year, StatCounter advertising revenue is used to fund our free service - but we only want the nicest, best behaved ads on our site…
Many thanks for your help folks - together let’s stamp out these nasty ads!
By the way, when we say “nasty” adverts we mean any adverts that contain nudity, suggestive poses, sex, sex phonelines, escort services etc. All the kind of things that WE don’t want and YOU don’t expect to stumble upon when you are looking at StatCounter!
Update August 2008
Hi all,
Due to the amount of spam comments we’re receiving on this post, we’re now closing off the comments.
If you spot any nasty adverts, please post the details in the comments to any of our latest blog posts and we will be happy to take care of them.
Thank you!
April 25th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Good initiation by SC.
Will post here whenever I get to see them.
SC Rocks!!
.
.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Thats a start! Will report offensive ads here!
April 25th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
A nice way to tackle nasty ads. Since ads are nowadays region based it is best to let the ad viewers report about them. It will be then easy for you to monitor or check the ads.
Hope this will reduce the number of those nasty ads.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Ads? What ads! I don’t get statcounter ads on my site with the free service.
StatCounter Team Response:
Hi Payday,
As Karl explains, we are referring to the adverts we show on StatCounter. No adverts are EVER put on your site.
Hope that clears things up!
April 25th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
@PAyDayLoan - They are talking about the ads on the statcounter website!
Warm geeky regards
April 25th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Didn’t see any bad advertisements around here, but if I see one, I’ll report it for sure.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I think this is very sneaky, and a bit cheeky StatCounter team. By people right clicking, you are bound to get some “accidental” clicks, and I’m pretty disappointed. You don’t need to copy and paste it, look at it, and type it… take a screenshot… or if you’re using FF there’s Ad Block Plus for those that don’t want to see “nasty” ads.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for monetizing a service with ads, but asking users to do this is blatantly just trying to increase your income in an underhand way. For once I disapprove SC team.
StatCounter Team Response:
Craig,
We’re not being sneaky at all! We genuinely need your help. Let me explain:
If you take a screenshot and send it to us then we can see the advert and any displayed URL. BUT we can’t see the internal or destination URL. We confirmed yesterday with our account manager that it is the internal URL (not the visible one) that we must block in order to ban the ad from our site. The only way of getting the internal link is to follow the instructions above.
We categorically, 100% do not want ANY accidental clicks on these ads - we want them GONE! (Note that I’ve edited the blog post to ensure people only RIGHT CLICK)
While Ad Block might work for some people…it doesn’t solve the root problem - we want these nasty ads GONE! The only way to do this is with your help.
I hope that explains Craig!
April 26th, 2008 at 12:31 am
Craig, if an ad isn’t nasty, people needn’t right-click. If the ad -is- nasty, any website administrator would agree that such content is not desirable for websites that prefer to have an image of decency and taking steps against such ads is no more than appropriate.
Referring to methods for preventing advertisements is all fine and dandy, but you must understand that most of the people that visit your website are not are tech-savvy and just work with Internet Explorer and its rubbish-rendering goodness (let alone security issues).
One out of three people visiting my website still use Internet Explorer, I wouldn’t want to show them porn.
April 26th, 2008 at 1:43 am
forget about conspiracy theories… this is a total an absolute failure from the guys over at google.
One mistake by someone who reviews ads that are submitted to show as google ads could lead to a big loss in revenue to some sites.
You are right in saying that there are other ways of getting the info on the site that is being displayed, but… the information that is gathered from a right cilck and copy shortcut is greater than any screen snapshot. The revenue gathered from “accidental” clicks is a tiny fraction of normal subscriptions.
You might say after reading this post that “this guy must work for statcounter”… but, armed with more knowledge than you I can defend the service that these guys have given for FREE to us for so many years,
regards
Paul
StatCounter Team Response:
Thanks for your support Paul!
April 26th, 2008 at 3:20 am
Only major issue I have with them is super slow ad loading at times. Usually just ignore them though, so I haven’t noticed any bad ones.
April 26th, 2008 at 7:18 am
I use AdBlock Plus. If you’re getting unwanted adverts, remove the ads, and tell the advertisement companies (eg Google Adsense Team). I don’t have any adverts in my browser when I view StatCounter.
I think that advertisements hinder the trustworthyness of sites, making people think they are going to be conned into a scam or something.
StatCounter Team Response:
Hi World 9,
As we explain above, StatCounter advertising revenue is used to fund our free service. Without this revenue we simply couldn’t provide the free service we do! So getting removing the ads is really not an option.
Most of our members, however, understand this and don’t have a problem with the majority of the ads we show.
Thanks for your comment!
April 26th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Don’t use adblockers - they’re dangerous for your system and will eventually crash your computer.
On the other hand: the more ads you click the more safe your computer will be.
I LOVE ADS!
April 26th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
This is an awesome addition to the SC features but you guys surely need to make a good revenue too so as long as both parties are happy… its great!
April 26th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I have no problem with any kind of ads, because I am more than eighteen years old and have parental permission to see any kind of porn
I don’t really understand what’s the problem with these kind of ads, so the only responsability of clicking or not clicking at them is that of the user… And, in the case of minor-aged people, parental advisory is the only way, if any needed… Anyway, I love Statcounter and, if do you think there is a motive of doing so, it-’s OK then. I haven’t seen any “nasty” adverts, but I’ll keep on an eye (I live in Spain)… 
Greetings for your lovely service.
April 26th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
i also have no problem with viewing any type of ads, but if the statcounter team decided to make a clean-up here i go:
The ad said something like: “i’m looking for young girls”, or “are you looking for young girls” i don’t really remember
the bottom line is that it’s dating/sex related
http://pagead2.googlesyndication...< < offensive URL removed >>
cheers,
Tom
StatCounter Team Response:
Many thanks for this report Tom - we appreciate it!
This URL has now been blocked.
April 27th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Keep up the great work, guys. But FYI, Netscape is dead:
http://blog.netscape.com/2007/12/28/end-of-support-for-netscape-web-browsers/
So for future instructions maybe “Copy Link Location (Firefox) to capture the URL of the advert”
April 28th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Thats a start! Will report offensive ads here ..
April 28th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
This is an awesome addition to the SC features but you guys surely need to make a good revenue too so as long as both parties are happy… its great!
April 28th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I’m delighted that you are going after those nasty Adverts…….we support you …….great job guys !
April 29th, 2008 at 12:21 am
I dont see any offensive ads around here, but if I see one, I’ll report it.
April 29th, 2008 at 6:29 am
I understand that “Free” in this sense means that we have to look at advertising.
However, many of those Google Syndication ads are hideously flickering, bouncing monstrosities which I would include in the definition of “nasty” (a lovely, old-school adjective that, by the way!). Someone with epilepsy would find it dangerous looking at a page with so much rapid movement, and the rest of us are distracted by the offside animation.
I know StatCounter has to find some way of distributing the revenue and staying in business, and that animated images are common on other sites, but is would there be any option to filter out the animated banners?
April 29th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
you can use the adsense preview tool to get an idea on what ads will show for a country, then block the undesirables in the adsense competitive ad filter.
This is a hard work but you can start by filtering those countries with more traffic to your site.
This is what I do in my sites and it works for a few weeks then I have to check the system again…
You also have the http://www.adsblacklist.com/ this site will give you a list of MFA and Low paying ads for your keywords.
The best solution I found was to use a little of both methods. but be careful and do the tests step by step, NOT all at once.
Another thing, the statcounter site is not getting the best out of adsense, you should rethink the site´s layout so the large rectangle could be included. The best solution I found was to use only one large rectangle in the center left of the page. Less ad space more competition for the space consequently more revenue per click. This is not 100% correct but will increase your revenue for sure.
Hey! Thanks for the starcounter
good luck
fred
April 29th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Sorry if someone above already posted this solution but I couldn’t read every 23 responses, only a few.
One solution to avoid most of nasty ads is to turn off the Adsense image ads and show only text ads. This is the way I do it in my sites. Most image ads are garbage and annoying, just the opposite as the almost unobtrusive only text ads.
Regards.
April 30th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Optimator, why do you advise not to use adblockers? And why are they dangerous for computer? I think they are useful, they cut nasty ads. Isn’t it?
April 30th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Statcounter rocks.
April 30th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Only major issue I have with them is super slow ad loading at times. Usually just ignore them though, so I haven’t noticed any bad ones.
April 30th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Sorry about the link not working above
April 30th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Good job guys! Will let you know!
God Bless!
April 30th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Great, i suppport your good moral values!!
I love Statcounter
April 30th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
The Ads in S.C has been of great use to me…and I haven’t noticed any bad ones till now…If any such offensive ads come, then i will be pretty happy to notify you people.
May 1st, 2008 at 6:32 am
I’ve never seen any nasty ads on StatCounter. Maybe some vaguely irritating ads, but never any nasty ones. And the irritating ads I just ignore.
May 1st, 2008 at 7:02 am
I have never seen any offensive ads since I started using SC; I appreciate & understand your stand against them; you want to maintain the professionalism of the site…nothing wrong with that.
BTW, StatCounter kicks Google Analytics’s butt!!
May 1st, 2008 at 4:11 pm
I have been using Statcounter for a few years, don’t ever remember seeing these type of ads, but glad you decided to remove them.. Just goes to show you how high you hold your standards..
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:52 am
wait one moment…
Not all s*x-related ads are ‘nasty’.
Like it or not, it is on everyone’s mind - it is a part of who we are.
Just ignore the ads, if you are NOT in the mood to face it
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Some advertising programs that people unknownly get installed in their pc can find the the banner ad in a web page and replace it with their own so they put what ever nasty advert they want and never pay for the ad space.
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Today the forum had one of this adverts.
We understand that, statcounter is not reponsable for this.
It was removed right away.
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:12 am
Good for you! Thank you for addressing this… several times I have seen ads that made me upset, and I have children in the house who like to look over my shoulder. Now I know it wasn’t your company doing it! I recommend your site to my friends.
-Elizabeth H.
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:45 pm
We like to think of StatCounter as a “family show”
this is the best sentence
May 4th, 2008 at 3:54 am
Nowadays I’m seeing more webmaster / hosting ads shown which is definitely acceptable. Good job in weeding the rest out though.
May 4th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Nice move, but so far i haven’t since any.
May 4th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Not a problem…I will assist you in keeping Statcounter clean. Thanks for providing this fantastic product/service…
May 4th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Good job guys!
I love Statcounter.
May 5th, 2008 at 1:55 am
I only see hosting’ ads and seo’s ads
May 5th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Adverts… what adverts
I don’t see any adverts whatsoever.
May 5th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I liked this one very much StatCounter as a “family show”
Very cool and very true.
May 5th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
gee, I like stat counter! thank you!
May 6th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Thanks, Statcounter for this wonderful initiative. This will keep taking many visitors to your sites on a daily basis.
Cheers.
May 6th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Love statcounter!
Cheers.
John Denner
http://www.JohnDennerRocks.com
May 7th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
I didn’t realize you had this problem, but very glad to hear that you are against (nasty) advertising. Now that I know, I will certainly be on the look out for such ads. Thanks for caring about what your customers see.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:07 am
I use adblock in Firefox but a lot of people don’t and I think that what SC is trying to do is great, maintain as much adverts that is ok for everyone to see rather than just over 18s. I imagine a lot of people use StatCounter for things like personal blogs/Livejournal. LiveJournal seems to have a lot of underage people, so well done SC for trying to prevent it unsuitable adverts.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:29 am
eww bad nasty adverts….shame on them!! (my god I sound like my mother)
May 9th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
The problem exists on Adsense’s side - they should be policing their ads better, allowing you to opt out of “adult” ads. I’d find a better solution, one that ONLY allows G-rated ads. Let your account manager know that. We should not be policing your site, THEY should be on top of their advertisers. Boo to them.
I advertise elsewhere. I don’t like being lumped in with the garbage.
May 10th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Me thinks that conspiracy theorists like Craig and World 9 are asinine. If you think that Statcounter is trying to scam you into clicking on an ad, or trying to take advantage of people in some other way…do us all a favor and just go away.
People like Crafty Alien that says to use something else other than Adsense obviously has no clue. Google DOES try to filter these ads out, when someone sets up an adsense account they can select options that weed the majority of offensive advertisers out. They also pay a higher per click rate then anyone so for a site like Statcounter, which has a payroll to pay, needs as much revenue as possible.
Statcounter is providing a great service for FREE, yet some of you want everything perfect. Geez, there’s lots of services that you pay for that offer crappier service than Statcounter!
Have you used others? Nobody does what Statcounter does for free, not even close–I’ve used several of them.
Crafty, your comment “We should not be policing your site…” is quite curious at best. I’ve read through the blog thoroughly and cannot find anywhere where it says you should be policing their site, any demands placed upon any of us to police their site. I do see where he has asked people to help if they want, but I don’t see where anyone is holding a gun to your head.
Go use someone else’s service, I hope you have to pay for it, and go be such a bloody geek somewhere else. The rest of us appreciate what we’re getting and think Statcounter’s doing a great job.
May 11th, 2008 at 12:31 am
Hey, CallMeCarl - Right on the money! Thanks for taking the time to post!
May 12th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Nice job
May 13th, 2008 at 2:53 am
Actually, while clicking on ad may be seen as a way of “Supporting” it, it also costs the advertiser money - and nothing is more annoying than paying money to get people not interested in your product
May 13th, 2008 at 5:04 am
Just found out the statcounter.. Very useful..
May 13th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I agree with Shane, having used Adwords extensively, it is extremely important for the bottom line that there are not a lot of ‘wild’ clicks on the ads!
May 14th, 2008 at 5:56 am
Hi
Good intention of statcounter.
If I see anything, I will post about it here.
Nice approach.
Meditation
May 14th, 2008 at 6:29 am
Statcounter has done wonders for tracking the qualty of hits our website gets on a daily basis. Their help is invaluable in firguing which pages work so well , and which pages need to be removed or retooled.
Thanks so much!
May 16th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I only ever see AdSense text ads on StatCounter. And these are never offensive, so I don’t see a problem. Well maybe some ads are country targeted and I don’t see them
May 18th, 2008 at 10:21 am
I’ve never seen “nasty” adverts on Statcounter. Only Text ads at the right column and Image&Text adds at the header
May 18th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
i will keep my eye out for you too.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:59 am
that’s why i love statcounter
really nice morale i support it….
jasmine
cool-hotstuff.blogspot.com
May 25th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Will do! It’s unfortunate that people actually do this…
May 28th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
IF the ads seem to be from a certain category, perhaps you can block the whole category or related keywords. For example, block “s*x” “dating” et cetera.
StatCounter Team Response:
Great idea Scott - but to the best of our knowledge it’s not possible to block advert categories with AdSense.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:26 am
I empthasise with your Paypal problems…they are a terrible company.
June 8th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Hey there, I found a potentially “nasty” advert at your adsense services… This is not a sex content link, but an “adult traffic” service, wich I don’t know if you consider it a “nasty” one… Anyway, this is the link; check it for yourselves and decide:
pagead2.googlesyndication.com/…;adurl=http://www.adulttrafficforsale.com&…
(I copied and pasted it from the original google adsense link… I hope it works).
By the way, greetings again! This is a lovely service you are giving!
StatCounter Team Response:
Thanks for being so vigilant Werewolfie - this advert has now been blocked.
All the best!
June 22nd, 2008 at 3:12 am
googlesyndication…linkbuilding.com…adult_links…
This is showing one way adult links and 300 adult links for $389 and more
StatCounter Team Response:
Thanks for reporting Sunil! We really appreciate it.
This site has now been blocked.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:53 am
Is this still an issue? I have kept an eye out since this post originated and still have not seen anything “offensive” - and I feel as if I’m constantly checking my statcounter stats.
July 28th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Is this still an issue? I have kept an eye out since this post originated and still have not seen anything
August 5th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Hi all,
Due to the amount of spam comments we’re receiving on this post, we’re now closing off the comments.
If you spot any nasty adverts, please post the details in the comments to any of our latest blog posts and we will be happy to take care of them.
Thank you!