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!

nasty advert

If you spot a nasty advert on StatCounter here’s what to do:

  1. 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.)

  2. 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.
  3. 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!

72 Comments

  1. 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!

  2. Hi

    Good intention of statcounter.
    If I see anything, I will post about it here.

    Nice approach.

    🙂
    Meditation

  3. 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!

  4. 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 😉

  5. Hey, CallMeCarl – Right on the money! Thanks for taking the time to post!

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. eww bad nasty adverts….shame on them!! (my god I sound like my mother)

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. Love statcounter!

    Cheers.
    John Denner

    http://www.JohnDennerRocks.com

  12. Thanks, Statcounter for this wonderful initiative. This will keep taking many visitors to your sites on a daily basis.
    Cheers.

  13. I liked this one very much StatCounter as a “family show”

    Very cool and very true.

  14. Adverts… what adverts

    I don’t see any adverts whatsoever.

    😉

  15. Not a problem…I will assist you in keeping Statcounter clean. Thanks for providing this fantastic product/service…

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