New ad network 2025 - provide feedback here

[shaunj66]

We have switched to a new ad network. Please use this thread to report any browsing issues specifically caused by ads on GBAtemp.

Most ads include a "Report Ad" button so please use it to report any issues with ad content. There's no need to post about it on the forums, as we'll just direct you to that button.

Also, please keep in mind that these ads arent there just for the fun of it. We need revenue to keep servers going, to allow some staff to get (small) payments to keep the site alive, and giveaways, contests etc.

 

[shaunj66]

Remember you can browse GBAtemp ad-free by purchasing an Account upgrade! You can also enjoy other perks and member benefits!

 

[EmanueleBGN]

On mobile, just to see this thread, I saw an ad on the top, an ad in the background, an ad at the end of the thread and an ad at the bottom.
This is too much, the site has become almost unusable

 

[JRave]

This ad network blocks any viewing of the website if you have an ad blocker running. It goes as far as multiple script injections to get around ad blockers and even if you can block those scripts there is something else that prevents the viewing of the site. In my opinion the network acts more like malware. I wish your staff the best of luck for the future.

 

[dicamarques]

No thanks, i have ublock and dns blocking and the "fullscreen" pop up keeps appearing.
I'm out, it was a good forum...

 

[mario182]

Long time silent lurker here mainly for news and guides. I never used adblock, just Firefox's tracking protection and selective whitelisting and how deceptively this ad network acts is insane with innocent names like "html-load.com", "content-loader.com" and "error-report.com" and even BEFORE accepting a consent prompt of any sort.

When it fails to load, it fakes an issue with the site by wiping all the CSS from the page and then telling you "there was a problem loading".
If this already acts deceptively like this, I don't want to see what malware they make you download if you click anything of them.
Even crazier, if you actually visit this error-report site called "Loading Support", it tells you to disable MALWARE PROTECTION. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT RIGHT.

If this keeps being like this, this was my last visit here. According to firefox history, I had 3.1k visits to the front page.

(how hard is it to just have locally served ads with no tracking or deceptive garbage?)

 

[The Real Jdbye]

This ad network blocks any viewing of the website if you have an ad blocker running. It goes as far as multiple script injections to get around ad blockers and even if you can block those scripts there is something else that prevents the viewing of the site. In my opinion the network acts more like malware. I wish your staff the best of luck for the future.

I'm not having that issue right now but I encountered it a day or two ago and was wondering why GBAtemp was redirecting to a spam site.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

I've disabled all blockers except NoScript to come to the point of seeing the new ad network in action.

This looks a bit excessive.

And the list goes on a bit.

While trying to have a look with Firefox I got an endless loop demanding to enable JavaScript (enabled and allowed in NoScript) and automatic reload once uBlock Origin was disabled. Within Mullvad Browser I got the list of connections in NoScript and the site to load.
====

Title of the thread says "provide feedback here".

Sorry, I can't say it more polite. This is not okay and looks sketchy. To me this looks like desperately embedding anything promising a bit of ad revenue… but it might just result in loss of users. →

 

[izy]

for those wondering how invasive this anti adblock and how trash it is

its not even blocking default adblock hosts for me
but if i load a hosts files that blocks analytics it goes haywire and does the fake crash/loop to that dodgy url


if i disable these in ublock the site works but if i enable some it breaks which isfunny because the majority of them are analytics for userdata

like so yeah for some reason if you block any analytics like with 1hosts the new antiadblock kicks in
but if you dont use 1hosts to block analytics and use a default adblock nothing special
the site loads fine ads are blocked

so yeah your new ad network is prioritizing user data overserving ads

 

[Nephiel]

For 3 days now, this has made the site completely inaccessible on mobile for me.
This is not okay. Please reconsider.

 

[shaunj66]

The more feedback you can provide - especially screenshots , can help us fine tune the new ads.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

The more feedback you can provide - especially screenshots , can help us fine tune the new ads.

Hard to screenshot anything. I really tried my best to even get any ad shown, but failed. The best(?) I got was white areas like placeholders where banners should probably be.
Other than connections to two dozen domains and a bunch of strange scripts there was nothing.

I got to see a cookie banner once stating the default accept all option would include over 700 "partners"

 

[a_username_that_is_cool]

I have uBlock Origin but hearing this sounds like it's not good in terms of BtS (behind the scenes) operations but shows less? ads than before

 

[izy]

I have uBlock Origin but hearing this sounds like it's not good in terms of BtS (behind the scenes) operations but shows less? ads than before

if you enable ublock it blocks it all fine with default
if you enable it with 1 hosts fro privacy filtering it triggers anti adblock so they want your user data as priority

if you disable it heresa list of everything it loads

this is also it was increasing as i was idling on thispage

 

[Nephiel]

Here's the feedback I can provide about this:

The site now has an inline script attempting to load resources from html-load.com on load.

When the user's browser can not retrieve those resources (e.g. because of the domain being blocked, and rightfully so), there's another script:

which then proceeds to deface the site on purpose by removing CSS, and pops up an alert on top of it all. The dialog directs the user to error-report.com (which may also be blocked, for the same reasons, there's screenshots of that in this thread).
The error-report.com site would then present the user with instructions on how to disable their adblock, privacy and malware protection measures.

The tl;dr: is the site breaks itself on purpose until the user allows everything.
This is intentional, because it clearly benefits the ad provider, to the detriment of the users who follow instructions and become exposed to more threats.

 

[izy]

if i enable adblock it goes down from 65/65 connected domains

to 7/12 (it actually went as low as 5/9 domains)

 

[a_username_that_is_cool]

if i enable adblock it goes down from 65/65 connected domains

to 7/12 (it actually went as low as 5/9 domains)

Mine is 5 out of 10

 

[yankii]

GBAtemp has fallen, dozens must Reddit.

 

[izy]

Mine is 5 out of 10

also whats comical is the cpu usage
with ublock on this thread idles at 0.1/0.2% cpu usage
with it disabled it idles at 1.3% or more with spikes to 2/3%

it doesnt sound like much but im using a ryzen 7945hx (my cpu literally cinebenches 37K)
16core/32threads no efficiency core that does a 5ghz all core for a text based forum the resource usage is kinda insane

if i disable turbo boost and run all 16 cores 32threads at 2.5ghz this thread alone can spike 5% cpu usage now imagine anyone with a lower spec pc/phone because lets face it this is a forum firstmost

for reference I loaded up a news website with way more ads and images and it was idling at 1.8%

 

[The Real Jdbye]

This ad network blocks any viewing of the website if you have an ad blocker running. It goes as far as multiple script injections to get around ad blockers and even if you can block those scripts there is something else that prevents the viewing of the site. In my opinion the network acts more like malware. I wish your staff the best of luck for the future.

uBlock isn't giving me any issues, do you have Noscript by any chance? I got the redirect until I enabled JS for html-load.com. Have not had issues since.

Seems rather sketchy, the redirect made me think the website might have been hijacked at first because it's an unfamiliar domain and DDoS protection normally doesn't redirect to a different domain like this, an ad network definitely shouldn't be doing this, they have the power to essentially hijack the website.