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Inappropriate ad on my site

  1. donron
    Member

    I understand that we do not control which ads play on our free hosted sites. I also understand and appreciate that those ads help keep wp.com free. In a perfect world, I would hope that the kind of ads served by your servers would relate to the content of my site. My site is geared towards professional creatives, so ads about toothpaste or whatever would be kinda stupid. But I could live with it.

    However, I was under the impression that the whatever ads played, they would be "appropriate." Today someone brought to my attention an add that reads "Be naughty! Chat with local hotties." I uploaded it with CloudApp so you could see it:
    http://cl.ly/3O2S0v1r3r1f0Q343e3l

    Under normal circumstances I think this would be inappropriate content to be served by an organization like WordPress. But it's made even more alarming for me because I have professed about my Christian faith repeatedly on my blog.

    I respect the fact that I cannot control what kind of ads play. But is there at least a way to ensure "adult content" related ads are NOT served?

    I love what you guys do and I'm one of your biggest fans. I still am. But I was really disappointed to see this come on my blog.

    Thanks,
    Ron

    I

    The blog I need help with is daredreamermag.com.

  2. timethief
    Member

    If you feel an ad is inappropriate please take a screenshot of it and send it to Staff by emailing support@wordpress.com or upload it into your Media Library and contact Staff and let them know it's there for them to view.

    P.S. Posting the link here on a public forum means that people will click the ad and that's what the advertiser wants.

  3. timethief
    Member

    Under normal circumstances I think this would be inappropriate content to be served by an organization like WordPress. But it's made even more alarming for me because I have professed about my Christian faith repeatedly on my blog.

    Are you aware that there could be "competitor's" ads displaying to your Christian visitors such as Scientology ads?

    WordPress.com has been running advertising on our free hosted blogs since 2006. Many bloggers do not know this because despite the fact they ticked the box required to get a free blog, they did not read the ToS. Many also do not read features page, or advertising entry in the support documents after registering their username and blog(s). Also note that as the ads do not display to us when we are logged in, and as many use browsers with ad blockers when logged out, they may not realize they are there at all. The only way to get rid of all advertising on our free hosted WordPress.com blogs is to purchase an annually renewable No-Ads upgrade.

  4. donron
    Member

    Hi Timelife,

    As always I appreciate your quick replies.

    First, to be clear, my blog is not targeted to Christian readers. My blog is targeted to filmmakers, photographers and other professional creatives (I'm sure some of them are Christian, but many are not). I just have been open about my faith on my blog, so an ad like this would be confusing to people who know my personal convictions.

    Second, I am fully aware that ads are not visible by us when logged in and I'm aware there are ads. I just had no idea there would be adult-oriented ads. I thought most reputable sites like wp.com specifically didn't allow for such content.

    Lastly, the link I posted is a link to a screenshot, not the ad itself. I used CloudApp to upload it because I didn't want it taking space on my media library. I will definitely take your advice and email it to the support staff.

    If in the end there is no way to ensure adult-oriented ads are not served, I'll just bite the bullet and upgrade to the ad-free upgrade. But I wanted to possibly participate in the ad revenue plan they announced a while ago, so I assumed having an ad-free site would opt me out of that. That's one reason I haven't done it yet.

    Thanks again,
    Ron

  5. gaudetetheology
    Member

    I'm also alarmed at the notion that so-called "adult-oriented ads" may appear on the site. I assumed that the ads would be suitable for a general audience.

    In particular, I would expect that only pages that are flagged as "mature" content would display ads that qualify as "mature" content per the description given here: http://en.support.wordpress.com/mature-content/

    Is this a reasonable expectation?

  6. sarahwbartlett
    Member

    Hi, writinginsidevt.com here. We've paid for the no-ads upgrade since November but lately a number of bizarre ads have been showing up - for Walmart and such. How do we get the ad blocker to block these things?

    Thanks so much for your help.

  7. timethief
    Member

    @gaudetetheology
    @womenwritingvt
    We Volunteers answering questions on the forums cannot help with this issue. Please contact Staff directly.

  8. donron
    Member

    For those who commented here, this was WP staff's response regarding the issue:

    Hi,
    I'm terribly sorry about that! We'll shut down this advertiser ASAP. Thank you for your report!
    ---------------

    I then queried:
    I'm concerned about it happening again. Am I correct in assuming it is NOT in the norm for this kind of advertiser to be served?

    This was the response:
    Hi,

    Yes, this is definitely not normal. We strive to provide only family friendly advertisements, and when an ad provider sneaks something like this through, we get rid of that provider.
    -----------

    That is good to know! Thanks WP.

  9. timethief
    Member

    @donron
    That's very good to know and I want to thank you for sharing that response here.

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