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How to report annoying or intrusive ads on road.cc

We hate annoying ads on this site even more than you do (no, really) so we've given you a place to report them so we can have them terminated with extreme prejudice...

Many things get the collective goat of the team here at road.cc beneath our mild exterior lurks a bubbling cauldron of rage and one thing in particular causes it to boil over – annoying and intrusive ads finding their way on to road.cc. Luckily they are fairly rare, but they are a recurring problem and one we’d like your help in fighting by reporting any you see on a new page we’ve created just for that purpose here.

These ads annoy us because they impact on your enjoyment of the site which in turn could lead to an increase in the use of ad blocking software which if it grew too large would ultimately lead to the death of road.cc something we’re very keen to avoid. It also annoys us that some advertisers try to get round the strict rules we have about the types of ads we will accept on road.cc and more importantly what we won’t accept. There are some ad formats you simply shouldn’t be seeing on road.cc.

‘And what are those?’ I hear you ask.

  • Any ad that attempts to hijack or take over the main part of the screen
  • Any auto-play video ad - especially looped ones you can’t turn off
  • Any ad that attempts to auto-scroll your browser down the page - we REALLY hate those, but not as much as
  • Any ad that redirects your browser to the app store or to another website - usually a redirect to a betting app or site.

The latter two are the most insidious annoying ads we have to deal with, luckily they are rare - though many sites have similar problems with them.

So how can you help? Well with our new Annoying and intrusive ad reporting page (snappy title eh?) we’d like your help in capturing as much information about these ads as possible – screen grabs of the offending advert, and if you can get it the ad code – we’ve even got a handy video showing you how to get the code.

That information gives the ad networks - who also want to deal with the problem – the necessary information to track down and block the sources of the offending ads.

Because of the way they work auto redirects are harder to deal with – a piece of code, which might be time limited, is injected into a seemingly innocuous ad which as it loads then deploys the redirect. The problem here being that because the redirect occurs before the page has loaded it’s hard/impossible to know which ad caused the problem. Even so, if you do find this happening to you it’s still worth you giving any information you can about what happened – obviously if by any chance the page did load before it redirected we’d love to know what was on it, but we’d also like to know where you were redirected too, and what if anything happened when you got there. We’d also like to know the browser and device you were using at the time.

Lots of you already take the time to let us know if an ad or a redirect has interfered with your use of the site - and we really appreciate it. With the new Intrusive ad reporting page we’re trying to make it even easier to let us know and for us to report such incidents to the ad networks we use.

As I say this is not a big problem – unless of course it’s affecting you – generally it’s caused by a handful of the hundreds of thousands of ads that are served on road.cc every day.

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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20 comments

Avatar
dottigirl | 7 years ago
0 likes

It's currently a Diesel advert. Really annoying.

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dottigirl | 7 years ago
1 like

The disruptive ad for me is always whatever is playing on the bottom of the right column. Autoplays, pulls the screen up or down, and is generally a PITA.

The one showing a piece of metal - a shower head? - is the current one.

I've tried to report the ads, but they seem to be getting worse. And it's certainly discouraging me from this site.

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rogermerriman | 7 years ago
0 likes

on the iphone this site and few other drove me to install a blocker, so that horse has bolted, on the ipad/laptop seems fine no auto playing at least recently.

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CygnusX1 | 7 years ago
0 likes

Like others, I'm getting redirected to the android Play store for various betting apps

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ktache | 7 years ago
2 likes

Video ads pulling my viewing screen down and autoplaying, often with intrusive audio.  Well done for this feature.  Unfortunately I will now have to find out who the annoying people are to be able to report them.  O2 just did it there, right now, grrr.

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Nixster | 7 years ago
0 likes

Sky bet, Ladbrokes, William Hill, redirect to App Store on my iPhone 6 and previous 5s. A nightmare, repeated problem, ironically just did so twice when trying to get to this page! Doesn't happen in desktop or iPad. 

Please fix it as if you don't I'll have to read the evening standard on the train and lord knows what that will do to my state of mind. 

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The _Kaner | 7 years ago
0 likes

Yep, Betting adverts...and I reckon I've been in a betting shop maybe 3 times in my life...I don't bet/gamble in real life never mind using any online site..yet I am inundated on road.cc (mainly on mobile - android)

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Stef Marazzi | 7 years ago
0 likes

Yes! Glad you've noticed this! I keep getting randomly redirector to the play store to download various gambling apps such as Williams Hills app. It's making the site unusable.

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me | 7 years ago
0 likes

Excellent!  The adverts for some boat sailing across the screen with torpedos made crappy IE grind to a halt.  Not seen it today but I know what to do when I do!

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EddyBerckx | 7 years ago
0 likes

Every now and then I get redirected to 'skybet' on the Apple App Store.

 

it seems like it happens when the page is first loading/just loaded and I swipe the screen to go up/down etc. Really, really annoying! Often have to leave the site and come back again...giving it a few seconds before I do anything.

 

cos I'm a fanboy I'll keep coming back  3

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Goldfever4 | 7 years ago
0 likes

When I open Road.cc on my mobile browser I get a full-screen pop-up with a link to click through to the Google Play store. Hit back, leave Road.cc and sometimes close the tab too. Infuriating. Glad you have this tool now because I was starting to think about not bothering anymore.

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JohnnyEnglish | 7 years ago
0 likes

A good start, but not practical when the ad takes over the entire page and can't be dismissed. Reloading the page may work, by which time the offending ad has gone and is harder to report...

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Tony Farrelly replied to JohnnyEnglish | 7 years ago
0 likes

JohnnyEnglish wrote:

A good start, but not practical when the ad takes over the entire page and can't be dismissed. Reloading the page may work, by which time the offending ad has gone and is harder to report...

Is that on your phone or laptop/desktop - this is the first time we've heard about ads doing that. So far the only things we've had reported to us are auto-playing video ads and redirects to either the Google Play Store or Apple App Store - which that sounds like. The redirects are not just a problem for us they are common affliction across the internet at the moment even on sites like ours where the rules for ad formats are strict. The only thing we can do about the latter is make an educated guess about which ad network is eithe knowingly or unknowingly (more likely) responsible and pause their campaigns something we are doing. 

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JohnnyEnglish replied to Tony Farrelly | 7 years ago
0 likes

Tony Farrelly wrote:

JohnnyEnglish wrote:

A good start, but not practical when the ad takes over the entire page and can't be dismissed. Reloading the page may work, by which time the offending ad has gone and is harder to report...

Is that on your phone or laptop/desktop - this is the first time we've heard about ads doing that. So far the only things we've had reported to us are auto-playing video ads and redirects to either the Google Play Store or Apple App Store - which that sounds like. The redirects are not just a problem for us they are common affliction across the internet at the moment even on sites like ours where the rules for ad formats are strict. The only thing we can do about the latter is make an educated guess about which ad network is eithe knowingly or unknowingly (more likely) responsible and pause their campaigns something we are doing. 

iPhone, using the built-in browser of an RSS reader app (Newsify). As a result, I rarely check beyond the headlines with RSS. Thanks.

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barbarus | 7 years ago
2 likes

Thank you!

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bendertherobot | 7 years ago
12 likes

Nice one! I keep getting these close pass of the day features. Now I know what to do.

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kitsunegari replied to bendertherobot | 7 years ago
1 like

bendertherobot wrote:

Nice one! I keep getting these close pass of the day features. Now I know what to do.

Ahhah, I thought the exact same thing when I saw the article.

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Tony Farrelly replied to bendertherobot | 7 years ago
5 likes

bendertherobot wrote:

Nice one! I keep getting these close pass of the day features. Now I know what to do.

Near Miss of The Day - don't like it don't read it. Problem solved.

Avatar
bendertherobot replied to Tony Farrelly | 7 years ago
3 likes

Tony Farrelly wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

Nice one! I keep getting these close pass of the day features. Now I know what to do.

Near Miss of The Day - don't like it don't read it. Problem solved.

 

Don't like a comment, ignore it, ditto.

Avatar
reliablemeatloaf replied to bendertherobot | 7 years ago
2 likes

bendertherobot wrote:

Tony Farrelly wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

Nice one! I keep getting these close pass of the day features. Now I know what to do.

Near Miss of The Day - don't like it don't read it. Problem solved.

 

Don't like a comment, ignore it, ditto.

Huh?

If you don't like "Near miss of the day", it's probably because you drive like the motorist in the video. Hell, you probably ARE the motorist in the video.

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