Weird little pop-up thing (ad?) at the bottom of the forum pages?

[engledogg]

Hi,

Whenever I visit one of the main forum pages (https://www.allspark.com/home/forums/, https://www.allspark.com/home/forums/politics-and-religion/, etc.), I keep getting this at the bottom of the page:

or

It can appear either on the left or right - it's a clickable link (I didn't click on it since I'm not sure where it would take me)...is it just some type of ad or something?

It doesn't seem to happen on individual topic pages (https://www.allspark.com/home/threads/the-new-transformers-deal-thread.2486/)

I don't get it in Incognito mode (I'm using Chrome as my browser).

Oh, it's happening in Edge, as well.

This seems to be a recent development as I don't remember this happening until today.

MIKE
engledogg

 

[CoffeeHorse]

You should be seeing actual ads there.

 

[engledogg]

Oh, I should've been clearer - I do see actual ads towards the bottom of the screen, in addition to these pop-up things:

It only happens on forum pages, but not on individual topic pages - for example, I don't see it when replying here:

MIKE
engledogg

 

[engledogg]

If you do an inspect, and go to the Elements tab, and scroll down a bit, the pop-up comes through as a google anchor ad:

So, I guess it's legit? Annoying, lol, but legit.

MIKE
engledogg

 

[Sabrblade]

I've been seeing the same thing happen over on the Seibertron forums as well, before they started popping up over here.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

So maybe Google broke something. That sounds like something they would do.

 

[Exatron]

I've been getting those too, along with random embedded links up at the top of the page. Clicking on any of them opens related ads. I spent quite awhile trying to figure put what got broken in either Android, Samsung's software, or Chrome before realizing it's apparently specific to this site.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

My phone has Firefox, and I don't see that.

 

[abates]

I'm not seeing the added links in any of my Firefoxes, but I am seeing the floating ads (because obviously having a floating ad in the way of something you want to click on is not annoying at all) but it could be some sort of A/B testing Google is doing.

 

[Pocket]

Is the huge ad box near the top of the page no longer meant to be populated, now that we've switched to the slide-up-from-the-bottom kind? Because it'd save space to remove the empty space where it used to be.

 

[Swerve]

Ads everywhere here...what's a Moflin?

 

[TriBlurr]

I keep getting these drop down adds when I load a new page.

 

[The Predaking]

Ads everywhere here...what's a Moflin?

It's like a tribble, except the reproduce only on the full moon. They are the primary food source of werewolves.

 

[LiamA]

I'm getting them too.

 

[The Predaking]

Same, but they aren't blocking anything and roll down when you click the arrow.

 

[LiamA]

"Websites need ads and damn you for using an adblocker to block the ads that dominate the entire page," he says sarcastically.

 

[LiamA]

This thing is annoying as hell. Trying to sign in and it covers the entire sign in box.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Try another browser. This isn't something we're deliberately doing.

 

[The Predaking]

Also, are you using your phone, tablet, or a PC when it's blocking the sign in box?

 

[TriBlurr]

I'm on my phone when this is popping up.