Sudden Text Link ads

I'm suddenly seeing text link ads like this:

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...pss0dnb8df.jpg

Is this a site side issue? Or something on my computer. It only seems to show up on the GITP forums.

I'm far from a computer expert, but that seems to be a local issue on your end. I had something similar once. Perhaps you have some form of malware on your machine?

Check through your browser plugins for anything out of place and then run a scan with your antivirus of choice.

This is almost always a virus. Many sites will block this kind of inline advertising but Giant Forums don't, which is potentially why they're only showing up here. Get your virus scanner to check, go through any browser plugins that you're not familiar with and get rid of them, and you can also sometimes tell the "Provider" of these to stop doing it, so you won't get them any more. It's also possible to get another add-on that will get rid of them, but that doesn't actually get rid of the underlying thing that's doing it.

There are no inline text adverts on Giant in the Playground, this is an issue which is local to your computer, specifically malware/virus.

As this happens client side after the page has been downloaded from the server, there is no way for any server to "block" or otherwise stop malware on your computer from modifying the displayed content. You should run a virus scan and try to remove any unwanted software/addons.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rawhide

As this happens client side after the page has been downloaded from the server, there is no way for any server to "block" or otherwise stop malware on your computer from modifying the displayed content.

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This is odd, because some sites seem to manage to prevent it occurring. Irrespective of how they manage it, the point I guess we're both making is that just because it only appears here doesn't mean it's anything to do with this site.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jormengand

This is odd, because some sites seem to manage to prevent it occurring. Irrespective of how they manage it, the point I guess we're both making is that just because it only appears here doesn't mean it's anything to do with this site.

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It may just randomly (or less randomly, e.g. most visited sites, or based on site type/content) choose only specific sites to target, so you think it is the sites, not your computer.

Okay, thanks. I'd seen it on other sites as part of the unregistered users versions of the site, and wasn't sure. It seems to be something which has infected Chrome. Thanks anyway.

Ah ha. Video downloader pretending to be a similar application with good reputation. Thanks all for the idea.