Adding Insult to Injury: Walkthru will not load because of the advertisement!

Domi_Ash · Post by **Domi_Ash** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 7:43 am

I have encountered the most annoying behavior today trying to load IWD2 walk-thru (I also checked KOTORII one and it has the same problem). It will not load, displaying in pale text that "Advertisement Loading" instead. I repeatedly loaded the page, refreshed it, left it running for a few minutes, tried loading http://www.gamebanshee.com - with the same result. The only page that loads is the forums. It's infuriating. Please, if someone of the site administrators is reading this, check what sort of a file is that advert you are trying us to see. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the bug will be resolved.

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 7:46 am

After reading your post, made a bit trying myself... and have exactly same problem. Only forums load, everything else stops to "advertising loading" -thing...

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 7:59 am

Same result as Kipi's. Tried both IE and Firefox. The page stops at the 'advertisement loading' bar.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 9:40 am

Do you folks mean the page being redirected and ending up with a nearly blank page, with a little advert bar up at the top left, with no way to go forward?

That has been happening to me for a few months. Repeatedly, and regularly. It makes using the site pointless at times. Pop-ups are one thing, you can get around them. Having something that completely rejects the option to go through to the link I click on and stop dead at a banner ad on a blank page every time I click a link is completely another. It interferes with posting and simply viewing pages much of the time.

However, I must say, that using the tabbed browsing through Firefox does sometimes circumvent this problem. I have started to right click and click "Open new tab" on this site now. It cuts the interferance down by more than half usually.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 12:48 pm

Magrus wrote:Do you folks mean the page being redirected and ending up with a nearly blank page, with a little advert bar up at the top left, with no way to go forward? That has been happening to me for a few months. Repeatedly, and regularly. It makes using the site pointless at times. Pop-ups are one thing, you can get around them. Having something that completely rejects the option to go through to the link I click on and stop dead at a banner ad on a blank page every time I click a link is completely another. It interferes with posting and simply viewing pages much of the time.

However, I must say, that using the tabbed browsing through Firefox does sometimes circumvent this problem. I have started to right click and click "Open new tab" on this site now. It cuts the interferance down by more than half usually.

Well, when you find things like this, you should really report it to Buck so he can take it up with the advertisement provider.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 2:17 pm

Xandax wrote:Well, when you find things like this, you should really report it to Buck so he can take it up with the advertisement provider.

After the nonsense everyone went through a bit back, I decided to put it off and let him get caught up on his work and just sort of tuned it out. I didn't want to bother him and that time and kind of got used to going around it.

Post by **BuckGB** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 3:25 pm

I have notified UGO about the issue and will hopefully hear something back very soon. For what it's worth, though, I can load both the ID2 and KotOR2 walkthroughs on my PC without any problem. It could be a cookie problem as the full-screen ad is only supposed to display once every 24 hours. If the cookie isn't working, it might be putting you in an endless loop.

Fljotsdale · Post by **Fljotsdale** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 5:35 pm

Xandax wrote:Well, when you find things like this, you should really report it to Buck so he can take it up with the advertisement provider.

I tried that when the 'once in 24hrs advert' wouldn't let me get past it. I was ignored.

Eventually, after waiting for several days, then waiting again, I got onto the forum page.
Since which time I have carefully avoided trying to go anywhere else on the site, since it was going elsewhere that seemed to trigger the advert trap.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 6:39 pm

Buck Satan wrote:It could be a cookie problem as the full-screen ad is only supposed to display once every 24 hours. If the cookie isn't working, it might be putting you in an endless loop.

That could be my problem. I reject all cookies aside from the ones I manually allow. I know I did allow some for this site, so I don't have to login everytime. I may be rejecting a new one that would fix this however.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 11:46 am

I figured I would upload a screenshot of what I've been dealing with lately. As you should be able to see, the little banner is a link, and it will go to the LucasArts/ Star Wars Empire at War site when you click it. However, there is no way to go forward onto the page I attempted to get to by clicking the original link. In addition to that, it simply loops me directly back to that banner add on a blank page when I hit the "Back" button for my browser.

Would this be what was mentioned in the original post? Or is this something different altogether?

Domi_Ash · Post by **Domi_Ash** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 10:18 am

I have notified UGO about the issue and will hopefully hear something back very soon. For what it's worth, though, I can load both the ID2 and KotOR2 walkthroughs on my PC without any problem. It could be a cookie problem as the full-screen ad is only supposed to display once every 24 hours. If the cookie isn't working, it might be putting you in an endless loop.

I am not sure it was the case, because before and after the incedent there was no problems, I can see the ads just fine (gods, I can't bvelieve I was actually welcoming the sight!) My uneducated guess was that there was one particular advert that was messing things up.

Post by **BuckGB** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 12:15 pm

I've been told that this issue has been fixed. Is anyone still having an issue accessing any of our content pages?

Domi_Ash · Post by **Domi_Ash** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:26 pm

everything is fine on my end. thank you for prompt troubleshooting.

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 7:21 pm

No problems on my part here. Thank you.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 8:58 pm

Buck Satan wrote:I've been told that this issue has been fixed. Is anyone still having an issue accessing any of our content pages?

I figured I would wait and see. Given I have been busy working/playing NWN 2, I didn't notice it until today. I allowed the cookies to this site, they weren't being allowed before. That didn't affect things. I am still having trouble with that same add problem as before. If no one else is having the problem however, I will assume it is just punishment from some higher power for something I did and work around it as I have been. :laugh:

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 11:41 pm

I have no problems currently, but I noticed after the "splash screen add", that a huge "layered" add appeared rolled down in the top left as a masked popup (with some "Let's go to Prison" text, I would think has to do with movie or TV)?
I wonder if you have given them permission to make such an advertisment?

I'll try to get a screen of it from work.

Domi_Ash · Post by **Domi_Ash** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 11:32 pm

That Rome Total War thinggie is one of those bad ones that takes you to another web-site when you try to close it - one of the most annoying things in pop-ups. It also has the cheater background that is semi-transparent, that forces you to look at it longer while attempting to close it. And it blocks the "Site Features" panel, so you can't just by-pass it. (Shakes her head) Makes me think that the games are so bad that they have to use dirty tactics like that.