Is there any moderation of adverts?

The very first "advert" that appeared on my forum was "your file is ready to download" and there was a large "Download" button.

There is nothing to indicate that this was an advert or who the advert was from and I can imagine that some forum members may think that this was a forum message (which, I assume is the intention of the advert).

I am sure that there must be some rules that require addverts to be identified as such and also indicate what is being advertised?

Your FAQs provide useful information on security, but you then allow this advert which, if clicked, could be installing all sorts of nasties on member's PCs.

Just as forum admins have a responsibility to moderate their forums, forumotion also has a responsibility to moderate the adverts and not be supporting the promotion of potential security risks. 

Can you please tell me what forumotion does to ensure that the adverts are safe and comply with advertising standards regulations?

As long as the adverts don't actually violate forumotions own ToS and I believe Googles ToS then that's pretty much it. I believe google are the ones who provide the ads.

If you see a porn ad or ads that lead to viruses then if you get the URL and a Screenshot of the ad then report it here then our Pro Admin might be able to do something but otherwise you just have to live with them or pay for them to be removed.

It's interesting that you don't make reference to compliance with the Advertising Standards Agency's rules on internet advertising.

I think that i will check with them, because i know that adverts in printed publications must show that they are adverts, but i do not know if similar rules exist for Internet adverts.

I believe ads do have in the bottom right corner a little thing that says GoogleAd or something similar and by the way I don't think ASA operates in France as I think it is UK based organisation only with some branches in other countires.

I believe since the servers are hosted within France and the company is French that it'll be whatever the French laws are regarding advertising.

On this particular advert, there was absolutely nothing to indicate that this was an advert, or who/what the advert was for.
The fact that it was pushing an unknown file download makes the advert irresponsible and i do not think that it is right for forumotion to ignore this.

You are correct in that the ASA is a UK organisation.
From my knowledge of the French, i expect their rules to be more strict than in the UK.

I doubt its an illegal ad because all ads are from google and obviously google and FM combined do filter out ads. I'm aware of the ad you're talking about, it has the words called download written in big letters. All I'd suggest doing is putting an announcement up on your forum titling 'Do not click Ads at the top of the forum'

That way the members know what it is and not to click it.

One possible thing it could be is a third party script Ad. As sometimes coding from other sites can have Ads so if you've installed any third party coding like Javascript, CSS or even HTML then that could be it but those tend to pop up in really odd places on the forum.

Thanks

I am not suggesting that the add is illegal.

It seems that forumotion are just passing the buck and in denial about your culpability for allowing, actually encouraging, innocent forum members to download an unknown file to their PC.

I have not installed anything on the Forum.

I see it as forumotion's responsibility to show that it is an advert and not mine, because it is you who are putting the adverts there.

Just to make it clear, I have no objection to adverts, but it is forumotion who should make it 100% clear that messages that are potentially security risks are actually adverts.

Hello,

May I ask just so we're on the same page is this your forum http://www.parathyroid-forum.co.uk/ ?

Hi 

Yes, this is my forum.
I apologise for not mentioning this earlier. 

It is a support forum for people who have a difficult and stressful medical problem and i would not want to make things worse for them by having their PCs messed-up.

Yes I do understand as I understood the spam security question.

However I must break the news to you that said forum isn't a Forumotion forum. I viewed the profile structure, the options with the forum and some of them don't exist on FM.

I believe that forum is part of the PHPBB group and that's the community you'd want to seek.

Plus you'd have to have specific footer links as well, which you don't have.

Sorry, I do not understand what you are telling me.

I signed-up with forumotion.co.uk.
I would not know how to do the things that you mention.

And it says forumotion in the Admin control pamel

Hi,

I've spoken with one of our Managers and they've confirmed it is not a forumotion forum. I've also checked and key links that differentiate between a forumotion forum and a regular PhpBB forum are different.

All links on that site lead to the PHPBB website and none here.

Hi,

You should seek help here:  https://www.phpbb.com/

Regards,
Sir Chivas.

Hello,

I did a searching from our system tools, and I didn't see a Forumotion forum with that forum link. (It doesn't exist as a Forumotion forum).

We only provide support for Forumotion forums. You can open a new topic if you have questions related to our service. Thank you.

This topic will be locked.

Topic unlocked.

After a misunderstanding, it is discovered that the forum URL is actually: http://hyperparathyroid.forumotion.co.uk/

...Which is a Forumotion forum. We can continue providing support in this topic. Thank you.

Hi

Thank you for realising the mistake.
This was very frustrating for me.

So, I would like to know if Forumotion will take any action on the advert that is a potential security risk to forum members, because it is not clear that it is an advert?

Hi there,

I'll clear the air here:
The Ads have always been coming from a 3rd party that is not Google, they are a very similar service but by no means are Google. They are a French company, as like ForuMotion.com is a French company, operating on a server space based out of both France and the USA.

As far as moderation of the adds, ForuMotion.com takes no responsibility of contents on the forums (As I believe stated in the ToS, I will stand to be corrected) however takes due care of the contents, such as Advertisements.
If you believe, or know in this instance, please take all relovent screenshots, forwarding URL's and final URL, and any virus' notification(s)
You have the option of:
Posting the information here (A member of staff will ask Buttercup to approach this thread)
Or
Sending it via PM to Buttercup -> Our communications officer to the company, and I believe 3rd parties (or she will forward to the person who is)

Both will receive appropriate action(s) from the company - being passing onto this 3rd party.
It is then this 3rd parties duty to remove this advertisement from their 'pool' or disallow it from the allowed ads in our 'pool'

I hope this helps.

Hi

Thank you for your reply.

As I already mentioned to one of your colleagues, I have no objection to the advert, but it should state that it is an advert.

It is highly misleading and a potential security risk to have something that shows "Your file is ready for download" without anything that indicates it is an advert and not part of the forum.

If you would like to point out that the main advert is an advert you could have a notice before it. Since you're using phpbb3, you could add an element to the page head that notifies the element after it is an advert.

Administration panel > modules > javascript codes management

enable javascript codes management : yes, and save.

Create a new script :

Title : what you wish
Placement : in all the pages
Paste the code below and save :

Code:

$(function() {
    var a = document.createElement('DIV');
    a.innerHTML = 'Advertisements :';
    a.id = 'notice-av';
    document.getElementById('page-header').appendChild(a);
});

You could then style the notice with CSS :
Administration panel > display > colors > CSS stylesheet

Code:

#notice-av {
    color:red;
    font-weight:bold;
    text-align:center;
}

If you really feel that the ads could be a problem, you can always disable them too. You would need to use credits though :
Administration panel > misc > spend credits > ads

That is perfect.

Thank you very much for sending me this.

This is now solved.