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Reporting Bad Ads
Well, more information the better. Information that could help are (most important, to least important):
- The Batoto page that you were viewing when the bad ad occurred (could be included in screenshot). Just copy & paste the URL.
Critical! This is the most important information that tells us which network caused it.
Even if it's a second, third, or more time getting it, please report the URL each time so we don't confused one cause with another.
Example: http://vatoto.com/read/_/224066/testing_v99_ch99_by_testing/2
- Screenshot - A good screenshot should show it's placement of the ad with respect to its page. In otherwise, post everything, not just the ad itself.
Sample of a good screenshot. Sample of bad screenshot. - Description of what happened.
- Your Operating System & Browser. Example: Windows 7, Firefox 28
- Name of the advertiser such as the brand. Example: Ford, Google, Yahoo
- The landing URL. That is, where you arrived at. If it requires you to click in order to find out, do not click it. Just omit this information. Please DO NOT add a hyper-link (clickable) to a bad website. Meaning, if you want to write down their address, replace "http" with something like "hxxp" so that it doesn't become a clickable link. Or you can surround it with [ code][/ code] bb tags (without space). We don't want to give the baddies more points by giving them referring links in the eyes of search engines.
Example: hxxp://somereallycrappysite.com/with/terrible/ads.htm
or put the link in code tag by paste and highlight the link , then click the <> on the top buttons. It should look like this:http://somereallycrappysite.com/with/terrible/ads.html
If you want to be SUPER helpful. (Some tech savvy & intent to capture required. Cannot be done after the matter.) Forward me a copy of the HAR data that resulted in the ad. To get this, you need something like Chrome's [Developer Tools] > [Network] already open before getting to the page. Afterwards, right click on the network traffic and copy all info as HAR. WARNING: This data may contain sensitive information that you should never post to the public. PM Grumpy the data or email me ([email protected]). In the event of a redirect issue, you will need to have "Preserve log" option checked so that a redirect will not clear out your HAR data. But you will also need to manually clear every time you are not redirected.
Note: As HAR tends to be gigantic, it may get cut off if you just send me via PM. Emailing the file is most sure way to send large ones. You can also use services like pastebin (500KB limit).
What is a Bad Ad?
If you see annoying ads that:
- Play Audio automatically (having the option to unmute or play which then starts the audio does not count)
- expand automatically (ie grows outside of it's usual space without any interaction or is located somewhere it shouldn't be)
- any popup (whether within the site, virus warning popup... anything popping up!) [Does not apply to webtoon formats]
- any redirection
- porno ads
Please let us know. We'll try to remove them. We have filters set to not display such ads to begin with. But some seems to slip by. 
Why do bad ads come out at all? We don't have complete control of what ads come out. As Batoto do not (currently) sell advertising space directly (simply too much work), but to ad networks, once we give them a spot, they decide what to put there. And it doesn't really end there. If that specific network doesn't have an ad for you, they tend to pass it off to a partner network. And this process can repeat multiples of times, sometimes even creating an infinite loop between them. During the chain of passing, one of the networks could be simply of poor quality, infected, etc. As the users of Batoto have a high page view count (ie ad view count due to page flipping), the chance is simply higher than other sites that might use the same network. By reporting bad partners get cut off from the chain, and if it's a result of a direct ad, it gets removed as well. As more and more "passing" to partner occurs, revenue decreases (since more hands in the pocket) and bad ad chance increases. It's clearly a behavior we want to avoid from all sides.
Just as a footnote, any ads that violates any of the specification above is a violation of the advertisers' own Terms and Conditions. Though I will try to manually report problematic ones, many are often removed by the advertisers themselves as they don't want it either.
& Batoto
Batoto is a site that runs on ads, so usage of ad block is certainly less favorable for Batoto. At the same time, I do understand that some users have issues with ads more often than others. So, if you really do get a ton of bad ads, I encourage you to use an ad blocker. But, I would like to implore users to try disabling it again in a day, week, a month or after some other period of time has passed. Because you might not get that bad experience again since stuff changes all the time -- even if there was no report by us or you. No one wants problematic ads (except the ones who made it...). It increases people using it, thus hitting revenue for the site owner. It also decreases ad company's value if they're often problematic and sites leave. So, there is policing of ads in many fronts, it's just really hard to keep it off.
Why is ad block so problematic? Why does Batoto ask the users to try disabling it?
It's really not just about how much ad revenue we can bring in. It's about balance. There are two major factors involved.
1. (With hypothetical numbers) If we need to serve 10 ads, 10 people could see the ad once or 1 person could see it 10 times. The former is clearly fairer as we don't burden the 1 user to carry the load of 10.
2. And the second part is more important, it's about value of ads per view. The very first ad you see is likely the most valuable ad. And it keeps on decreasing after that. So, 10 people viewing 1 ad has multiples of more value than 1 person seeing 10 ads. So, rather than having to serve 10 ads total, we could actually only put 3 ads or so.
How will that change things?
Batoto changes the number of ad spaces depending on how much revenue is made compared to the running costs. So, if the ad profit is high enough, we decrease the number of ads. If it's revenue (for us/network) is too low, we'll add more ads or change it's positioning. This has happened many times before.
One most recent change of ad decreasing is that comic info pages now have zero ads as the donations brought more revenue.
We also see opposite behavior, like how the ads in the reading page changed from two wide banners to a tall skyscraper to increase effectiveness.
Why does Batoto have such high ad block usage?
There is certainly an issue with malicious ads we've had that forced such behaviour, but I do believe it's more of a demographic issue. Batoto caters the demographic that's most aware of tools like ad block. After all, if you found this site which doesn't do any advertising, you're quite Internet savvy.
Is there a way to block ads while still supporting Batoto?
After popular demand, we have added a donation option. Though, the "subscription" module, programmed by a 3rd party, wasn't made to take donations... it was the best module I could get it to work that fits our needs. Any donation is really lot bigger amount than what the ads will bring (unless you happen to click some commission based ad and buy something worth thousands of dollars...). So, your contribution will make a more significant impact on decreasing total ads we have -- giving a better experience for everyone else as well.
If donations safely cover the costs, we would have zero ads.
So disabling ad block to increase ad quality while decreasing number of ads are really in benefit of average user.
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