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I have a problem which I encounter only on Stack Exchange group sites (although it can be my phone's problem).

The problem is: I don't tap on the ad, but it still opens. I want to drag my finger to scroll down the page, but it is 100% impossible to scroll when I start a gesture on the ad. The moment I touch screen the ad opens. This means I cannot scroll and it doesn't matter where I leave my finger (totally outside of ad box), it still opens the ad (I would expect it to open only if I tap on it - press and release finger in range of ad box).

I think it might be a problem on this site? (maybe wrong type of trigger in JavaScript?) Or it might be a problem on my phone in which case I'm sorry.

Video about this bug:

https://youtu.be/PEwRbEemvGI

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  • I just tried it on two other sites and problem appears only on stack exchange. I will try to get other ad on stack exchange tho I dont think it could be dependent on ad.
    – Rafiz
    Jun 22, 2020 at 19:49
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    The real solution: uBlock
    – John Dvorak
    Jun 22, 2020 at 19:50
  • Go on, test. The way the question currently stands makes me think that it's just a problem with your phone, or maybe it could be a bug. I've seen that on certain devices that 2D UIs sometimes are placed on certain screens incorrectly, maybe in this case the click-detector is misaligned, could it be?
    – mindstormsboi
    Jun 22, 2020 at 19:53
  • It is really crazy behaviour! I try edge cases, I can touch ad (not release), block my screen, unlock my screen and it opens that ad!
    – Rafiz
    Jun 22, 2020 at 19:55
  • Ok, I will use mobile app. I will add video showing that after I add it on YouTube.
    – Rafiz
    Jun 22, 2020 at 20:15
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    The app is no longer supported and lacka functionality. So it might not do all the things you want to.
    – Luuklag
    Jun 23, 2020 at 6:29
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    Whe should just block this add entirely, it cause more trouble in the past meta.stackexchange.com/questions/331755/…
    – Luuklag
    Jun 23, 2020 at 6:33
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    @mindstormsboi The mobile app is no longer supported. People should not be using that obsolete piece of !@#.
    – Mast
    Jun 23, 2020 at 12:47

2 Answers 2

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This is a nasty behavior introduced by specific ads - it's shown up before: Azure ad is intercepting touch events and opening itself

Until such a time as the ad market decides to start policing hostile behaviors like this, I strongly recommend using an ad blocker of some sort, e.g. https://pi-hole.net/

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  • So it is ad dependent. I didn't thought it is even possible. That's why I assumed it's stack exchange problem. If Im correct it's inserted by google ads. So google should be second one to get blame? (after Microsoft being ad provider in first order).
    – Rafiz
    Jun 23, 2020 at 12:26
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Thanks for pointing this out, and especially thanks for the clear description and video. This is indeed not desired behavior of an ad, so we've reached out to the client, to adjust this.

Update July 30th

We've been able to identify the issue with our ad partner, and the issue should now be resolved. We're keeping an eye on the ads and our ad reports, to make sure this is not happening.

Thanks again for the help here!

Disclaimer: I'm an employee of Stack, working as a Product Manager in the advertising team

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    Hi @JD thx for getting back to us. How about you stop servic adds fron this customer all together. Their add is clearly not up to par, as indicated by the multiple previous bug report surrounding this specific add. See Shog's answer and my comment on this question for examples.
    – Luuklag
    Jun 23, 2020 at 17:40
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    I agree that this type of ad behaviors are frustrating and we'd like to avoid these. We do our best to avoid these behaviors when vetting ad campaigns, however, whenever one slips through, we do want to give our clients the opportunity to adjust the situation. Thinking about this holistically: None of the parties get any benefits from the situation. Our clients don't really get conversions out of these clicks, it's not beneficial for us as SO/SE. I'd say it's fair to treat it as a solvable technical issue. We've already reached out to them, and we're currently investigating it together.
    – JD-Stack
    Jun 24, 2020 at 9:21
  • Could you gove the Question an edit with an appropriate [status-*] tag as well? Thx!
    – Luuklag
    Jul 30, 2020 at 19:56
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    Good point! Done :)
    – JD-Stack
    Jul 31, 2020 at 8:14

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