Folks,
It appears that the porn demon may in fact still be lurking. I’ve had one report of being redirected to porn from clicking on a Twitter link, but I can’t replicate this and for this user, it’s a non-repeatable event.
So – should you have any continuing porn redirection, please let me know in this post and we’ll see what we can do. It should no longer be an issue but this user’s experience clicking on a Twitter link from a post this morning pretty much rules out a stale link from before we applied the fix.
The thing is, I saw some continuing bad behavior Saturday afternoon from clicking on some links on the site (internal and external). So leading indicators are that we still have a problem.
The issue only seems to affect the mobile site, so this isn’t an issue for desktop users that I’m aware of.
Your help is appreciated. I have some obligations this morning, so I may or may not be in the comments, but when I’m back at my computer, I’ll review them all.
MattF
I got redirected from BJ to a ‘Verizon’ poll a few times on my iPad yesterday evening. Since the pop-up was on a mobile device, occurred only on BJ, and couldn’t be dismissed, I think it’s fair to assume it was a hijack.
chopper
@MattF:
i had one of those too. luckily it wasnt one of those that opens a chain of pages so you have to close the whole window.
Alain
@chopper: also on a mobile?
@MattF: interesting. I’ve only seen it on iPhone and not iPad, so that’s good to know.
We rolled out the fix Friday night, so anything since would be relevant.
frosty
I just has one this morning. Popped up straight from this site, no clicking on links. iPhone, Safari.
Alain
Ok, that’s enough confirmation. I’ve reached out to the ad folks and we’ll get this solved promptly!
John
I was just clicking on the Read More of the warren post and several porn pages popped up
Bobbo
I just can’t believe all the porn-shaming going on at this blog
Alain
Ok folks, I turned off the Contact form on the back end so none of them will work temporarily while we fix this issue. Sorry if that’s an inconvenience, but c’est la vie.
MattF
@Bobbo: As a little old lady at my former employer once said, “If they’ve never seen it before, they won’t know what it is.”
Amir Khalid
I was accessing Balloon Juice on my Android phone over the weekend, and now I’m back on my Wimdows 7 laptop. Somehow the porn redirects have completely overlooked me. I would pout, but it’s still Ramadhan and I mustn’t look at that kind of thing.
jonas
BJ was repeatedly crashing on my iPad this morning — no pr0n, though. Desktop seems to be working fine, including Twitter links.
Mnemosyne
I’ve been using the DuckDuckGo browser on my iPhone for months because I was having the constant reloading problem when I was using Safari. That may be an option for folks who haven’t tried that yet.
I was using Brave before DDG but an update wrecked my ability to reply to comments.
FlipYrWhig
I got redirected to something earlier today (Safari, iPhone, mobile) but I hit the back button so fast I didn’t see what it was. But pretty sure it wasn’t p0rn.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I haven’t gotten any pørñ at all. What time hell do I have to do to get my God damned pørñ? I don’t deserve to be treated like some second rate nobody, damn it!
Gin & Tonic
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): As someone who was afflicted with that very badly on Friday, I can tell you that it wasn’t even good pr0n, so you haven’t missed much.
mousebumples
I typically jump straight from my RSS on my Android phone to whatever post I want to view with my lurking, and I haven’t had much issue with porn/pop-ups. There was one pop-up I ran into this weekend (I closed it out before it even loaded, so unsure if it was porn), and it was before the “beware of porn” notices were posted on Saturday night. I think I was browsing the main page to find a particular post, but I’m not positive/don’t recall. I typically more lurk than post, but in case that additional information provides anything useful, I thought I’d chime in.
If it matters, I run Android 9 (Pie) on a Samsung Galaxy 9+.I use the Feedly app and go with the built-in browser that pops up there.
trollhattan
In case you’re interested in not-affected computers I have no issues in FF with AdBlock on a Win 10 PC. I may or may not feel left out, depending.
Rob
Here’s the original version of that Happy Mondays song. John Kongos, from 1971, “He’s gonna step on you again”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld1vQVoaQIM
It was a minor hit in the United States, but it certainly got a fair amount of airplay in the Washington DC market where I was living at the time.
bobbo
@MattF: Sounds like she had never seen it before.
chopper
@Alain:
yep, mobile. safari on iphone.
Major Major Major Major
I have AdGuard installed on all my various Safaris and haven’t run into anything, but then again this is exactly what they’re there to prevent.
LC
Android phone and I haven’t hit these redirects ever. Seems to have completely missed me.
Haroldo
If anymore data is necessary:
No pop ups of any sort using Chrome, Windows 10, Ad-block.
How are the pron re-directs and pop ups decided upon and by whom? Is it random? Is it a directed attack?
JaySinWA
I have never seen redirects from here on my Chromebook Chrome browser either.
Gin & Tonic
Still getting it. Safari on iPhone. hsvjut.cn or something like it.
Steve M.
Great song, though I prefer the original:
https://youtu.be/ld1vQVoaQIM
Wayward
I haven’t experienced any redirects and am feeling slightly jealous of the ‘cool kids’ who did. iPhone X running Safari.
Juju
@Wayward: don’t feel jealous, it was kind of icky. Almost 1:00am, after I clicked on a Twitter box. iPhone, safari.
J R in WV
For what it’s worth, running Linux 18.04.02, Firefox 67.0 with uBlock and Ghostery AND Privacy Badger. Would be a little surprised if anything unwanted leaked through that set of protection.
ETA: would not be shocked tho, those guys work at it…
Ohio Mom
I’m on an iPhone, too ignorant to know the name of the browser (whatever came installed), and I haven’t had any pop-ups this afternoon. Though I’ve had lulls like this before.
I’m appreciating the reprieve, and as always Alain, remaining eternally grateful for you for keeping this place going.
mrmoshpotato
Using Android here. Both Firefox and Duckduckgo have the headlines large and bold, and no Replies number header.