FAQ - Ads

Here are several common questions asked regarding Ads on Jcink Forum Hosting.

No.

The ads are positioned to be minimally intrusive already and moving/covering or altering them (which includes resizing ) is a Terms of Service violation.

Please don't.

Jcink Forum Hosting depends on revenue generated from ads to pay for things like bandwidth (enabling users to access their forums) and parts/maintenance to keep servers running. And these are very costly.

If you don't want to see ads, please support JFH and purchase ad-free credits instead.

There is a misconception about ad-blockers in that if you use one that the page owner still gets revenue for your visit.

This is false.

Revenue is only generated for sites where ads actually display. But adblockers prevent the ads from loading so no revenue is generated.

So please whitelist .jcink.com (and google) to allow ads to display and to keep Jcink.com free and available for all users.

Under most circumstances simply viewing ads will not harm your computer. Ads do not have the power/permission to install or interact with your site/computer. Clicking on them and ending up on another site however may not be as safe. (So always be careful/cautious about what, if any, ads you click on.)

It is possible though, in extremely rare cases, for a rogue ad to make it through Google's screening process and get displayed. If this happens please follow the steps listed under rogue ad.

Jcink.com is not infected by a virus. Jcink.com is tested and checked regularly to prevent infection by viruses or other malware. What most likely is happening is:

1. Your computer was infected before visiting a Jcink site, but is responding now. (Some malware are time-delayed or keyword sensitive.)
2. Your computer is picking up a false positive. (More likely if your security settings are set to high.)
3. The ad that has been displayed is a rogue ad and is infected. (Extremely rare, but does occur.)

If you computer was infected before but only actually triggered on a Jcink site then it wouldn't matter which site you visit the result will likely be the same, every site (or virtually every site) will appear to be infected.

The only thing you can do is remove the infection and ensure your current anti-malware protection is up to date and practice safe web use habits. (AKA things like: don't trust links in your email claiming to be from your bank asking for passwords, only use trusted urls to sign into sites, ensure urls are spelled correctly if manually entering them, avoid warez/pornography sites which are more likely to contain malware, etc…)

False positives occur when a system responds to an innocent like it were a threat. (This happens in the human body too. Allergies are one type of the body's false positives.) In this case your security program is associating Jcink with something threatening. This could be due to content on the page (including meta tags that admins have set) or code that the admin has installed.

You can usually check to see if it's a false positive by:

1. visiting another Jcink forum (try the support forum). If this site:
   • also gets blocked/marked then it's likely a false positive targeting Jcink sites.
   • doesn't get blocked then it is likely just something with that particular site so try number 2…
2. disabling javascript on that site (to remove any active scripts interfering with the site which may cause issues). If this fixes the issue then you may have to contact that site's admin to let them know a script on their site is causing issues. Alternatively you may want to consider making a special exception for Jcink.com sites you trust in your firewall/anti-virus/anti-malware.

Unfortunately, the internet is not the most secure place. Even trusted companies like Google still end up victim to people trying to slip inappropriate content, malware or other harmful code onto pages people visit. So even if you never visit any unknown pages, JFH still recommends that you keep trusted anti-virus and firewall software installed and updated on your computer. These programs will help prevent infections and if your computer does get infected, they will be able to help remove the infection.

1. Firstly take a screenshot of the ad (preferably with the alert indicating something is wrong showing, this helps Google/others figure out what is going on).
2. Then you should make sure you are protected. Initiate virus/malware scans to make sure your computer is not infected. Next you should take screenshots of your anti-virus/firewall's log files that show when the bad ad showed up.
3. Finally, you should report the bad ad to Google.

Please don't report it to Jcink Forum Hosting because there is nothing we can do about these ads on our end. Our ad provider (Google) is the only one who can remove these rogue ads from circulation.

If you see an ad that contains Terms of Service violating content, take a screenshot of the ad then please report the bad ad to Google (select “An AdWords violation about an ad that you saw on a website” from Google's option list).

Please don't report it to Jcink Forum Hosting because there is nothing we can do about these ads on our end. Our ad provider (Google) is the only one who can remove these rogue ads from circulation.