Creepy Asian Hookup Ads December 20, 2012 8:48 AM   Subscribe

What's up with the pornified ads? I accidentally hit the site without logging in, and was subjected to a "Meet Pretty Thai Girls" ad. It gives the site a very bad vibe.
posted by thelastcamel to MetaFilter-Related at 8:48 AM (54 comments total)

Did you grab a screenshot or URL? If we can identify the ad, we can block it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:49 AM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


Yeah we don't control the ads but we can definitely tell Google to stop serving us the ones that are offensive. Grab the URL and email it to us and we'll handle it.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:50 AM on December 20, 2012


Dasein's procedure worked for me, I got roughly the same adds in Dutch.
posted by Blasdelb at 9:16 AM on December 20, 2012


Please grab the URLs and email them to us and then mathowie can pass them on to his ad people. That's the only way we can get them blocked.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:17 AM on December 20, 2012


Folks? Email?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:28 AM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


Yick.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:28 AM on December 20, 2012


Honestly though I bet those ads come up on any website where you search Thai girls. I bet Matt and the Mods (also the name of the new band I'm starting) can ban these sites but I bet 8 more would just come up in the search results if they did.
posted by Aizkolari at 9:29 AM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


sent a dozen or so
posted by lampshade at 9:29 AM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


Seems like vibe.com comes up all the time. The advert sounds far more salacious than the delivered page. But it comes up in every search.
posted by lampshade at 9:31 AM on December 20, 2012


Yeah, I don't think this is appropriate. If you're trying to hook up with "Hot Thai Girls", you can just spend an AskMe question on improving your OKcupid profile like everybody else. :-)
posted by wolfdreams01 at 9:34 AM on December 20, 2012 [10 favorites]


Sounds like you've got some info already, but: screenshot.
posted by koeselitz at 9:42 AM on December 20, 2012


(Searching for just "thai" didn't bring up anything too weird, for what it's worth.)
posted by koeselitz at 9:44 AM on December 20, 2012


Honestly though I bet those ads come up on any website where you search Thai girls. I bet Matt and the Mods (also the name of the new band I'm starting) can ban these sites but I bet 8 more would just come up in the search results if they did.

Yeah, I mean we have zero problem with blocking the stuff people report, but I would say that to the degree that we can practically deal with sketchy ads on the site it may make more sense to keep an eye out for and report ads that actually appear in threads than to go hunting for the sketchy periphery of stuff that shows up when actively plugging in sketch-bait search terms.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:45 AM on December 20, 2012


I thought maybe this was triggered by the recent "how to write about Indonesia" post, but I don't see anything sketchy there, either.
posted by koeselitz at 9:47 AM on December 20, 2012


They should rate these hot Thai girls on that one-to-five scale the Thai restaurants use.
posted by michaelh at 9:56 AM on December 20, 2012 [3 favorites]


Gross.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:01 AM on December 20, 2012 [45 favorites]


I sent a few examples via the contact form of the ads I've occasionally seen, and could find examples of right now too. Also, I hadn't really registered that the contact form is a thing, and first needlessly memailed a mod directly. Oops... but I know about the form now!
posted by tykky at 10:10 AM on December 20, 2012


Yeah, I'll add these to the banned list of advertisers. It's weird we already block about two dozen weirdo "russian mail order bride" ads from the system, but since it is by URL, any new URL can be a new ad that gets around it. I'll start blocking things now.

If you ever spot an objectionable ad, just note the URL of where the ad goes and send us an email to the contact form that you saw an ad for "creepywebsite.com" and I'll add it to the block list.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:18 AM on December 20, 2012 [2 favorites]


Man I was really hoping that "creepywebsite.com" was some totally innocuous Halloween supply store, but it's not even registered. Come ON, people.
posted by griphus at 10:22 AM on December 20, 2012 [10 favorites]


Noticed this the other day (not here) while searching for the words vietnamiesiska fack ie, vietnamese and trade union. Google asked me did I want to search for vietnamese fuck. It's very disheartening. You get the "hot asian ladies" if you search for vietnamese or thai on the site but it looks like you've got the links already.
posted by Iteki at 10:25 AM on December 20, 2012


But they're delicious! I don't see what the problem is.
posted by phunniemee at 10:50 AM on December 20, 2012


Wow... awesomely awful.

If you want another screenshot to make sure all the URLS are blocked, I grabbed one.
posted by SMPA at 11:12 AM on December 20, 2012


Y'all's responsiveness to this is absolutely appreciated. One of the many reasons that it's worth all of the necessary learning curves to participate here. Thanks muchly!
posted by batmonkey at 11:16 AM on December 20, 2012


At least anecdotally this does seem to be much more of an issue since the switch in advertisers.
posted by Blasdelb at 11:18 AM on December 20, 2012


At least anecdotally this does seem to be much more of an issue since the switch in advertisers.

I am not sure what you mean; we've been using Adsense for in-thread ads for a long time now and that hasn't changed.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:22 AM on December 20, 2012


blasdelb: these are google ads, I think.
posted by boo_radley at 11:25 AM on December 20, 2012


I mean it's just that "SPICY THAI GIRLS" advertisers are willing to pay $2.00 to be top ad when you search for that phrase and the vietnamese trade unions, whatever, are like, "what is adwords, exactly?"
posted by boo_radley at 11:28 AM on December 20, 2012 [2 favorites]


Man I was really hoping that "creepywebsite.com" was some totally innocuous Halloween supply store, but it's not even registered. Come ON, people.

Heh. Someone *just* bought it.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:52 AM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


At least anecdotally this does seem to be much more of an issue since the switch in advertisers.

No idea what you are talking about. There has been no switch on our side at all.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:32 PM on December 20, 2012


If anyone lives is Russia I am willing to be a mail order American husband.
posted by Justinian at 12:41 PM on December 20, 2012 [3 favorites]


Blasdelb: “At least anecdotally this does seem to be much more of an issue since the switch in advertisers.”

As the mods noted, that doesn't seem to make much sense. In fact, something like the opposite seems to be the case, at least to me. We've always (I think?) used Google Adsense ads when people aren't logged in; and at one time we used Google Adsense, although I think we later tried other things, for people who are logged in. There were a number of problems with that, as I recall. But ever since logged-in people started to see only ads from The Deck, it's been pretty smooth sailing; their ads are invariably tasteful and even informative, and I've been really impressed with how much that has improved the quality of the Metafilter experience.
posted by koeselitz at 1:21 PM on December 20, 2012


If Samantha Fox was a mod, these ads would never get banned. We'd be all "these ads are gross; can you block them?"

And she'd be all "Maybe...just maybe...Nah, Thai Girls need love too."
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:31 PM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


Noticed this the other day (not here) while searching for the words vietnamiesiska fack ie, vietnamese and trade union. Google asked me did I want to search for vietnamese fuck.

If you do a Google image search for just "Asian," the results will make you pretty bummed about people. That is what "Asian" is to a lot of people.

Anyway, just want to say, it's great to see that MetaFilter is doing what it can to keep that shit out of the site.
posted by ignignokt at 1:35 PM on December 20, 2012 [3 favorites]


Seriously, avoid the spicy hot Thai girls. Genitals and chiles really don't mix.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 2:47 PM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


I know it's hilarious that Thai is also a kind of food but maybe enough with the hot spicy jokes?
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:58 PM on December 20, 2012 [14 favorites]


Why, are they beyond the bounds of good taste?
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 3:08 PM on December 20, 2012


So not funny.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:16 PM on December 20, 2012 [6 favorites]


Why, are they beyond the bounds of good taste?

Yes. Let me know if you require more explanation on this point. Feel free to also let me know if this is a joke that you were making that I have somehow missed, because my sarcasm-meter is out of whack this week.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:22 PM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


Heh. Someone *just* bought it.

Either one of us did a whois through one of the registrars that immediately snaps up those domains that people whois through them (so sleazy!), or one of us just bought it, don't even kid yourself that this isn't true.

also: jessamyn, that last part was definitely a pun, because the jokes are in bad taste and the jokes are also conflating "hot" thai girls with the taste of "hot" thai food. and now that I've explained it, it isn't funny any more, if it ever was, so there's that. I wonder if a successful strategy for defusing ill-conceived* jokes is simply to immediately explain them. Hm.

*I had to rewrite the phrase I used -- twice -- to avoid making a pun of my own. sigh.
posted by davejay at 3:30 PM on December 20, 2012


Does this mean you've been blocking the ads for my site, nakedcolourfulswans.ca? What, my money's not good enough for you?
posted by orange swan at 3:32 PM on December 20, 2012 [3 favorites]


I would like to register a formal complaint about the Deck ads because they turned me on to Fab.com and for fuck's sake I have rent and bills to pay but all of these hideous neon tchotchkes are ON SALE
posted by griphus at 3:47 PM on December 20, 2012 [4 favorites]


orange swan's joke was harmless enough, I guess, but now that we're sort of drifting into edgy territory where certain people feel okay about making really gross jokes, can we maybe close this thread up? I think the basic point has been communicated – email the mods the URL if we see an offensive advertisement on the site so they can block it. We don't really need to talk much more about this.
posted by koeselitz at 3:49 PM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


davejay: " if it ever was"

Comedy is hard.
posted by boo_radley at 3:51 PM on December 20, 2012


Heh. Someone *just* bought it.

Either one of us did a whois through one of the registrars that immediately snaps up those domains that people whois through them (so sleazy!), or one of us just bought it, don't even kid yourself that this isn't true.


Heh heh....no I bought it. That was too good of a name to pass up. And with some well placed coupon codes it was less than a fancy-ass Starbucks coffee for a year.

I doubt I will ever make any money off of it, but I expect to have a lot of fun doing stupid crap with it with friends.
posted by lampshade at 4:47 PM on December 20, 2012 [7 favorites]


Oh and the only reason I didn't fess up earlier was because i was called away right after registering.
posted by lampshade at 4:49 PM on December 20, 2012


I must admit to being surprised at the grumpy level in this thread. I'm sorry for adding to the grar and I hope everyone gets a nice break over the next few weeks.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:52 PM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


> I wonder if a successful strategy for defusing ill-conceived jokes is simply to immediately explain them.

It will be until my patent is granted. A method and process for defusing....
posted by morganw at 5:50 PM on December 20, 2012


Yick.

Yick's from Laos, broomhead.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:29 PM on December 20, 2012 [3 favorites]


Yeah this is a bit of a problem. When I lurk AskMefi without signing-in, it's obvious that this Google Ads character is often at odds with the general policies of Metafilter. People ask about how to leave their partner? Google Ads drops in a comment about divorce lawyers or Ukrainian blonds. Which is exactly how the Google machine is supposed to work, but it occurs to me that more often than not such "comments", if made by a member of the community, would be immediately deleted as being inappropriate and such repeated attempts as made by Google Ads would lead to a ban.

I get that banning this Google Ads guy would be bad for business, but it is unfair and inegalitarian.
posted by three blind mice at 1:23 AM on December 21, 2012


What kind of jerk doesn't like meeting pretty Thai girls?
posted by Mister_A at 6:41 AM on December 21, 2012


griphus: "I would like to register a formal complaint about the Deck ads because they turned me on to Fab.com and for fuck's sake I have rent and bills to pay but all of these hideous neon tchotchkes are ON SALE"

Oh my god griphus what have you done.
posted by Phire at 10:27 AM on December 21, 2012 [2 favorites]


I like to imagine that by "pretty Thai," they just mean that these girls are, like, you know, awfully Thai. They are quite Thai. Not like 100% Thai or anything like that, they're not super-duper Thai, but they're not not Thai, if you catch my drift. They're acceptably Thai. They're adequately Thai. They're pretty Thai, as far as that kind of thing goes.
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:08 PM on December 21, 2012 [4 favorites]


Ninety-nine and forty-four hundredths percent Thai?
posted by Pudhoho at 1:02 PM on December 21, 2012


Glad this was taken care of. Sorry for the lack of screenshot, but my computer crashed, I got horribly sick, and then swept away on Christmas vacation. Thanks to the folks who were on top of it, and to the mods.
posted by thelastcamel at 12:02 PM on December 26, 2012


« Older Can we play on the last day?   |   A kind of supernatural resonance online Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments