Develop Bugs

Bad ad sites make this site look bad

ad4.netshelter.net
Takes forever to load, and no XDA content loads while waiting.
This is poor web design.
Please revise XDA so that site content loads BEFORE advertiser content.

MintJulep said:
ad4.netshelter.net
Takes forever to load, and no XDA content loads while waiting.
This is poor web design.
Please revise XDA so that site content loads BEFORE advertiser content.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are there any ads in particular that are taking a particularly long time to load? Please provide a screenshot if so. We hate ads that slow down the site too!

Theres a lot more flash that usual. Small price to pay, I figure. Im not exactly on the top donations list. Quality versus quantity is the point, I think.

No specific ads
The XDA page header loads.
Then beige nothingness for about 30 seconds or so while "connecting to ad4.netshelter.net".
I assume something eventually times out, and the rest of the page loads.

MintJulep said:
The XDA page header loads.
Then beige nothingness for about 30 seconds or so while "connecting to ad4.netshelter.net".
I assume something eventually times out, and the rest of the page loads.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thirty seconds is very long! Where are you located? Also, please benchmark your bandwidth at speedtest.net and paste the graphic result here.

I'm also experiencing this! I'm located in the Netherlands with Ziggo as provider. Sometimes about 30 seconds is correct. I'm also getting this a lot with media.xda-developers.com and pubads.g.doubleclick.net.
This is not always the case btw. Also it's not my internet connection because every other site loads just fine. Also the connection is 120/10 Mbit.

I'm using an Android tablet to access the forums and the Best Buy adds are making the site extremely annoying to use. I have to click on the add since I don't have flash automatically loading them, then I have to click on the "x" to close the add. It didn't use to be this bad but now it is happening on almost every page.

Yeah, Im getting tired of the ads all over the site. I am REEEEEAAALLLYY tired of the ones that are popping up from the bottom and block the forum until I click on the X to close. Now some dont even have that close option.
Right now its that stupid best buy buy back program ad.
As a donator I think they really need to go XDA.
You can disable the shockwave flash object in your internet settings, but then you still have this stupid box with a red X that floats around the middle of the page because it cant load.
If the mods need it, here is the (shortened) link for that ad....http://dcom.me/cD9wm

We hear you guys and are working on getting the annoying Best Buy ads disabled. It's a constant battle between paying the bills and not annoying users. We do our best to err on the side of not annoying the users, but sometimes we make mistakes. Thanks for understanding.

I don't mind ads, but the best buy ad at the bottom of the page is horrible. It actually keeps the area at the bottom of the screen from being "clickable", even when you close the ad.

skullvet said:
I don't mind ads, but the best buy ad at the bottom of the page is horrible. It actually keeps the area at the bottom of the screen from being "clickable", even when you close the ad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
I understand the ads, and I'll click on them every once and awhile to help out, but that best buy one is very aggravating.

i agree with this! i feel as if we could make the ads on this site load alot more conveniently.

I notice that the Best Buy ad at the bottom is gone, thank you!

I don't mind the ads but that Best Buy ad was seriously driving me insane! lol Thank you!

Best Buy ad should be officially removed. Let me know if it anyone sees it.
Thx!

svetius said:
Best Buy ad should be officially removed. Let me know if it anyone sees it.
Thx!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much. I understand the adds, you have to make money. That add at the bottom made it to hard to use the site, and i actually installed an adblocker just for it today. Now i have disabled it.

svetius said:
Best Buy ad should be officially removed. Let me know if it anyone sees it.
Thx!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much! All is well again.

A prime example of the damage that one bad ad and/or one slow ad delivery server can cause. I wonder how many people downloaded AdFree or AdBlock Plus or added a line into their hosts file tonight all because of a lousy Best Buy ad and a slow server halting progress on the page.
Is there any procedure in place for vetting new ads before they are served to this site? I get that the idea of an ad server is to exist in the background so that publishers can focus on the content, but is there any way to specify formats, types, and other parameters of the ads served here? If NetShelter was serving that Best Buy ad to all its tech publishers, there were probably a lot of pissed off users tonight across the network.

ZachPA said:
A prime example of the damage that one bad ad and/or one slow ad delivery server can cause. I wonder how many people downloaded AdFree or AdBlock Plus or added a line into their hosts file tonight all because of a lousy Best Buy ad and a slow server halting progress on the page.
Is there any procedure in place for vetting new ads before they are served to this site? I get that the idea of an ad server is to exist in the background so that publishers can focus on the content, but is there any way to specify formats, types, and other parameters of the ads served here? If NetShelter was serving that Best Buy ad to all its tech publishers, there were probably a lot of pissed off users tonight across the network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Often it's hard to control the adverts you see on a site.
I use ad blockers on a number of sites, but more for giving me a "stripped down" experience on slow loading sites...
There is usually little control over what adverts you show, since it is the ad agency that does the placement of the adverts, and you use code that "includes" whatever advert they choose.
When it comes down to it, if needed, the code can simply be removed, which is what I believe was done in this case.
I have only worked with ad solutions that give me fixed control over the parameters and appearance of the adverts, so I don't know how this one worked.

I use AdBlock Plus and ad blocker add on for Firefox. They work great and block 99% of pop ups.

25,000+ apps? I'm just not seeing it.

I've had my WP7 device for a couple of weeks now. I really gotta know, where are these 25,000 apps that are supposed to be in the marketplace? I've been through most of the categories through the Zune SW and, while there might be a couple of thousand apps, I really just don't see any way it could be even close to 25,000 apps.
Am I looking in the wrong place? Are a bunch of them hidden away waiting for Mango before they show up?

Me neither... I think its a lie... In some categories I scroll down as much as I can and get to the very end of it.. Like in business category .. And stil the most I think it would be was 500 under that to be highly optimistic and a generous margin of error in counting... Considering their is no more than like 12 categories I don't know from where they have this 25ooo figure... Even if w include all the spam apps like books ...
On side note, i Hate how MP has died for last two months. Even the 'featured' and recommended apps are absolutely ****. Just downpaded this app 'vivino' last night because it ws 'Featured and it gave a sticky icon on my program list linking me to vivino website.. They call this app..?
Sent from my OMNIA7 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Of course you're only seeing Worldwide and US released apps. There are others which won't have been released to the US.
Though I wouldn't have thought those specific apps would have made a huge contribution to the total apps.
EDIT... I couldn't find stats for regional releases but I did find that 24% of apps in the Marketplace are not in the English language...
http://www.windowsphoneapplist.com/stats/
Of course they may still have been released Worldwide or in the US, but I imagine a fair few of those won't have been.

http://wp7applist.com/stats/

I think this is one of the flaws in the Zune desktop software. It doesn't appear to show everything when you use the category lists. It ends up only showing the "most popular" or "most recent". For everything else you end up having to search for things by name or keyword. But if you don't already [/b] know[/b] the name or the developer didn't provide a decent keyword list, you may never find it.
I've found that several of the online app list sites are much better, and you can use their Zune links to purchase/install the apps you want, once you do find them.

RoboDad said:
I think this is one of the flaws in the Zune desktop software. It doesn't appear to show everything when you use the category lists. It ends up only showing the "most popular" or "most recent". For everything else you end up having to search for things by name or keyword. But if you don't already [/b] know[/b] the name or the developer didn't provide a decent keyword list, you may never find it.
I've found that several of the online app list sites are much better, and you can use their Zune links to purchase/install the apps you want, once you do find them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have links to any of them? I like to be able to browse because sometimes (often) I will find an app I didn't even know I needed. I think MS was taking their cue from Apple on this matter too. It's incredibly hard to find anything but the most recent or most popular apps in the iTunes App Store.

The two sites I use most often are http://wp7applist.com/ and http://www.windowsphoneapplist.com/.
Both are very good, although the web server at wp7applist tends to be very slow sometimes. But they do have a killer app available (there's a link to it on the site) that makes most of the site's features available directly on your phone. It is an awesome app, but unfortunately suffers from the same occasional speed issue as their site, since it pulls app data from the same server.

Purple11 said:
Me neither... I think its a lie...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not even a remote chance it's a lie. Do you know how screwed MS would be if they did that? Anyways people posted links that will help you find apps. I admit Marketplace needs a little help in making apps easier to find. Even when I know the name of something I am not always presented with it when doing a search.

apps really aren't a big deal as alot of things can be done without having to launch an app, and as such I don't really have that many apps on my phone I have enough to trigger the jumplist but that's pretty much it.

Avatar28 said:
I've had my WP7 device for a couple of weeks now. I really gotta know, where are these 25,000 apps that are supposed to be in the marketplace? I've been through most of the categories through the Zune SW and, while there might be a couple of thousand apps, I really just don't see any way it could be even close to 25,000 apps.
Am I looking in the wrong place? Are a bunch of them hidden away waiting for Mango before they show up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Purple11 said:
Me neither... I think its a lie... In some categories I scroll down as much as I can and get to the very end of it.. Like in business category .. And stil the most I think it would be was 500 under that to be highly optimistic and a generous margin of error in counting... Considering their is no more than like 12 categories I don't know from where they have this 25ooo figure... Even if w include all the spam apps like books ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what ??? You are not seeing them and its a lie ??? You are the smart one that expose MS lies ???
Come'n boy...If you dont know just ask ..Dont make bold statements like this
There are more that 28.000 and if you Know how to search m8 you will find them ...
Learn fisrt how to search and then post threads with bold titles like yours...
I just get angry with ppl like you !!!!

Intrusive ADS WITH SOUNDS

Dear staff members,
do you know that XDA makes browsing a hellish experience? Thanks to you my browser talks, shouts, yells, quirts, moans, sings. its not possible to use it without shutting down sound. I want to listen to some music while surfing? Forget it, XDA is here to push its intrusive ads. Why in the world do you even allow that, this is the most awful ad supported site i have ever been to, no other page on the web tries so deliberately to **** with my nerves. There should be a law forbidding this, you are trashing my internet experience.

Of course, you could have just posted in the Sticky thread at the top of this forum
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1696660

i consider my report as intrusive as these ads and since they persist now for weeks they must have simply chosen to ignore your thread in which all the complaints are nicely contained so you wont have to see them. yet i see, hear and feel (cpu goes to a 100% when 10 flash ads are shouting at me through my browser) their ads.

*cough*ad block*cough*

sure man, i'll install ad blockers on all devices i work with. my girlfriends computer, my two laptops, my smartphone, tablet, office computer, friends devices when i visit them, public machines in library and internetcoffee. and then i have that silly flashblocker but i love flash and need to configure it for each and every page i visit.
on top of that, what youre saying hurts xda, using a flashblocker kills revenue - i want this site to prosper and i understand it needs ads and i click them gladly.

molesarecoming said:
Dear staff members,
do you know that XDA makes browsing a hellish experience? Thanks to you my browser talks, shouts, yells, quirts, moans, sings. its not possible to use it without shutting down sound. I want to listen to some music while surfing? Forget it, XDA is here to push its intrusive ads. Why in the world do you even allow that, this is the most awful ad supported site i have ever been to, no other page on the web tries so deliberately to **** with my nerves. There should be a law forbidding this, you are trashing my internet experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please note we hate this crap as much as you do. I yell at three people a day about ads with sounds, popups, etc.. but tracking them down is a nightmare. We don't just have the same resources some of the bigger guys do. But we try.

js1999 said:
Please note we hate this crap as much as you do. I yell at three people a day about ads with sounds, popups, etc.. but tracking them down is a nightmare. We don't just have the same resources some of the bigger guys do. But we try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, at least i understand now its not something you do deliberately. wish you all the good luck to track them down.

js1999 said:
Please note we hate this crap as much as you do. I yell at three people a day about ads with sounds, popups, etc.. but tracking them down is a nightmare. We don't just have the same resources some of the bigger guys do. But we try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whatever you are doing isn't working. So you need to either a) change ad format or b) change ad provider.
Thanks.

Alternative to Google Assistant news feed?

I'm over the artificial intelligence of the news feed in Google Assistant or search. It gives me the same five stories from three different sources and I go to delete some of the sources to never show again and poof they reappear.
Are there any awesome alternatives for general news that are neutral between Fox News or HuffPost?

I have noticed the occasional duplicate in my reading through the news feed, but my interests are varied enough that it doesn't happen to an annoying degree. With the AI, the more information you give it about your interests and your hobbies, the more it has to work with. For example, in my case Google knows my favorite teams and always throws up the scorecards. It knows I like geek things like role playing and science-fiction. It knows I'm into technology. All of this information I gave it - of my own free will - because I simply do not care what Google chooses to do with it.
To actually answer your question, if you want a balanced alternative for general news, you want to look outside the country. I personally get my news from Canada, via the CBC website. Unfortunately, that doesn't show up on the feed.

Scottay5150 said:
I'm over the artificial intelligence of the news feed in Google Assistant or search. It gives me the same five stories from three different sources and I go to delete some of the sources to never show again and poof they reappear. Are there any awesome alternatives for general news that are neutral between Fox News or HuffPost?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have also come to the conclusion that it is not possible to "train" the Google News feed. No matter how many hundreds of inputs you provide, there is a never ending stream of the same articles or like-minded sources. Try using Feedly. I use it on my PC, tablet and phone. You have a lot more control by choosing only the feeds you want to see and there are tons of choices. There is an initial time investment to browse through all the feeds and get things set up, (you have to opt in to everything you want to see) but then maintenance is effortless. I found it easier to do the initial setup on PC, and then use the app on my phone to view. I've got enough feeds where I usually cannot get to everything. Feedly is one of the better newsreaders out there and I have always been happy with the free version.

Google and Facebook infiltrated the Internet.

Deleted.

Yeah it's so funny can't handle the laugh h a h a h a
PageXray by FouAnalytics
pagexray.fouanalytics.com
Interesting how many connections XDA makes, very legit.

I don't see nothing wrong that Google and Facebook is login options. Two of biggest companies what people use these days.

Two of the biggest companies in terms of stealing personal data and seeling it.
Two massive companies that track and spy on your every move.
Not going to lie, you have to be somewhat stupid to use their services, which makes alot of people stupid considering that you are correct, alot of people use it.
LineageOS is focused on privacy, im pretty sure the main reason for majority of xda visitors is to download lineageos for their phone after not finding it on the official site.
A website like XDA that offers privacy operating system should not have ANY contact/interaction with google or facebook, simple as that period.

That's your opinion..

Privacydroid said:
..As many others i use LineageOS for privacy, to avoid the standard OS from Google that is constantly 24/7 github which is owned by microsoft, this is just wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The source code for LineageOS is available on GitHub.
https://github.com/LineageOS
Many Devs use GitHub to build Roms, maybe the Rom you are using right now.

I agree. I never use G and F logins. No G services on my phone, either. Won't stop everything but gets rid of a lot of the tracking.
May I offer a suggestion? I agree with you, the present-day internet has been dominated by big tech and their surveillance. But you will get further by not calling most people who have no idea of the bs going on behind their back, stupid. I don't think XDA is going to change its website for the small number of privacy focused users. Be thankful we can express our opinion and learn about this stuff. Just block G and F, ad and tracking sites on your router or pihole. You might wish to consider giving xda a donation.
Just my .02

Privacydroid said:
Two of the biggest companies in terms of stealing personal data and seeling it.
Two massive companies that track and spy on your every move.
Not going to lie, you have to be somewhat stupid to use their services, which makes alot of people stupid considering that you are correct, alot of people use it.
LineageOS is focused on privacy, im pretty sure the main reason for majority of xda visitors is to download lineageos for their phone after not finding it on the official site.
A website like XDA that offers privacy operating system should not have ANY contact/interaction with google or facebook, simple as that period.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Deleted by author...

ardwivedi16 said:
If you have problems with these things then don't use them. For you it's a privacy issue but for many others it's a convience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A bit of convience to give up all of your privacy, makes me question how braindead people have gone, this will have consequences.

I can't live without Google. Google is best

Dayuser said:
I can't live without Google. Google is best
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously now you are trying to provocate a reaction, google isn't "best" and it isn't even "good" infact what they do has the scale of a massive criminal conglomerate. If you can't live without google you should question yourself.
Live without google is easy and it's better as you don't give your private data away.
But hey i don't even know why i'm replying to the guy who's first response was
Must be a 12yo, time to let this thread die as there is nothing useful being commented other than nonsense.

Privacydroid said:
Live without google is easy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not easy live without google if you want easiest way to backup everything important.

Source: https://pagexray.fouanalytics.com/q/forum.xda-developers.com?f=
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
XDA seems to have ALOT of connections.
Since this site is mainly focused on mobile operatingsystem with a priority on privacy OS'es, how come that the site itself appears to be in support of tracking/profiling?
Is the money?
What's the history of this forum? At which point was the decision taken to support google and facebook login?

Privacydroid said:
...Since this site is mainly focused on mobile operatingsystem with a priority on privacy OS'es, ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you come to that conclusion, it is not stated anywhere on the site, that I've seen.
Privacydroid said:
What's the history of this forum?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Privacydroid said:
At which point was the decision taken to support google and facebook login?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google sign-in was added at least since SEP 17, 2013
Authenticate Your XDA Account with Google
www.xda-developers.com
Facebook and Github Added ~26 March 2021
https://web.archive.org/web/20210326194333/https://forum.xda-developers.com/login/
Twitter added ~08 Oct 2021
https://web.archive.org/web/20210408155309/https://forum.xda-developers.com/login/
You didn't look that hard did you, it took me like 5 mins to find this.
Edited:
Authenticate Your XDA Account with Google
BY
SVETIUS
PUBLISHED SEP 17, 2013

-How did you come to that conclusion, it is not stated anywhere on the site, that I've seen.
Just from looking around, was my impression.
Google is tracking this forum since 10 years, that's disturbing., yeah i didn't look you're correct.
What's the matter all sites have the fancy google and facebook logins anyway, it's not just xda, it's likey the infilitrated the whole internet.

Privacydroid said:
View attachment 5713077
I downloaded LineageOS for my phone from XDA because the official site lineageos.org does not support my phone model.
As many others i use LineageOS for privacy, to avoid the standard OS from Google that is constantly 24/7 tracking my location aswell as basically anything i do on my phone, even facebook was preinstalled and could not be deleted, this is madness, in my opinion companies such as google and facebook are criminal conserind the amount of data/knownledge they collect and share/sell about every single one of us. I do not use a single google services and yet google trys to stalk/track me on websites as this one. Chances are, if a website has a google/facebook login option, that means the site also has google/facebook tracking cookies/ beacons or similar technologies present on that website.
Now is it not ironic considering i came here to download a "privacy" os and even here google and facebook are present...?
I strongly advise against allowing google and facebook to spy on xda's website, no matter how much money is involved, it's simply innapropriate.
If you take a look at the websites statistics, i doubt that many people use google/facebook to login on xda, however some people surely do use these options.
Obviously these people are pretty dumb, considering by logging into XDA with google or facebook you grant google/facebook access to spy on every single thing you do on the XDA website.
Stop feeding criminal companies that have nothing good in their interest with your data, because data = money and money = influence.
You dont want google/facebook to have any influence, they already have enough of that and see what happened with the internet, with censorship, with depression of young people.
Questions is, why does XDA have a login option for google and facebook and github which is owned by microsoft, this is just wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hate to be the barer of bad news, but no matter where you go on the internet you will be tracked. Google, Facebook, etc aren't the only ones that track/profile you. Yeah, Google is harvesting my data, but at least they provide useful services such as Google Drive, YouTube, Docs, etc. Don't want to be tracked? You'll have to pull the ethernet cable or SIM card out.

Privacydroid said:
-How did you come to that conclusion, it is not stated anywhere on the site, that I've seen.
Just from looking around, was my impression.
Google is tracking this forum since 10 years, that's disturbing., yeah i didn't look you're correct.
What's the matter all sites have the fancy google and facebook logins anyway, it's not just xda, it's like the infilitrated the whole internet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The beginning is your internet service provider. They know you best! Then comes everything else.
If you have a land line they know your complete address which Google doesn't know.
The ISP is your primary DNS provider too, they can view all your internet activity in certain cases.
You didn't know that?

Datastream33 said:
Hate to be the barer of bad news, but no matter where you go on the internet you will be tracked. Google, Facebook, etc aren't the only ones that track/profile you. Yeah, Google is harvesting my data, but at least they provide useful services such as Google Drive, YouTube, Docs, etc. Don't want to be tracked? You'll have to pull the ethernet cable or SIM card out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm aware of that.
I just think it's sad that XDA is a part of the tracking/profiling. If i was a website owner i wouldn't want to do this to my users.
Google is the single one most evil company, they where originally a CIA/NSA project, and no this is not conspiracy.
Ever heared about prism and xkeyscore?
To be honest google and facebook have broken so many laws, tracking minors, tracking without consent, they are making billions with our personal information and it's not just meaningless information because if you combine everything they know about you... it becomes a massive detailed personality profile.
I don't use google chrome, google search, gmail, google android, google drive, youtube, docs or drive but google still tracks me when i visit websites like XDA because someone who has influence over this site, most likely the owner decided to grant them permissions to track and profile users here in return for money (ads).
Why use google chrome when you have librewolf or brave?
Why use google search when there is searX or bravesearch?
Why google drive when you have mega? Mega offers 20 GB for free...
I know pulling the cable is the only way to be 100% sure you ain't tracked expect surveillance cameras with facial recognition, police robots, stores that refuse cash, are a thing now.
I refuse to buy anythin from a store that doesn't want my cash, ridiculous.
Even using linux with librewolf and searX will leave some traces on the internet but it's SO MUCH BETTER than using google. Your digital footprint is minimized and it's worth it.
About youtube, the censorship is EXTREME, heared about the channel "china uncenosred" they make videos about recent events in china, for example when the hongkong freedom protest happened they showed footage (with no violence!!) but the video was still delete by google! I'm saying it, google is evil, most likely internal corrupted.
I do use youtube but not like most people, https://yewtu.be is an instance from https://invidious.io and they have no cookies or tracking, also hosted over a proxy, they access googlevideo.com to share youtube videos, a great way to watch censored videos like the hongkong freedom protest.
Great that you mentioned "sim card out" i want to ask about that, if my phone uses lineageos and has no sim card attached, is geolocation tracking still possible?
I've heared that if you connect to a wifi (without a simcard) even if using a vpn they can still determine your real location and the only way to avoid that is by connecting the phone via ethernet, is that true and how does this work?

strongst said:
The beginning is your internet service provider. They know you best! Then comes everything else.
If you have a land line they know your complete address which Google doesn't know.
The ISP is your primary DNS provider too, they can view all your internet activity in certain cases.
You didn't know that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first thing i do after booting is connect to a VPN and i've changed my DNS server to Quad9.
So my internet provider knows nothing about me, unless they're listening to the wire or something..