WTF, EntreCard?

Updated below

I am highly irate. Beyond, even. EntreCard, a service I’ve been using for I don’t know how long (my usenumber is 722) has scammed me. And not just me. But the rest of the community that has erroneously trusted them.

I decided to allow them to host some of their paid ads on their widget that is seen on my site as long as the ads were explicitly approved by me and were in my category. Yes, Graham, I checked those boxes. Well, there has been a lot of hullabaloo with regards to some “errors” with their ad service. Apparently some were set up that if the visitor wasn’t coming in from the U.S. they were redirected to a spam site. Graham says that was unintentional and that they’ve pulled all those ads.

**//Edited to add: Actually the boxes I checked were:

• Allow Entrecard users to apply for advertising on your widget?
• Allow paid ads only if the ad is for a blog
• Allow paid ads only if explicitly approved by you

End edit //**

So, I decided to check the ads on my site. I know which ones were on my dashboard and which ones I explicitly approved– which were supposed to be the only ones appearing on my widget. I had my AdBlock settings such that I could see all that were on my dashboard, but not on here. So when I clicked on the black box (because the paid ads appear that way with the adblock) what did I see? A site I had not approved. I thought to myself “Wow, that must be a redirect.”

I was wrong.

When I changed the setting on ABP to show the ads here, I went through each of my pages numerous times. I wanted to see which ad was redirected to that spammy site (I believe it was phishing). I did that for about half and hour when all of the sudden an ad appeared on the widget that was not explicitly approved by me.

Behold:

Then I looked on my dashboard. That ad was not there. I had not approved it. WTF? So, I begin taking screenshots. And then I decide to go through and do it again. Lo and behold, the ad that took me to that spammy site:

I looked at my dashboard again. Nope. It’s not there. I didn’t approve it. And yet it’s sitting right there in my widget. The screenshots of my dashboard are here. The two that are highlighted were never approved and do not show up on my dashboard at all.

I have no problem with helping EntreCard and Graham Langdon make a few extra dollars. I was ok with helping them out, but only so long as I was able to approve the sites that appeared on my widget. I was astonished to see my click went to a site that promises “thousands of Twitter followers (so long as you provide your account details to me)” or sign up or whatever it was offering for whatever price. And I don’t like that EntreCard and Graham Langdon are trying to pull the wool over our eyes by saying “Oh, well, check this box and those ads will disappear and you’ll be perfectly happy.”

What he didn’t want me to do was keep clicking through my site to see what ads were coming up. He didn’t want me to realize that he was placing ads without them being explicitly approved. He wants the advertisers to keep coming back and lining his pockets, but also wants the ad servers to think they actually have some control. We, the ad servers, don’t really have any control. We’re being hoodwinked, to use a worn out phrase. EntreCard was losing members left and right because those members wanted to be able what was being show on the widgets placed on their sites. Graham Langdon said “Well, just check this box and that box and all is good.” But it’s not, is it?

I wonder, really, if all those members who are protesting the paid ad system by not accepting paid ads are keeping an eye on their widgets. I did see a paid ad in my queue that went to a site that proclaimed that they would not accept paid ads (which I only mention because I thought that was funny). Do they know that no paid ads are showing in their widgets? Do they know for sure that their loyal EntreCard advertisers (those that pay with credits) are getting 100% of the widget time?

Considering what I’ve found today, I’m going to say that even those that won’t accept paid ads should probably do a check of their widgets– very well. Don’t just refresh your index page. Go through each page and see what’s popping up. When I refreshed my index page everything was hunky dory (neither the EC ad or the paid ad went to the “thousands of Twitter followers” page). It wasn’t until I cycled through my page list that I started noticing disparities.

No doubt the young, savvy Graham Langdon will declare this to be a “bug” and poo-poo what I’m reporting. And, of course, he will then declare the bug “addressed and fixed” and hope that no one will go through the tedium of checking their widget (I wouldn’t have were it not for the click that took me to that page). He will get more advertisers, a few dollars, and things will continue as they are now.

But I won’t believe him when he says it’s a bug or when he says it’s been fixed. He has officially lost all credibility and I am removing the EntreCard widget from my site. I’m incredibly disheartened and disgusted at the same time. Not necessarily for the types of ads (I don’t think I’ve really ever rejected an EC ad) but because we were told that no ads would appear unless we approved them. That’s more than a little bit skeevy.

Good-bye, EntreCard.

Update:

I’ve just published this post, when I opened it to look it over again. What do I see? Well this:

This that same widget that I didn’t approve. So, I clicked it, because I didn’t want to accuse a site of potentially being spammy if I wasn’t sure. This is what I saw:

The site promises thousands of Twitter followers then asks for username and password. And by default you follow the developer and his friends. Isn’t that nice? *sigh*

But the fact is, I didn’t approve it. I apologize to everyone who had a legitimate ad with me.

Update X 2
Well, it didn’t take long for Graham (Entrecard) to make my prediction above come true. He claims, though, that it’s user error- but ignored the most important part of my complaint in that the ads I didn’t approve weren’t appearing on my dashboard either.

Here’s what he had to say:

The ad gear has been checked and re-checked. It is working exactly as it is supposed to. If ads you have not approved are showing on your dashboard it is because you

a.) have not set your “advert settings” on your dashboard to “Allow paid ads only if explicitly approved by you”

b.) did not action an ad within 24 hours, which caused it to auto approve. By default, ads that are not approved/rejected within 24 hours will automatically run, unless you have set your advert settings to “Allow paid ads only if explicitly approved by you”
[Emphasis added by me]

I’ve had my ad settings adjust for explicit approval of ONLY blogs for I don’t know how many days. They should not have been appearing on my widget. And if they were, maybe they should have been appearing on my dashboard- which they were not. Of course, he’s allowed to muddy the waters with the assertion that ads on the dashboard [fill in excuse]. What’s his excuse for ads on the widget that are mysteriously absent from the dashboard? I wait with bated breath the answer.

By the way, here is what I said in return (hoping beyond hope to clarify for anyone still confused):

I checked my advert settings last week. I only allowed ads explicitly approved by me and that were blogs (only). I clear my cache daily. These ads were NOT appearing on my dashboard (I have screenshots to prove it).

Just to be clear:

• I checked “Allow paid ads only if explicitly approved by you”
• I checked “Allow paid ads only if the ad is for a blog”
• I clear my cache daily
• TWO ads appearing on my widget were not approved by me
• TWO ads on my widget were NOT appearing on my dashboard
• ONE ad not approved by me did NOT lead to a blog
• I found this out only because I clicked the ad and was lead to what I believed to be a redirect
• I checked EVERY ad in my queue before doing a more thorough investigation, which did NOT include a general page refresh
• NEITHER of the ads not approved by me were in my “approved” column or my “pending approval” column- they weren’t on my dashboard at all

I only mention this for those blogs that don’t want paid ads at all. They should be vigilant in checking to make sure those ads aren’t secretly (bug or no) showing up on their widget (as was happening on my widget). These ads didn’t appear on my dashboard- where my adblock settings were adjusted for viewing the ads around the time Phirate suggested we do that.

I didn’t think I needed to check my widget at the time, because I didn’t think that I would be seeing ads there that weren’t explicitly approved by me. When I clicked the widget to check for a redirect (the occurrence of which was documented in this very thread) I was assuming the current widget running was sending me to the Twitter page. When I checked every ad on my dashboard I started getting suspicious and did a more thorough investigation. I learned that ads that were neither approved nor showing on my dashboard were running on my site.

I’m not sure how else to explain this as it’s apparent that I’m not being taken serious on this issue. This is NOT my error. This is either a sneaky tactic by Entrecard or a serious bug on their end.

Either way, those that don’t want the paid ads should be aware of the problem. No problem with the paid ads? Then this isn’t meant for you. Myself, I’m irritated because all I wanted was the power of approval and would happily run paid ads. Apparently I wasn’t given even that. And now I’m shocked to see my concerns are being trivialized and blamed on me */sarcasm.

If you’re a blogger that doesn’t want EC paid ads on your widget and have adjusted your advert settings accordingly, you’ve been warned. Be vigilant, because there is no doubt in my mind that they’ll appear on your widget whether you want them there or not. See Gary’s comment here.

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