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I visited several Stack Exchange sites today and noticed several ads have improper placement on the page. I have tried to report ads in question and receive an error message no matter what combinations of options I select. While that may or may not be the right tool for reporting the issue, reporting doesn't work at all.

Is this user error? If there is a hidden reputation requirement, I likely do not meet it.

If this is a technical issue related to my setup, here are the details:

  • I am on Windows 11 Enterprise
  • My browser is Microsoft Edge for Business version 136.0.3240.76 with JavaScript enabled and the HP Wolf Security Extension
  • While the included picture is not required for the error to appear, the image is a 216KB png screenshot taken with the windows 11 clipping tool. Several other images of other mal-placed ads were tried as well.

Almost this exact question was asked on Stack Overflow Meta here 2 years ago, with no answer. Given that the post is 2 years old and that I have observed this all over stack exchange, I have opted to ask this question here. I searched for "ads" in Meta, and this doesn't appear to be any recent or directly relevant posts, though this post may be closest. I am unable to report the ad with or without a screenshot or diagnostic information selected, however.

Here is an example of the error I get: Screenshot of error message showing ads in background.

EDIT 20251106

I can confirm that the report ad button is working for me as of this date, as prompted by the accepted answer. If you run into this problem in the future, you may want to ask a new question (unless they've got a different way to report issues in the future).

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    @W.O. My browser version is Microsoft Edge for Business version 136.0.3240.76. I will add in the following details to my post: JavaScript is enabled and The HP Wolf Security Extension is the only add in I have. I am on windows 11 enterprise. If there are network/vpn level ad blockers, I cannot see them. Commented May 20 at 21:52
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    But don't worry, obviously no one has a problem with any of the ads, because no one's reporting them. /s Commented May 20 at 22:04
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    Could you include the size of the image you uploaded into the tool? The dialog mentions that it accepts up to 2 MB. If this exceeds it, it suggests that the error message is wrong, not that the error itself is being raised incorrectly. Commented May 21 at 0:51
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    @Spevacus Yes. I will add this to the main post, but the image size is a 216KB .png file taken from the clipping tool. Additionally, this error also appeared with or without the picture. Commented May 21 at 1:23
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    Maybe also take a look at the browser console (F12 in most major browsers, or accessible through the menu bar of your browser), to see if you find any logged errors or specific requests that failed to execute, http status codes might give a hint. Commented May 21 at 10:45
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    @Lino I will provide this when I encounter my next badly placed ad. Commented May 21 at 14:39
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    @Slate There was a duplicate posted today - is there any update in the review? Commented Aug 28 at 22:02
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    @Sonic I don't see any update on this bug in our tracker Commented Sep 4 at 15:12
  • meta.superuser.com/questions/16579/cant-report-ads - and a report on my site too. So, assuming we get really bad ads, and historically SE's served up some whoppers, what's the expected workflow for us to report them if your official workflow is broken? Commented Sep 9 at 9:03
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    Also has this been broken for 2 years, or is it a new issue that's identical to the old one? Commented Sep 9 at 9:06
  • @Slate should we just report ads on MSE while this is being fixed? Commented Sep 12 at 8:42
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    This moved to being tagged as planned today. Commenting so you and any followers are aware. Commented Sep 12 at 17:55
  • @Slate How should we report ads while the ad reporter is broken? Commented Sep 22 at 10:09
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    @user56reinstatemonica8 Out of curiosity, did you try to report an ad? I know some work on this issue has already gone out Commented Sep 22 at 14:04
  • @Slate yes I did and I posted about it below, that's what bought me here Commented Sep 22 at 15:03

3 Answers 3

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This issue should be fixed now! If you'd like to test it yourself, just add a test note to the "Other" description.

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+100

I am encountering the same error, this time trying to report a couple ads I felt were a bit inappropriate. I chose "Inappropriate", uploaded a PNG screenshot (in the range of 80-100 kB), which displayed on the page, and clicked "Share Feedback". Regardless of if I check "Share diagnostic information" or not, the submit request to https://superuser.com/ads/report-ad/submit is 302 redirected to a 500 error (https://superuser.com/error). Here's the result of Chromium's developer tool panel's "Copy as fetch":

fetch("https://superuser.com/ads/report-ad/submit", { "headers": { "accept": "*/*", "accept-language": "en-US,en;q=0.9,pt-PT;q=0.8,pt;q=0.7,es-US;q=0.6,es;q=0.5", "cache-control": "max-age=0", "content-type": "multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundarylWDGrrfvRWBDAJnT", "priority": "u=1, i", "sec-ch-ua": "\"Not)A;Brand\";v=\"8\", \"Chromium\";v=\"138\"", "sec-ch-ua-mobile": "?0", "sec-ch-ua-platform": "\"Linux\"", "sec-fetch-dest": "empty", "sec-fetch-mode": "cors", "sec-fetch-site": "same-origin" }, "referrer": "https://superuser.com/questions", "method": "POST", "mode": "cors", "credentials": "include" });

These were the first ads I remember trying to report. I wonder, how many reports are getting to SE?

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    I also was unable to report my first ad on electronics.stackexchange.com, last week. If I see the problematic ad again, will try and get the same diagnostic information. Commented Aug 23 at 6:03
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I just had the same thing on movies.SE when trying to report an ad for the Liven app that was full of pseudo-psychology medical misinformation.

500 error, could not report the ad, regardless of which options were used.

This was on Firefox and, like Dan Getz's answer, the response was just the site's Error 500 page.

How should we report ads while the ad reporter is broken? Here? Or as questions?

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