Remember Unfriended? The horror movie that came out a couple years ago that had ads all over Youtube featuring unskippable jump scares?
Well, it’s back with a vengeance – or actually, a sequel: “Unfriended: Dark Web”
And as you can imagine, the ads are just as bad and anxiety-inducing as before. I’ve come across two separate ads already (one of which was in the middle of a video and happened while I was on fullscreen) so here’s what you need to watch out for:
TRAILER #1 begins with a logo for a chatroom and within the first few seconds you’ll see a guy’s face pop up on a skype-like screen. Don’t worry – THIS IS NOT THE JUMP SCARE, it’s just a normal-looking chat screen. During this time you’ll want to exit full screen if you’re in it, and then scroll down until all that’s visible is the “Skip Ad” Countdown and about an inch of the bottom half of the video. Then wait and press Skip when you’re able.
This ad DOES NOT have a pre-skip jumpscare, so you’re okay to wait. (Unless your screen shows a “video will play after ad” note instead of a skip function, in which you’ll want to scroll until you can barely see the video and hit mute.)
TRAILER #2 is the one you need to be wary of. It begins with about 3 seconds of a black screen and faint, eerie music. If you’re in fullscreen and you see this – COVER THE SCREEN, EXIT, AND SCROLL DOWN QUICKLY. I’ll be honest, I did not see what the image that showed up was (because I followed the aforementioned procedure), but judging by the accompanying sounds and the dialogue that followed: “Dude, that looked way too real.” “I think it was real.”
…I’m pretty sure it’s fair to assume that it’s not something you want to be caught off-guard by.
Again, scroll so that you can only see the bottom of the screen and wait for the Skip button to load. Then skip immediately.
There might be other ads going around, but these are the only ones I’ve come across so far.
If you want to play it safe: Every time slot for an ad on a youtube video is marked by a small yellow square on the time bar (not sure if that’s the official name, but that’s what I’m calling it.) At the beginning of every video and any time you see one of those yellow squares coming up, exit fullscreen and scroll down before it plays. You can also usually see what’s being advertised in the box above the recommendations section.
If you see other ads going around that you feel people should be wary of – or if you have any specific warnings to issue regarding the two I mentioned – please feel free to ad them to this post!
STAY CALM, BE SAFE, AND BROWSE WISELY, GUYS!!
Yeah, so-
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
Not long after posting this, guess what ad showed up on my dash as one of those “Sponsored” posts?
Be careful scrolling, guys. If you see the word “Sponsored” in grey at the top of a post, slow down and scroll carefully to see what it is. If you see flashing, glitching, a black screen, or what looks like a Skype chat – scroll back up and refresh.
Or just scroll very quickly down, but be very careful in doing so.
I’m getting bombarded with these things, so keep an eye out and spread the word to make sure everybody’s aware.
If you’re a young person in Ohio, DON’T tell your therapist you are trans. You may think “oh but my therapist would never tell my parents!” No, you don’t understand, there’s a hellova lot of people who dont give two shits about the morality of their actions, all they care about is being law abiding citizens. If they’ve made it a felony to not tell parents about trans clients, then people are gonna tell parents about trans clients. Confidentiality of you identity doesn’t exist any more. Don’t. Tell. Your. Therapist.
It’s awesome that op is raising awareness about this, but the information is slightly incorrect – probably due to the ambiguous wording of pretty much everyone reporting on House Bill 658 (”Parents Rights Act”).
Fighting this bill is important, not only for Ohio transgender youth, but for the rest of America. The passing of this bill into law would set a precedent for other states to follow suit.
Here’s how to fight HB658
call or write to Ohio House Speaker Ryan Smith
(614) 466-1366 (the # given by ohiohouse.gov) or (614) 412-4237 (the # given by Equality Ohio)
“Introduce yourself, say where you live, and that this bill is damaging to transgender kids. Then ask that it not be moved forward.” Wouldn’t hurt to mention that you’re an eligible/future voter either.
seriously, a call only takes a few minutes…you could do it during a commercial break
it’s not. that it sucks. i’ve just. seen it 48 times
Staff: huh? You want this post? Haven’t seen it yet? Here it is again. Don’t remember it? Here it is again! Still not sure you remember? Have it one more time
Me: please sto-
Staff: so you hate this post now? It’s awful, and horrible? Worst post you’ve ever seen, fuckface? Huh? Fucker? Is that it?
Seriously guys the most fatalities of the summer occur the week(end) of July 4. If you drink please don’t drive. And if you do drive, be safe on the roads!
i went ahead and pulled some updated codes for july 2018 since idk if the code above is still valid anymore!
[source, along with expiration dates for the codes; the earliest one expires 7/5/2018, the latest expires 12/6/2018, and you can enter these ones on the lyft app up to 14 days before, so do it now if you plan on drinking so you don’t have to worry about it later!]
also, if you’re planning on taking public transit to get to/from your destination, check ahead of time to make sure that the route you need is going to be available on july 4th!!!! some trains and bus routes may not be operating or may have a different operating schedule (my local public transit will have a completely different schedule than they usually do on wednesdays) so please make sure you have a way home this july 4th that doesn’t involve drinking and driving!!
