Quoted directly from PMC rules (3 Promotion & Advertising):

Do not

Link to illegal or dangerous websites including epilepsy or trigger sites (flashers, screamers, etc), inappropriate (pornography/non-PG sites), gambling, hacking, drugs, malware, or self-promoted commercial sites.

(Ad link removed) breaks two of the conditions shown above according to multiple people. And then there's this one:

Use Ad links. URL shorteners that require viewing ads before forwarding users to their final destination are not allowed.

Sound familiar? Now the total is up to three.
This one is more of a suggestion but I should mention it because it's relevant.
(In section 3.1 Commercial Advertising)

Exception 2: Ad links. Once you reach level 20, you're allowed to use certain Ad links but only on your submission downloads. We still recommend adding an alternative ad free link in the description so that your followers have a choice.

The Onion Router blocks most popups on Adf.ly

I used Adf.ly, but I realized that it is not worth the risk of infecting people for earnings, which are very low even, so decide to charge people for the resource pack using Patreon and now besides me earning more, people don't have more problem with ads. Honestly, Adf.ly cannot be considered good.

It's gangsta with me until they started making me accept notifications to continue.

Well, when I was younger, I accidentally gave my computer a lot of viruses because of all the adware.

Yeah, You Shouldn't Click Ads, More Safe To Actually Use A Chrome Add-on Called "Universal Bypass".

Some people just aren't smart enough to not click on the ad and just click on the "Skip Ad" button

[deleted]

My problem is that it'll pop up a "Accept this notification!" up to 5 times, the notifications will spam you and lag your PC with the notifs. Or, sometimes, not even show it at all but lock me on a screen with a, "accept these notifications!" on it, adblock or not. No skip ad button. No "This isn't working for me, manual redirect pls."

There's other times I'll go to the link and it'll perform normally, with the skip ad button, great! But, I'll click it - again with adblock - and it'll, instead of opening the mediafire or dropbox, etc, open a scam site, and some potentially lock my browser from doing anything. (Those "Your PC has a virus! Act now!" with fake popups that, apparently, if you try to close it or the webpage, it won't close, if you try to change, it automatically switches you back. It's there whether or not I have an adblocker.) It'll either replace the adfly page or everytime I click "Skip ad," no bueno, another scam site. Nothing has been downloaded from these sites thankfully and I have no viruses on my PC, (I check frequently.) and these happen whether or not I have an adblocker on or off, no difference at all. I used to not have any issues, but now I do. The big issue is less adfly itself, and more who they're putting ads up for.

I've honestly ended up just not downloading many packs now, haven't updated the packs I've downloaded and have new updates for awhile due to this. Better than running the risk or dealing with the frustration honestly....

If people want a solution, while its not an end all solution, and there are flaws, it is something, (and its better than just saying what all I hate and have issues with adfly with then not having anything meaningful) people looking for donations but want to give something for it can set up a patreon. It'd go along the lines of anyone who's getting it for free has to wait for full updates (everything to be finished), $1 might get early update or access to a private channel on discord or a discord link so they can see the progress, $3 might get the update earlier than everyone, $5 gets it much much earlier, likely in WIP stages, just an example, many ways to set it up honestly.

The problem there is that for some it may feel more like a job rather than something for fun. Some people get entitled when they make a pledge that they feel the person is working for them, and that can be mentally and emotionally straining. But, it depends on each person honestly.

I know if I started making a texture pack I'd do that so that people who want to support can, and they get something out of it, they don't need to after all, the update will come for free at some point, when I feel confident it's a solid update for the resource pack, but they can if they want it a little earlier, or in development stages so they can give constructive criticism, or see their advice being used and if it was taken or adapted from in a good way...

sorry if this doesn't make a lot of sense, just what my issues are and what I'd personally do instead of having an ad.fly, and risking people's computers. feel free to take it with a grain of salt, just muh opinions :p

on my first laptop when i was like 13 i had no clue about malware and all that jazz and i downloaded the titans tower via adfly and got tons of viruses on my laptop ;-; i don't fully understand adfly but it like gives the person who set the adfly link up a bit of ad revenue or something right

Adfly is awful most of the time there are ads that cover the skip ad button meaning when you click it attempts to download viruses and no one knows what else, probably IP grabbers and ransomware. Id avoid adfly at all costs the ads are designed to trick non-tech savvy people into installing malware just for a bit of money.

The ads on adfly are not only inapproriate, as well as mainly just being those "I made 20 million in a month, and I'll tell you my secret". On top of that! The adfly ads have a tendency to (As an adblock user) pop up over the actual download button, and you'll need to click the malicious ad software, In order to get your Actual software.

Downloads with adfly has begun turning me away. I will only download it, if I Abselouty have to, but I will gladly give up a project if all the links are adfly due to this kind of "Download this stuff that gives you ransomeware and other bad stuff, to get your MC-GF mod"

If you've never had issues then count your blessings that in your region it has not contained malicious ads yet. I've had several instances where turning off my adblocker for Adfly resulted in multiple popup ads that wouldn't go away without forcing the entire window closed with task manager.

As a parent of a young player I'm dismayed when the ad is "highly inappropriate". As an IT professional I even nearly accidentally click sometimes, but the worst is when you get caught in a loop and have to keep starting over from the original link. No _script can save you from a scripted loop but not everyone has their pc on lockdown the way I do. And as others have said there are times when it simply hangs without a working link, and I have to go hunting around in the code to find the actual link.

its cause they don't let adblocker stop them.(bummer but i get it its a business, though there's no reason to literally attempt to trick users into downloading goodness knows what on to their devices. In fact sometimes even the correct button sends you to some random place!

I don't know about others, and I can't speak for others, but the main reason I dislike adfly is due to the site occasionally preventing me from even downloading a file because the ads block it.

I understand the need to make money, or just the want to profit from hard work, but it becomes a moral dilemma of "do i want to give innocent children (or not-so-tech-savvy adults even) viruses/adware or do i make possibly less by asking for donations." It also sends my pop up blocker crazy lol. Used to not be so bad, but it seems to get shadier every time I use it. Hope a new alternative pops up (hah, pop-up), but I've only ever heard of one that was already worse.

Well, there is no good ad site, so.

Adfly is pretty broken for me. It says to ALLOW THIS SCAM WEBSITE TO NOTIFY YOU IN ORDER TO GO TO THE DOWNLOAD PAGE (not literally, it obviously implies) and when I don't click on it/disallow it, the page then hangs for 3 minutes before going to the download page.

the problem is that its ads are designed to be deceptive, a pitfall any little nine year old could fall into.

[deleted]