Tech: I'm tempted to click

Subject: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: JHW
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 05:58 AM

For a while now if I click on a thread title my screen goes grey and and ad appears in the middle. Savvyier cats will know how to get rid of these but it only seems to happen here. Of course I don't click the ad, even read it. I can start again from my Mudcat browser button but reckon it's safer to close down the old laptop net connection. You never know what the rogues are up to.

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 07:09 AM

We're probably all getting similar. In other words, me too. At least the ads meekly vanish when you shut 'em down.

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 07:15 AM

You know how either the thread name or the post number with the little d next to it goes from blue to brown when you've already seen it and there's nothing new? Well I'm getting the colour change occasionally for threads I haven't opened, even when there are new posts...

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: DaveRo
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 07:52 AM

Steve Shaw wrote: I'm getting the colour change occasionally for threads I haven't opened, even when there are new posts...

That can happen when posts are deleted from the thread. You may already have read a post with URL:
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=123456&messages=65&page=1&desc=yes
but if it or any before it is deleted a new post will have that same URL and may be in your browser's history.

It'll probably happen eventually if you read the spam post in the 'fada' thread.

It's a website design fault really. The URL should include the post number.

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 08:04 AM

Gosh, everybody's cleverer than me! :-(. However, I can cope...

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 09:21 AM

I don't understand threads you haven't opened.

Mudcat relies on the browser remembering visited links. As Dave says, deleted posts can cause the visited links to be reused here. This type of system does have the limitation that it only works on a per browser/device basis but it's simple and can be effective.

Another thing you could have at look at here, at least if you are using Firefox (or Chromium?) is Dave's Mudcat tools add on. This will put threads added to or changed since your last browser refresh in italics.

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: DaveRo
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 09:33 AM

Yes, my explanation wouldn't explain a case where the thread had never been clicked - i.e. no post in that thread had ever been viewed.

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 12:46 PM

These overlay ads only infest my phone.

Chrome browser in android won't allow instal of extensions plugins like Adblock...

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: DaveRo
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 12:56 PM

Firefox on Android will.

I've inly seen that 'vignette' ad on an iPhone:

Earlier thread: https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=153364#4119826

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 12:56 PM

I should have said threads that I haven't opened since new posts were added to it. They should turn back to blue, but occasionally they don't. Sorry!

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: DaveRo
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 12:58 PM

I knew what you meant ;)

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: Helen
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 03:34 PM

I have an ad blocker installed in my browser. I don't get the ads, but the only disadvantage is that some news sites won't let me read their content unless I disable the ad blocker. A small price to pay for having an ad-free life.

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 04:58 PM

I use Firefox on android but never see ads on mudcat. It is, however, Firefox focus and I do block most things it will let me block.

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: DaveRo
Date: 21 Oct 21 - 05:16 PM

Ordinary Firefox on Android allows you to run 'recommended' addons - including uBlock Origin, which is the hest Ad Blocker in my - and Mozilla's - opinion.
uBlock Origin

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Oct 21 - 03:01 AM

It appears to be safe to click the "close" button on the full-page ads that have been appearing lately. I hate these ads, but they seem to be easy to dismiss.
It has become very difficult to use Mudcat on my phone, because the ads cover up all the links at the top of my screen - and sometimes at the bottom, too.
I wonder how much those ads earn. I'd be willing do donate a thousand bucks a year to make them go away. Yeah, I suppose I could use an ad blocker, but I want to see what usual people see.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: BobL
Date: 22 Oct 21 - 03:23 AM

A lot of these extra ads don't show up in Internet Explorer 11 - which has now been "updated" so it automatically redirects to Edge. At least it still works on my Windows 7 machine...

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 22 Oct 21 - 03:35 AM

Just looked a my AdblockPlus, since I installed it, it's blocked forty nine thousand and twenty eight ads. Not bad eh, for free.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: DaveRo
Date: 22 Oct 21 - 03:56 AM

Joe Offer wrote: It appears to be safe to click the "close" button on the full-page ads...

Trouble is, that goes against what should be an instinctive reaction - to never click a button on an uninvited pop-up. If people do that here, they'll do it on other sites. Ads can contain malware - 'malvertising' - and a fake 'X' close button is a common trick. The only 'safe' thing to do is close the tab. The safest thing to is to block them.

I've only seen these on my iPhone, which has a 4" screen. They certainly make mudcat unusable on that, but I don't use it for web browsing. I don't know what iThings allow ad-blockers - older ones don't.

As Helen said, if you block ads some sites will object and require you to turn the blocker off. For those sites you choose whether to comply; ad blockers allow you to whitelist specific sites.

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: Helen
Date: 23 Oct 21 - 03:20 AM

I'm using Firefox with AdblockPlus too. I'm happy with both.

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: JHW
Date: 23 Oct 21 - 06:02 AM

It let me in this time. I feared what DaveRo tells us 'Ads can contain malware - 'malvertising' - and a fake 'X' close button is a common trick.' I never dare click anything uninvited.

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: JHW
Date: 24 Oct 21 - 02:41 PM

Worked again. I wonder does Mudcat note threads I/one try to enter but get an ad instead so go away?
(When I close I use the browser X).

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 24 Oct 21 - 11:42 PM

I have NO Problem.

I use an android.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle


Just like "old school"

1.Park your disk drive.
2.Remove ALL history
3.Remove/Crush all cookies
4. Rebootvv

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: JHW
Date: 03 Nov 21 - 06:49 AM

An android or someone that looked like an android took us round a wartime bunker near Hull.
Everyone else seems to have no bother with these ads so I guess Mudcat is just something else to give up!

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Nov 21 - 08:26 AM

Well I've never blocked ads but I'm aware that its possible. I might think about it... I'm getting so much online stuff for free, that's the thing, and I know that that's only possible because the advertisers are paying for it. I read somewhere that, in theory, if online advertising didn't exist, we'd all have to pay around £44/$60 per month to finance the stuff we now get for free... If I'm getting free stuff, shouldn't I, in fairness, put up with ads? Even though I ignore them (a salient point, I think...After all, I ignore telly ads or go for a pee when they come on...)? I suppose you could argue that we are actually paying even when we think we're getting it for free, as advertising increases the cost of goods that we buy...

What I think about this is that I've put up with ads as a fairly mild annoyance for a long time (incidentally, I'm Apple only these days). But it's become very noticeable that advertising is getting more aggressive and in-your-face. It often takes up the whole screen, it often contains uninvited videos, it pops up intrusively when I'm supposed to be doing something else and it often makes the screen jump around all over the place. I'd feel justified in blocking that kind of stuff, but not all ads are the same...

I could be overthinking this and maybe I should block all ads and be done with it. But a little birdie tells me that there are at least some ethical issues going on here...

I see that Adblock Plus has a "whitelist" scheme which allows ads through that fit certain criteria of non-intrusiveness, though apparently the advertisers have to pay to get on that list. Grrr....

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Nov 21 - 08:29 AM

And by the way, I do wonder whether advertisers are getting more aggressive because more and more people are using ad-blockers...hmm...

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: DaveRo
Date: 03 Nov 21 - 10:54 AM

Steve Shaw wrote: I see that Adblock Plus has a "whitelist" scheme which allows ads through that fit certain criteria of non-intrusiveness, though apparently the advertisers have to pay to get on that list. Grrr....

My use of Adblock Plus goes back to the original Mozilla (pre-Firefox) addon, just called Adblock, invented by Henrik Sørensen a Swedish student. When that project died Wladimir Palant and other volunteers carried it on as Adblock Plus (ABP) and ran it for years as a free opensource project - for which I and millions of others were grateful. Maintaining it took ever-increasing time and effort (you have to keep updating the filters) and he formed a company, Eyeo, to run it. He proposed 'Acceptable Ads' as a way of funding ABP and avoiding the increasingly invasive attention-seeking adverts that were starting to appear back then.

Adblock Plus and Eyeo attracted considerable controversy over its "Acceptable Ads" program to "allow certain non-intrusive ads" (such as Google AdWords) to be allowed under the extension's default settings. While participation in the whitelisting process was free for small websites, large advertising companies were required to pay a fee in order for their ads to be whitelisted.

Controversy over ad filtering and ad whitelisting - Wikipedia

I thought then, and still think, it was a good idea. Users could always opt out, and block all ads. But it was misrepresented by competitors (nearly all of them based their blockers on the code that Sørensen and Wladimir had written) as having sold out to the advertisers, or even being spyware.

If 'acceptable ads' had caught on we might not have had the horrible ad-infested websites we have now. OTOH, it was probably doomed to fail against the might of Google.

I think you have to be a masochist to put up with ads if you can block them. If you feel guilty not paying for a site you value then send it some money!

(Both Adblock Plus and uBlock Origin - originally called μblock but people couldn't agree how to pronounce it - are trustworthy addons IMO.)

Wladimir is still going strong and worth reading if you're interested in privacy and security.
How Amazon Assistant lets Amazon track your every move on the web

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Nov 21 - 11:27 AM

As DaveRo said, using the "X" to close out an unwanted popup can cause problems if it has been reprogramed to actually be an acceptance button. If I end up with a pernicious popup I carefully move my mouse down to the bottom of the screen and right click to bring up the task manager and close the whole browser that way.

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm tempted to click
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Nov 21 - 11:34 AM

There are quite a few newspaper sites that want me to turn off the ad blocker to read them, and sometimes I do. There are a lot of sites where I am not a subscriber and I hit the paywall and it isn't going to let me see the content because it is fuzzed out behind the payment message and I have a browser extension that is intended to remove ads from the page but also works for the paywall (in about 75% of the cases). It's called "Just Read" and scrapes off the paywall and lets me see the article. It's good for saving articles, etc.

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