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Author Topic: Strange links being added to postings  (Read 7416 times)

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Offline cgutjahrTopic starter

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Strange links being added to postings
« on: November 06, 2013, 03:10:36 PM »
In the first two postings in this thread, four occurences of the word Debian have been turned into hyperlinks to an ebay auction. This was obviously not done by the authors of said postings, since the link is added through Javascript after the page has been loaded.

Anybody familiar with this phenomenon? Has a.org been hacked by some spamming script, or is somebody testing new ways to generate money?
 

Offline cgutjahrTopic starter

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Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2013, 03:15:31 PM »
(Edited: it's *not* my browser, it *is* a.org)
« Last Edit: November 06, 2013, 05:37:35 PM by cgutjahr »
 

Offline LoadWB

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Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2013, 03:16:43 PM »
I've seen similar behaviors in some places, usually news articles and comments.  Though that was before the arsenal of advertising blockers installed in my Firefox.  I do not see the behavior you're describing here.

I will say, though, that I have seen this behavior present when a machine has been "infected" with some kind of adware add-on, usually present as a tag-a-long installation with something the user installs, like a media player, etc.
 

Offline Kesa

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Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2013, 03:25:35 PM »
I have this too when using android chrome. I installed a few media players like rocket,  winamp so that must be where it came from. I don't many other apps or games.
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Offline pVC

Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2013, 03:34:08 PM »
This has annoyed me A LOT quite some time now. I think site owner tries to make more money by allowing this kind of scripted spamming. I really hate this because important links in postings are lost because people won't click any links anymore because of these frigging spam links.

When you say it does happen only on certain browsers or machines, I don't think it's made that way. I believe it is intented to happen with all setups, but some setups just manage to block it.

For me it happens for example with OWB on MorphOS and I don't believe my machine is infected with any adware add-ons.

This is over the limit I'm willing to accept for advertisements.
Daily MorphOS user and Amiga active.
 

Offline AmigaClassicRule

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Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2013, 03:39:20 PM »
Quote from: cgutjahr;751978
In the first two postings in this thread, four occurences of the word Debian have been turned into hyperlinks to an ebay auction. This was obviously not done by the authors of said postings, since the link is added through Javascript after the page has been loaded.

Anybody familiar with this phenomenon? Has a.org been hacked by some spamming script, or is somebody testing new ways to generate money?

What does it mean " by the authors of said postings"? Why do you say "said"?
 

Offline cgutjahrTopic starter

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Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2013, 04:36:48 PM »
Yeah, checked some more - looks like it is the site doing it. The advertising partner is VigLink ("Make money with ordinary links"):

http://www.viglink.com/

I simply didn't see it so far because my Adblocker usually filters that crap out (I'm using a backup machine right now, apparently the adblocker isn't properly configured on this one).

Meddling with user postings really is the lowest from of advertising, as far as I'm concerned. I really don't want to have random commercial links added to things I write... I'd be pretty pissed if I had posted about an open source Amiga emulator for Debian and my post would now contain three links to some ebay seller.

Can this be removed please? Or at least some form of opt-out being offered?
 

Offline cgutjahrTopic starter

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Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #7 on: November 06, 2013, 04:39:04 PM »
Quote from: AmigaClassicRule;751984
What does it mean " by the authors of said postings"?

It's just a phrase, as in: "the postings I just talked about". I could have simply used "the authors of these postings" instead, but I tried to sound cool ;)
 

Offline Zac67

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Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2013, 05:25:09 PM »
Sorry, a.org - this is definitely a reason to use an adblocker - and never deactivate it around here...
 

Offline pVC

Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #9 on: November 06, 2013, 06:12:14 PM »
Here is a quickly picked thread for an another example.

Ad links for words "mac g5", "Apple PowerPC", "Mac mini", "PowerMac G5", "professional OS", "alternative OS", "Mac PPC"... all in one page only.

And I've seen those links on more general words too... and with clearly Amiga related words.
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Offline SysAdmin

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Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #10 on: November 06, 2013, 06:15:28 PM »
Paying members of Amiga.org don't get this. It sure beats huge graphic banner Ads that have no relation whatsoever to the sites content.
« Last Edit: November 06, 2013, 06:16:31 PM by SysAdmin »
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Offline pVC

Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #11 on: November 06, 2013, 06:23:14 PM »
This is quite horrible thread too, with all those general computing terms linked... and oh there's a link to a new A5000 machine too.

If I was a paying member, I still wouldn't want to be logged in all the time when reading forums to get rid of that crap. Put those ads anywhere else, but not on artificially created links which ruins the experience and purpose of the real links in posts for the most.
Daily MorphOS user and Amiga active.
 

Offline Oldsmobile_Mike

Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #12 on: November 06, 2013, 07:47:30 PM »
This has been going on for a while, surprised you guys haven't noticed.  When I use Opera or Firefox I don't see them (both configured with adblockers), but when I use IE I do.  I tend to just ignore them since they have no relevance to the topic in question, but it sure is annoying!
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Offline SysAdmin

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Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #13 on: November 06, 2013, 07:55:53 PM »
Like Oldsmobile_Mike if this is a Ad feature you don't like on Amiga.org feel free to use an Ad Blocker. Amga.org has to generate revenue somehow and huge graphic banner Ads the have nothing to do with Amiga or the content of this site are even more annoying!
« Last Edit: November 06, 2013, 07:56:26 PM by SysAdmin »
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Offline zipper

Re: Strange links being added to postings
« Reply #14 on: November 06, 2013, 08:23:55 PM »
So? Many sites do offer still much worse ads.