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Skimwords

QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,348
in Site Suggestions

So I see that this site has started using skimwords, one of the universally loathed ad "services" that inserts random advertising links in text.  It's not quite the worst sort of advertising out there; auto-play audio and video are worse.  But advertising links inserted into text are bad enough that if I can't figure out how to disable them, I won't visit the site.

If you stick to game-specific areas, you might not know what I'm talking about; check the hardware forum for threads with several inserted ad links per post.  This makes the hardware section of your site look like it's completely overrun by spambots.  And that's not OK.

I get that you need revenue.  And I'm sympathetic to that.  Really.  I try not to disable more ads than are necessary to make a site functional.  Unfortunately, AdBlock Plus lets skimwords links through for some inexplicable reason if you select "allow non-obtrusive advertising", so now I have to disable that option to use this site.

Comments

  • BigdaddyxBigdaddyx Member UncommonPosts: 2,039
    For some reason it only happens when i am using internet explorer or firefox. It doesn't happen on chrome.
  • GruntyGrunty Member EpicPosts: 8,657

    It's starting to look like the April Fools joke tweet reported by Teala here from Bill Murphy may not be an April Fools joke after all.  Some sites will remove their skimword links if you pay them. I haven't seen any announcement about either the skimwords or a subscription here.

    Admin has stated in the past such links would never appear here.

    Edit: They are also now showing up in other forum thread posts

    "I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone.  It's not.  The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone."  Robin Williams
  • syntax42syntax42 Member UncommonPosts: 1,378

    I have unchecked "allow acceptable ads" in my AdBlock Plus options in Chrome because of SkimLinks on this site.  

    I understand that hosting a site costs money, but I'm using my computer, my bandwidth, and my monitor and eyes to look at sites.  When advertisements affect the content of the media I'm looking at, I will do what I have to in order to avoid it.  I stopped watching television because commercials were excessive.  Hulu was a good alternative for a while, but now they have almost as many commercials as broadcast television, so now I only watch shows on Amazon.  If I have to avoid this site due to the forum text being altered, I will.

  • syntax42syntax42 Member UncommonPosts: 1,378
    Originally posted by Stizzled
    I haven't seen it at all yet, I guess Adblock is doing its job.

    You might be using a cached page or you don't allow the "acceptable ads" though.  Change your Adblock Plus option then shift-reload the page.

  • GruntyGrunty Member EpicPosts: 8,657
    And it could be said that MMORPG.com is violating it's own rules of conduct regarding referral links.
    "I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone.  It's not.  The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone."  Robin Williams
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] UncommonPosts: 0
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • DamonVileDamonVile Member UncommonPosts: 4,818
    Is this in every thread ? I don't see it at all and I use chrome.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] UncommonPosts: 0
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • GruntyGrunty Member EpicPosts: 8,657
    The links are added after the page loads which tells me they do not individually have the referral but that it is programmed into the page/site to send key words to a remote site and retrieve and insert these links. Someone else would be more capable of determining whether that is true. Or if it all occurs on the backend of the site and just appends the results to the page after creation.
    "I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone.  It's not.  The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone."  Robin Williams
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] UncommonPosts: 0
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • MikeBMikeB Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555

    Hey guys,

    I am looking into this for you. Will have more info soon!

  • MikeBMikeB Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555

    OK, so Craig tells me this is unintentional. We dislike these types of ads as much as you do and we'll be rectifying this ASAP. 

    UPDATE: This will be removed later today. Please consider re-adding us to your whitelists. We apologize for the inconvenience.

     

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,348
    Originally posted by MikeB

    OK, so Craig tells me this is unintentional. We dislike these types of ads as much as you do and we'll be rectifying this ASAP. 

    UPDATE: This will be removed later today. Please consider re-adding us to your whitelists. We apologize for the inconvenience.

    Thank you.  I've switched my settings back and now your ads are getting through again, except for the Flash ads that don't work because I don't have Flash installed.  I'm not seeing any Skimlinks ads, so hopefully its fixed.

    One thing that I realized overnight is that it would really be a problem if someone asked for help in building a computer, and I posted a list of parts (or if Ridelynn or jdnewell or someone else did), and then Skimlinks inserted random links to other parts in my post so that the person followed the wrong links and bought the wrong parts.

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