I have something that just started on my laptop about 15 minutes ago. Sorry, @Petrozza, but I use an ad blocker to prevent viruses, because a lot of people get suspicious popups. What started when I logged in I got a pop-up that said , "We see that you are blocking ads. Ads keep our lights on. Please whitelist us. How to whitelist us (with a link )". I didn't hit the link because I didn't trust it . The site lets me log in, but every time I hit on a forum or a thread I consequently get bumped to the forums list over and over, although it doesn't log me out. I do understand that ad revenue keeps the site free, but I'm too paranoid to disable my ad blocker. I've been using an ad blocker forever and I've never run into this here. I'm posting this from my idiot phone and oddly enough I never have a problem, which is where everyone else seems to be having one. Thanks.
It's a service provided by one of the ad platforms I am using on this website. They tracked that approximately 20% of this site's visitors had the ads blocked and offered this as a possible solution to lower that number. I turned it on last night but it never worked for me when I turned my ad blocker on. So, I figured it just didn't work at all. Apparently it does work, just not for everyone. In any case, I am going to keep it running for a week or so just to see if that percentage goes down at all. The site does run off the ad revenue and I never asked anyone for any money, never wanted to have premium forum sections, etc. We did have some rogue ads that were automatically redirecting people to other websites. They were annoying but not harmful in any way. Most of our ads are provided by Google AdSense and I am pretty sure they are safe. In all seriousness, I don't believe your computer can get infected unless you do something that you should not be doing. There are malicious ads (never saw them on this website) that redirect you and then you get an automatic pop-up asking you to download a file. Once you've downloaded and run that, then yes your machine will be infected. So, once again, I don't believe your computer can get infected just by displaying an ad, no matter how rogue that ad might be. It can get infected only if you do whatever that malicious ad asks you to do.
Ever since I began recieving this "Whitelist pop-up" The site is un-usable. Refreshing me to main page. Links don't work. Listen I'd rather donate one time then to be subjected to ads. Its disgusting and to be honest I'm on the verge of never returning. Pet thank you for the site and your time but this setting is terrible.
Burnz. Understood. Problem is, @Petrozza isn't accepting donations. And he posted below message in response to jetophile. https://forums.theganggreen.com/thr...essing-the-forum-at-times.93179/#post-3889231
He used accept donations back in the day. Granted I donated 14 years ago, but I would be down for that if it makes things more user friendly. That's way different than pay or else; meaning pay a fee or you can't log in. I belong to another small privately run off the radar Jets site that I've belonged to for years, and the cost to use the server or rent the server or whatever is about $350 a year. A bunch of us pitch in annually and it covers it every time. That leaves everyone else free to run wild without them spending a dime, all add free. Just a suggestion; unless @Petrozza does actually make a little side money from the ads, which of course there's nothing wrong with. But yeah, fuck google sideways. We're all sucked into their spying/violation of privacy by monopoly and default. "We care about your privacy" - what a line of lying shit. Man, I'd give my left arm - and I'm lefty - to be a smart as a close IT friend of mine who unfortunately lives in another state. He is beholden to no-one as far as you are possibly able to do that. And it's pretty fckn hard.
I see, I get it; I've just grown extremely distrustful and wary over the years with good reason. @Burnz just started another thread about this very thing/subject and I posted in it. Thanks for your response.
It’s been unbearable even after allowing ads on the site. It just keeps bringing me back to the main page and no matter how many times I click the Jets forum, it brings me back to the main page. It worked once for me last night and once just now on my phone.
I had the same issue with cycling back to main forums page. Turned off both adblockers and problem solved. Guess I'll see how it goes...
I turned off my ad blocker, but am not happy about it. I understand the need to cover expenses, and even if you make money off the site, but ever since I turnd off the ad blocker the response time has degraded. Given the state of this team - AGAIN! - and this annoyance, maybe it's time to walk away.
Thanks! And the response time has immediately improved! And if you need to go to a voluntary, or mandatory, pay system, that would be ok with me.
Just logged in on my laptop and that pesky mosquito is gone! One of the main reasons I use an ad blocker is because I pirate the living shit out of everything. Wanna spy on my every fckn move without my consent and if I say no you do it, anyway? OK, then I'm not paying for your shitty service. What, you're spying on my every fckn move, anyway? What a surprise! Oh, well, then arrest me for theft of services and show up at my front door to take me away. Tick- tock. In my mind it's more than a wash. The shit my IT friend in KS has told me would make your fckn hair fall out, and if you're already bald, something else will fall off, like a leg or something. A lot of stuff I already knew, even though I'm the most technologically stupid person that was ever born. Let's start with HIPAA and Meaningful Use. I worked for a Doctor for 13 years and was drowning in a huge moral and ethical quagmire of shit when Obamacare went into effect. HIPAA and Meaningful Use, see how I laugh. Not only is it a hacker's dream waiting to happen - and it will happen, bank on it - it's a tool of the government that isn't as innocent as it seems. I was so relieved when my boss retired so I wouldn't have to be a cog in the machine that I didn't jibe with me as a person. I'm out. So yeah, if @Petrozza wants to start privately funding the site if it isn't a deal breaker as to personal finance, why not? If he has reservations of how it will go that no-one will chip in and he'll be footing the bill, then don't cut off google until you have all of your eggs in your basket. I hate google so much, I'd love to see them suck it, even if it's an infinitesimal drop in the bucket and means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things. EDIT & P.S.: Just to put everyone's mind at unease, the health info hack has already happened many times on many levels, just not "the big one", that being the central gov't health database (that we know of). Shortly before Obamacare was rolled out, "they" were ready. Some jackass from Blue Cross/Blue Shield left his laptop in his car, which got broken into, and of course his laptop was stolen. Someone had been casing him and watching his habits and hit a goldmine: over 3 million people were compromised. Think about it: what info does your Dr. have that is so enticing? Well, let's see . . . your first name, your middle initial, your last name, your mailing address, your email, your home and cell numbers, your social security numbers, your medication history, so yeah, essentially everything necessary to identity theft you into the grave and beyond. I've gotten a letter no less than three times over the last 10 years from my local hospital that they're giving me Life Lock for free for a year because they were breached (only they used some flowery word that didn't exactly say breached). "No personally identifying information has been compromised, but as a courtesy to you . . . " Hahahaha, OK. Most of our hospitals' cyber security can be broken into by a third grader. It's really amazing. I'm only second grade smart, so not me; but pick almost anyone at random out of a crowd that has fair to middling computer knowledge and you probably won't sleep that well. Oh, and by the way, all I had to do was push a button and I could see everything about you, especially the stuff you left out on purpose. Ya like that?