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John Pierce

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As many of you know, we had been using Google AdSense in order to generate the funds to pay for site hosting.

As you may have noticed, those ads have not been there for several months. Google has a policy against "firearms" related sites and they finally decided we were not in compliance with their terms of service.

I am now trying a new ad service called AdBrite. If anyone has any comments about the service, please feel free to share.

Thanks!


John
 

northofnowhere

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I have used Adbrite in the past and found them to be better income wise, but more strict on ad spammers. As google would ban a clearly abusing IP address spamming your ads and not count them, Adbrite has a tendancy to ban or suspend you instead.

It is good to know Google does not believe in expressing or sharing our constitional rights. At least we know where theircorporate leadershipstands on America and Americans and thier rights.
 

Grapeshot

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To which other freedoms does Google object? (rhetorical)

I say good ridence and good luck with Adbrite.

Yata hey
 

bcbrown2

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I'm not sure if this is due to your new ad software, but I have had several occasions over the last two days where I've been redirected away from your site to "spam" sites. Something appears to be amiss -- this only happens when I'm in the ODCO forums and nowhere else I surf on the Internet. It looks like someone may have either hacked your site or thrown in ads which cause periodic and random redirects. Each time, I see an error page indicating I'm being redirected to a page which potentially contains malware at a time when I was not navigating away from ODCO.

Just a heads-up. This may be indicative of a "random" web attack on your site or a directed effort by someone you may not agree with.
 

Grapeshot

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bcbrown2 wrote:
I'm not sure if this is due to your new ad software, but I have had several occasions over the last two days where I've been redirected away from your site to "spam" sites. Something appears to be amiss -- this only happens when I'm in the ODCO forums and nowhere else I surf on the Internet. It looks like someone may have either hacked your site or thrown in ads which cause periodic and random redirects. Each time, I see an error page indicating I'm being redirected to a page which potentially contains malware at a time when I was not navigating away from ODCO.

Just a heads-up. This may be indicative of a "random" web attack on your site or a directed effort by someone you may not agree with.
Next time this happens, send jpierce (moderator) a PM with as much site data/information as you can capture. On the error page you can right click, select "properties" and copy that page for John - jpierce.

It could still be something within your computer doing this. Might try running a complete scan on your stuff just to be sure.

Yata hey
 

Grapeshot

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Since I cannot edit on this thread, I will correct above post to read: On the error page you can right click, select "page source & page information" and copy those pages for John - jpierce.

Yata hey
 

Pointman

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My wife just discovered the same thing on Hotmail, and it's because of the ads. As the ad loads it does a redirect and off the browser goes. I turned AdMuncher back on and she has no more problems.
 

bcbrown2

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For what it's worth, I'm using a Mac and surf mainly in Safari, which does a good job of filtering out adware and spyware. Only on ODCO have I encountered these issues during my sessions and the weirdest thing I've seen yet is a quick flash to a popup window which seems to get caught and closed but a disembodied audio stream advertising stuff comes up until I close the ODCO tab and come back in.

Should I get bounced again I will send the admin a copy of the page source for redirection but I can confirm this issue is not being caused by something on my machine and appears to have cropped up after changing ad providers. If I encounter any more of these I'll forward along to the admin team. Best of luck with this -- advertisement on the Internet is still largely like living in the Wild West and you have to be quicker to the draw (or in this case the window-close icon) than the spammer.
 

Walleye

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I suspect that AdBrite deals in malware, as yesterday my computer started acting wonky all over after viewing the boards. It took me 6 hours to clean a piece of malware filth off called "Vundo".

I'd ditch them myself. Shame about Google - guess they're asking to be kicked out like all the other searches in the past.
 

Walleye

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deepdiver, what browser are you using and antivirus? My antivirus didn't find it and Firefox blocked a number of popups but not new tabs opening - I removed it with Malwarebytes after having a difficult time getting Spybot S&D to nail it.
 

deepdiver

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Walleye wrote:
deepdiver, what browser are you using and antivirus? My antivirus didn't find it and Firefox blocked a number of popups but not new tabs opening - I removed it with Malwarebytes after having a difficult time getting Spybot S&D to nail it.
I run Firefox with the NoScript add-on for a browser (to deal with those pesky IE only sites which I have to deal with a lot at work, I use the IE tab or the Agent Switcher add-ons to make the other computer think I'm running IE - it works about 98% of the time). I have Firefox set up to delete all personal information every time I shut it down. I run Bitdefender Internet Security Suite for anti-virus which also has anti-spam and anti-phishing filters. I also have Spyware Blaster and SpyBot Search & Destroy installed and up to date. It appears to work pretty well. I didn't even know that OCDO had any ads on the site until I happened to browse the forums one day without logging in and saw a few, but still didn't see most of the ads people were talking about until I looked at it on a friends computer. Some part of my security software filters out all of that.

I ran a deep spyware/virus scan tonight in Bitdefender and a full Spybot scan and found no spyware/malware on my computer. I don't know which parts of which software is catching what (before getting Bitdefender last summer I ran AVG free anti-virus, ZoneAlarm free firewall, Spybot Search & Destroy, Spyware Blaster and Firefox without the NoScript add-on for about 3 years and still never got spy/malware on my computer using those FREE (freeware) programs).

I also manually run a little free program called "CleanUp!" (another freeware) to clean up all cache before I turn off my computer as well as a little program called MRU-Blaster (yep, freeware) to delete those pesky clogging MRUs every other day or so or more often if I have hit a sight where I might have been exposed to spy/malware. That just gets rid of a possible hiding spy/malware/trojan hiding out in the memory or cache that will run on a reboot. It is easier to get rid of it before shutting down than after it is trying to install on a reboot.

I'm fairly knowledgable on computers although I am far from a computer guru or a Level III tech. Some of that stuff may be unnecessary or redundant in some people's opinions, however, I have set up a lot of friend's and family's computers with all that freeware and have only once had to fix one again because they got infected and that was because they hadn't run an update. Most of it runs passively and the other stuff uses no more memory than stuff you buy. The only downside to the free stuff is that you have to manually update a lot of it.

I've tried a lot of different security programs (anti-virus, anti-spam, pop-up blockers, firewalls, etc) over the years and finally settled on the above combination as the best of the free stuff. I have also used Norton home and corporate, McAfee (which I will never recommend to anyone for any reason) and TrendMicro anti-virus and internet security suites. Of those I think the best is TrendMicro (PC-cillin), but this year Bitdefender was rated better and as my TrendMicro on the one computer was expiring, I just bought a multi-license Bitdefender and replaced the TrendMicro and put it on the other computers as well. I've also used and tested a lot of different firewalls over the years and while I like ZoneAlarm Pro firewall's added features over the free version, I do not like their security suite. It is all that dinking around with liking this but not that, that finally got me settled on my current 2 configurations I use, one including purchased software Ifor computers I use professionally) and the other using all freeware (for computers that are personal use only).

If anyone wants links to any of that freeware I mentioned above just PM me and I'll give you the links to it.
 

northofnowhere

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Googles policy denies users who do anythingsuch as:"Sales or promotion of weapons or ammunition (e.g., firearms, fighting knives, stun guns)" here we promote firearms. This information can be found at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=48182&sourceid=aso&subid=ww-ww-et-asui&medium=link

Ironically we promote the legal expression of our rights with regards to firearms, and Google won't let adsense users use ads when the site infringes on the legal rights of others, despite Google infringing on our legal rights.
 

Grapeshot

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northofnowhere wrote:
Googles policy denies users who do anythingsuch as:"Sales or promotion of weapons or ammunition (e.g., firearms, fighting knives, stun guns)" here we promote firearms. This information can be found at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=48182&sourceid=aso&subid=ww-ww-et-asui&medium=link

Ironically we promote the legal expression of our rights with regards to firearms, and Google won't let adsense users use ads when the site infringes on the legal rights of others, despite Google infringing on our legal rights.
But it is there legal right, private property you know.

I have the same dissatisfaction/complaint regarding no gun rules in retail establishments. IMO - we need an additional level in the public/private property schematic - that of quasi-public wherein if the public is invited to shop/visit then they cannot claim private property status for purposes of regulating - they are essentially the same as a public facility.

Yata hey
 

TFred

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Grapeshot wrote:
To which other freedoms does Google object? (rhetorical)

I say good ridence and good luck with Adbrite.

Yata hey
Sadly, Google is quite well known in the left-leaning circles. Their name shows up in all the most dreaded circumstances (political support-wise). It's quite sad, technically, they are a very good company and quite on the edge of innovation. I'm sure they have given MS a near permanent crick in their neck from all the looking over their shoulder... and that is no small feat.

To get back on topic, I've had no issues with the ads, using FireFox, with no special plugins, etc, just pop-up blocker, but it never kicks in for this site.

Glad to see that OCDO is getting some support. I am considering a purchase of one of those CrossBreed holsters, they look pretty cool.

TFred
 

FMCDH

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I use Firefox with AdBlock Plus and No Script. I haven't experienced any problems with pop ups or re-directions.

The adds don't bother me, I just have ABP remove them automatically anyway. Sorry, its my browser, my computer, I get to decide who advertises to me.
 

Walleye

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I'd like to give a big thumbs up on the 'new' new ads - stuff we're actually interested in!


Yeah, the "Obama for prez? get $50 for your answer!" ads of old were getting annoying as heck...
 
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