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Lucif4
Premium Member
join:2000-12-12

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Lucif4

Premium Member

Banner Ads - Forceware?

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Anyone else run across a site that requires you to view their advertisements and/or banners to view their site content?

If you have any ad/banner blocking software the site blocks the content. For example, I ran across »www.environmentalchemistry.com which requires you disable your (ad blocking) software to view the site. The site also requires Javascript to be enable.

And, is this something that is going to become more commonplace with advertisements? Is there a way around this?

I tested this in Mozilla Firefox 0.8, with Adblock and IE 6 (Javascript disabled).

Nogard is me
Premium Member
join:2004-01-08
Columbus, OH

Nogard is me

Premium Member

I ran across one before and my son plays an online game that has forced banner ads. I hate them.

sivran
Vive Vivaldi
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join:2003-09-15
Irving, TX

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Hm. I can't see in the code how they detect that you haven't loaded the banner. My guess is that the detection is server side, maybe even so simple as the ads are served from a server they own and they can check whether your browser made a request to it (doubt it, that is potentially simple to fake). Either that or I missed it in that big javascript block...

Nothin wrong with a few banners, though. Popups, on the other hand, are a different story...
Nanaki (banned)
aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH

Nanaki (banned)

Member

said by sivran:
Hm. I can't see in the code how they detect that you haven't loaded the banner. My guess is that the detection is server side, maybe even so simple as the ads are served from a server they own and they can check whether your browser made a request to it (doubt it, that is potentially simple to fake). Either that or I missed it in that big javascript block...

Nothin wrong with a few banners, though. Popups, on the other hand, are a different story...

I dont see nothing wrong with banner adds at all.
Popups unders etc yes i see no point in them they suck up my resources with each popup and i will block them.

hpguru
Curb Your Dogma
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join:2002-04-12

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He uses DOM methods to detect objects that won't initialize if you are blocking ads. I don't have time to analyze it but there is some Ezula related stuff in there too.

This person has the audacity to label Opera as "scumware" because the free version interferes with his web spamming efforts.

»www.klbproductions.com/i ··· era.html

Edit: Regarding Ezula he is just checking if Ezula has modified his pages.

Sir Raleigh
MVM
join:2001-07-31
Raleigh, NC

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This is the way Opera 6.06 displays the page for me.

dadkins
Can you do Blu?
MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA

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That site doesn't like my built-in banner blocker either, haven't tried Serinity yet...

EDIT: The site doesn't like Serinity either, I hate pushy websites!

Ctrl Alt Del
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join:2002-02-18

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I get the "You're using ad-blocking software" page too, using IE6 and The Proxomitron.

However, if you right click on the link to the site and select Save Target As and download the content to the site... you can view it's contents from your hard drive. Attached is the site in FrontPage.

I will never turn off the Proxomitron, not for any site.

Lucif4
Premium Member
join:2000-12-12

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The point is that the "web publisher" forces you to view the banner ads to view the content of the website. What if your favorite website(s) started using this same technique and forced you to look at a number of ads, banners, etc. If you block the ads, then you cannot view any of the content!

Do you see my viewpoint? I can see advertisers/content providers doing this in the future, then the internet will be poliferated with forceware ads. Then, all I will see is "Banner blocking detected" while I surf!
Nanaki (banned)
aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH

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said by Lucif4:
The point is that the "web publisher" forces you to view the banner ads to view the content of the website. What if your favorite website(s) started using this same technique and forced you to look at a number of ads, banners, etc. If you block the ads, then you cannot view any of the content!

Do you see my viewpoint? I can see advertisers/content providers doing this in the future, then the internet will be poliferated with forceware ads. Then, all I will see is "Banner blocking detected" while I surf!

Way i see it is you got 2 choices pay per view on web sites or banners like it or not it costs money to run a web site. With out banners your going to have to subscibe to web sites. I dont like things like viagra adds on a computer hard ware site (prety stupid if you ask me for both the site and the company that makes viagra) but if i go to a hardware site hardocp.com for example what im greeted with is banner adds for new egg linking to their computer sections. Or other computer related sites. And even though i dont buy from new egg i click the banner now and then figure why not make hardocp a half a penny heh. If you frequent a site you should help support them. I dont even try blocking add banners on the top of a site. Popup adds yes i block them banners no. I dont want to see the day when i have to pay money out of pocket to view my favorite sites.

So yes i do fully aggree with their actions and as a web master my self if i ever grow to the point where i need steady income for my site from banner adds i will also use such code.

Big banner exchanges just plain suck far as im conserned places like doubleclick.Ive yet to see a single banner that matches the sites content.

salzan
Experienced Optimist
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join:2004-01-08
WA State

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Traffic is important to websites. If people stop going, sites like this will either disappear, have considerably less traffic or redesign. Either way, it's market driven. If you don't like it, don't go there. I would assume the content of the site could just as easily be found somewhere else that doesn't force you to follow their rules. Sites that required cookies to view were quite prevalent a couple of years ago but that trend seems to have died off.

hpguru
Curb Your Dogma
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join:2002-04-12

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Fellow Proxo users who are using JD5000's config might want to make him aware of this site so he can develop a filter. I personally have no interest in the site nor time to devote to a filter to "deceive" his anti-adblocker code but I think in this case it would be easy since all his code appears to be clientside. Even if it were serverside, an effective counter measure could still be developed. Nothing can buffalo a website like The Proxomitron.

jfgnet
12 Step Program
Premium Member
join:2001-02-14
Limbo

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Good idea hpguru

Outsourced1
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join:2002-03-17
Holly Springs, NC

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I don't do ads on my computer and no one is going to force me too.
There are ways around everything.
I just turned off my Norton AdBlocker and added a few entries to my Hosts file.
127.0.0.1 banners.aftrk.com
127.0.0.1 aftrk.com

I can now freely browse the site without any advertising.

Djdeadly
join:2000-11-03
San Jose, CA

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Outpost blocks my ads but i still see the site. ALSO look that i found in the javascript source code

else if(o15222615f=="o15222615c"){
top.location.replace("http://www.opera.com/?User_of_hacked_copy_of_Opera");
alert ("A hacked copy of Opera was detected. Please download and use a legal copy.");
}

wow how does javascript detect that?

hpguru
Curb Your Dogma
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join:2002-04-12

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said by Outsourced1:
I just turned off my Norton AdBlocker and added a few entries to my Hosts file.
127.0.0.1 banners.aftrk.com
127.0.0.1 aftrk.com

I can now freely browse the site without any advertising.

Absolutely. I added those entries to the hosts file I publish and can peruse the site with Proxo in bypass mode.

Outsourced1
Premium Member
join:2002-03-17
Holly Springs, NC

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I can get to the site just fine in Firefox and IE but with Opera I get this message.
"You have been brought to this page because it appears that you are using an unregistered copy of Opera 7.2. Unregistered Opera 7.2 typically makes use of Google AdSense ads that are targeted based on the content of the webpage, this is an unauthorized use of our copyrighted material."
I'm using Opera 7.23 and it is registered.

They go on to give me a long list of reasons why they don't allow unregisterd versions of Opera.
»www.environmentalchemist ··· era.html

sivran
Vive Vivaldi
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join:2003-09-15
Irving, TX

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Sounds like these guys are real jerks. I mean, calling Opera "scumware" and pulling these kinds of tricks... it's just too much. I wonder what the Opera community would think of this website? Heh.
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

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said by hpguru:
Fellow Proxo users who are using JD5000's config might want to make him aware of this site so he can develop a filter. I personally have no interest in the site nor time to devote to a filter to "deceive" his anti-adblocker code but I think in this case it would be easy since all his code appears to be clientside. Even if it were serverside, an effective counter measure could still be developed. Nothing can buffalo a website like The Proxomitron.

I just posted in JD's forum and pointed him to the site and to this thread. I don't like seeing Proxo foiled although I have little interest in the content of that site and I don't really care if I can see the site or not with Proxo running. But I'd like to see Proxo kick some ass here!
Bobby_Peru
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join:2003-06-16

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Woa, Lucif4 See Profile, interesting. I wonder if the code below, from the bottom of the page, is involved:

<div id="id44341103DIV"><a href="/ad/dont/click/banner/test.html?banner=adfarm" id="id4434
*1103A" title="Don't click this is a bogus link to test browser issues"><img src="/links/
*sr
*ad2348934mrurl/banners.affiliatefuel.com/ab/g/banners/ads/ad.gif?b=14909&amp;/links/srad
*23
*48934mrurl/www.affiliatefuel.com/c/i=pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/120x600&amp;c=
*46
*8x60" alt="" id="id44341103IMG" border=0></a></div>

(*) WARNING 1 long line(s) split

(*) WARNING 3 long line(s) split

I just posted about this at the AdBlock Forum, and will relay info back to here for a site specific, but more importantly, for a more general work-around for AdBlock Addicts. Mele20 See Profile has already covered ProxoPods...
Mele20
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Hilo, HI

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JD made a filter because of the site blocking Opera. He points out that sometimes one wishes to bypass Proxo and see ads to support a site. I agree that once in a while I do this myself. What I object to though, is being forced to view a site's ads.
I haven't tried the filter yet.

»www.computercops.biz/pos ··· 204.html
inTulsa
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What idiots! Their site claims that my copy of Opera 7.23 is Unregistered. In anger, I'm also going to block references to the affiliatefuel.com and aftrk.com being used by them.

sivran
Vive Vivaldi
Premium Member
join:2003-09-15
Irving, TX

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sivran

Premium Member

I don't think Opera identifies itself as registered or not in its headers. These guys are just assholes in need of a good kicking.

Ctrl Alt Del
Premium Member
join:2002-02-18

Ctrl Alt Del

Premium Member

said by sivran:
I don't think Opera identifies itself as registered or not in its headers. These guys are just assholes in need of a good kicking.

Thumbs.
GodKhaine
join:2004-03-30

GodKhaine

Member

What's next forcing a person to disable his/her pop-up blockers.... I have never used Opera but it sounds like it must be a good program if idiots like this who force people to watch banner advertisements say its scumware.