Web advertising just keeps getting more evil (and stupid)

[babysimon]

... such as this. For those unwilling to click, it requests your browser to start a download of a FUCKING .exe file, then gives you easy, step by step instructions on how to install this advert onto your (Windows, duh) PC.

Seen on boardhost. Of course.

I am now very tempted to give up on DBAM - every time I go there I get a desktop covered with windows (or, using Moz/Konqi, keep having to click "no" every time).

Comments

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I could host DBAM. With a little work, I could probably gateway it into a mailing list.

[babysimon]

I was wondering about this. Currently babysimon.co.uk doesn't have a database but I think something could be done. But I'm lazy so you can do it. Boardhost is really becoming an unpleasant place to be.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

If you do, I'd be in favour of a URL that doesn't have the word "bisexual" in it, to make it less likely that the IT people at work (who, unusually for geeks, seem to be the most conservative people in the entire damn place) will block it.

*sigh*

[lovingboth]

warblings.com & press-officers.com are both available if desired.

I've just seen what this particular ad does. Oh my ghod. Come the revolution, the people responsible for that won't be first against the wall, they'll be the wall...

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

Aha! You have just solved a problem that have bothered me about the revolution. If so many people need to be first up against the wall, how do you dispatch them most efficiently. Answer - cement them together like bricks and machine gun the fuckers. I like.

[adjectivemarcus.livejournal.com]

I always assumed the first people up against the wall would be bricklayers and plasterers.

Last against the wall? Perhaps the man making the chalk lines.

Stupid Adverts

[bootpunk.livejournal.com]

Was reading the Torygraph online (linked down from Drudge - hey, you don't think I would read it otherwise) and they had some dhtml that actually blacked out the page I was reading for a good 8 seconds while I was in the middle of it, for some crappy ad or other (shows how effective the ad was, eh?). Now, 8 seconds when I'm flicking from news story to story is an eternity, and I didn't even finish the story even after it came back. This is the second such ad that I've seen in the last 3 days. These people are seriously stupid, all these ads do is piss me off and make me use the back button.

gosh

[countess-sophia.livejournal.com]

An .exe file. Are they mad? I suppose at the very least it's a clear indication of what this advertiser thinks of the brains of their clients....

As for boardhost, yes it does spawn all kinds of shit, but keeping Java and scripting turned off (as I do unless there's a special reason not to) puts a stop to all of it. Hosting the board somewhere else might be a good idea anyway, at the very least we can get away from ludicrous American censorship policies.

By the way, babysimon.co.uk doesn't seem to like Netscape 4.7, at least the galleries don't - the main pic appears under and is obcured by the thumbnails.

Re: gosh

[lovingboth]

It doesn't like IE5 either. Something's worng somewhere.

Re: gosh

[babysimon]

NS4 is not supported - it's a really horrible mess to use, really non-standards compliant, and a lot of the features I wanted to use. Get a modern standard-compliant browser (see http://www.babysimon.co.uk/jsp/standards.jsp for a longer rant).

If it doesn't like IE5 I'd like to know about it. What's the problem? I have tested on IE5.5 and Mozilla 0.9.4 and it works fine.

Re: gosh

[lovingboth]

NS4 is better than the appalling NS6 in every other respect though.

Apologies for some *-sucking advice, and it depends on what you want a website for, and who the audience is, but for most 'public' sites, it's tough shit for the developers if loadsapeople still have NS4 /IE4 /WebTV /whatever.

One of the basic rules of the web is that a significant number of people are two browser major versions behind the current one, and you have to accept that the majority ain't going to change until they get a new computer with a new OS and a new browser version. If they ever do.

Bit like DOS programming back when. It was no good complaining that SideKick was a program that broke a few rules, so would people pretty please stop using it. It was popular enough that having your well-written program not working properly with SK installed was your problem, not Borland's. Same here.

Oh, it's working today with IE5, but yesterday /whenever, the selected image opened up transparent and stayed transparent regardless...

Re: gosh

[lovingboth]

Don't mind me, it's your site.

I'm just being cross at not being able to complete a download of something I want want want...

Re: gosh

[babysimon]

> Oh, it's working today with IE5, but
> yesterday /whenever, the selected image opened
> up transparent and stayed transparent regardless...

Oh, that was by design. Then I changed the design. Better?

> NS4 is better than the appalling NS6 in every other respect though.

Justification?

> One of the basic rules of the web is that a significant number of people are two browser major versions

Used to be. Who's still using IE3? NS3? By the way, my employers have a real-time browser stats page at http://www.proteus.co.uk/browsermonitor/ that suggests that basically everyone uses IE5 or IE6. Ugh.

Re: gosh

[lovingboth]

Yes, better! What's the point of transparent pictures??

NS6? The waste of screen space for crap, for a start. I'm trying to find a better critic, but Joel on Software is a start. Ah, here it is (the result of looking on google for "N6 bad awful [etc]") idleworm. Everyone I know who's installed it has regretted it.

From memory, Opera pretends to be IE unless you tell it otherwise, but yes the Evil Empire has won the browser wars.