1src Malicious Cookies/Spyware

[wellsjs]

Reggie/Joel,

Why is it I have to turn off Spyware Doctor to access 1src?

Spyware Doctor tells me it is because of the following cookies:

tribalfusion
mediaplex

It all leads one to suspect the advertisements you run/allow on 1src are of an "identity theft" nature. I do hope you will 1) respond to this question, 2) rethink your advertising/marketing strategy.

[Chukar]

Putting both of those domains in your hosts file will take care of the problem. At least, it worked for me. Actually, I've blocked all the advertizing on this site and it is much faster now.

[jjesusfreak01]

Reggie/Joel,

Why is it I have to turn off Spyware Doctor to access 1src?

Spyware Doctor tells me it is because of the following cookies:

tribalfusion
mediaplex

It all leads one to suspect the advertisements you run/allow on 1src are of an "identity theft" nature. I do hope you will 1) respond to this question, 2) rethink your advertising/marketing strategy.
TribalFusion makes the site load really slow on occasion. They should really get a new ad provider.

[lesliefranke]

Reggie/Joel,

Why is it I have to turn off Spyware Doctor to access 1src?

Spyware Doctor tells me it is because of the following cookies:

tribalfusion
mediaplex

It all leads one to suspect the advertisements you run/allow on 1src are of an "identity theft" nature. I do hope you will 1) respond to this question, 2) rethink your advertising/marketing strategy.

I am quickly tiring of this. On a Windows machine with a Mozilla based browser, and without some kind of adblocking installed, 1src is about impossible to use. Things like tribalfusion and kintera cause script responsiveness errors and slow the browser to a crawl.

Joel and Reggie, you really need to take a look at different ad providers.

[FIA WRC]

Tell me about it. I've found that using Opera 8 seems to run faster here than FireFox or Mozilla 1.7, better at blocking the ads I guess. I have to open Opera just for 1src.

[Dick Tracy]

The new problem is kontera.com a relation to eZula. Aargh!

[SoS]

same problems on mac with safari...

[Clie Patra]

Tell me about it. I've found that using Opera 8 seems to run faster here than FireFox or Mozilla 1.7, better at blocking the ads I guess. I have to open Opera just for 1src.
Sometimes it's so awfully slow that I use the PDA friendly version of 1src...

[lesliefranke]

A combination of AdBlock (blocking kontera.com, tribalfusion.com, doubleclick.net, and fastclick.net) as well as using Platypus makes 1src run a little smoother (see screenshot).

[Reggie]

We have been evaluating Kontera for a few days and found it unsatisfactory. We have removed their tags and everything (in terms of the speed of page rendering) should be back to normal.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

PS: We recommend to just report any slowdown so we can fix the problem rather than blocking 1SRC's ad providers -- 1SRC's only source of revenue to keep it running. Thanks.

[wellsjs]

Reggie,

As of the date/time of this post, I still have to disable "Spyware Doctor's Onguard" to access 1src. This is the ONLY site of the many, many that I traverse that SD blocks. Every single click to every single page in 1src generates "tribalfusion" and "mediaplex" cookies. That means that some can/could map my entire session on 1src to "learn my habits." I find this an unacceptable invasion of my privacy!!!

I applaud your efforts to repair slowness of this site, but you have completely ignored the spyware issue. Will you respond and act please? :( :confused:

After turning Spyware Doctor off and browsing strictly within 1src, I turned it back on and scanned for melicious cookies, and here is what SD found and deleted:

@atdmt[2].txt
@questionmarket[1].txt
@bluestreak[2].txt
@tribalfusion[2].txt
@mediaplex[2].txt
@doubleclick[1].txt

BTW, Spyware Doctor is a very close #2 choice of spyware apps on CNET, so it is highly regarded.

Moments after posting this, as I was traversing forums, my anti-hacker software popped up a window to ask what I wanted to do with a "Doubleclick" (another spyware cookie/applet) attempt to send out my personal information. Reggie, this is absolutely unacceptable.

[Reggie]

wellsjs,

Just to clarify, these cookies are safe. A cookie is created from TribalFusion, for example, so TribalFusion knows how many time the same person has seen the same ad -- that's it. No other information are sent. You see multiple cookies since these ad companies sometimes cross sell ads between one another.

FYI, Brighthand, PalmInfocenter, BargainPDA, Infosync, PocketPC Thoughts, to name a few, also use TribalFusion.

You can read TribalFusion's official take on this:
http://www.tribalfusion.com/www/about/privacy.html

If you see any write-up that tells that these cookies are indeed dangerous, let us know.

[lesliefranke]

We have been evaluating Kontera for a few days and found it unsatisfactory. We have removed their tags and everything (in terms of the speed of page rendering) should be back to normal.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

PS: We recommend to just report any slowdown so we can fix the problem rather than blocking 1SRC's ad providers -- 1SRC's only source of revenue to keep it running. Thanks.

I fully realize that 1src exists on advertising revenue. This is one of the reasons that I did not post the GM script to get rid of all ads and I have not blocked any ads on the site until recently. The issue to me is that the way ads are implemented on 1src, be it slow loading ads or ads that cause horizontal scrolling, 1src is becoming a place that is not as enjoyable to visit. I think that the total number of ads on 1src is almost overwhelming, diluting the value of any one ad. If there were only a few on a page I would be much more inclined to leave them on the page and even look at them. With the large amount that exists now my inclination, even if I leave them on the page, is to not pay any attention to any of them.

Often Tribalfusion performs like kontera, slowing the browser down to a crawl (this has been reported often on these boards). Since their ads are being inserted via an external Javascript called from their servers, I suspect this happens when they have high loads from traffic. The problem is that not only they make 1src load slowly I cannot use the browser to look at other sites while I am awaiting. Since I do not know when this is going to occur I have no choice but to block Tribalfusion ads from loading at all.

[Reggie]

For those who are experiencing unbearable delays, feel free to block our ad pproviders then.

Thanks for the explanation Leslie.

[NX80vTiger]

Reggie,

For those who are acting oddly regarding someone knowing their 'top secret' activity on this web site, consider offering an ad free version of 1src for a fee. I find that once someone is threatened to have to pay for something, they tend to quit crying.

[wellsjs]

Reggie,

For those who are acting oddly regarding someone knowing their 'top secret' activity on this web site, consider offering an ad free version of 1src for a fee. I find that once someone is threatened to have to pay for something, they tend to quit crying.Hmmmm . . . where to start . . . first of all, I'm a "Silver Contributor" so in case you are ignorant (of the circumstances), I am a paying customer already!!! So I'll excuse your childish and ill thought out "crying" comment! :rolleyes:

Reggie,

What I hope you will look into is why 1src's ad applets, if blocked (by 3rd party spyware apps like Spyware Doctor), do not allow the page to load anyway. I am seeing many other web sites where SD is blocking their ad cookies, and their pages load just fine. I would hate to think you are unconcerned that people running 3rd party spyware blocking apps have to turn them off to even access 1src? :confused:

[Chukar]

Personally, I find the smart tags far more irritating than the ads. Here's another one to add to your hosts file: itxt.vibrantmedia.com

[lesliefranke]

For those who are experiencing unbearable delays, feel free to block our ad pproviders then.

Thanks for the explanation Leslie.

Just to make it clear I do not feel the need to block all of the ad providers, just the few that have been mentioned. The ads in the 1SRC column are the ones that may be of interest to me and/or do not cause any problems. I leave these in place.

[Vidge]

We have been evaluating Kontera for a few days and found it unsatisfactory. We have removed their tags and everything (in terms of the speed of page rendering) should be back to normal.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

PS: We recommend to just report any slowdown so we can fix the problem rather than blocking 1SRC's ad providers -- 1SRC's only source of revenue to keep it running. Thanks.

Thanks for removing Kontera. As I use Mozilla, there is no ad-blocking plug-in (that I can find) so I was forced to stay away until this was resolved.

I understand the need for ads and usually have no problems with them. I just really hate smart tags so I'm really glad to see them go.

[winexprt]

Reggie,

For those who are acting oddly regarding someone knowing their 'top secret' activity on this web site, consider offering an ad free version of 1src for a fee. I find that once someone is threatened to have to pay for something, they tend to quit crying.


What an ignorant, and asinine comment.

These 'Ads' went WAY beyond what's even remotely acceptable.

This has NOTHING TO DO WITH HIDING ANY "TOP SECRET" ACTIVITY AS YOU BRILLIANTLY CLAIM. IT HAS TO DO WITH THE FACT they stopped, and prevented features of MY WEB BROWSER FROM FUNCTIONING.

You may now resume going through life with your head stuck up your A S S, NX80vTiger. :D

[MrNako]

BTW, Spyware Doctor is a very close #2 choice of spyware apps on CNET, so it is highly regarded.

Spyware Doctor might be almost #2 but in my opinion blocking the whole website sucks. If Spyware Doctor was that good it should only block whatever might be dangerous as cookies or javascript or whatever instead of the entire page.

[Joel]

Since I use Opera, Camino, and Firefox for OS X, I don't seem to have any loading or "spyware" problems.

I tried Spyware Doctor yesterday and though I found wellsjs' tribalfusion.txt, I have not encountered any other problems while browsing. ...And all this was done on Internet Explorer and on a "free" wifi access.

We will continue to investigate the problems. In any case, I just hear complaints. Can we possibly hear suggestions? What other ad providers would you suggest? What other ways would you suggest to help make 1src continue to exist?

[jhintonh]

Thanks for removing Kontera. As I use Mozilla, there is no ad-blocking plug-in (that I can find) so I was forced to stay away until this was resolved.

Good Evening, Vidge :)-

If you are using Mozilla, by which I assume you mean Firefox, you can install an extension called AdBlock that will strip out these ads, including the inter-text variety.

If you are not using Firefox, might I suggest you give it a try? Otherwise I do not know of an application that will filter Internet Explorer.

Good to read you again, Madam. Hope all is well with you?

-Jhintonh

[jhintonh]

What an ignorant, and asinine comment.

These 'Ads' went WAY beyond what's even remotely acceptable.

This has NOTHING TO DO WITH HIDING ANY "TOP SECRET" ACTIVITY AS YOU BRILLIANTLY CLAIM. IT HAS TO DO WITH THE FACT they stopped, and prevented features of MY WEB BROWSER FROM FUNCTIONING.

You may now resume going through life with your head stuck up your A S S, NX80vTiger. :D

Good Evening, Win-

Making friends I see. ;) This individual is clearly of the Teacher's Pet genus. "Oh Mr. Reggie, just ignore those customers...they are just so stupid...here let me rub your e-shoulders." Puke.

And some folks like the smell of their own excrement it seems (head implanted in their back door). They are the one's that like to hear themselves talk and read themselves post.

Sorry, Reggie, other than turning "donations" into "fee" I do not have an answer from your point of view (as Site Owner). I will be submitting some more coin here shortly. All I can do.

-Jhintonh

<image deleted>

[Joel]

This thread is closed because of developing personal attacks.

If you have more constructive messages/suggestions. Feel free to contact Reggie, or me, or any of the moderators.