They friggin' follow you too! What the eff? Can you guys deny any ads, b/c that one is really really really obnoxious.

I'm all about generating revenue and I randomly click ads for the 'Spark just to do my part, but those need to go.

I don't know what you're talking about...I haven't seen anything like that. I wonder if you have some kind of malware infection?

Well, I scan very regularly and have not had any issues, but there's one particular banner at the top and bottom occasionally for Homestead.com. It sounds like Tom Selleck narrating and they load at the top and bottom spaces and one starts about one second after the other.

It's just odd b/c they were here for awhile, and then I stopped hearing them, and then they came back. It's funny now b/c I sound a little crazy but I promise it was true!

If I see it again I'll do a screen cap for ya.

I mean its *possible* those kinds of ads are being generated, but I would like to see what you're seeing, because I really don't think they are.

If you're using Firefox, get Adblock Plus and/or Flashblock add-ons. They're a godsend.

There are still people who do not know of the magic and wonder that is Firefox and Adblock? We must spread the word, quickly!

So do you prefer to call that "bandwidth stealing" or "revenue stealing"?


I'll let you decide.

What, Kal?

Yeah, huh? Blocking ads doesn't steal bandwidth...

Well, it was mostly directed to Bob who calls file sharing "File stealing" no matter what the circumstances. After all his corporate shilling and downtalking to anyone bucking the system, I find it ironic and a bit distasteful that he so gleefully and hypocritically encourages people to use a service such as this for free, but yet willfully bypass the mechanism that allows operating costs to be recovered by something as passive and non invasive as a colorful banner.

So yeah, it *does* in effect, steal from the webmaster by taking money, that you aren't even paying, out of their pockets.

Ah.

Corrected for truth.

But what if it's a file that I made? Then it's not stealing because I made it, but it's still file sharing! Aha!

Yes, but 99.999999% of what's out there on so-called "file-sharing" networks is stolen content being illegally distributed. That fact can't be disputed. Hence the more accurate name for it, which Kal somehow believes is corporate shilling...it's really just being honest. If you want something, you pay for it. You don't go out and steal it. I've explained this several times, and no one has disproven my point.

This is getting off-topic, though. To get back on the main "point" Kal had, even with Adblock, you still see the top banner for BBTS, etc, so it's not ad-free. It just avoids a lot of the cruft out there.

I'm just surprised that in 2008 there's still someone out there who still thinks there's a debate between stealing and infringement. The morality/legality is even more clear, but that debate's over too.

I'm not sure on the legality of ad blockers, but I think it's mostly just in the field of whether content providers band together to do anything about it. On television, there's few enough of them that they can (which is why Tivo had to drop their commercial skipping feature), but on the internet I don't think there's going to be any traction for that because of so many smaller providers.

That said, dude. This place sure ain't run by rainbows and puppy smiles.

Kal sacrifices a baby unicorn every blood moon and pours its rainbow-coloured blood into the server box to power its heathen runes.

Baby Unicorns? In this economy?

We had to use a 70/30 mixture of kittens and puppies.

Well, they're cheaper by volume, true, but you have to burn so much more of them that, in the long run, you end up paying more...

Although I hear if you take your kitten/puppy mix and cut in up to 10% bunny, the efficiency skyrockets.

Ok, debate aside, this is the ad

Never seen it before.

Unicorn blood is silver.

My feeling is that you're infected with something.

Well, I get absolutely nothing on any scans and show no other problems that one might expect with an infection. Oh well, maybe I'm just lucky.