Need Assistance

[tigermud]

To any of the Moderators that may be able to get in touch with the Admin? few days ago the Admin sent me a private message saying that he is getting reports that I am clicking on his ads excessively and to knock it off basically. Problem is I wasn't and do not click on the ads very often let alone excessively. Approx 2 hours after I get this email from him he then just up and banned my IP and now I can't access anything here at all unless I jump through proxy hoops which is very much a pain. I have since scanned my system for virus etc and did find that I had something called adware.agent not sure if this may have been the culprit for whatever indications the admin was getting from me. I have emailed Mr Admin 3 times over the last few days attempting to explain that I was not excessively clicking on the ads and that I found and cleaned adware.agent from my system asking if I could please have the IP ban lifted now. Needless to say I am not getting any replies from the Admin at all and would hate to have to go back to the ESPN board after being over year since day 1. any help any of you might be able to get for me from the admin I would be most grateful. thank you

 

[manchild98]

Do you have a screen name of "RedandGuilty" too. Because under the "Diggler's Junk" forum that screen name is having the same issue.

 

[tigermud]

Do you have a screen name of "RedandGuilty" too. Because under the "Diggler's Junk" forum that screen name is having the same issue.

No just Tigermud.

 

[kalinecountry]

Tigermud,
I just sent a private message here and to Mike's e/g mail.
Don't know about clicking on these ads, might have done it 3/4 times since here, same on Jessie's board. A few posters over there did complain that their computers got infected from them. Hope you have good computer virus remover, microsoft security essentials seems to work.
Looks like some other posters have been cited as well....a thread in the off topic forum.
http://www.detroitsportsforum.com/showthread.php?p=164061#post164061
Ad clicking issue/preemptive goodbye.

Hope this gets straightened out for you pal.

 

[tigermud]

Tigermud,
I just sent a private message here and to Mike's e/g mail.
Don't know about clicking on these ads, might have done it 3/4 times since here, same on Jessie's board. A few posters over there did complain that their computers got infected from them. Hope you have good computer virus remover, microsoft security essentials seems to work.
Looks like some other posters have been cited as well....a thread in the off topic forum.
http://www.detroitsportsforum.com/showthread.php?p=164061#post164061
Ad clicking issue/preemptive goodbye.

Hope this gets straightened out for you pal.

Thanks KC, I did find something called aware.agent that I cleaned up, I currently have no virus or malware showing up at all but IP ban hasn't been lifted so I have no way of knowing if it's cleared up yet or not.

 

[Thumb]

I think the bigger issue is the Admin is just threatening to (and actually doing in TigerMud's case) banning posters who are not clicking the ads, but have some kind of malware.

I'm also curious to what problems clicking on the ads might cause, since I assume they are on the board as part of a trade off of it being free?

I would think there is a solution that does not involve banning anyone.

 

[kalinecountry]

I think the bigger issue is the Admin is just threatening to (and actually doing in TigerMud's case) banning posters who are not clicking the ads, but have some kind of malware.

I'm also curious to what problems clicking on the ads might cause, since I assume they are on the board as part of a trade off of it being free?

I would think there is a solution that does not involve banning anyone.

Good point MiThumb.
Do you remember batcave said he got some virus from clicking an ad, and decided to leave the previous board.

 

[Thumb]

Good point MiThumb.
Do you remember batcave said he got some virus from clicking an ad, and decided to leave the previous board.

I do, but Batcave had issues with someone when he left, and just mentioned later on ESPN that he got viruses.

I believe he left over the Karma/Smite drama, but I can't remember. I know he's not a fan of Monster.

 

[tigermud]

I think the bigger issue is the Admin is just threatening to (and actually doing in TigerMud's case) banning posters who are not clicking the ads, but have some kind of malware.

I'm also curious to what problems clicking on the ads might cause, since I assume they are on the board as part of a trade off of it being free?

I would think there is a solution that does not involve banning anyone.

My impression was that he was saying excessive ad clicking violates the ads system or something and that advertisers get suspicious when they receive tones of hits from the same source over short durations or something. His email to me indicated that he is getting reports that I am excessively clicking on his ads and that his advertisers didn't like that. I thought it very strange at first myself, and thought what is this some kind of sarcasm is he saying I never clicks on his ads and I should? I ignored the email because I wasn't sure what to make of it, then next thing I know my IP is banned!. LOL uggg

 

[Thumb]

What browser are you running Mud?

 

[tigermud]

What browser are you running Mud?

Firefox, all default settings..

 

[Thumb]

Me too, have not had any issues.

Do you run an antivirus? As in a full time heuristic antivirus, not just a malware scan now and again?

If you need an AV program I recommend avast!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_antivirus_software

If you look in that link what you want is a program that is mostly green across the board (yes) especially the last 3 colums before the cost.

avast! is pretty low key as far as system resources go, and is Free, it updates several times a day with new definitions, and even has a plugin for Firefox called WebRep that will tell you if your on a site that is suspicious.

 

[tigermud]

Me too, have not had any issues.

Do you run an antivirus? As in a full time heuristic antivirus, not just a malware scan now and again?

McAfee, although I haven't renewed it yet this year, I suppose I prolly should just to be sure. can't really find any good information as to what adware.agent may have been doing, not sure how I had picked that up and from where. I'll give avast a try, thanks! I can do free

 

[Mitchrapp]

If you have something like Google Adsense or another Ad service you use, he probably gets paid through that. And excessive clicking could get him banned from those Ad services. That's my thought anyway.

Hopefully there is an explanation.

 

[spockmaster]

McAfee, although I haven't renewed it yet this year, I suppose I prolly should just to be sure. can't really find any good information as to what adware.agent may have been doing, not sure how I had picked that up and from where. I'll give avast a try, thanks! I can do free

honestly, mcafee is pretty awful nowadays (though not as bad as norton). i also recommend avast, ive never gotten a single virus or anything in all the time ive been using it.

 

[grandy]

i also recommend avast, ive never gotten a single virus or anything in all the time ive been using it.

And this

 

[Mike]

Whoa whoa whoa..

Let's get some things straight here. First, I did not say 'knock it off', or anything even similar to that. I explained to you, very nicely, that we have software that monitors, and sends me alerts if a user is clicking excessively on the ads. I asked that if you ARE doing it accidentally, to please be careful, or the system will automatically ban you if it continues.

Now whether youre accidentally clicking them, or someone is clicking them from the same IP as you...who knows...but it definitely has your exact IP as clicking very often, thats a fact. And, it even says you clicked on a banner twice while reading the PM I sent to you! lol

Second, I replied to every email you've sent me, and I even explained again that I did not ban you, the system did automatically. I said I would remove the ban and monitor the situation and let you know if there were any more problems, and to please be careful. And yes, I removed the ban the last time I emailed you, a couple days ago I believe.

 

[tigermud]

Whoa whoa whoa..

Let's get some things straight here. First, I did not say 'knock it off', or anything even similar to that. I explained to you, very nicely, that we have software that monitors, and sends me alerts if a user is clicking excessively on the ads. I asked that if you ARE doing it accidentally, to please be careful, or the system will automatically ban you if it continues.

Now whether youre accidentally clicking them, or someone is clicking them from the same IP as you...who knows...but it definitely has your exact IP as clicking very often, thats a fact. And, it even says you clicked on a banner twice while reading the PM I sent to you! lol

Second, I replied to every email you've sent me, and I even explained again that I did not ban you, the system did automatically. I said I would remove the ban and monitor the situation and let you know if there were any more problems, and to please be careful. And yes, I removed the ban the last time I emailed you, a couple days ago I believe.

I was paraphrasing when I said "knock it off" hence the usage of the word "Basically" I apologize for not using the exact words, for whatever reason I don't have any replies from you in my mailbox just the original mail. Checked the Junk folder also just in case things may have got filtered into that and again I see no replies to anything I sent in there. :shrug:

In any regard, the ban is lifted now as of this morning thank you very much, hopefully whatever was cuasing it isn't an issue anymore. As previously stated I did find something called adware.agent and got it all cleaned out. Full avast scan has also now been completed and everything is clean. If it occurs again or is still occurring let me know.

Thanks

KC and MI thank you for all your help as well.

 

[Mike]

Weird, I definitely replied to all the emails.

Either way, thanks for understanding, and I'll keep an eye on it...but everything looks good thus far.

:tup:

 

[Mitchrapp]

Ah man, I thought you guys would duke it out. TM vs IM, in Deathmatch..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAj_Kbu2idg&feature=related