Linked/highlighted words and popups: new feature?

[JRMurray 214]

I'm seeing it on my MacBook Air using Chrome. I don't see any additions to Chrome via its settings, and I don't have this problem/feature/annoyance on any other flight-sim-related website (won't list them here, but I checked three others).

 

I note that the two instances that I see this on Avsim is for "FSX" and "777" (and "T7")--and now the term "add-ons." 777 and its synonym link to Wikipedia entries. "FSX" has information about FSX. All of these pop-ups have links in their text, some of which go to Wikipedia, others to Justflight.com.

 

Wonder what's up ...

[Guest]

Checked it on a laptop: the same 'feature'. I really hope Avsim will remove this 'feature' ASAP.

[SpiritFlyer 987]

Thank you Gentlemen,

 

Have passed it along.

 

Kind regards,

 

Wonder what's up ...

 

Not much on this side of the country. How about the west coast?

[JRMurray 214]

Been dry out on the Left Coast, Stephen. :-) The Lower Mainland had its driest July ever, no precipitation at all, and we just had our first rainfall this morning, but only for a few hours--then back to sunshine.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Good grief... It's not malware and it is not some insidious scheme to take over your browser. It's called keyword advertising and we are experimenting with it.

 

 

All I can say is: seriously, guys, who in his right mind thinks this is a good idea to implement on AVSIM, a site that's bursting at the seams with clutter as it is and that's even now struggling to maintain an acceptable level of performance?

 

Struggling? A bit of exaggeration don't you think? You don't do your credibility any good with hyperbole like this. And questioning whether I am in my right mind isn't going to win you any favors either.

[pinlifter 502]

Thanks Tom!  No viruses for meeeeeeeeeeee

[PCAviator 37]

Happy to be corrected And good to know if it not something insidious. I do know of nasty software that does something very similar to what was being described. There are many of these floating around. I was worried that because it was being seen by some and not others... and if you happen to have those types of browser bugs, you need to get rid of them quickly because they can spread rapidly. But in this case, a false alarm. Thanks for the heads up

[Ron Attwood 3,465]

It's a very mild irritant, but if AVSIM make a few bucks out of it good luck to them. :good:

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

It's a very mild irritant, but if AVSIM make a few bucks out of it good luck to them. :good:

 

 

... by selling the T7 and the 777 keywords to Captain Sim?  

 

EDIT: Disregard. Currently these two keywords are not connected to PMDG anymore.

 

Edited August 12, 2013 by olli4740

[jeansy 341]

It's malware, I only just rid of it last week

 

I can't remember the name of it, but it's a 3rd party installer linked to something

 

I got rid of it by going to the windows program uninstaller and looked for a small program's that I didn't install and removed them

 

 

Since then I don't have that problem

 

 

ahh it was called quicklinks

[Guest]

It's a very mild irritant, but if AVSIM make a few bucks out of it good luck to them. :good:

 

If that is the case I surely can live with it.  ^_^

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

 

 

EDIT: Disregard. Currently these two keywords are not connected to PMDG anymore.

 

They never were. They have since initiating this experiment, pointed to Wikipedia.

[JRMurray 214]

Actually, I don't mind it, and I have to say that if it benefits Avsim, ultimately it will benefit all of us. I'm just happy to know that it's not a browser hijack or something else sinister.

[PCAviator 37]

Actually, I don't mind it, and I have to say that if it benefits Avsim, ultimately it will benefit all of us. I'm just happy to know that it's not a browser hijack or something else sinister.

 

Agreed.

[Lek767 37]

Struggling? A bit of exaggeration don't you think? You don't do your credibility any good with hyperbole like this.

 

The reason I used such a sacrilegious term is that, of all the sites I frequent frequently, AVSIM is the only one that had to disable guest read access to its forums for performance reasons. Now, I'm sure this decision was made for sound tactical reasons, and I have no intention of playing Monday-morning sysadmin. What I am saying is that, if AVSIM is apparently forced to take such drastic measures to guarantee adequate performance for its registered user base, the amount of headroom available in the site's infrastructure leaves something to be desired. Hence, I stand by my assessment (although I'd love to be proven wrong, by having anonymous access to the forums restored to its former glory).

 

As for the foray into in-line advertising on AVSIM: sorry, but I'll have to maintain my stance that such a choice would be seriously misguided. My first reaction to this development was the thought that 2004 called and that they wanted their IntelliTXT back. Keyword ads linked to in-content popups happened to be one of the many forms of user-hostile, disruptive advertising tactics that cropped up during the early noughties, precipitating the explosive adoption of in-browser popup and ad blocking in response. But don't take my word for it. Here's what usability guru Jacob Nielsen has to say on the subject:

 

One of misery design's most insidious recent examples is the idea of embedding links to advertising on the actual words of an article using a service like IntelliTxt. By sullying the very concept of navigation, such ads not only damage the user experience on the host site, they poison the well for all websites. Such links make users even less likely to navigate sites, and more likely to turn to trusted search engines to guide them to the next page.

 

Like much Web advertising, embedded ad links rely on interruption marketing, intruding as much as possible on users and preventing them from doing what they want to do. As such, many of these ads have been failures. The most successful Web ads empower -- rather than annoy -- users. Examples include search engine advertising , sites with classified ads, and request marketing.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now. I wish you all the best.