Dear Vox: How to Drive Away Users with Annoying Ads

Mar 27, 2008 at 9:18 AM
23 comments

Oh wait, you already know how to do that.

Like RM, my browser was just hijacked by a site called XP online scanner from an ad that popped up on one of my Vox pages. No matter what you do, it redirects you to their homepage. This is a terrible business practice and I have no idea why Vox would do business with such a sleazy company.

Allow me to take a moment to promote Firefox and the wonderful extension of Adblock Plus. Poof! No more ads!

23 comments

Tags:

vox,
pop up ads

Comments

[this is good]

Yes this sux. I nearly fell for it but then shut down Firefox-- *whew* == then I did the 3/25 update they had.Next, Ad-Block-- shoulda done it sooner!

Is Dancing Bear there?

Valerae replied to Robbbiedobbbie’s comment:
Mar 27, 2008
Reply

I dunno, he should be by this afternoon at least. I'm meeting up with him on Saturday morning. I will make sure my camera batteries are charged! :-)

Happened to me, too. This is NOT GOOD. I don't like being hijacked.

Robbbiedobbbie replied to Valerae’s comment:
Mar 27, 2008
Reply

*****BIG WAVE****

camera batteries are charged! :-) good plan!

well, that does it. I had not been running Ad-Block since I figured the ads were a small inconvenience for a free service. but after this, fuggetaboutit.
/off to install AdBlock

EXACTLY!! I didn't block Vox ads sort of as a sign of appreciation...not that I ever clicked on one, but I at least considered them in addition to wanting to know what my neighbors would be exposed to on my page.

Robbbiedobbbie replied to mariser’s comment:
Mar 27, 2008
Reply

Yep -- me, too -- I even clicked on one (BlogTV) that turned out good. Vox is great; I know they need the ads..... but now? After this morning? I'm too scared.

*sigh*

I got that this morning!! Got all freaked out b/c I was out yesterday from work and accidentally left my computer on and thought I'd get busted for voxing this morning!! *red alert sirens* Hate that.

After I calmed down I just shut everything down and started over with trusty FF updates.

And when FF fails you (it will, it did me after 2 years), you can switch to Camino (only for macs, sorry PCs).

I wouldn't bother switching until you have to do, though. I loved FF.

I tried Camino and was underwhelmed to say the least. Shit, I was pissed at having to downgrade to Firefox from the full-blown Mozilla suite a few years ago. I like my browsers packed with options. At least I have good extensions!

I get you, FF has all kinds of add-ons that are way-cool. (er than Camino). I'm just saying keep that under your hat if FF goes wonky on you (like it did me).
:)

I truly LOVED FF and can't understand why any apple person would use icky Safari. Blech!

I got the same thing this morning, and my Firefox just updated last night. I did some googling, and apparently this is getting people in other websites, too.

But in Vox's defense, I don't think it's intentional on their part. After all, the thing boots you out of Vox, and that surely isn't good for Vox. You can't be using their website, if you can't stay in it.

Same thing just happen here. I agree with AM, don't think it's intentional. I'll talk to the Mrs. about it tonght.

I'm with auntiem, I don't think that was an ad. maybe it is some kind of trojan that's managed to attach to VOX.

btw, even though I didnt' click on it and closed FF, FF has crashed on me 3x in the last half-hour. I just now d/l and installed FF latest, v 2.0.0.13 (previous was v 2.0.0.12). I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

Hopefully you guys are right!

i had my adblocker turned off for Netflix for a minute and that thing hijacked my Vox page too (not the Netflix one, the Vox tab that was open) Luckily I think Netflix updated their site so I no longer have to turn off the adblocker. I use Maxthon which has a really good built in ad blocker, I don't see ANY ads on Vox at all.

[this is good]

Ooh, thanks for the Adlbock link! I've never heard of it and I HATE those friggin' pop up ads that won't go away!

Wait... so you're just looking at some page in Vox, and this thing pops up? That's definitely not right. Can you tell me what ad is on the page when this happens? Or better yet, do a View Source, copy everything there, and send it to steve at sixapart dot com.

[this is good]

I surmised I was either being protected by Adblock Plus, or SpywareBlaster. I have not been infected, but helped Cimmy dodge this one the other day (so she's not infected, either).

I appreciate the additional information.

What about SeaMonkey?

There are ads on the web?

I've been using FF and AdBlock Plus for so long, I always get confused when people talk about them. When I see a screenshot of some site I'm familiar with, I'm doubly confused b/c it looks all wrong.

Life is too short to waste time downloading ads that take up screen space and compete for attention.

Yep. it got me too. I quit FF immediately though and when i reopened my browser was as small as it could possibly be. I too just had a ff update, I think either immediately before or after that happened. I wish I could recall more.

I had considered SeaMonkey, but then I kept waiting for a decent calendar app...now that I've got Mac OSX, I've got a great calendar and I'm happy with my email program (originally I wanted seamonkey to replace firefox and outlook but now that I don't need to replace outlook, firefox is my friend again).

Dear Vox: How to Drive Away Users with Annoying Ads

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