Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

...or as I like to call you...

THE PEOPLE WHO SUCK!!!

Take this as a friendly critisism. Take this as a hostile post. Take this as a freaking flame for all I care, but take it.

I don't want to add to you tally of hapless victims who click on your links thinking they will see something relevant, or interesting, or god forbid entertaining, only to have my screen filled with heinous popups of all different sorts. Big ones, small ones, ones that have no close buttons, ones spawn other popups when they are closed, and ones that try to trick me into changing my home page to some stupid website I would never in a million years wish to visit, much less have as my homepage.

You are not funny.

You are not entertaining.

You are not even polite.

I don't care to participate in your stupid competitions with all your other stupid friends to see who can get the most stupid points from tricking people into clicking your stupid links.

Guess what, you think you are fooling people? You are ANNOYING PEOPLE!!!! And you are being used by the originators of this foul spam and the people who pay them advertising revenue for getting your cooperation in tricking your hapless victims.

Why don't you march down the street in your neighborhood and walk into people's homes uninvited and offer them these products and services? Becasue you would get your clock cleaned, that's why. But you can perpetuate this stupid trash by tricking people to click on your stupid links and get away with it because of the sfatey the internet provides you.

To others like me annoyed by this, please post your agreement so that we may show these people among us how we truely despise these actions.

And to those that have participated in this heinous activity. I call upon you to stop this immediately and prostrate yourselves before us and beg mercy for your crimes. If you do so we may be merceful and allow you to return to our good graces as a member in good stnding within this community. Prior to this recent activity, you all have been valued friends. It is not too late. We can put this behind us and consider it a momentary breach of sanity on your part.

But if you do not, you will herefore and forevermore be known as

PEOPLE WHO SUCK!!!

Geoschmo

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Edit: I mean I wish I could have said it that way. I do agree with each point.

[ October 31, 2002, 18:40: Message edited by: Gryphin ]

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Perhaps Grypin. Perhaps I will read this tomorow and have cause to regret my tone. I especially will if one of the "Vampires" is peronally offended by my remarks. I was not attempting to hurt, but shock them into a realization of how truly annoying this is. We all complain constantly about the proliferation of spam on the internet, and the annoyance of popup ads. And yet when something like this with a "hook" comes along, we discard our principles and become the thing we loath, all in the name of competition.

I would not be so offended by it if it weren't for the popup ads. If it were merely a link to someone's website and it kept a tally of hits I could chuckle and say, "Aw guys, you got me again." I like to think I have as good a sense of humor as the next guy.

Perhaps I was too harsh, but I don't think so.

Geoschmo

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

I remember when the net still had free scientific information, some pictures of mineral specimens, and some fan sites. And, OK, a couple of sites with scans of nekkid people.

It still does. But it's clogged with people trying to make a buck. As if ARPANET (sp?) was designed to help some stay at home make money selling email. See this link

I use a software firewall, and Netscape's and IE's own blocking features. And a little program called pop-down. They block lots of that crap. I see it as a challange, when one of those pops up, I just learned another one to add to my kill file. Although, like you, I wish I didn't have to do this.

Take care.

[EDIT] I see now that this may be a specific complaint. Ah well, all may be better tomorrow, I hope. I make it a point of not being the first to click on any link I see. Esp. for emialed jokes at work -- someone else can spread a virus through our company.

Let's all be careful out there.

[ October 31, 2002, 19:06: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Odd, Sitting here behind my corporate firewall, I only had a hint of popups and problems with that vampire site. If I were surfing at home I might be as P.O.ed as GEO, but then again Norton may have blocked the worse.

I hope none of the sites I post cause problems.

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Well as an offender I wish to apologize. My Halloween jest (i.e. a trick as in trick or treat) was not meant to cause any annoyances.

I personally tested the link several times to see what the effect would be. Allow I did find pop-ups (a mild annoyance IMHO) none of the ones that I encountered gave me any issue. Yes there was one that when closed caused another to open but then it ended there. I was able to close all of them. I did not find any that were X-rated. I tested this at least 10 times before I joined the fray.

It was a joke and I hope that it was taken as such. Since it has caused a problem I will stop.

Again my apologies. No annoyance intended. Perhaps I will return to lurking I seem to be good at that.

[ October 31, 2002, 19:29: Message edited by: Perrin ]

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Perrin, you are fogiven. I welcome you once again into the community of people who do not suck. Please continue posting. No need to lurk. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Geoschmo

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Well said, Geoschmo.

Rollo

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

My opinion is that at the top of my form page it lists Forum Moderators...
people who have voluntarily accepted the burden of looking out for the well being of the forum. Almost universally fair people who do this sometimes difficult thing out of caring. Ego maniacs or power freaks don't seem to Last long in a position like that unless they own the board. Generally this is done without much thanks, and very little renumeration.

I'm a big fan of humor, but the seventh or eighth banana peel on a dark stairway smokes my chubby.

Thanks Geo.

CombatSquirrel
(High Honors Graduate of S.U.A. - Suck Up Academy)

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Ok, my turn... Sorry for any annoyance I may have caused. When I would visit the site I would get a max of 3 or 4 pop-ups. Which are sort of annoying, especially the one asking to change homepage. But I wholeheartedly offer my apologies to any and all of whom I annoyed with the link. I only used it once and that was too much. Again I am sorry and I will never do something so stupid again. Hope ya'll can forgive poor little old me...

I've always been one to hate annoying people, never have liked making one mad or what have you. I'm always the one to try and make friends and keep everyone happy in a group, sometimes it don't work, I overstep the line and that's it, for that I apologize once more.

To be honest, when I posted the link that one time, I thought everyone would be on to it by now and not go at all. I just thought I'd give it a try, but I shouldn't have and it won't happen again.

[ October 31, 2002, 20:02: Message edited by: Ragnarok ]

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Ragnarok, all is forgiven.

We welcome you with open arms back to the community of people who do not suck.

See guys? This was healthy. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Geo

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Thanks man! It's good to be back...

I feel like I just went through theropy! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Tech tip: If you get caught in one of those pop-up chains where closing one window opens another, you can stop them by turning off Java and Javascript until you get to a "safe" site.

This is under Edit/Preferences/Advanced in Netscape or Mozilla, and under Tools/Internet Options/Advanced in Internet Explorer.

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

I never even realized that there were pop-ups on that site, since all pop-up ads get blocked before they reach me.

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Your ignorance is understandable Fyron. The spammers are an evil, despicable lot. They get their way by manipulation, coersion, and outright obfusction.

We will not hold your assiociation with them against you. That is what makes us a community.

You too can be forgiven Fyron if you simply ask it. Come back to us as your brothers Ragnorak and Perrin have done. Turn from the evil that has ensnared you.

Fyron, don't suck anymore.

Geo

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Actually, I find your rant more humorous than offensive. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

All hail Geo!! Long live Geo, the saver of those who suck.

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Fyron, dear Fyron. I see that you have wisely turned from the heinous behavior of your past deeds. But you must complete your journey my brother.

It is not enough to simply stop what you are doing. You must humble yourself and ask the fogivenesss of those you have offended. Only then will you truely again be one who does not suck.

Fyron, complete the journey. Don't suck anymore.

Geo

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

What, are you a Priest or something now Geo? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

No Fyron, I am not a priest. I am simply a friend. A friend who does not want to see you suck anymore. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

But what if I like sucking, huh? Did you ever consider that possibility? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Oh no don't suck!!!
No don't, stop!!!
No No No don't stop
don't stop!!!

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

I hate sites that automaticaly reset homepage. Yes, there are such suckers.. It even forced me to setup my "homepage" to "blank". It seems to stop all automatical changes to my browser.

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Fortunately, I didn't notice the pop-ups that y'all did; either because I'm so used to them by now (I read about a dozen different webcomics a day, and a couple of them rely heavily on pop-ups to stay free), or because my corporate firewall blocked the most heinous. I also am in the habit of looking to see what a link says before I click, a habit I picked up in the days of using unstable browsers that would lock up on certain sites (particularly ones with lots of pop-ups, BTW; Netscape 4.x was really bad about that, to the point where I've accepted IE as my browser...). Having said that, I'm glad the vampire links are being discontinued here, and that everyone (on both sides) is being gracious about it. I have no idea how this community has stayed so civil this long; most web communities seem to break down quite quickly...

Anyway, for those of you who want a ray of hope, [shameless plug] Earthlink has good spam & popup controls. I've been using both for a while, and it's drastically cut down on the popup ads at home (not to mention the various popunder & respawning windows from more annoying sites); the service also lets you know a popup was blocked by changing the cursor image briefly. That's particularly useful when you WANT a popup window (like when using the "preview post" button on this message board), and the cursor change is a signal to override the popup control briefly. And their "spaminator" service keeps the alleged spam for a couple weeks; if you're concerned that you missed an e-mail you can access the list of blocked Messages via web and verify whether it should be deleted. My e-mail box at home is much happier. Too bad I'm still getting 5-10 spams a day at work...
[/shameless plug] http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually, I got NO popups when you sent ME there from IRC, Fyron. Not a single one,a dn I don't HAVE a popup blocker; that would explain your not knowing there were any.

They were added AFTER the fact, I think -- tricky ploy by the site operator(s), I bet ... get people interested and having fun, THEN turn on the pop-up-hell faucet.

It's possible at least -some- of those popups are the result of the redirect (for which I must admit partial culpability, I did suggest using that trick to hide the nature of the link). I never did go there through -that- method.

Re: Regarding the "Vampires"...
 

Actually, there aren't any ads from my site at spaceports. So the redirect couldn't have been the cause of the pop-ups.