Are you running XP SP2? The security/blockers on SP2 have been beefed up and on by default. Have you noticed a small bar come up just above the content window? ... . I only experience spybot blocking Avenue A. on this site.
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I'm running SP2 but this problem predates SP2 and, if anything, was worse before though it seems to be getting worse in the last week once again. So it is not SP2 and those little blockers haven't been appearing anyway so it's not that.
I get problems with Avenue A and especially Double Click which was the problem today.
BTW:: I never for a second implied anything negative about the people running the place and never even imagined that there was some sort of secret plan, strategy, etc. I'm just POd that I have this problem and only on this site.
If you can tell me, however, how you set Spybot for the dialog boxes that might be a big help. I'll take a look and if it's obvious maybe I don't need your help. Thanks.
I don't deny it may be my PC but it is strange that my PC would only act this we with respect to this site. I find that so unlikely that I doubt it's my PC. If it is my PC obviously it is something about this site and my PC, not just the PC. It would be nice to know what that is. I have looked through Spybot and cannot find the option of having it give me the choice of various offensive items. I have a lot of stuff checked off but I cannot find anything that resembles such an option.
One other thing I thought of that may be creating this phenomenon... at least making it hard to find. The ad networks do geographic targeting, so it is possible that you are getting ads that the rest of us don't get... although you being in NYC would seem to make that unlikely since I'm in NY state. But, it is possible. I am running IE on 3 different computers that I use daily on the site. Two of them have Norton System Works and Google Popup Blocker... the other one is my work computer and it has another commercial firewall program. All three are pretty up to date computers with most of the Microsoft fixes on them. I've never seen the problem you are talking about. Believe it or not, you are the only one that is actually reporting the problem. It is true that others could be getting turned away. That would be terrible if it were happening... so I hope its not.
I know that the ad networks we use are used by almost all of the popular PDA related sites... that's how I found out about them! The reason for that is that they attract PDA sites, which in turn attract relevant ads from PalmOne, Verizon, etc. I just went back to each ad network and went through the list of exclusions and active campaigns and advertisers. I don't find anything related to Avenue A. The way that we have been effective at stopping bad ads is when members were able to identify the creative that was being displayed... most recently there was a Sponge Bob Screensaver ad that caused problems... and we had it turned off in a few hours... because I could find it.
mdavis, I do totally believe you are having the problems you say you are... I just don't know how to fix it. I probably would have bagged the place along time ago if I were you... even if it was my computer. Its so strange that we both conclude that each other is the only one with the problem.
By the way, I don't use Avenue A at all. I just did a google search on "avenue a" and this thread is the number one hit... above the avenue a site. That's kind of amazing when you think about it...
TEST>>>>
As a test, I have shutdown one of the networks entirely to see if this causes the problem to go away. I only did this on the forum pages... not the non-forum pages. Please try navigating the forum and see if you are still having the problem. Please give me some feedback as soon as you can.
I'll give feedbaclk tomorrow because this problem goes away by the end of the day. Further, someone else raised the Avenue A problem, I never suggested it was one or the other but I did notice today that the problem was occurring while I was getting popups about Double Click being stopped by Spybot. Other days though I have had the same notice of Avenue A. I haven't a clue obviously.
Let me know tomorrow what happens. I think I understand now more what you are saying. I thought you were saying we were generating popups... which we aren't... its your ad detection software that is doing the popups.
Well. At least configure spybot so that it prompts you instead of silently blocking things. Then you can see what it is blocking and decide to accept it or not. Just to test to see if that is what is blocking your entry, there is no damage done from accepting Avenue A, Inc. cookies and then deleting them once you have left the site. I believe avenue A is the kind that tracks the sites you visit and this information can be accessed when you visit another Avenue A, Inc. site. If you delete the cookie after visiting the site there will be no personal information devulged.
If it's the Avenue A, Inc. cookie that is the cause of your problems you can decide what you want to do.
1. No difference today EXCEPT...
2. It is not the Avenue A cookie, at least not today--and yesterday. It is the DoubleClick cookie or whatever that is preventing the downloading of ALL pages at this site.
3. I found a work around, bizarre, but seems so far to work consistently. If I hold down the enter key immediately after clicking on a link so that the /Double Click spybot warning is "OK'd" before it even appears, pages load without any problem at all. If I press Reload and Enter at the same time, and hold down Enter until loading is finished, I can also load any pages.
I find this, though bizarre, a completely tolerable situation. I am still mystified why this happens only on this site but since it does not prevent me from using it, I really don't care much. I just hope this isn't a temporary situation having to do with already having the site work. The funny thing is that usually on any one day after a while (30 min. to an hour) it would load normally if I waited through the day long enough (someone suggested this is because the ads would change--could be). But so far I still need to hold down the enter key which, as I say, is not a problem.
I'll keep you posted as to further developments, hopefully positive ones.
Oh, and by the way, I still was unable to find a way of making spybot prompt me when it blocks. In a way I guess I am doing the equivalent to that by OKing the block before it takes effect, I suppose, but it might be easier (or more difficult) to have the option. I just can't find how to set it up to do that after fairly close inspection.
OK, I'm going to try one other thing.... I've got a few affiliate ads running that are just filler... let me turn those off and see what happens. If that doesn't do it, then there is nothing else I can think of to turn off. The two ad networks left running are Google (used by nearly every site on the web these days), and Tribal Fusion, which is considered one of the most conservative and hardest networks to get into. I'm also using the most conservative settings on them. I can explain why other sites don't give you any trouble at all.
If you can hold off with this through tomorow I can give you a better read. Right now everything is absolutlely normal; I can load without any special steps. But as I've already indicated, this usually occurs anyway about 30 min to an hour after first signing in, and that's about how much time has passed now so I cant be sure whether this has anything to do with what you've done or whether its just the normal course of events of a rather abnormal situation. As I said though, even if I have to hit that enter button, it doesn't matter--assuming, at worst, that is the situation when I return tomorrow. ON the other hand, if it is as normal as it is right now, that would mean something else, but I'm not holding my breath.
Well, no difference this morning so turn everything back on and thanks for the attempt. I've been using the site all morning just by holding the Enter key down after I click or while I refresh and it works perfectly. Some day perhaps we'll figure this out but as it is it is quite workable. And by this afternoon it will be completely normal!
Originally posted by mdavis I don't want to be argumentative or cranky but your advice is misplaced--if I were having problems elsewhere, if I couldn't search everywhere whenever I want with no problem, then a system alteration would be called for. But the range and number of sites I visit is incredibly large and the number of sites is infinitisemally small: ONE!!!
Conversely, if the problems you are having were caused by this site, then you wouldn't be the only one having them to this degree.
Spybot is good, but I don't completely rely on it to tell me what is or isn't safe on my computer.
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Guys, I think this is a dead horse at this point. Something between mdavis's setup an our site is a problem, and I don't think we can fix it. He's said that he's OK with the work around for now. As we look forward... some day... I hope... we'll do a complete rewrite of the site... and that may uncover something we've not discovered.
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