Ad-bots in our threads! Confusing.

reenmachine · Feb 22, 2008

It looks like there's some new forum "feature" that picks out keywords and makes them links to advertisers' websites. Given how everyone here posts inline links to actual things they're talking about it can be confusing! In the g-Bar thread it already looked like people were posting links to exhaust (see, there's an example) solutions when really it was the ad-bot.

"exhaust" is the only one I've seen so far, but I'm sure there's more to come!

Let's see:

exhaust
suspension
steering
brakes
wheels
tires
EFI
transmission

enferno · Feb 22, 2008

i use firefox and it blocks those for me

sometimes though if i'm browsing and i'm not logged in they pop up

reenmachine · Feb 22, 2008

enferno said:
i use firefox and it blocks those for me

sometimes though if i'm browsing and i'm not logged in they pop up

I'm not talking about pop-up ads. I'm talking about turning words into links. Is the word "exhaust" in this sentence a link to Magnaflow's website? That's what I'm talking about.

reenmachine · Feb 22, 2008

Well, look at that. It turned the word M a g n a f l o w into a link as well.

enferno · Feb 22, 2008

oh i thought you were talking about how on some forums if you hold your mouse over the text it shows a tiny window with ads.

no, i'm seeing the same thing you are, but i've never noticed it in classic tech. maybe it depends on what subforum you're in?

65ShelbyClone · Feb 23, 2008

I just noticed this auto ad-linking today as well, on the word "exh@ust" no less. It also occurred to me that there could be confusion about what link was posted by the originator of the thread and what link was inserted by the SN adbots.

I understand that I don't directly pay for my ability to use this site, but some of the advertising tactics are getting irritating.

Iamdiffrnt · Feb 23, 2008

I agree, and irritating can be an understatement depending on the thread's subject.

65ShelbyClone · Feb 23, 2008

I don't really mind if it links to brand names because another forum I'm on does that and it's not confusing, but random words will make it more difficult to use the forums I think.

Ad-bots in our threads! Confusing.

reenmachine

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