Have I Malware or Virus?

[mshrmh]

Moderator comment: title amended in consultation with originator to reflect new diagnosis!


Today I'm getting two sets of (what I assume to be) adverts at the top & bottom of each screen that I've not seen on here before.
One shows the timed & date and then says "You've got 1 Message" the next line at present is showing as "From: Britney25f Located in Your Area" - an earlier version had "From Our Mom Located in Manchester" (my profile indicates my location as South Manchester" I'm then invited to "Open Message Now"
I'm concerned that this
a) Newcomers to Rootchat may confuse this with the Personal Message system
b) The "advert" seems to be extracting information from my profile - surely this shouldn't be allowed?

The second advert is one telling me about a possibility of winning a car - that from time to time shows as a "pop-up" style insert that wobbles around the screen. I've come across this one on another site where it attracted numerous complaints.

I'm not against adverts on RootsChat - I realise they help pay the bills. I'm just concerned that the first may mislead people & that the second may worry people about the health of their computer/monitor.

Am I alone in my concerns?

[Berlin-Bob]

This has been mentioned before. 

The adverts are automatically selected by Google using some kind of ranking algorithm that notes the frequency of appearances of certain "trigger" words in the page contents.

Admin has tweaked it to avoid certain "misunderstandings" but in general there is not much we can do about it.

that from time to time shows as a "pop-up" style insert that wobbles around the screen.

That doesn't sound like the usual kind of advert we have here. Could you please include a screen shot of that part of the screen, just in case ...

And just a thought: are you using AOL or Yahoo, where a part of the screen is used for their adverts.

Bob

[mshrmh]

Thanks for the reply Bob - However is it picking up Manchester from my profile, as I wasn't looking at a page that had Manchester on it? I really don't like the thought that my personal data from my profile is being accessed for this purpose - if that is so I will be removing it!

I'm not using AOL or Yahoo, so that isn't why I got the wobbly "pop-up" style. How do I get a screen shot - I'm reluctant to put anything like this onto my computer's hard drive when I don't know the source.

(incidentally I'm now just getting time + date + you've got 1 message open now - no alleged "source")

[Berlin-Bob]

this is how the page should look.

Advert 1 from Ancestry is always there.
Advert 2 is from RootsChat and changes, may also be DSL services or census information
Advert 3 is from Google and can vary according to page content.

There is also a similar block to Advert 3 at the bottom of the page

where are your adverts appearing ?

Bob

[mshrmh]

Hi again Bob - the ad's I'm getting are those in position 3 on your example - repeated at the bottom of the screen. Just logged out & back & got the "You've got 1 message" thing again - how do I capture this screen image - I can do a "print screen", but that seems to come out as a bitmap - you have a jpeg.

Now going offline until tomorrow - thanks.

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi,

Have a look at this:
Topic: Adding images to Posting & Profiles
1) Resizing and cropping your image file:[/color]
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,130922.0.html

that should do the trick.  (Just the ads at the top of the screen will do)

Bob

[Just Kia]

Just to reassure you - the ads are not picking up "Manchester" from your rootschat profile at all.
The site that the ads are from pick up your locale (rather than you exact location) from your ip address - nothing to do with rootschat at all.
Almost all sites that put out the personals type ads use the little bit of code that tailors the ads you see by picking up your ip address and showing you "personals" in your town/city. They can be safely ignored.

[mshrmh]

JustKia - thank for the re-assurance. I'll try & attach the photo of the screen as I logged in a few minutes ago - it was the wobbly thing again!

[Little Nell]

This advert is nothing to do with RootsChat - I have seen them "pop-up" on several sites unexpectedly.  Annoying aren't they - the equivalent of the awful taped message on the telephone that you have won a guaranteed prize. Some hope. 

Have you blocked pop-ups?  If not, you need to do so.

Nell