[Acorn]

Thank you for all the information, Alvin.  You are very generous. 

Does anyone know where the Terms of Agreement for HS members might be?
I can’t locate it...

[Rollercoasterider]

I keep a copy at the Forum Information Board.
Regsitration Agreement

[UrsaMajor]

It's not really anonymous data they are collecting if it targets ads according to my interests is it?  Otherwise how would they know my interests and where to send my targeted ads?

Virtually every web site we visit, unless they are some private "Welcome to our family Web Site" kind of page will drop a cookie or a pixel tracker on your PC as well as leaving a cached version of their web site. As long as these cookies and cached pages are not cleared, OTHER web sites (specifically the advertisers) are able to read those cookies and generate targeted content. In addition, if you buy things via the Web, the Web Shops leave cookies (like when you log in to their Web Site to make a purchase for example. Amazon knows when you are logged in by leaving a cookie on your PC when is then cleared when you log out or close your browser.) and such which can also be read by others. Setting "Do Not Track" on your Web Browser can help but it will just mean that you will get a random selection of ads. Some cookies are volatile, meaning that they delete themselves after a period of time or after certain actions are taken (like logging out) and some are permanent. Finally, those that you are connected to on Social Media will also have such cookies and by matching (distilling) the "Big Data" Google and Co can match patterns, people, and contacts to deliver targeted ads. Like the disclaimer on the Forum that pops up every time I access it for the first time of the day (My browser is set to clear all cookies when I shut it down) says "We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partner"

And in that vein, I have several close friends and colleagues involved with me on social media.  How is it that their interests/recent searches pop up in my ads?  It's my understanding that since we have common interests and are connected a bunch of ways, if one of them searches for something AI thinks these other like people might share that interest so it's offered.  What's to stop HS from popping up there?

The ads you see are paid for by the advertisers. Unless HS starts a paid advertising campaign, i. e. Unless RCR starts paying to have ads generated, there won't be any ads. These firms don't do ANYTHING for free...   

Third, no one has explained why the numbers on Acorn's thread were spinning exponentially but seeming stopped when it was taken off?

This is still a mystery. I have had a brief "chat" with Sir Osis about it as I don't have access to Admin tools. He has seen a spike of traffic from the UK- and California-based IP Addresses that seemed to have stopped when I moved Acorn's Thread to the Archives last night (per her request). Some other forums he deals with have reported a  spike of traffic coming from China but that does not seem to be the case here. Why only Acorn's Thread was affected is unknown. One possibility is that an HS member that viewed Acorns Thread has some sort of Malware on their PC that was trying to run a DOS attack on the Forum to see if it could be crashed. When the Thread was moved, the "target" of the attack was no longer accessible and the bot died (This is JUST one possibility of many if one wishes to assume malicious purposes and not just a server thread (process) going rogue and going into a loop)

Is HS advertising in the same pool of ads that are being drawn from and shown to us?

Have to ask RCR if she is paying for an advertising campaign.

Were our email addresses sold?  Is that the phishing emails people are getting a result?

Same question. - If one assumes that RCR is only out for money, she could have sold the e-mail database. That would, however, be cutting off her nose to spite her face (short-term gain traded for long-term death of the forum).  Also, this forum is most certainly NOT the only place your e-mail is registered UNLESS you created an e-mail address specifically for the purposes of the forum and didn't use it anywhere else ever so phishing e-mails may or may not have ANY relation to the forum at all.  As Alvin noted, e-mail addresses are not usually stored in any encrypted format as they are not considered to be private information. Passwords, real names, credit card numbers, etc., are and they are, as Alvin noted, stored in a hashed key.

Should I be concerned that my violent ex husband who's sister I'm still social media friends with, and he is friends with, will be served an ad to HS?  Since we have common interests and connections. That's what I meant about safety.

Or my boss?  Or co-workers?

ONLY if RCR has decided to start an advertising campaign. There is a difference between allowing ads on a web site and starting a campaign of her own and buying advertising time

Frankly from the ridiculous ads I'm getting, the sudden increase in phishing emails, the crashes here with days of outage, the ads stacked one on top of another, the absolutely ridiculous and obvious juicing of views on the site, and the pathetically ridiculous content of the ads, I'm not feeling so trusting, especially when money is the stated goal and a lack of forewarning. 

So please forgive my cranky attitude.

If we go on the scenario that our e-mail addresses were sold, we should ALL have seen an increase in phishing e-mails. So far, I have seen nothing out of the ordinary. As far as the ad placement, that is a function (or malfunction) of the way the advertiser puts in the pop-ups. The outages were due to a couple of things but one of them was the transfer to CloudFare (this is a high-availability network service that helps to keep individual Websites more available online but has some of it's own quirks which relate to how the CloudFare network knows where the actual server is). Because CloudFare didn't use the proper initial Domain Name Server to find the Forum web server, requests to the forum went to Saint Nimmerland and generated an error. Once that was corrected, the CloudFare network knew where the forum server was located and was able to connect again.

In terms of the ad content, as Alvin noted, since these ads appear to be being served by Google, one can go in and configure what kind of content one is interested (or NOT interested in) seeing. I have done that and turned off rubbish like "Singles,""Marriage Counselling," "Cruises" and other categories that have no relevance to my life. At the current time, as my Internet Connection is in the Netherlands (although I am in Germany) most of the ads I am seeing are in Dutch  which I can't read anyway.... These "Preferences" are associated with your Google account (assuming you have one)  and are NOT discarded when you clear cookies or your cache.

UM (my M. Sc. in Computer Information Systems does come in handy once in a while)

[Songanddance]

I am in the UK and so far have received "invisible" add pop ups. In that I get a white "bar" at the bottom of the screen with an x at top right.  No ad appears as such and I hit the x and it's gone. It usually happens 3 times but then stops. 

However this morning - nothing - no pop up - nothing and straight on the forum.  Not that I know anything about this level of technology but my personal security settings are set mid- high and I have two anti virus/malware programs running and thus far have seen no breach or crash or issue that any of you mention. 

Thanks Alvin for the info - still went over my head.......sigh!

[lawprofessor]

Thank you, UM, for taking the time to answer my questions and concerns.

Sometimes it's just the way things are handled, the communication style, and how one is treated that matters.  So I just think it's time for me to take a break from this place because there seems to be too much instability and aggravation that outweighs anything else for me.  Since bd I just don't want or need that congesting my life.

Best to you all,
Lp

[UrsaMajor]

I am in the UK and so far have received "invisible" add pop ups. In that I get a white "bar" at the bottom of the screen with an x at top right.  No ad appears as such and I hit the x and it's gone. It usually happens 3 times but then stops. 

However this morning - nothing - no pop up - nothing and straight on the forum.  Not that I know anything about this level of technology but my personal security settings are set mid- high and I have two anti virus/malware programs running and thus far have seen no breach or crash or issue that any of you mention. 

Thanks Alvin for the info - still went over my head.......sigh!

RCR turned off the ads placement on the forum last night from what I gathered in her earlier posts so that would be why you are no longer seeing them

The White bar with no ad MIGHT have been because the system was trying to serve up an ad which you had previously declared as unwanted (or the topic as unwanted).  The placeholder (served up by a different company) was then left without content. It is also possible that the server simply didn't have enough time to serve up the ad into the placeholder before you killed it off (the 'x').

Regardless, as I understood RCR's posts from last night, she has turned off the ads on the forum... Whether that was what caused Acorns thread to stop being churned or whether it was me moving said thread to the archive or whether some errant process finally died, we'll never find out without some thorough forensic investigations of logs comparing times of actions and resulting events.

[Acorn]

Thank you, UM, for further explaining what might have been going on.

Needless to say, I was spooked and looked for explanations.  I must say I did wonder if someone on HS was being vindictive toward me and put a number spinner on my thread.  No idea if that is even possible.  What do I know!

RCR, thank you for the link to TOA.  I do remember reading it when I joined. 

Do you think it might be a good idea to include it on Forum Information as well?  I figure people do not remember all of it after awhile.  It’s good to refresh ourselves on what we signed up for. 

[OldPilot]

Do you think it might be a good idea to include it on Forum Information as well?  I figure people do not remember all of it after awhile.  It’s good to refresh ourselves on what we signed up for.

I am confused that is exactly what she wrote.

Its there.

I keep a copy at the Forum Information Board.
Regsitration Agreement

[Acorn]

Sorry, my bad!
To illustrate how dumb I was:
I clicked on RCR’s link.  Got to the agreement.  Read it.
Went back to the home page to see if a technophobe like me could find it all by m’self.
Clicked on Forum Information.  Looked at the list.
And......did not see there was Page 2. With the Registration Agreement on it. The very last item.

All good now.  Thanks! 

[Rollercoasterider]

Thanks for explaining everything Ursa. It's stuff I don't understand either, so it helpsto have someone who knows what they are talking abut explaining it.

Regarding advertising... from Google there are two programs.
Adsense is when a website elects to show advertising on their site.  The site owner is paid on a per click basis.
Adwords is a program I can sign up for to have my ads for HS shown at other sites. I then pay for those by either impression or click.

I particpate in Adsense. I do not do Adwords. I did do Adwords 8 to 10 years ago when I was starting and Iwas working and could pay for the investment. So if you have seen the ad about my coaching at the main site, blog and it used ot be at the top of the forum...that is not Adwords, it's something I put on their manually and it doesn't go away or change...always there until I remove it.