Only thieves block pop-ups.

[andrewas]

Originally posted by Angelousss: i'm gonna look at this from and entertainment standpoint. i'm watching tv and the commerciales come up. I decide commerciales suck and flip during them, coming back to the program once they have ended. Have i just stolen from the network? smart money's on no.

Good point, but popups are slightly different. The network is payed for broadcasting the ad, so it gets paid whether or not you see it. But a site only gets paid for a popup when someone views it.

However, popups come down through a restricted data stream that *the user* is paying for - so they could be said to be stealing your money by tying up your internet conection with traffic you dont want. Same can be said for spam emailers as well. Spam posters too, if you want to stretch the argument that far.

Obviously the legal issue is more than somewhat complex, but I still think popups are an evil device that no well-run site will resort to.

[Wurm]

Just call me and my Pop-Up Stopper a Nasty Taffer then!

I HATE ad/spy cookies and pop-ups and programs like Gator.

[WillowIX]

It´s an intereseting argument. Regular people being thieves for blocking pop-ups. But do a site owner get paid merely for having a script on his site? Or is it pay-per-click? If it´s the latter we´re not stealing anything since most people ignore them. Now to my other point. I´m using Norton Internet Security 2003. A feature in IS 2003 is to ba able to block scripts/pup-up windows. Since this feature is in a program called Internet Security I can debate that pop-up ads are a security risk on an as valid basis as the pop-up companies calling me a thief! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Sir Krustin]

Originally posted by StigTC: Okay, picture this: You have a shop, you're about to close a deal, and just when the buyer is about to hand you the money, I jump in and convince him to leave. Now tell, how would you feel about me.

You are dangerously close to getting flamed.

In no way shape or form can popups (especially ones that resist being closed) be considered a sale "almost closed".

Popup killers are more along the lines of a police picket surrounding my home and police officers running an answering service for me preventing said shop owner from harrassing me.

[Sir Krustin]

Originally posted by Luvian: Personally, I would have no problems with popups if the people using them where not all trying to abuse us. As it is, you visit a website, and you get a popups with no way to close it, a few spyware, every time you close one, 10 others popups, even after you have closed the website's window,... They give misleading info to make you download their spyware, lie about everything,... THEY are the thief. If that kind of behavior was happening in real life. They would get closed very fast...

One of my personal pet peeves is popups that change my browsers homepage without asking me. I *hate* Internet Explorer for that reason alone. At least Netscape doesn't do stuff like that.

Originally posted by StigTC: Well you said it yourself, they do get money for it. And by killing the pop-ups you're taking away their money, I think that's called theft.

It can only be considered theft if you actually agree with the premise that they have some inheret right to put thing into your computer system with out your express prior consent. Last time I looked they never asked my permission, so I am free to protect the hardware I bought and paid for from their illegal intrusion into my personal realm.

[Larry_OHF]

If I am driving down the road, and refuse to look at billboards along the way...the cops are not pulling me over. Must not be illigal then. So why would it be illigal to refuse to look at a pop-up? I am busy paying attention to the website, and do not want to be distracted. Just like a billboard is a distraction if I allow it to lure my attention away from not slamming on my breaks to prevent hitting that car in front of me.

[ 11-26-2002, 08:39 AM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

[Wurm]

Originally posted by Larry_OHF: If I am driving down the road, and refuse to look at billboards along the way...the cops are not pulling me over. Must not be illigal then. So why would it be illigal to refuse to look at a pop-up? I am busy paying attention to the website, and do not want to be distracted. Just like a billboard is a distraction if I allow it to lure my attention away from not slamming on my breaks to prevent hitting that car in front of me.

WERD

And may I ask why sometimes the image tags work here and sometimes they do not?

[ 11-26-2002, 08:42 AM: Message edited by: Wurm ]

[andrewas]

Originally posted by Wurm: WERD And may I ask why sometimes the image tags work here and sometimes they do not?

Whats WERD stand for?

On the image tags, its usualy down to a syntax error. No spaces, get the brackets right, that sort of thing.

[ 11-26-2002, 08:46 AM: Message edited by: andrewas ]

[Attalus]

I like the TV Commercial analogy. I remember that , originally, TV advertisers were upset when remote controls developed the feature of "muting" (yeah, it was a while back) so, they had to develop more interesting commercials, to make you want to leave the sound on. The pop-up sellers shopuld ponder this lesson.