Sunbeltblog comments
Ouch. I've sent plenty of people their way over the years. This stinks the same as weight loss, penis enlargement, and other nonsense being allowed to make ad buys from Discovery, History Channel, etc.
"We are known to deal with facts and provide the best information possible."
"Here's a bunch of money. Let's exploit that trust you've built up."
"Hells yeah."
/no good.
How very disappointing - I've always held Snopes in high regard, and like others commenting, I'm uncomfortable with sending people Snopes links if they're going to throw Zango malware at them.
I hope a few well-worded and non-confrontational emails to the team at Snopes can change their mind.
S
Feel free to contact them. I didn't work for me. Maybe we need a few more voices hitting them.
Yes, it is sad and it upsets me as well.
Well, that stinks. Shame on Snopes!
I've sent lots of people to Snopes also. I've never seen the fastclick pop-up, though, because I have *.fastclick.com in my restricted sites in IE. It's in IE-SPYAD.
I tried to get any of these popups to..well...popup...to no avail. I guess you would have to change IE settings to allow popups. Or not use Firefox. Dunno.
I really don't like Snopes. Besides of ads, it blocks text selecting and you have to right click on link in order to read the real URI.
I and a lot of people I know in our community forums have been faithful Snopes visitors for years and have referred many others to them as well. That won't be happening anymore as of today from me at least.
Consider another voice added to this:
http://www.winextra.com/2008/01/...ssy-with-zango/
How interesting.
I had noted that just last week when visiting snopes on one of those "nasty virus that will erase your hard drive" type emails. Today, it's no longer there! Meaning, no pop-up AT ALL!
I think you've struck a chord, Alex. 
Snopes.com: Rumor has it that they are funded by AdWare
I'm going to push this real heavy on MySpace too. Snopes gets tons of traffic from there due to all the bogus bulletins that get passed around.
LoLo -- AWESOME.
To those who aren't seeing the popups, believe me, they're there. If you have Fastclick blocked, it won't show. But even with IE's popup blocker, it should show as a pop-under.
Just added an update to my post...
Look at this thread:
http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-b...10;t=000713;
p=1
In there the site owner plays the "I'll track that thingy down" good guy.
To be fair: stuff can slip through when you use a third party to handle your impression inventory. Seeing the same behavior from your ad network(s) over and over again and continuing to use them is just as bad as posting adware ads up yourself though.
/not that I think that's the case here. They simply gave up on caring if they ever really did.
"This ad served by Spam Blocker Utility..."
...whatever.
LoLo, In my view, they are turning a blind eye because the money's great.
Heaven forbid a site make money.
I agree 100%. They'll blame it all on "those sneaky ad networks" though. Getting them to put that javascript snippet on their pages and sending them big checks every month. Soooo sneaky of them :P
I've got a bulletin on MySpace getting passed around quicker than the promises of cash from Bill Gates. lolz
/and, Snopes' contact page is 404ing when you hit submit now. hmmm...
"Heaven forbid a site make money"
They can monetize that site with better stuff than that.
Yeah, there's tons of ways of making money that are completely exclusive of screwing people.
I just tried to fill out their Contact Us page to ask them about their use of the Zango malware. My form submission threw an error on their server side ASP code. The really scary thing, look at the error message:
Error Type:
Microsoft VBScript runtime (0x800A01A
Object required: 'zango'
/cgi-bin/comments/webmail.asp, line 132
We'll see if any spam starts coming in to the (unique) address that I submitted to that form.
What this says to me though is that not only are they including JavaScript for an ad banner network, but their server side code is making references to 'zango' by name, implying a deeper relationship.
I think it's safe to assume for the time being that Snopes probably doesn't have your best interests at heart, and to not use an e-mail address that you care about if you choose to communicate with them.
Yeah, I noticed that. What's up with that?
Maybe if we harass them enough they will turn it into a pay site. Yippee.
WHY GOD WHY!!!
Not sure what's up with those guys - they removed the attribution on a piece I contributed long ago, and haven't responded to email in a couple of years. Oh well.
By the way, I have Adblock. Will I be safe? I went there today, not knowing about this issue.
Error Type:
Microsoft VBScript runtime (0x800A01A
Object required: 'zango'
/cgi-bin/comments/webmail.asp, line 132
Oh my.
Confirmed as the error message.
I'm now very interested to see snopes' response here.
Mark -- you're safe -- nothing happens unless you install the software off the popup.
So I can go to Snopes without worry?
I've been sending folks to Snopes for a long time, but I never see popups or ads because I use Firefox with the AdBlock-Plus extension. Now that I know this will happen to others, I'll have to quit recommending and using Snopes.
What other urban-legend sites are worth recommending to your clueless-newbie friends?
I don't visit snopes but it is good to see somebody is picking up on this nonsense. Slashdot has linked to this so quite a few people will be reading about it. Good work Alex.
"That ad, “Do you want to block Junk Emails?” is for a Zango product — adware (VirusTotal report here). And by running this ad, Snopes, which is highly reputable, is providing an implied endorsement of the product."
Actually, no, they aren't. If they take money from anyone who offers it then they can reasonably say that they have no position on any of the advertising on their site, and their policy is that anyone who provides money can get space. Once they start turning people away, *then* they begin endorsement of products.
Alternatives to Snopes:
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
http://urbanlegends.about.com/
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/
http://www.nonprofit.net/hoax/
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter...enter/
hoax.html
http://www.virushoaxbusters.com/
The last two (obviously) deal with virus-related hoaxes. Lots more if you go looking on Google.
Sherm,
That's not entirely true. By having a reputation as an honest site, having advertisements that are not honest lessons the impact of their own honesty. Regardless of whether or not they offer advertising to anyone, having these types of ads is a bad thing.
It is why, to pull an example out of thin air, the Boy Scouts of America control where you can see one of their uniforms. They have a "brand" and they feel they must protect their "brand". Snopes has a "brand", and they are using that "brand" for advertising. By not policing what they advertise, they are as guilty as pushing the suspect product.
Alex:
Those ads are coming from Casale Media (http://www.casalemedia.com/).
Does Casale know how bad Zango is? Usually ad folks don't understand this stuff.
Thanks!
PS: We use a corporate web filter to block these kind of ads for all the employees, so they never see them.
I like Snopes, but I've largely given up visiting their site because of all the popup ads. They're only going to make money through ad revenue, of course, so you can't blame them, but the particular ad choices they've made have driven at least me away.
@David -- Snopes has apparently pulled the Fastclick ads and replaced them with popups from Casale. We're continuing to monitor the situation.
@Sherm -- Actually, if you've used Snopes for a while, you've seen that this Junk mail ad has been running consistently as one of the few ads on the site. It's paying them quite well. If it was just part of a series of rotatationals, then I could see how it might not be their fault.
I've been noticing something strange with Snopes lately, but I didn't have time to look into it in greater detail. Very sad that the "mythbusters" of the Internet are now becoming an urban legend themselves...
Hey, maybe we should start a chain email about this?!...ok, bad idea...forget it.
Sure, with that kind of traffic, Snopes could make money with other ads - but not nearly the same amount of money. On my site, I removed all obnoxious ads - and watched my income plummet about 70%.
@Trent -- I know, and no one is saying that Snopes can't run ads. It's a fine model. But to continue to push adware ads... that's unethical.
Maybe we should donate 10,000 dollars to stop the ads. Or not.
So exactly who here has some sort of paid membership for snopes? Nobody?
Well then who here are getting their arms twisted to visit the site? Nobody either, eh?
Seriously, what sort of argument do people think they have about how a free-use website operates. How would you feel if total strangers came to your place of business or home and tell you what you should or should not do?
[snip]
How would you feel if total strangers came to your place of business or home and tell you what you should or should not do?
[snip]
...he said, completely unaware of the irony.
"And by running this ad, Snopes, which is highly reputable, is providing an implied endorsement of the product."
This is retarded. Plenty of sites get ads from networks, big networks, networks they couldn't possibly review ALL of the creative for.
Wow, this is despicable. You should all immediately demand a refund of your hard-earned money! For the money they charge to use this site, there is simply no excuse for this slightly-inconvenient pop-up window!
Snopes.com has no excuse for trying to offset the costs of running a popular and free site - they should pay for my free service completely out of pocket (probably hundreds/thousands a month) so I don't have to deal with the slight discomfort of having to close a pop-up window! Yeah!
@V -- I'm sorry, that's patently incorrect. Snopes has pushed THIS ad to the exclusion of many, many others. I've said before that if this was part of an normal ad inventory mix and a bunch of ads in rotation, it would be a completely different story.
@Stash -- With that attitude, let's spawn as much malware out there for people through popups. After all,
"it's just a popup".
And again, as I've said repeatedly, I have no problem with advertising. I do have a problem with implicitly or explicity pushing adware.
Actually, I visit snopes daily, and don't recall ever seeing that particular ad. When I checked just now, the popup I was shown was for Netflix. Check your figures, I mean strike-through 'this doesn't matter' bologna.
Dan -- You're right, it appears those popups are no longer being spawned.
Maybe you didn't see them because of popup blocking or what not.
Oh waaaah!
God forbid someone make money off "your intarwebs."
Grow up sparky. It sounds to me like you're jealous.
Bob: I appreciate your support of Zango.
There are plenty of openings there:
http://jobs-zango.icims.com/
zang...D76485B12B85813
Go for it!
Chances are "Bob" is already employed there, else he wouldn't have made that nincompoopular comment. Right, "Bob"?
Stupid commoners.
This is our modern America, profit before anything.
Honor, morals, pride in one's civil behavior?
Bwa hah hah hah!!!!
Observe our politicians, the corporations sending jobs overseas...
All that matters is PROFIT!!!!!
You suckers deluded by your betters is so laughable.
Whine, gripe, moan.
You commoners are nothing, except sheep to be fleeced.
Just obey your betters.
You can not defeat the lust for profit and, what follows it.... POWER!!!!
Oh, you peons may win a shallow victory here and there but you will still lose the ongoing class war.
Just admit defeat and obey your betters.
You are ultimately doomed to a second-world lifestyle.
As the multi-MILLIONS of illegal alien invaders flood what was once your country with a second-world culture your betters will garner ever-more control over you.
Just accept your sub-par lot in life.
But, go ahead and keep whining. Since you sheep do not possess the wherewithal to alter the inevitable your whining is pure comedy to the ruling elites.
"You are ultimately doomed to a second-world lifestyle."
Obviously, even though Americans are the richest people in the world, we're doomed to a "second-world lifestyle". Oh well
"But, go ahead and keep whining. Since you sheep do not possess the wherewithal to alter the inevitable your whining is pure comedy to the ruling elites."
Of course, we will continue to keep "whining" and "winning".
"But, go ahead and keep whining. Since you sheep do not possess the wherewithal to alter the inevitable your whining is pure comedy to the ruling elites.
-Obbop"
Funny, our "whining" has ALREADY produced the desired result. :P
Keep up the good work, Alex.
How would you feel if total strangers came to your place of business or home and tell you what you should or should not do?
Pushing pop-ups is more like the shopkeeper pissing on their hands right before offering their customer a handshake as they enter the premises. But I guess maybe some people think it's unfair for us to demand that restaurant employees wash up before they head back to the kitchen, too. Right?
This hit slashdot today. Man the ramparts, snopes.
That is very UNCOOL for Snopes to do that. HOWEVER, I really do not have a problem with it on my computer as I have this great program called SPF4!!! LOL So, quite yer b!tching and use SPF4 and zango or nothing else will even get near being viewed on your screen!!!!
When I go to Snopes it starts an AUTOMATIC download and install process like as if I clicked to install an active-x program. I now surf them with Sandboxie as I now consider them to be a drive by adware force installing website.
I have done PC fix work for years cleaning friends pcs and this is NO pop up advertisement but forced downloads that your pcs defenses stop if you do it right.
use firefox with adblock plus filter out zango i use zango websites all the time never get a warning except on the zango mainsite :P
I will stop using and sending out snopes. Sad, but too annoying!
Frank, they have longed fixed the problem. I use them now
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