Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

Adware is not freeware, right?

<< < (4/5) > >>

mouser:
I just want to re-express my sentiments.  Although I have never produced any, I have nothing against adware as one option for software developers/users, and I don't think there is any harm in such software, in and of itself.  My objection is the gradual slide I see into a world where it is the *only* viable model for independent developers.

40hz:
BTW are you sure you did not give your permission when agreeing to the forum TOS?
-vlastimil (December 24, 2011, 07:17 AM)
--- End quote ---

Very good point. But the TOS is often little more than 'words written on the sand' as far as that goes.

Virtually every forum or website includes a clause which says the TOS are "subject to change without notice." And it doesn't matter if you decide you no longer want to participate and decide to leave. Because you soon discover such TOS changes were also applied retroactively to anything that's already been submitted.

So it doesn't much matter what you think you've agreed to. It's whatever the site host has decided in the last ten minutes that's the rule of the land.

When the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL) started up one of the first (and in many respects, the finest) discussion forums, the rule was; "You own your own words."

Those were simpler times. And the WELL truly was unique.  

Today, post something and it's automatically and irrevocably the property of the hosting site. Unless the host gets sued for something you said. Then they quickly become 'your words' once again. There's usually something (indemnification clause) in the TOS about how you automatically agreed they can do that too. And furthermore, it also says you've agreed to defend the host site, at you own expense, if it ever happens!

How things changed since the lawyers appeared, huh? ;D

cyberdiva:
I have seen these automatically added links on many web sites, it has been here for years. But it is nice to see that people are noticing it.-vlastimil (December 24, 2011, 07:17 AM)
--- End quote ---
I've certainly seen links on, say, periodicals' sites to words in an article, and occasionally I wondered why certain links were there and whether the author put those there or whether they were generated by the periodical. I confess it never occurred to me that it might be some company that had nothing to do with the periodical except a financial arrangement.  But I don't think I've ever before seen links added to an individual's post.  Certainly I've never had that experience before with anything I've posted on any forum.  It feels invasive and slimy. :down:

The forum owner is most likely getting cut of the profit from VigLink or another link-broker company. If it is some kind of free forum (running on a sub-domain), the moderator is most likely not the owner though.-vlastimil
--- End quote ---
I think it's a free forum running on a sub-domain, and I doubt that anyone connected to the specific forum is getting a penny from these slimeballs.  [Did I mention that I was not happy with them?  :down:  :down:]

BTW are you sure you did not give your permission when agreeing to the forum TOS?-vlastimil
--- End quote ---
Well, one can almost never be sure about such things.  I joined that forum almost seven years ago and have participated moderately often.  Yesterday was the first time I encountered this practice. 

Fred Nerd:
While we're on things that annoy us:

Firstly, 15- 20 years ago a phone with a battery that only lasted a day (just, with light use) and then needs 3 hours to charge would have been laughed at. But I paid good money for my Google Nexus.

Not to mention that Gingerbread already had too few settings (what to display, where to display it, in short: everything that Win95 allowed me to set on a 64Mhz processor and 64MB ram) but now I got the update for Ice Cream Sandwich and its a lot smoother looking, BUT:
Less customiseable (I can't find the 'turn off all animations' [and certainly no check boxes for each one like all geeks want), colour scheme looks pretty, but not good in bad light/dust/quick glances  or anything that tradesmen want and no 'Right click, properties, set colour scheme'

Everything you do nowadays seems to be going the Apple way "Tell us what you want and we'll get it for you" And I'm not happy with always getting something that is almost, but not quite nothing like tea (Douglas Adams, not sure if I got it right)

Now I love being able to do stuff while I'm away from my laptop/desktop but stop limiting it to a useless level. Someone emailed me a .doc file the other day but somehow removed the .doc from the name. I knew it was either .doc or .pdf and in a minute had it working on my laptop, but the Nexus refused to download it since it didn't recognise it.

I think the basic problem is that now the money is in selling to the masses and so everyone treats users as total idiots since most of them are.

Please, someone, make me a dos/console phone. Long battey life even if it weighs half a kilo, no touchscreen that doesn't work with wet hands, or gets dirty if you are called while working on something greasy, small screen for controlling it, just enough to type on the physical keyboard. And with USB support. Can add a screen on then for graphics, and a stylus for sketching.
Has to support AHK or similar and be able to run a compiler to work on project on the move.

Fred.

Oh, and Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory is nothing like a reak geek.

J-Mac:
I just want to re-express my sentiments.  Although I have never produced any, I have nothing against adware as one option for software developers/users, and I don't think there is any harm in such software, in and of itself.  My objection is the gradual slide I see into a world where it is the *only* viable model for independent developers.
-mouser (December 24, 2011, 07:55 AM)
--- End quote ---

I have no problem with adware included with free software or any free service, as long as it is made clear and not slipped in  in a sneaky way. Perfectly legitimate imo.

However I hate when adware suddenly appears in a product For which I have paid. It's possible that the developer is trying to keep costs down; I'd rather pay more, though, than tolerate the inclusion of adware.

Thanks,

Jim

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page