I've seen this in these forums before, mostly in the Photo sections, but I've seen it in other areas as well.
Click on a link and POPUP screen for logon to Solecity Chicago website. Here is a print screen of one I just stumbled upon here in the Misc section (iphone thread):
Here's what the logon POPUP screen looks like:
What the heck is this? How are they able to do this in WU's forums? And who is this website?
Posted by Hal (Member # 3484) on :
Itīs because that guy is using a photo from the Solecity members area as his avatar. In other words he is linking directly into the members area of that paysite.
Iīve sent him a PM about it but he hasn`t responded yet.
-Hal-
Posted by Toetapper (Member # 6473) on :
Well, that explains it. I have seen it a couple times and wondered what was up. Just "X-ed" out of it with no problem, though.
Posted by Cain (Member # 8492) on :
Yeah that is friggin annoying. He or someone else did it awhile back also. Then it started happening again a few days ago.
Posted by Ben Del Amitri (Member # 2724) on :
quote:Originally posted by Hal: Itīs because that guy is using a photo from the Solecity members area as his avatar. In other words he is linking directly into the members area of that paysite.
Iīve sent him a PM about it but he hasn`t responded yet.
-Hal-
Site spammers will find a million ways to get around or go through just about anything. It's the nature of spam and spammers. That would not have occured to me, but it makes sense. Thanks Hal.
Posted by FtLckr26 (Member # 13998) on :
I was wondering what was with that. Had me a little worried.
Posted by Patrick (Member # 1169) on :
Ben, I don't think it is a hack at all. It is just someone not understanding how the web works. The person linked to an image they love inside the members area. For that image to be displayed here, we have to know the name/password to see it. The image resides in a protected folder and that person probably just has no clue that is the case. This is why I have to make copies of the preview images on Soles of Silk in the guest section or they will never load and people would be prompted to enter the information to see them.
Patrick
Posted by Ben Del Amitri (Member # 2724) on :
That's actually part of my point, Patrick. It's probably just as you describe, but if somebody were to do that at the behest of a webmaster (or if a webmaster were to do such a thing under an alias logon), then it's Spam. Of course, there is no way to know this.
It could just as easily be as you describe - but if that were the case, why has it not (ever) happened with any other paysite on the entire web? There are hundreds of paysites on the internet, but what if there were just fifty? With fifty pay sites and over 30,000 forum members (if it were accidental or inadvertant) what would the probability be of that sort of thing happening in only one case, and only one site? And over a period of over five years?
I honestly have no idea, just throwing out the possibility; because it is a (minor) annoyance, and because pleas from the mods have not gotten results. I know absolutely nothing about the site itself but I'd be happy to host the avatar image for the forum member (and send link, etc) if it would stop the popups.
[ September 02, 2008, 03:12 AM: Message edited by: Ben Del Amitri ]
Posted by Patrick (Member # 1169) on :
I am serious, it's just a link to an image in the members area of the site. It's not prompting anyone to join the site, so I don't think of it as spam at all - just an error in linking an avatar image that someone must have liked.
Patrick
Posted by Mommie Dearest (Member # 18340) on :
It looks as if the issue was solved guys! The IPHONE thread is not showing the pop-up anymore.
Posted by Toetapper (Member # 6473) on :
For what it's worth, it just happened again when I went to Politics/"Just a question about the race".
