Was doing some surfing today, for a project I have, and I came across a site that was to say the least annoying. (Holos Community Centre - no link provided as it is unsafe.) It is a site that is done in a phpBB2 forum layout, with tons of video pictures in the listing.

So naturally one clicks the videos, to see what they are, or how good they are, and wham first thing that hit me is that I am told I need to download an ActiveX plug-in because mine is somehow out of date. Now I am not a newbie, so I clicked cancel on the little pop up box.

That brought me another pop up but worded differently. It said that they noticed I didn’t have the current ActiveX needed, so to download it. My only option was OK, so instead I clicked the top right X to close it. Lo and behold, the first pop up shows up and on and on it went. Click cancel, then click x to close pop up and on and on it went. Just like some bad circle jerk.

Couldn’t close the browser tab either. It was locked, as were all the other tabs too. Only way out was to bring up task manager, and end the browser task.

So, why? I mean obviously they wanted me to download some shit, but what it would have done is anyone’s guess. I ain’t going to take that chance to find out either, but why? Why do webmasters do this crap?

It is what gives us a bad name, it is what the moralists use against us, and Mr. & Mrs. Joe Average hear about this, and get frightened. It is not good, no matter if whatever they were doing was harmless. Maybe I did need that particular Active X control, but you know, I am not about to take the chance, and why should I? Least they should accept the NO given.

I hate scammers like that.

Posted on September 19th, 2007 by Gaystoryman
Filed under: Blowing Off Steam