Currently under attack

[MikeNovack]

This site is currently under attack. Looks like an "ad" but trying to get permission to do something to our computers. "Ad" has no "close".

[Gary Childress]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Popup blockers are our friends. Any site that wants us to disable popup blockers is f****** bonkers. f*** Youtube.

[Impenitent]

if you put a poster on your ceiling, are you under a tack? (probably at least 4)

-Imp

[MikeNovack]

Note: Did go to regular ads later. So the "attack" one I first saw probably a bad customer of the ad service.

[MikeNovack]

The one up there now is a definite attack (takes control of the browser). Yeah, I now how to get out of that (crash system, and when back up tell the browser not to try and restore the previous (infected) session. Beside the point. I consider any website having "ads" that do such a thing to be under attack.

[RickLewis]

Thank very much for pointing this out. We will investigate.

[Gary Childress]

if you put a poster on your ceiling, are you under a tack? (probably at least 4)

-Imp

Not if you use scotch tape.

[Walker]

What triggers the bots into attack mode?

[RickLewis]

OK, Bora has investigated. There was no attack. What happened was that in the setup for the adverts at the top of the forum there is a setting allowing Google to experiment with other ad formats to increase effectiveness. Google used that as permission to run the ad at the foot of the forum. Having found this setting, Bora has changed it to withdraw Google's permission to run experiments.

[Gary Childress]

OK, Bora has investigated. There was no attack. What happened was that in the setup for the adverts at the top of the forum there is a setting allowing Google to experiment with other ad formats to increase effectiveness. Google used that as permission to run the ad at the foot of the forum. Having found this setting, Bora has changed it to withdraw Google's permission to run experiments.

Google is a malicious company. They're the ones who keep people trapped inside information bubbles created by their prior browser history. Google sucks. Is there a better search engine to use, and if I have an Android phone, how do I escape the clutches of Google and their "algorithms"?

[FlashDangerpants]

OK, Bora has investigated. There was no attack. What happened was that in the setup for the adverts at the top of the forum there is a setting allowing Google to experiment with other ad formats to increase effectiveness. Google used that as permission to run the ad at the foot of the forum. Having found this setting, Bora has changed it to withdraw Google's permission to run experiments.

Google is a malicious company. They're the ones who keep people trapped inside information bubbles created by their prior browser history. Google sucks. Is there a better search engine to use, and if I have an Android phone, how do I escape the clutches of Google and their "algorithms"?

sure. If you want to seach without being overly tracked but don't want to invest the time into going fully paranoid, the best options are frontpage or duck duck go for your search engine.
https://www.startpage.com
https://duckduckgo.com

To do a better job, you also need to dump Chrome and Edge. There's lots of better options, here's a site that might help you find something suitable. I am lazy, I use Vivaldi, but most people use Brave.

[Radagast]

I have started using a search engine called mojeek.com as it makes a big thing about not tracking users, which hopefully means that the search results it serves up are NOT customised according to my prior searches or website use.

Having said which, using Google has become such an ingrained habit over the years that I still find myself using that much more often than I use Mojeek.