What is this page? Are the allowed to reprint the SDMB’s content in that way? Are they causing a significant load on the SDMB’s server by calling it all the time to build their pages?
I’m not sure if it’s a problem, but I thought I’d call attention to it. I really don’t understand what’s going on there (I don’t speak italian).
None of the links in the SDMB frame work for me.
Neither for me, now. But for a while, I was able to browse GQ in that pane.
It looks like you can fill in absolutely any website you want, and get it to show up in their frames.
I altered your link, and was able to see:
as
http://www.economia.unimo.it/comuni/paginclude.aspx?id=786&pagurl=‘http://www.etymonline.com/’#
It looks like you’re trying to mess with us. The actual link for Home - Dipartimenti e attività di ricerca > Dipartimento di Economia politica > Materiali di discussione goes to here. All you did was replace this part of the URL: paginclude.aspx?id=786&pagurl=%27http://www.economia.unimore.it/sezioni/files/matdisdep/matdisdep.asp%27&liv=3 with this: paginclude.aspx?id=786&pagurl=‘http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/’#.
So, a cheap trick to try to get us riled up? If it wasn’t that, it certainly wasn’t very funny. 
I remember this was a “trick” a lot of websites were pulling a few years ago.
It happened to me too but I thought this was all over and done with.
I have heard (and I use this in my webpages too) that if you use this coding:
<SCRIPT language=“JavaScript”>
<!–
if (parent.frames.length > 0) {
parent.location.href = location.href;
}
// -->
</SCRIPT>
it should prevent websites from doing that.
Holy crow – thanks for that great link! I’ve been looking for a comprehensive free etymological site!
Not at all. I did a Google search on my username to see if anything that’s not mine would show up, and this page was in the results.
By golly, he’s right! Now how would that make it into google?
Not sure how/why this is happening.
I have kicked it upstairs for management to look at.
Thanks.
your humble TubaDiva
It’s happening because anyone can do it, even with limited web skills. And as has been pointed out, the fix is real easy to do. The JavaScript releases the page from another web site’s frame and puts it in its own browser window. It can be built into the PHP as well.
The real question is why is it being done? Just for kicks? Yeah, that happens. To claim something not your own as your own (branding)? That happens quite a bit. But let’s not forget that it may also be used as a way to capture usernames and passwords.
Yes, some people are that gullible. Just look at all the phishing emails claiming to be from banks and eBay out to steal your account, your money, even your identity. The potential to steal a SMDB account, or several, certainly is small potatoes compared to bank account information. But if you think about it and pull down hard on that tinfoil hat you might be wearing, it’s plausible to steal several dozen usernames and passwords as part of an attempt to embarrass the SDMB with fradulent postings to the point legal action ceases its publication. And we all lose.
In this case, the english version of the web site says this is an educational institution web site. Methinks some students there have a wee bit too much free time on their hands.
Holy cow, you’re right! That’s really strange. If you search for some of the user names that appears on the first page of General Questions along with “economia” you will get that page as one the search results. For instance, it works wih xash and AskNott, but for some reason it doesn’t work with Merkwurdigliebe, or USCDiver, or Princhester. Could the Google bots or spiders be doing something strange when getting to that site?
Well, Google only spiders that page once every… few days or weeks? And the page changes every few seconds; tht is, every time somebody posts (or creates a new username, etc.) the dynamic info on the front page changes. (“Last post by PosterAlpha at [time]”; “Welcome to our newest member: So-and-So”). So it’s possible that Google has indexed the page with whoever’s names appeared on the page at the time the spider went by. That’d be the moderators listed for each forum, the most recent poster in the forum at that time, and the board’s newest member at that time.
Google doesn’t seem to have a cache for the page, so it’s hard to check when the page was made.
I don’t show up in mirrors, either. Get that garlic away from me!