So why did I get the warning once on IE? It’s not happened since that first time though, and it happened at the very start of all this trouble a few days ago.
So, what’s the official word on this (I’m not sure if I missed something briefly rifling through the thread, but there didn’t seem to be more than a post regarding turning adds off, having Google re-scan, and then hopefully being erased off the list)? I’m not even seeing an announcement; you’d think that something like this would merit at least that, or maybe a mass email explaining the problems, their reasons, if/how one is actually in danger visiting the SDMB, what countermeasures to take, etc.
But it’s not the first time I haven’t exactly been thrilled by the information policy on this site, which seems to mainly be ‘lets keep our heads down till things blow over’.
And where do the ads come from anyway? I thought they were Google ads, which would make it somewhat strange if Google supplies ads it then flags as malware carriers, so I guess I was wrong on that.
Ed’s post is here. That seems to be the latest official word.
just switch to paid-only to post and be done with it already
I appreciate your input, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
You are mistaken in your assessment of my understanding of the situation. Try going back and reading the last, say 100 or so, threads on bad ads and malware and my contributions to them.
Possibly the funniest consequence of clicking that link was the following message:
The Website Ahead Contains Malware!
Google Chrome has blocked access to boards.straightdope.com for now.
Even if you have visited this website safely in the past, visiting it
now is very likely to infect your computer with malware.
Malware is malicious software that causes things like identity
theft, financial loss, and permanent file deletion. [Learn more]
Go back / Advanced
That’s what it says, but it’s not true at the moment. And there’s the problem.
Paid only doesn’t help. I’m getting nailed with the message every time I hit a new page.
I’m sorry, but I don’t feel like reading any other threads about malware delivered by the SDMB’s advertisers’ content. They seem to be pretty boring, really. Even if I did read them, it wouldn’t change the fact that if you’re vulnerable to being infected by the SDMB, you’re got a good chance of already being hacked.
But you don’t stand much of a chance of getting hit by malware if you aren’t being fed the ads and you can ignore the warnings. The Chrome scan doesn’t make the distinction between SDMB accounts paid or not, yet ads appear to be the source of the malware, not user posts or admin coding.
Ah I just looked at your profile. Ex-tech support. Now I understand the condescention.
I appreciate your intent if not your condescending manner of delivery, but I am quite safe thank you. And incidentally adblockers and noscript don’t protect you from everything. If it is on these flimsy protections that you rely, it is you who needs to be educated about internet security.
Mine begins with access to the internet via proxy, a modified hosts file updated daily to block any connections to or from any sites I don’t explicitly allow, an anonymized version of firefox (TOR Browser), a hardware firewall, a modicum of intelligence with regards to what sites I visit and what information I make available to them, and, finally, despite not really needing them at this point, local software solutions such as anti-virus and a software firewall.
As you say, without protections an internet connected computer will be promptly infected some way or another, but in terms of being infected by bad ads there are very few sites, with the possible exception of porn or gambling or illegal download sites, that offer a mix of malware laden ads as regularly as the Dope’s ad provider. There are plenty of ad services who are fastidious about checking the ads they deliver for safety and security, we just opted to use ones that pay a little more but offer no such protections.
This is why I keep coming back here. Some of you nerds make me feel not quite so damned old. Or at least that we’re all old nerds together. 
Sorry if it comes off as condescension, I don’t really mean it that way. It’s probably that I’m grumpy all the time, and reading this thread is like being at work. I’ll probably stop visiting it after this.
Well, we generally agree. Where we differ is our opinion on how common infected ads are. If you think it’s limited to porn or gabling sites, you’re wrong. Yahoo distributed a virus earlier this year, it’s just a matter of time before Google does it themselves. Part of my job is to look at hacked sites and see what they’re doing. Perhaps that makes me more wary of the internet in general than is warranted. But I’m sure this sort of problem extends past porn, gambling and the SDMB.
That’s a rather dated perception of where malware comes from these days. The social engineering used by malware purveyors is far more sophisticated these days. They have expanded far beyond the porn and gambling sites of ten years ago. For instance, they have found a certain demographic cannot resist rebates and coupons, so sites promising those are open cesspools of infected advertising.
OK, ‘porn, gambling, illegal download, and coupon sites’
Bottom line is that of all the sites that I, me, personally, visit regularly or at all, the dope has by far the highest rate of bad ads.
I am well prepared to deal with them and have never opened a thread to complain about them, but as long as others are arguing that this is “just the way it is on the internet these days” I have often chimed in to offer advice about how to avoid it, and to point out that there are choices that the administration can make to mitigate the problem on their own site regardless of the state of affairs on the internet at large.
Up until a few months ago it was for the most part just your typical, occasional bad ad slipping through the cracks. A few months ago wave after wave of redirects and flash animated ads starting showing up and caught the admins here off guard as they were used to hand waving the problem away and saying things like “we’ll report this to the people upstairs but it happens sometimes…” The severity and frequency of the bad ads increased tenfold as did the threads complaining about them but it took an act of Google to bring the matter to their attention. My guess is at this point we will go with a more reputable ad service, even if all the other kids are still getting infected at coupon sites.
Don’t know, but I would guess that for that one time you accessed the site from the google search page or some other search page that’s checking the blacklist. And since that first time you have accessed some other way? Or never left the site?
Paid only would help as it would negate the need for ads at all, which are the source of the malware that has caused the site to be flagged. The issue is not specific to users who have not paid.
Me too.
Because, as has been explained many times, Google has the site of a global blacklist. It doesn’t know or care about your personal situation.
Google may not know my personal situation, but how dare you say they don’t care. Google loves me, this I know.