Link to "Related Posts with Thumbnails" on Cecil's columns?

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

I just noticed something new on Cecil’s articles at www.straightdope.com –

At the bottom of each article, e.g., the current one Is there such a thing as cancer of the heart? (but others too), there is a link I haven’t seen before: It says “Related Posts with Thumbnails” and links to a place called www . linkwithin . com

I haven’t heard of that. When I click on it, I get a browser error: Cannot find server.

What is this? It is real? Is it a malware site? Have Cecil’s pages been hacked? Or is this legit? Or am I alone just hallucinating all of this?

2

I don’t see it.

3

Screen shot, showing part of the current column “Is there such a thing as cancer
of the heart?” The mouse cursor (not shown in the screen shot) is on the link,
and the status bar at the bottom shows the URL of the link.

Here is the HTML code in the page (I’ve added some CRLFs and whitespace):


<div class="sd_linkwithin_widget">
        <script>
        var linkwithin_site_id = 62141;
        </script>
        <script src="http://www.linkwithin.com/widget.js"></script>
        <a href="http://www.linkwithin.com/">
            <img src="http://www.linkwithin.com/pixel.png" 
                     alt="Related Posts with Thumbnails"
                     style="border: 0" /></a>
    </div>

ETA: Note from the above, the link is intended to appear as a picture, but my browser
is showing the alt text instead. Maybe you’re seeing the picture instead? I don’t even
know what it’s supposed to look like.

4

Nope, nothing there. It goes from “Cecil Adams” to “comments on this answer”.
I moused over the spot and still nothing. But, I can see it on your screen shot so not hallucinating.

5

If you look at the HTML source (Ctrl-U on most browsers, or maybe Command-U on Macs), can you find the same HTML code I posted above (or anything similar)?

6

I can see it, and I’m using Icecat with sufficient protection to block out most draining adverts etc…

7

Is this something new, or has it been there all along? I don’t recall noticing it before yesterday.

8

I don’t see it, using IE, Firefox, or Google Chrome. I’ll pass this over the tech experts and see what happens.

9

The linkwithin.com code has been around in the article page template since at least Feb 19, 2010. I don’t know the history of the code or what exactly it is for beyond it being related to a possibly past advertising relationship. As Senegoid noted the reason he is seeing the “Related Posts with Thumbnails” link is because the code is displaying the Alt tag for him. Something on his computer is set to block access to linkwithin.com so what would normally show a 1x1 pixel image for most users is showing the Alt tag link instead for Senegoid.

Don’t believe this is anything to be concerned about. The style of the code itself leads me to believe it was installed by the initial designer of the site or someone updating the template for an advertising opportunity.

10

Personally, I think that any code designed to show a single-pixel image is something to be concerned about. Single-pixel images are almost always intended for some nefarious purpose or another. The fact that the head tech guy doesn’t know what it’s for just reinforces this concern, in my eyes.

11

I can only say I don’t remember it before, but that I only go there maybe every six or seven weeks ( I’ve read the back-issues ).
Looking it up, LinkWithin appears to be a widget that redirects to your additional content ( as with some forums’ ‘Similar Threads’ [ which would be a plugin in that case ] ) by way of their own site.

But linkwithin the site is down, therefore the error.

I once had a similar failure, the site redirected instantly to a closed page of a foreign host. Finally tracked it down through googling the host and finding they had hosted a tracking meter company of whose javascript I had chosen to insert in the footer years before. Removed the javascript and all was well.

Except that I thought it would be nice to mention this narrative, for the sake of others puzzled why their sites weren’t coming up, neutrally and politely on WordPress.org’s peculiar forums, and they removed my thread immediately… Weirdos.
It’s not malware, just a reliance on an external site for a portion of the page. Something which will get worse as people are encouraged to fragment their sites to Amazon Cloud Instances and CloudFlare etc. etc. for speed of loading. Reliability is better than Speed any day…

12

Whatever it was, it seems to be gone today (Jan. 5).

13

Well, let me amend that. The HTML code is still there. Rather, today my browser actually reaches linked within dot com, so it loads that 1x1 image rather than displaying the alt text, which is why I don’t see anything there now.

What exactly is the point of this? With the alt text shown, there is actually something I can click on in the <a href=…> but I couldn’t go there yesterday cause I guess their site was temporarily down. There’s nothing in my browser settings to block that (yet). Today, there’s nothing there that I can click on (unless I manage to point exactly at the one-pixel image that I can’t see).

Generally speaking, I agree with Chronos. 1x1 pixel images may or may not be malicious malware; usually, they are just tracking beacons. That’s malevolent enough for me. I’m going to block it, since both Dex and jdavis don’t seem to know what it’s doing there.

One could also go to linked within’s home page and read up on what they are about, if one is curious enough. Maybe I’ll do that.

ETA: Is class=“sd_linkwithin_widget” defined in SDMB’s CSS or somewhere? It’s referenced in the HTML code before actually loading anything from their site, so it must be, right?

14

nm