Impending MySpace Disaster?

[dotinthesky]

Why are there ads appearing everywhere on my LJ? And why are there links on people comments (and even in my userinfo) leading me to crappy advertisement pages?

Sort it out, Livejournal! It's shit.

Comments

[poggs.livejournal.com]

Because MySpace is slow, flashy and bloaty?

[muftak.livejournal.com]

sounds like you might have some spyware or a virus on your pc, get adaware http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

[suede.livejournal.com]

Yes, it might be that, it happened to me last year too.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I thought it might be that and did a scan, but only cookies got picked up. I did fill out a survey some time ago in LJ about my opinion on whether they should includes ads in site... I think I said I didn't want them! I've done another scan, removed the little crabs, but the damn ads are still there.

On your comment, for example, the word "spyware" is a link to http://commonpeople.livejournal.com/spyware. And on my userinfo, "drink" is a link to http://commonpeople.livejournal.com/drink.

[casparian.livejournal.com]

They do have a feature for non-paid accounts where you can get some of the paid features by enabling ads, but only the logged in user should see these, and possibly visitors to their journal (except for paid users who'll never see ads).
I'm not sure it's intergrated yet, but http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/236361.html has some details.

[(Anonymous)]

I was just looking for that url. Haha. My friend had pointed this out on her journal and how annoying it will be.

[rebelyells.livejournal.com]

Woops, forgot to log back in.

I don't like making anonymous posts.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

If I can't get rid of the ads, I might have to get a paid account... or leave LJ for good. This new feature is really annoying.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medium_/]

wait the one that appears on top of your journal or any journal you go to?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Is it appearing on yours too? What does it say?

[(Anonymous)]

does it have your user pic and log out and all that. If so go change it in your info thing. you can cut it off and on.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medium_/]

sorry that is me ... I just forgot to sign in.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

no probs.

it turns out i have shit spyware on my computer. but i'm on the case.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Argh! Does that mean they have picked me for initial phase experimentation??

[sparklielizard.livejournal.com]

I thought they were going to leave it as-is for everyone and they'd only get ads if they enabled the usually paid-for features? Have you been fiddling with your settings at all recently?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

My journal is being treated as if I agreed to this ads scheme... I'm trying to find away of getting out of it (I contacted one of the people who run LJ)... it's really annoying! Now, when I look at comments on a users journal, key words appear as links ("mirror" "drink" "car") and they all lead to ads. :-(

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

I don't see any of the things you see, not even in the comments to this post.

woohoo! how do you like the mix?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

You are lucky. Did you fill out a survey that appeared on the main logging page some time ago? I filled it out and perhaps they took that as an agreement on my part to have ads on my journal. But, as I remember, I clearly stated I didn't want any ads (maybe I ticked it wrong?)

Mix is very good, as usual. ;-)

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

I dunno if I can point you to it, but the feed is overheardnyc I think. it's one with "hobo" as one of the participants in the overheard bits.

I filled out no survey.

Glad you like it. It really amuses me. I just picked out all of the most melodramatic songs I could think of. hehehe

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Yeah, ads everywhere for me.

I must be emo cause now i'm depressed.

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

our dudes look like chicks and our chicks look like dykes cos emo is one step below transvestite!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

and my little sister's jeans sure look good on me!

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

yeah, I love that part, it cracks me up!

test

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

♥

Re: test

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

AAHAHAHAHA!!! IT WORKED! SOOOOO EMOOOOO!!!!

Re: test

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Is that a heart with an arrow through it?!?!

Re: test

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

strike out!!

Re: test

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

What a smartie pants.

Re: test

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

heheh...

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

holy crap! except I just saw a link on an overheardnyc post!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Can you point me to the post?

I can point you

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

actually, here it is http://syndicated.livejournal.com/overheardnyc/1192550.html

Re: I can point you

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

There's an ad for cosmetic dentist in nyc.

Re: I can point you

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

really? an actual ad? that's fucked up! I noticed that all the links on that post are related to the post itself. no ads for me.

Re: I can point you

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it's one of the yearly fuck ups that LJ commits and that things should go back to normal *crosses fingers*

Re: I can point you

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

*crosses fingers* with you

[kenoster.livejournal.com]

If you are unknowingly part of a beta testing for that then you should complain. That is part of what they are testing, if people are going to stand it or not.

I don't see ads yet but I'll complain with you!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I complained to one of the LJ founders (in the post that is linked in this comments section.) I don't see why it shouldn't be sorted out soon... but yeah, it's a shitty thing to do to a user who didn't opt in on the scheme.

[punk-in-chains.livejournal.com]

It's happened to me a few times before where for no reason, loads of random words in random posts get linked to other places. I've just ignored it [although it is annoying] and it's usually gone away within a week or two. I have no idea what it is though.

Pic

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

It's a spyware programme installed on your computer! There's a link in this post, from muftak to a software which is free to download and which erases that crap. Worth checking out. ;-)