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Arthmoor

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So I'm sure by now you all know about how Nexus has been stepping up the insertion of pop-up ads into the site. Or the interstitials they're placing on several pages. Including some of questionable content. All because the site is apparently in need of becoming a profit engine rather than simply needing to be paid for.Well, it seems as though there's now been another escalation. Users have begun reporting that they are seeing 30 second long flash ads on every download from the site.Nexus is a great site, with a huge amount of content. I understand that all that server capacity and bandwidth is probably crushing in terms of price. Especially since it's in the UK where internet related things often cost a lot more than they do here. It's going too far though. To the point where the ad invasion has gotten so bad people are now openly talking about moving their stuff off the site, and of the site being on the road to killing itself. I don't think this is exactly what Dark0ne had in mind, but the end result is what it is. People are only going to tolerate this for so long before they begin jumping ship.I almost hate to say this too, but that supposed hack incident that caused such an uproar over spam emails getting sent out is starting to look like a red herring. It's starting to look more like they sold an email list to spammers to make a quick buck. I don't particularly like having to say it, but my gut is telling me it wasn't a coincidence that the hack took place almost immediately before escalation in ads began. Loud obnoxious flash ads, bright flashy banners, pop-ups, pop-unders, people have already seen it all.It isn't just Nexus though. Megaupload has been a very useful tool for awhile because you could send up large files and people could download them on fast connections. They even remained more or less stable. Now, they've begun deleting things at random and their ads are now laced with viruses and trojans, making the site unsafe to even visit. PES is already a hideous mess because of the ads, and there's no sign things are getting better there either.So far adblock has been working to keep the stuff from showing up for me, so it's not become a critical issue just yet, but should it fail and an ad gets through on Nexus that's laced with viruses (happening a lot more there lately) then it'll be time to consider offloading to somewhere else and encouraging others to do the same.I wonder how long it will be before the premium members get hit with it and they tell them they'll just have to put up with it.

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It'll be a great pity if it should go that way, and most likely a major blow to the communities of the respective games that use it. I certainly began my experiences with Oblivion mods at Nexus, and will be quite sad if I have to walk away (TESA, anyone?). As for those adds-before-you-get-a-download, I don't actually mind if they stick them on large downloads (as in 200mb) plus, but on smaller downloads it is just ridiculous. Here's my question though; would reducing the free server cap help with the cost of the site (I'm not savvy enough in this aspect of the internet to know, which is to say I know nothing about running websites)? I'd rather longer downloads rather than unsafe ads :shrug:

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Yeah, I caught one of those video ads today downloading something. Forces you to watch for 30 seconds. Was I annoyed? Yes to say the least, but it's easy enough just to flip the window behind firefox and go read some amusing threads on BGS, or here, to pass the time.Really wonder how many people click on those ads to generate revenue for them. Obviously not enough since they've stepped up their intrusive measures.

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That's an awfully disturbing trend though. I can't think of much else that's more annoying than being force fed a 30 second flash video ad when there are numerous examples of them blasting people from their seats with loud noise.

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Prettyfly, since Samson and Hana didn't answer your question, I don't believe that it works that way. The truth is he's paying for his bandwidth each month upfront (possibly with an annual contract for minimum bandwidth) so restricting the download cap once he's already increased it doesn't save him anything, it just costs folks more download time and ties up his servers faster. :shrug:On the flip side, most of the downloads are mirror sites to begin with, so who knows what arrangements he's got for the other servers to begin with.

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I think Nexus actually pays for bandwidth on a yearly basis, but I could be wrong about that. I'm also fairly sure he's complained about the cost going up or something recently.I also just had a run in with the ad window, I think, I grabbed a copy of the Morrowind Code Patch and very briefly saw a message about a video not playing, which was almost immediately replaced with the "pick your download server" dialogue. So I guess adblock plus is doing its job for me.

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Guess it was wise of me to do all of my downloading the day before all this hit.And yeah, my understanding is that he's got yearly bandwidth costs that are (unsurprisingly) going up.Getting lured back into Morrowind, O Fearless Leader?Which reminds me, I have 30 or 40 things I need to install for that mod list. Eek.

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Might be, but not just yet. The Morrowind Code Project looks like the kind of effort Oblivion might have benefited from. I'm surprised nobody ever took up the challenge.I've seen quite a few screenshots of stuff though that rival current modded levels in Oblivion.

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Maybe I have been giving adblock plus too short a shrift.. I'd been using other browsers enough that I hadn't felt a need for adblock plus, but if it can bypass nonsense like that for me, well...

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  • 2 weeks later...

So this must be what all the hubub is about. First time seeing it, didn't appear terribly effective. Disappeared after 2 seconds once it determined it couldn't connect.noadsforme.png

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Someone must've botched the link for it from the website if it's not able to connect for anyone.. either that or they're ad server died. I hope what's his name got paid in advance for it. ;)

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No idea, but with the number of people complaining about having to watch the videos, I'd say adblock is tricking it into being unable to connect.

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Apparently I'm not as the advertisements have come back from the dead to interupt my downloads. Its probably something I should get around to using.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I installed the Adblock add-on today, after a FF upgrade, but I still see the ads on Nexus. Just the banner ads, it did block the video during downloads. What am I doing wrong or does it not block banner ads?

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Odd, I don't see any ads there at all other than the brief attempt their forced video window tries to make. You may need to add a filter subscription to "EasyList USA", which was at one time added by default but may not be now. It's been eons since I've had to install it from scratch.

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Considering how little I've played with adblock I have to ask, is this perhaps something you can manually add to it's blocking?

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I grabbed a filter when it installed, there was only one choice. Forget it's name but that might have been it. Maybe something screwed up after I upgraded. Will look again.@Conner, doesn't appear to be any way to manually add things to the filter.

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With adblock plus, you can usually right click on something and there's a menu option to block it. Flash objects will have a small tab that says block, click that spot and it blocks those. That's the easy way to manually add to the filter. The hard way is poking around in the adblock interface and figuring out what pattern you want to block and that's just a pain in the ass.

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Hm, nope, no option to block when right clicking, no little tab thingy. I'll try re-installing it.

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