My Laptop infected after visiting UU

Tom Guy · Dec 28, 2011

After visiting UU a few days ago, my machine is infected. I have the latest version of Mcafee AV, with up to date dats. It looks like I will have to format my machine.

Please let me know when it is safe to visit. For now, I will stay back.

rayan · Dec 28, 2011

We'll be evaluating adbrite this week and possibly pulling the ads off as soon as today (maybe). We have a tough decision because financially, it doesnt make sense for us to keep the forum up, but we do feel its our responsibility because so many people get a lot of joy from it. I'll post an update today when i get to the office. thanks for the heads up.

PoiDog · Dec 28, 2011

For what it's worth, the problem isn't necessarily AdBrite, but some of the drive-by advertisers that will use them. Many of these places have malicious codes in their ads.

I would bet dollars to doughnuts that if you talk with the AdBrite guys they may have some sort of way to prevent future infections through their service.

JT_Ukes · Dec 28, 2011

rayan said:
We'll be evaluating adbrite this week and possibly pulling the ads off as soon as today (maybe). We have a tough decision because financially, it doesnt make sense for us to keep the forum up, but we do feel its our responsibility because so many people get a lot of joy from it. I'll post an update today when i get to the office. thanks for the heads up.

For what it is worth, close the forum, and I know I'll have no real reason to visit UU.

rayan · Dec 28, 2011

JT_Ukes said:
For what it is worth, close the forum, and I know I'll have no real reason to visit UU.

thanks for the support. really appreciate it.

3nails4holes · Dec 28, 2011

i have a mac.

keep the forum! love the forums!

please solve the prob for the pc crowd!

go uu!

Hiddencross · Dec 28, 2011

rayan said:
We have a tough decision because financially, it doesnt make sense for us to keep the forum up, but we do feel its our responsibility because so many people get a lot of joy from it.

Count me in with those who get a lot of joy from it. Also, no problems on the iPad. I don't know the exact financial picture but I'd definitely use the tip jar to help keep the forum alive.

rayan · Dec 28, 2011

Ok here's the deal, I've removed the adbrite ads, its not worth it to us to make other peoples lives miserable with all that adware spyware stuff that was coming in with those ads for the measly amount that it was making and it wouldnt have covered the cost anyway the rate it was going. If we can get adsense back, we'll throw that back on their but until then,

I'll propose a deal with you guys.

If you enjoy the forum, find value from it, and visit it frequently, please just help us offset the cost a little by joining the UU VIP program. It's just $45 / year (or $5 / month if you'd rather do monthly).

If you can't afford it, maybe you should spend more time working

. just joking. If you can't afford it, that's fine as well just if anyone asks just let them know that that exists that they can help with the cost of the forum.

Thanks all for the feedback.

Steedy · Dec 28, 2011

Perhaps a small annual fee for registered forum users, in lieu of ads, to support the forums?

I'm willing to cough up a few bucks to participate in the web's best ukulele forums.

Thanks,

Steedy

Oops, too slow (as usual)!

rayan · Dec 28, 2011

Steedy said:
Perhaps a small annual fee for registered forum users, in lieu of ads, to support the forums?

I'm willing to cough up a few bucks to participate in the web's best ukulele forums.

Thanks,

Steedy

Yes its already available as the UU VIP program. mahalo

Tack · Dec 28, 2011

Another vote in favour of keeping the forums!! (also a mac user)

Rayan, any stats on the cross over between first time forum visitors who then go on to UU+ or other paid membership etc. ?
Guess that's the real question before you consider closing....also depends on how expensive the forums are to run from a bandwidth point of view. The forums a what got me here and keep me here, everything else is why I spend money here

JT_Ukes · Dec 28, 2011

rayan said:
thanks for the support. really appreciate it.

I may have typed that a bit stongly.

I'm just saying that the main reason I come to UU these days is for the social aspect of the forum.

I fully support your busness endevors. I don't complain about ads on the site (except when they went bonkers with the popups etc),I help to report spammers, and I promote UU with local Ukulele players. Now, true, I haven't bought the UU Prime account, but as I said, my main reason to visit UU is for the social aspect of the Forum.

I have run a forum before. It isn't easy, the spammers/bots make it a pain, but you seem to have a great bunch of mods here.

In my oppinion, the forum is what makes UU what it is, A wonderfull Community of peeps sharing a love of the uke. however, without the forum, There is no community. Just my 2 cents.

JT_Ukes · Dec 28, 2011

Well, I guess I took to long to type that

rayan · Dec 28, 2011

Tack said:
Another vote in favour of keeping the forums!! (also a mac user)

Rayan, any stats on the cross over between first time forum visitors who then go on to UU+ or other paid membership etc. ?
Guess that's the real question before you consider closing....also depends on how expensive the forums are to run from a bandwidth point of view. The forums a what got me here and keep me here, everything else is why I spend money here

Most people who sign up for UU+ don't even know the forum exists and we're actually going to try to separate them more next year.

That being said, each part of the site should be able to support itself as all parts require resources (time, money, etc). Shouldn't have to rob Peter to pay Paul.

We don't want to close the forum, and we're ok with it the way it was, it was fine when adsense was coming in, but when a user copied and pasted some article some guy wrote, the author had google go after us and took down our adsense ads resulting in a pretty big blow and made the forum pretty much go into the red. I've been trying to get em back for a while but google's customer support is not the best probably because of the size of their advertising programs.

gyosh · Dec 28, 2011

JT_Ukes said:
I may have typed that a bit stongly.

I'm just saying that the main reason I come to UU these days is for the social aspect of the forum.

I fully support your busness endevors. I don't complain about ads on the site (except when they went bonkers with the popups etc),I help to report spammers, and I promote UU with local Ukulele players. Now, true, I haven't bought the UU Prime account, but as I said, my main reason to visit UU is for the social aspect of the Forum.

I have run a forum before. It isn't easy, the spammers/bots make it a pain, but you seem to have a great bunch of mods here.

In my oppinion, the forum is what makes UU what it is, A wonderfull Community of peeps sharing a love of the uke. however, without the forum, There is no community. Just my 2 cents.

Toss in another 4,498 cents and join up!!

JT_Ukes · Dec 28, 2011

gyosh said:
Toss in another 4,498 cents and join up!!

Guess I need to work more

haolejohn · Dec 28, 2011

Tom Guy said:
After visiting UU a few days ago, my machine is infected. I have the latest version of Mcafee AV, with up to date dats. It looks like I will have to format my machine.

Please let me know when it is safe to visit. For now, I will stay back.[/Q
UOTE]

I got one too. My wife is currently cleaning my lap top but that bugga run even in safe mode.

rayan · Dec 28, 2011

I apologize to all the people who did get affected by these ads. Once again for the record, we (I) tried our hardest to find the cleanest family friendly ad network, but I think outside of adsense, that may be like finding a unicorn.

For those who were affected running a PC, I would highly recommend downloading and running Microsoft Security Essentials. It's a free antivirus program provided by microsoft and its actually really good (and did I mention totally free)

Tack · Dec 29, 2011

rayan said:
I apologize to all the people who did get affected by these ads. Once again for the record, we (I) tried our hardest to find the cleanest family friendly ad network, but I think outside of adsense, that may be like finding a unicorn.

For those who were affected running a PC, I would highly recommend downloading and running Microsoft Security Essentials. It's a free antivirus program provided by microsoft and its actually really good (and did I mention totally free)

Whilst being unaffected, I am sure we all realise you are doing your very best to make this both a user friendly and safe place to visit/be/exist / SPEND TOO MUCH #*^#time at

Kudos to you and your excellent team of mods.
Is that free antivirus program from Microsoft free btw?

Olarte · Dec 29, 2011

I already pay fo UU+ and it would be nice if UUVIP were included in it, or at least be combines with the UU+ fees.

For now I can really only afford one or the other but eventually if\when I terminate my UU+ subscription, I will be more than glad to pay for the UUVIP program.

I belong to a different forum, and one way that they make it attractive is the Forums are free in general and they have certain areas, those for trading\buying etc available for paid subscribers. It's easy to defray the cost for that membership as part of being able to find good deals. I think it also makes it a bit safer for trading since at least everyone involved is a paid subscriber... this might be an idea to consider...

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