# "VigLink" is molesting our posts



## Fofer

See here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=8741787

Our posts are being modified with crappy, spammy links. This is gross. Very, very bad form. I'm sure the site owners would never authorize something as scummy/scammy as this?

Please fix this.


----------



## jradosh

I was shocked to see one of my posts had been altered to make it appear that I was spamming the forum with an eBay link. I'd typed the word Netflix and this VigLink thing changed it to a link without my approval or consent.


----------



## Mike Lang

We're using VigLink at AVS too (as are many other forums these days). The Netflix link error was submitted to them. It's not always perfect.


----------



## Fofer

What do you mean by error? The link it inserted should be different? Or that it inserted a link into our posts at all? It goes without saying we don't want our posts edited with spammy links we didn't insert ourselves. You can put ads on the site wherever you deem appropriate, but please don't have spam robots edit our posts. That's just sleazy.


----------



## jradosh

Ha! It VigLink'd my post (above). 

Really, is this the future of this forum? Spambots molesting our posts?


----------



## steve_a

Fofer,

We are very sorry that we made a mistake with the link that you referenced in your post. We strive for perfection in creating links that are useful to forum readers and to ensure that the links are accurate, but we do make mistakes occasionally. If you would like to opt-out of VigLink's links, you can Google Viglink optout, and the first result will contain an optout link.

Steve


----------



## Fofer

It's not that I don't want to see VigiLink links; I can easily block the scripts in my browser. 

It's that I don't want the posts that I make, to be edited to include links that I didn't put there myself. That's poor form. It's misleading and scummy.

I put links in my posts myself when they are helpful to the reader, links to referenced software, how-to's, etc. I don't need (nor want) any automatic software editing the content I create, by adding in spammy links for others to see, thinking I put them there myself.

Will "opting out" mean my posts will never be molested by VigLink? Or does it just prevent me from seeing these unwanted links in posts from other people?


----------



## Mike Wells

Dislike.


----------



## Peter Redmer

Hi everybody.

VigLink was recently implemented at TCF, but it should only be "active" for visitors ("guests"). I verified this setting in the forums is correct, but for some reason it's still showing for me, and obviously for all of you, regardless of whether one is logged in, TC Club member, and so on.

So, I'm going to investigate this and work with our ad team to see what's up. I'm not sure at this point if this is a forum issue, or something specific to how VigLink works. I'm on it though, and will update when I know more. 

Pete


----------



## dswallow

I forget who it was, but some site used a similar service but that service double-underlined everything. At least it made it obvious what was going on compared to other possible links, but it was also horrendous in that every one of them created a hover pop-up, too.


----------



## Fofer

Peter Redmer said:


> Hi everybody.
> 
> VigLink was recently implemented at TCF,


Thanks, Peter. If the posts that we write will be edited by ad software so they look different to other forum visitors (club members or guests, doesn't matter) please let us know. The way it is implemented right now means it can change the tone and context of our communication and that's a creepy precedent. If you absolutely, positively need to implement this to make money, then please do the classy thing and make the fake links look different or something...


----------



## Wilhite

...and if you can't change the Viglink links to be something different than a "normal" link, can you at least give us an idea of what words will be Viglinked so that we can think twice before including them in our posts? There might be some things that I would rather not refer to if I know that it will appear to anyone (guests, members, etc.) that read my posts.


----------



## Peter Redmer

We've resolved the issue of VigLink links showing up for logged in members, at least as far as I can tell in my tests.

We're looking into whether the appearance of the links can be changed to make them stand out more/look different.

Pete


----------



## Fofer

dswallow said:


> I forget who it was, but some site used a similar service but that service double-underlined everything. At least it made it obvious what was going on compared to other possible links, but it was also horrendous in that every one of them created a hover pop-up, too.


That was either intelliTXT.com or kontera.com. Both gross, and widely reviled on the web. I thought these sorts of strategies went away with X10.com and pop-unders? I'm reminded of tynt.com, which messes with your clipboard when you copy-paste text from certain websites. It's the worst.

I'm using this javascript blocker (mentioned here) to block all three.

<sigh>


----------



## Fofer

Peter Redmer said:


> We've resolved the issue of VigLink links showing up for logged in members, at least as far as I can tell in my tests.
> 
> We're looking into whether the appearance of the links can be changed to make them stand out more/look different.
> 
> Pete


We appreciate your continued attention and work on this, Peter. It's appreciated. Thanks for keeping us updated.

I'll reiterate, ideally our posts wouldn't be molested on _anyone's_ display, but you do what you gotta do. And distinguishing these "fake" ad links from the real links we've put in our posts ourselves would be a classier approach.

Thanks again.


----------



## Fofer

steve_a said:


> f you would like to opt-out of VigLink's links, you can Google Viglink optout, and the first result will contain an optout link.


Can you explain more specifically what "opting out" _does_?

Does it simply prevent me from seeing VigLink's fake ad links, in content I read on the web?

Or does it protect my posts (that others will read) from being molested, with fake ad links inserted that I, myself, won't see?


----------



## dswallow

Fofer said:


> Can you explain more specifically what "opting out" _does_?
> 
> Does it simply prevent me from seeing VigLink's fake ad links, in content I read on the web?
> 
> Or does it protect my posts (that others will read) from being molested, with fake ad links inserted that I, myself, won't see?


Think about what would be required of an opt-out system that could track whether your posts should be modified or not. It would require support everywhere you might make a post.

I'm certain the opt-out simply changes how links look to you, "you" being from the browser and machine from which you opted out... when you visit a viglink-enabled site, you won't see links created by viglink because there'll be a cookie in your browser telling viglink not to do it.


----------



## Fofer

Okay, yeah, I was pretty sure of that, but wanted the distinction to be clear for anyone following along here.

FWIW, I think VigLink's methods are sleazy. Editing the content of someone's posts (yes, inserted links count as content) as a way to generate revenue is poor form.


----------



## Gunnyman

I hate it when I'm right.


----------



## dthmj

Sorry for bumping an old thread...

But I've noticed that when I click on a link on Forum Runner it goes through Viglink. Is TCF doing this, or Forum Runner? And how do I make it stop?


----------



## Fofer

TCF is doing it. The forum software is editing our posts after we make them, and inserting this VigLink crap. Hence the title of this thread...

Apparently these spammy links and redirects shouldn't affect logged-in users, only guests (as we learned in this thread.) Maybe that's not happening with Forum Runner? 

Yeesh. What a mess.


----------



## dthmj

I thought the original problem was with certain key words it would turn them into links. I'm not seeing that - I'm seeing links that people put in posts go through viglink first before it goes to the original destination.

I don't like being redirected through *something*.... I suppose it's just tracking what I click on - but it's creepy and icky. 

Sorta like the thief rummaging through my underwear drawer.


----------



## SullyND

I'm seeing it when viewing TCF in Mobile Safari as well.


----------



## JETarpon

I saw this thread earlier when I posted my thread about slow posting, and was going to come post about the Forum Runner problem, too. It's particularly annoying since in Forum Runner you don't have the ability to mouse over a link and see that it's going to send you through VigLink.


----------



## RegBarc

SullyND said:


> I'm seeing it when viewing TCF in Mobile Safari as well.


Not only this, but my mobile Safari browser has been stopped numerous times in it's tracts by VigLink's links hanging. I have to go back to the previous page, reload, then try the link again.


----------



## JETarpon

It's particularly annoying with YouTube links in forum runner. Without viglink in the way, a YouTube link would just open the YouTube app. With viglink, however, the link opens a browser to navigate to viglink, then one it processes, it redirects to YouTube, and my YouTube app finally opens. When I'm done, and hit my back button, it takes me back to viglink, not back to the forum.


----------



## bareyb

JETarpon said:


> I saw this thread earlier when I posted my thread about slow posting, and was going to come post about the Forum Runner problem, too. It's particularly annoying since in Forum Runner you don't have the ability to mouse over a link and see that it's going to send you through VigLink.


Is this why my replies to posts are taking forever to go through? I was just coming in here to complain about it. It's been going on for a few days now. Makes using this place a pain...


----------



## Fofer

Hey, I have noticed the slow replies too! Like 30-45 seconds for them to go through. Something's rotten!


----------



## JETarpon

bareyb said:


> Is this why my replies to posts are taking forever to go through? I was just coming in here to complain about it. It's been going on for a few days now. Makes using this place a pain...


I don't think viglink is at fault for the slow posting. It's a separate issue.


----------



## bareyb

JETarpon said:


> I don't think viglink is at fault for the slow posting. It's a separate issue.


Well something's sure messed up. Some of my posts are timing out and I'm starting to get error messages now, as below:










Let's see how long it takes this post to actually go through. Starting... Now.


----------



## bareyb

50 seconds... :down:


----------



## Peter Redmer

We don't think VigLink is connected with this slowdown issue, but it seems that something is definitely up. I responded in this thread:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=9176539&posted=1#post9176539


----------



## Peter Redmer

Just for posterity--I understand this seems to be occurring randomly--but the last few posts I have made have gone through instantly on FF/Mac OS 10.7.4. Will continue to test on our end, but I have a feeling it's a server related issue.


----------



## bareyb

Peter Redmer said:


> Hi everybody.
> 
> VigLink was recently implemented at TCF, but it should only be "active" for visitors ("guests"). I verified this setting in the forums is correct, but for some reason it's still showing for me, and obviously for all of you, regardless of whether one is logged in, TC Club member, and so on.
> 
> So, I'm going to investigate this and work with our ad team to see what's up. I'm not sure at this point if this is a forum issue, or something specific to how VigLink works. I'm on it though, and will update when I know more.
> 
> Pete


It's baaaack. Vagilink thing is doing something evil in the background that makes posts take forever to redirect AGAIN. I hit Reply and it just sits and sits and sits.... while Vagilink does it's thing. It can take up to a minute to post or it simply times out and I get an error screen. Is there anything that you can do to stop this spamware from screwing with the forum experience??? This sucks and it's been going on for days now.


----------



## Fofer

From the "Things That Annoy You" Thread, this is useful information for troubleshooting the issue (if the admins are so inclined



Hank said:


> What really annoys me is the TCF owners constantly using ad and other analytics (or whatever) servers embedded in the forum pages... where these third-party servers are non-responsive... causing the page to hang when loading. I get the top part of the thread page, but it hasn't loaded enough to get to the first unread post. Today it was happening on fpdownload2.macromedia.com.
> 
> Every time this happens, I add another entry to my hosts file to block the access. I don't want to (or believe in) avoiding banner ads or other third-party things to make TCF better/free, but that all stops when the pages don't load due to some third-party server hang. Here as some others I've had to add to make sure TCF doesn't hang when loading:
> 
> advertising.com
> diggstatic.com
> viglink.com
> speed.pointroll.com
> awltovhc.com
> lduhtrp.net
> ib.adnxs.com
> ad.ibnxs.com
> http.cdnlayer.com
> tcr.tynt.com


----------



## kdmorse

I can't speak to ad related oddities, but posting slowness is definitely back with a vengeance. In the time it took a post to go through in one tab, I probably read a dozen threads in another...

(Edit: This post of course went through instantly...)


----------



## replaytv

Occasionally my anti malware software says tivocommunity is redirecting to unsafe sites. I turned off Adobe Flash and that seemed to fix it.


----------



## Peter Redmer

I'm looking into this. It definitely looks like this is on Viglink's end, especially since it seems to come and go.

I also agree that this is annoying and affecting the experience in a very negative way, and we want to get this resolved. If it was just a momentary outage on Viglink's part, that would be understandable, but it seems to be persistent.


----------



## Peter Redmer

I have gotten in touch with Viglink tech support. Waiting for a response...


----------



## Peter Redmer

BTW - Viglink has been temporarily disabled while we investigate this. I tested making a new post and standard reply, and it was instantaneous. Can others confirm?


----------



## Fofer

Instantaneous here.


----------



## bareyb

Peter Redmer said:


> BTW - Viglink has been temporarily disabled while we investigate this. I tested making a new post and standard reply, and it was instantaneous. Can others confirm?


TEST


----------



## Fofer

bareyb said:


> TEST


The idea is to test it in other sub-forums, the ones that actually have the VigLink hooks, advertising and post molestations.


----------



## bareyb

Fofer said:


> The idea is to test it in other sub-forums, the ones that actually have the VigLink hooks, advertising and post molestations.


Oh Duh. I forgot it wasn't here. Off to test... 

ETA: Yep. Fixed. Works fine now. Maybe it's time to dump viglink.


----------

