I was posting to the "My recent thread... Moved?", (CyberStretch on 11/19/02 21:12), when I noticed I could not cut-n-paste. I looked at the IE6 Window's "Status Bar" and saw what I screen-captured in the graphic. It almost seemed like clicking anywhere on the R'osity page was like clicking a doubleclick banner or another ad; although I was, in fact, in the New Message text box and trying to cut-n-paste the error I made in the previous post. I am unsure if this is my system or not, as it only happened here and just that once. I figured that I would give you a head's up, JIC is has been happening to others. (Colors reduced to get the image below the 200k limitation.)

Isn't doubleclick spyware software? I had adaware on my computer in its last configuration and have seen (and removed) "doubleclick" a few times when I scanned my computer for spyware... If it was sitting on your system would that perhaps account for it showing up in the status bar like that? I have very little knowledge about how these spyware things work, so sorry if this seems like a stupid question... :-)>

FYI - You can go to www.doubleclick.com and opt out of their spyware cookie. Tommy

I have several privacy/protection devices against doubleclick and spyware in general, so I do not think it was due to a doubleclick cookie or spyware. Since I go to several places online, I would expect that if it was my system, that it would occur on multiple sites. I have chalked it up to some form of client/server burp or another anomaly. I just wanted to make sure that others were aware, JIC the same thing happens to them.

It is the Bryce Ad!

I'll check into this. If it's that Bryce ad then it's causing some different problems for a few folks. Thanks. Tommy

NP. I saw the other thread and noticed it in there too. When the Bryce ad is displayed, it seems that clicking anywhere on the R'osity page shows the URL in the Status bar. It is almost like it is claiming the entire page as part of the ad. Perhaps a portion of the ad URL (ie, [timestamp]?) could be causing a problem with the banner ad rotation code? Maybe the next time it hits, or if I refresh enough, I could View Source and see what is generated on the overall page. Granted, this will only be what the browser sees, but it may provide some info. It seems that the Corel banner ads are the common denominator, according to the other thread as well.

It is still doing it. Just ran across the same thing not seconds ago.

ad.doubleclick.net is technically "spyware"- they are an "ad server" that places cookies on your computer (usually without you knowing about it). The next time you go to a site with a doubleclick.net banner, it reads your cookie and starts tracking your activity (last site visited, length between visits, etc.) Eventually, they will have an entire history of where you have been. Look at the URL listed in the above post (#5)- that URL shows that doubleclick.net has set up a special folder just to handle their ads to Renderosity. So, they probably have some programs at their end that track how many times the URL has been accessed and when. They match the "timestamp" to someone's cookie, and they're off and tracking you. 1) Everyone absolutely needs to be running some kind of ad-blocking software: Ad-Subtract, AdWasher, etc. (Go to www.downloads.com and do a search.) These programs will block cookies AND pop-up ads. 2) I certainly hope that Renderosity has not sold ad space to spyware companies like doubleclick.net and that this is a one-time banner.

...Or running a web browser with these features built into it... Mozilla. Doubleclick, this is bad news. Please no more! I don't mind people watching me, I do mind when people spy on me, or even trying to. BTW, Ads from doubleclick are wasted on me, I never see them. They're totally blocked at the firewall. I don't mind the R'osity vendor ads. They are part of the community. Every once in a while I actually click on one ;-)

It's still showing up, and preventing copy/paste actions. I had to refresh the screen.

Still, nothing has changed. An update might be nice as to what could be done about it.

There is a way to aviod this, just block those ads.

I do block ads through several means, including a hosts file. However, the symptoms still occur - you just do not see the ad in question.

Err, CyberStretch, did you get my IM?

Mozilla does not seem to by vulnerable to this problem. I've seen several "blank" banners. One of them I hovered over and the status text seemed to match that of the offending Corel ad. The browser was not effected nor was the blank space for the add over sized. There's probably some VB script in there or something that's going to only effect IE.

"Err, CyberStretch, did you get my IM?" Nope. :0( Must be another server glitch or something.

I just cleaned out some old IMs, in case it was a storage issue.

Grrr I send another one.

Ok, it is w*rking now. :0)

Yoohooo... Anyone actually paying attention to this? I should think it should be easier to fix than waiting 6 days and doing nothing about it. BTW, did I mention it is still happening?

I have had this happen to me too. When I was typing in the message box, I went to go back to fix a type and it wouldn't let me. I noticed the ad.doublclick in the status bar. I had to refresh the screen so the add would go away. I think this should be fixed too, but it doesn't look like a priorety on Rendo's scale. Come on Renderosity, fix it!

Likely the problem isn't at Renderosity. I'll bet it is at doubleclick and they are doing something in the ad delivery that is causing the trouble. Maybe if Corel knew their ad was causing he!! here and making about 100,000 potential customers really P.O'd they would get it fixed. Once again this only seems to effect IE. Mozilla doesn't flip then the double click ads (try to) display.

Well, R'osity could pull the ad until it is fixed. After all, it is interfering with their Bondware.

BTW, I just ran into it again and this time I decided to check the source code to see what the problem might be. It appears that the ad does not have a closing [/A] tag:

[A HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N1951.renderosity.com/B1090796;sz=468x60;ord=[timestamp]?"]
[TABLE border="0" width="100%" align="center" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"]

---

This is sample code from a working banner ad:

[A target="bannerad" HREF="http://www.renderosity.com/adclk.ez ad_no=1331&X=22137"]
[IMG SRC="http://market.renderosity.com/photos/AdExclFyrene.jpg" border="0"][/A]
[TABLE border="0" width="100%" align="center" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"]

Crooked brackets changed to square brackets so as not to be interpreted by the browser.

Sorry it's taken an age to get back on this one. It's on the to-do list and should be sorted soon we hope.

Well, it would seem to be a relatively easy fix, if indeed the missing tag is the only problem. Could you temporarily add the closing tag in the URL for the image? I am not sure how Bondware works, but it seems like a possible temporary workaround.

The fix is so easy. Nothing @ Renderosity will bother you anymore.
Just put the following line into your hosts file:

127.0.0.1www.renderosity.com

:)