Guest Donna Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Alrighty then, here I go!!!! I never did hear anything back from coke!!! I'll send the new letter. Link to post Share on other sites
chengrob Posted August 28, 2003 Author Share Posted August 28, 2003 Coke received your email and Stinger's and then decided to contact me directly. Particularly since at the time it was hard to find the spyware section of our site. They are actually investigating several things, and they are very willing to listen up to this point. Link to post Share on other sites
Jazzy Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Do you still want us to write to Coke Rob? Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Donna Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Coke received your email and Stinger's and then decided to contact me directly. Particularly since at the time it was hard to find the spyware section of our site. They are actually investigating several things, and they are very willing to listen up to this point. Do I get to drink Coke yet? Link to post Share on other sites
Stinger27 Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 LOL Donna ,no you have to suffer and drink Pepsi like I am for the time being. Link to post Share on other sites
volt Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Do you still want us to write to Coke Rob? Well I can tell ya this much,,I don't get any popups or scout pages from coke this time around. Sure did the first time tho. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Donna Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 undeliverable Cables to go Coke Madness Ice soft The email link for officemax email comes up as Page not Displayed. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Donna Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 (edited) From: "WMN Webmaster" <[email protected]> To: "'Donna'"edit" Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2003 11:52 AM Subject: RE: > What advertising? We don't advertise on the Internet. > > Please justify this email with an explanation or we'll block you from > all our domains for spamming. > > WMN Webmaster > [email protected] From http://www.doctortext.com/ Another from Just tires This one they sent to my ISP think I was an employee Please have a talk with your employees. Do not include us in these types of spam. ----- Forwarded by Customer Service/NA/GDYR on 08/28/03 02:12 PM Edited August 28, 2003 by Donna Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Donna Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Ok, The replys are coming back in. Now what? The one i listed above from Dr Text has emailed again Donna, We found one of our domains on your site: Doctortext.com. We DO NOT advertise with Gator, nor have we asked to be included in any Gator advertising. We do advertise with Overture, and apparently they have an affiliation with Gator. Since Overture is our sole advertising tool, and it's extremely effective, we can't remove our advertising or we'll go out of business. Perhaps you should have contacted Overture about this matter instead of choosing to boycott a site for something that is out its control. Our legal department will be looking into this matter. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest alex Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 (edited) This boycott list and the resulting encouraged harassment towards the companies on the list is not the way to do it. For example, we (BPVN Technologies) have stopped using Overture two weeks ago, so we can't understand how we made it into the list. Like I wrote to pcpitstop crew already, please allow me to illustrate the "unknowingly" principle. Take a look at this screenshot of pcpistop website, and look at what is advertised: Over-sized Image coverted to a link by Ax I believe, Donna, you sent an email to our company. How would you feel to be on the receiving end of this? Edited August 30, 2003 by Ax Slinger Link to post Share on other sites
Jacee Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 (edited) Holy cow!! I just typed in that URL and I saw the same Gator ad Somone is messing with us Edited August 28, 2003 by Jacee Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Donna Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 I just sat here for a half hour refreashing and searching the site. The exit exchange one is there, but I havent come across the gator one yet. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Donna Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 I believe, Donna, you sent an email to our company. How would you feel to be on the receiving end of this? Yes, You probably did get an email from me. The email was stating that some websites are unknowingly associated with gator. It seems at the time data was being collected you were in business with overture, who is involved with Gator. How would I feel? If I ran a website that I was unknowingly advertising gator i would want to know. Gator is a parasite that needs to be stopped and that is what we are trying to do. If your website is now not associated with Gator, then I am pretty sure you will be taken off the list. Sorry for any troubles you have been caused. Donna Link to post Share on other sites
chengrob Posted August 28, 2003 Author Share Posted August 28, 2003 This is funny. I was going to post about this in a separate thread. It will take a while for the block on Gator take hold on our site. I am shocked that this could happen. Our ad network is Tribal Fusion, and TF's client is Google. That's right. Those grey boxes are being paid for by Google. So this means that Google is doing business with Gator. So someone clicks on this ad, and they download eWallet, and then eWallet, using Gator's Scout, will hijack Google searches. Some at Google is not thinking!!!!! Link to post Share on other sites
chengrob Posted August 28, 2003 Author Share Posted August 28, 2003 Alex, Also since you are no longer spending your advertising dollars toward the spread of spyware, you have been removed from the list in the next 24 hours. Link to post Share on other sites
dave Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 The point here is not to harass anyone, but to make them aware that they are directly or indirectly contributing to the spread or profit of Gator. Alex made a very good point about those Gator ads on the PC Pitstop site, and Rob has already contacted Tribal Fusion to have them removed. We want to know about these things and are glad that people are pointing it out. I also plan to contact Google Syndication to see if they're aware they are contributing to their own demise by promoting Gator. (Gator's search spy will pop up a window with Overture ads when you are at Google.) Regarding DoctorText.com: We do advertise with Overture, and apparently they have an affiliation with Gator. Since Overture is our sole advertising tool, and it's extremely effective, we can't remove our advertising or we'll go out of business. Perhaps you should have contacted Overture about this matter instead of choosing to boycott a site for something that is out its control. If you do not want to have Overture run your ads in Gator, why not contact Overture and tell them so? If Overture doesn't allow you that control over where your ads run, let them know you would like that option. The only way this will change is if Overture knows that their customers don't want to be forced into Gator. So there is something you can do, it is not totally out of your control. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Donna Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 (edited) I tried to email The Dr Text people back. I am now on there "badmail" spam list. I guess they will have to come here to read about overture. On a happier note, I did receive a few emails asking how to find out about Overture and Gator, and that they were not aware of them being associated. I linked them to the advertisors area. Edited August 28, 2003 by Donna Link to post Share on other sites
chengrob Posted August 28, 2003 Author Share Posted August 28, 2003 DoctorText, Are you out there? There are other options other than Overture. We have used Google Ad Words with some success. I just did a search on Google and you do not have any sponsor linked with Google. Why not work with them instead of the parasites? Donna, Did your email include a link to the advertisers.asp page? We are starting to learn that a lot of the heart ache can be avoided if they go straight to this page to learn more about the problem. Rob Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Donna Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Yes, they all have a link to the advertisers page. As for Doctor text, the emails are going to the webmaster, not the Doctor Text people. Link to post Share on other sites
aeroman10 Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 To make contacting companies easier it would be nice if you could setup an email form that contains all the email addresses on the boycott list and the suggested letter that you posted. The user can then fill in their name and email address. They can choose to send to all recepients or selectively choose the ones they want. User can also add to the default letter. If you have something like this setup more people would contact these companies, otherwise its tiresome to keep composing and email message for each company on the list. It also is not very professional to send to multiple receipients. I though of using BCC but though that if this method existed then it would be better. Link to post Share on other sites
chengrob Posted August 28, 2003 Author Share Posted August 28, 2003 AeroMan, This is in the plan. We are going to do this but I want to work out all of the kinks in the system. I would really appreciate it if a few more people did what Donna did. It helps us find the flaws in the system before we go big time with this. Donna, Thanks so much. I honestly believe that we are making a difference here and I am just so pleased that we are getting so much response. A few things that I have learned already: 1. I think the we should change the letter to state Gator and Overture. The reality is that most people are not clicking on the advertisers link. So they are not reading about the affiliation between Gator and Overture. 2. I fixed all of the bounced emails. Just a few HTML errors on my part. This is indeed exciting! Link to post Share on other sites
chengrob Posted August 28, 2003 Author Share Posted August 28, 2003 Also, Donna did you email the entire list? Link to post Share on other sites
volt Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Rob those gator scout popunders have more than just overture tied to them,,some have findwhat,,some have Lycos. and some I ain't figured out yet,, they are very cryptic. some make a big loop and might be related to netster?? Think maybe I'll go get the rest of the gator software and see if we can't speed this up abit with the gain popups. v Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Donna Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Yes, the entire list. except Coke, I had already emailed them. Most of the responses I received today were automated, telling me a person would get back to me. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Donna Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 V, if I have 2 OS's duelboot, can I have gator on one without it affecting the other? Link to post Share on other sites
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