Chessgames Site

[John Clarke]

In the last couple of days I've been finding the Chessgames site all but impossible to use. Whichever page I access, pop-up ads appear at five-second intervals, covering the entire display. And when I close them, I'm returned to the top of the page, away from the bit I've been trying to view or post to.

It all suggests they've decided to impose a paywall, but haven't had the common courtesy (or the bottle) to announce it as such.

NB: I don't object to paywalls or pop-ups per se - we've all got to live. It's the way they haven't come clean about it that grinds my gears.

[Matt Mackenzie]

You get more used to it after a while, but yes it is annoying I agree.

[Paul McKeown]

I have found that it just gives 403 if you attempt to access it from a VPN, which almost no other site for anything does. Not sure whether it is for some money grubbing reason (e.g. can't know how to target its adverts) or sheer technical incompetence.

[John Upham]

I have Ublock Origin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin

installed as an http(s) client extension.

No adverts!

For example, it dealt with all of the ads appearing from chess-results.com including ladies lingerie and other material you don't want popping up when running a junior (or any come to that) event.

[Joey Stewart]

It feels like in the last few years the internet has turned into an absolute cesspool of intrusive advertising and data stealing with a lot of sponsors demanding their ads be bigger, more attention grabbing and harder to avoid looking at (which ironically works against them as I make a conscious effort to never use a product that has annoyed me with their advertising).
Sad to see chessgames going down this route as it is probably the best online database available and surely must have a better way to monetise then trashing their own website

[Paolo Casaschi]

It feels like in the last few years the internet has turned into an absolute cesspool of intrusive advertising and data stealing with a lot of sponsors demanding their ads be bigger, more attention grabbing and harder to avoid looking at (which ironically works against them as I make a conscious effort to never use a product that has annoyed me with their advertising).
Sad to see chessgames going down this route as it is probably the best online database available and surely must have a better way to monetise then trashing their own website

They have a better way to monetise their website: chessgames.com premium membership
For $29 per year you get to use the website to the full, including getting rid of most of the advertising.

I suspect the ads are there mainly because most people prefer to use the website for free instead of paying a little to support a service they use and appreciate. Unfortunately, to paraphrase your opening comment, the internet has also turned into a cesspool of users expecting quality services without supporting them with their cash.

[Joey Stewart]

True, it works both ways but you have got to draw a line somewhere when it comes to signing up to recurring payments or you end up drowning in a sea of parasitic direct debits eating away at your bank account and generally being very awkward to get rid of.

This is definitely a case of cutting off the nose to spite the face - the site obviously is old and obviously not optimised to function alongside aggressive modern advertisements so either a full site recoding is needed or preferably get rid of the ads and adopt the Wikipedia approach of begging messages for one off payments every few months which is a far better way of raising money.

[NickFaulks]

I have Ublock Origin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin

installed as an http(s) client extension.

I installed that and now have a virus which redirects all of my searches to Yahoo. Could be coincidence but I don't think I have done anything else.

Not so serious, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting rid of it. Removing the extension obviously doesn't help and my virus scanner can't see it.

[Joey Stewart]

Are you are it hasn't just changed your browser settings to use yahoo instead of Google as your main search engine - I use Firefox browser and it offers a variety of different search engines (and has a pretty decent built in adblocker that cuts out any auto playing videos) so it might just be that you need to adjust the settings rather then it being malware

[NickFaulks]

Yes.

[Paul McKeown]

I have Ublock Origin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin

installed as an http(s) client extension.

I installed that and now have a virus which redirects all of my searches to Yahoo. Could be coincidence but I don't think I have done anything else.

Not so serious, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting rid of it. Removing the extension obviously doesn't help and my virus scanner can't see it.

UBlock Origin is clean software - I have it permanently installed in all my browsers, complete with standard, regularly updated filters, and some filters that I have created to get rid of annoying parts of various websites that I use regularly. If you downloaded UBlock Origin via your browser's extension repository, then it will definitely be clean.

Perhaps you downloaded it from another source? Either that or the problem is independent.

It is most likely that either of two things have happened:

• your default search engine has been set to Yahoo
• or you have managed to allow the Yahoo Browser Bar extension or something similar to be installed

These are very easily fixed - there are plenty of instructions are available online as to how to deal with these simple irritations. If you can't follow the instructions, please DM me and I will help.

If it isn't one of these two simple things, then you are likely to have either a DNS hijack or some sort of browser hijack.

Should usually be relatively straightforward enough to get rid off - I would suggest going to your nearest PC (or is it your smartphone?) service business on your nearest high street. They will do the job in half an hour, or perhaps overnight if there are numerous secondary infections.

If you are unlucky, there may be more difficult malware related issues; probably not, and I would hope not.

[NickFaulks]

I certainly have a hijack, just suspicious that it appeared as I installed Ublock Origin, exactly the way you get these things. But if that has a well established reputation....

I shall not pay to get it fixed, have always managed these things myself with varying degrees of difficulty and it is educational.

[Paul McKeown]

I certainly have a hijack, just suspicious that it appeared as I installed Ublock Origin, exactly the way you get these things. But if that has a well established reputation....

I wouldn't use it if I had ever experienced or heard of it using dodgy practises such as pre-setting tick boxes, setting browser configurations without permission or forceably installing unwanted software or malware. I despise the mispelt runts who think that every user of the internet is fair game for their scams and deceptions.

I shall not pay to get it fixed, have always managed these things myself with varying degrees of difficulty and it is educational.

Good luck - if you get stuck there are plenty here who can help.

[John Upham]

I have Ublock Origin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin

installed as an http(s) client extension.

I installed that and now have a virus which redirects all of my searches to Yahoo. Could be coincidence but I don't think I have done anything else.

Not so serious, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting rid of it. Removing the extension obviously doesn't help and my virus scanner can't see it.

Installing UBlock on various devices of mine did not have the same effect as you have described. I quote Pete Townshend at this point: I Can't Explain.

[Paul McKeown]

Nick Faulks - the first thing I would do is to check the configuration of the default search engine. The seond thing I would do to try to locate the problem is to set your browser into its safe mode and see if the problem is still there. If the problem is not there in the browser's safe mode, then perhaps you have a rogue extension. If the problem, however, is still there, then it is likely that your PC rather than the browser itself has been infected, or your DNS has been overwritten or has been pointed to a rogue server.

If you really suspect that your UBlock Origin extension is the cause, check the cryptographic hash of the extension against that of the same version on the author's repository or website. If they don't match, then you have somehow managed to download an infected copy from somewhere.