[barbygirl43]

Okay anyone else offended about all the food ads that are now popping up on here. I just got one for $50 from Denny's. I've also had one from Red Lobster and it seems like another new one yesterday.

[lessofsarahtolove]

I paid the 11.00 to be ad-free. Worth every penny.

[vivian10]

I have yet to see any ads....my pop up blockers must be working.

[Jennifer 3FC]

Are you talking about pop-up ads? I am not getting any of those lately. I think the latest pop-up campaign was Atkins. I have seen Red Lobster banner ads but it has been a very long time, and I'm not even sure it was from here. We *might* have Red Lobster ads running. I've never seen a Denny's ad. I'll have to let Suzanne answer for sure. I know ads can be troublesome, but it is the only way to keep the forum free. We do block objectional materials such as herbal supplements, sex aids, etc.

Meanwhile, do you have a spyware program? You might want to see if you have spyware on your computer that is launching these ads. Some programs that infect computers hijack advertising scripts and launch ads when you visit sites using the targeted advertising company, or keywords on the page you are visiting.

If you don't have a spyware program, you can download for free here:

Ad-Aware
www.http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Search and Destroy
http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html

I scan my computer regularly and I always do at least 2 different scans back to back. It's like sweeping. You sweep one direction and then you go back crossways to get what was missed by the first sweep. Many fun and free programs that people download on the internet have spyware attached. That's how they get paid, for months and years to come. The spyware works like a parasite on your computer, and they can be as dangerous to your computer as some viruses. Hope this helps!

[Charbar]

I own an imac - no pop ups... on any site

[Suzanne 3FC]

I'll check with the advertiser to see what has been popped, we don't choose the ads. We don't run nonstop pops, we have a strict limit on how many a person can get. The pops on the forum are set to only give you one popunder per 24 hours. You may get one or two on the main site. We can't survive without the income from them, but we are able to limit them to what we think is fair and doesn't get in the way of our content. Some sites have a pop on every page. Spyware also triggers a lot of pops, and is usually based on keywords. The discussion of food could trigger some pops, while the term fat chick actually triggers porn pops from some types of spyware

The only food popunder from our ad company that I'm aware of, has an image of a plate and offers gift certificates to olive garden or applebees. It's not really free, at the bottom of the ad it says

Copyright 2004 DineOutFreeToday.com. All Rights Reserved.
DineOutFreeToday.com is an independent rewards program for consumers and is not affiliated with any of the listed restaurants

*To receive your Free Giftcard 1. Register on steps one and two. 2. Complete the survey questions on steps three through five. 3. Complete a sponsor offer of your choice on step six. 4. Get your FREE $25 Giftcard by following redemption instructions!

I've never seen one for Denny's. I think I have seen a red lobster ad, but it wasn't a pop, it was just a regular banner. The ads come from an ad network that rotates a variety of ads, and they are shown across thousands of websites.

If you are getting a lot of pops and want to search your system for spyware, choose the two links Jennifer included. THe problem with spyware detectors today is that a lot of them are spyware in themselves! Some are also scams, they offer free searches of your system, tell you that you have various types of programs installed, but they only remove them if you purchase the full version. However, those are false positives, tricking you into buying their program. Free popup blockers are also known for installing evil things onto your computer. Free screensavers, cursers, etc, come with extras. Most free things are spyware, because they have to pay for their service with something. Maybe they don't create pops on your computer, they have other ways generating income for themselves, which can involve stealing commissions from other sites.

The best way to prevent infection from spyware, scumware, malware, etc is get rid of Internet Explorer. It's a never ended loop of security holes, and spyware developers target it. They don't target smaller browsers. I use Firefox. http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ It's free, has a safe built in popup blocker (which has the nice ability to let you choose to run pops on a per site basis, so you can choose to support 3FC by allowing a pop or two a day ) I enable pops for all sites that I visit regularly, except for About.com because they go overboard. It's pop-city, and sites like that ruin it for the rest of us. If you stay with IE, here's a page that tells problems with various spyware programs, and what is safe to install.
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

[nelie]

I'll just chime in and say I've seen the Denny's ads as well and I have a spyware program actively running on my PC.

[barbygirl43]

I don't mind the pop ups. (I'm on a mac so I don't have to worry about spyware...yet). I do click on several when the appeal to me. It was just the content per se that I found offensive. Most if not all of us here to lose weight and when I log on here and food pops up (not even healthy food) that was what bugged me. I thought it might've been a fluke but today is the second day in a row I've gotten a food ad like that.

[howie6267]

I use the Firefox browser. So no pop ups plus it's much more secure than IE. However I have seen these adds at work where I am forced to use IE.

Here is a link where you can download this great browser for free.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/index.html

[heather_dw]

I also use Firefox and I like it alot, however, occasionally, I will have to use IE to surf certain sites. Also, Firefox does not support java, but I dont mind that so much, I have gotten SIGNIFIGANTly less spyware with firefox and you can tell if someone has used IE on the computer, because of the various spyware it picks up. I feel that firefox also works a bit faster than IE most times.

Also I agree with the above post with the links to ad-aware and spybot. I use them both and also run Norton professional and Pestpatrol. it is sad that we have to run so many programs to get rid of this stuff.

it reminds me of a Dave Chapelle skit I saw once. It was "what if the internet were a real place?" and it was all seedy and scuzzy with people popping out all the time asking if you wanted porn,.. viagra or mortgage refinancing. Then at one point he punched a guy that was bugging him about an offer and said "this is the pop up blocker"..lol

[howie6267]

Firefox does support java you just have to download the java extension.

[Suzanne 3FC]

The only thing I run IE for is when I pay my cable bill, because Charter doesn't seem to like Firefox. Otherwise, I'd uninstall it and use the space for something useful I also find that Adware and Spybot come up clean now, I've not had anything harmful in a long time. They pick up some ad tracking cookies, but I don't care about that and don't bother deleting them.