Spyware just hurts this business and makes the hardware business more profitable...
Anybody dealing with this stuff will get consequences (business wise...) one way or another. What goes arround comes arround...

If you followed up you would know (and post) how those issues are going. My guess is you'll continue to hate. OK by me. I have a funny feeling our business will continue to thrive even without your approval, but thats just a guess.

[QUOTE=WDjay]There is more then 1 way to skin a cat. Legislation is one way. another which I am doing here is educating those basement tgp making webmasters as you put it, so they will hold companies who associate with installs accountable. I think are underestimating that if enough affiliates are pissed about this, sponsors will shy away from it. If enough people who buy traffic see it as a conflict of instrest they will go to someone else for traffic...

more then 1 way to accomplish the same goal.

everytime you post you are pissing more and more people off and helping my cause.

thank you.

That's not true. It's being exposed publicly and having a lot of pressure put on them that helps us all. Affiliates in mainstream have to be given a lot of credit for this fight. All the bitching on ABW (a mainstream affiliate forum) a few years back has helped tremendously. If it wasn't made public in affiliate forums, if we didn't discuss this with companies we all deal with on a daily basis, if we didn't educate sponsors/merchants/affiliate managers on spyware issues, this problem would be a hell of a lot worse.

Missie

I agree with you. I was wrong. What I meant was that if it is truly hurting your business there are REAL measures you can take to make REAL change. Talking about an issue is good, but what most of the people here do is bitch and cry and nothing more. No follow up. Next drama and all is forgotten. Find an issue....stick with it. Make a change. People here start a conversation , but rarley finish one.

asked about 10x already, not even acknowledged by him.

Doubt it will be answered, he can't even go pick 5 legit ones even if he used them or not. Except google and yahoo tool bars, I am sure they are buying traffic from him.

We will just have to take the " fuck you if it's legal i am doing it", installers word for it.

Last time I looked google was paying $1 per firefox with google tool bar install
:thumbsup

Goddamn, I go for a quick bath and this thread has 86 replies??? Good job Im not a sigwhore out for exposure I guess.

When i get a job as the official spokesman for ifriends i will make public statements on their behalf. I am not even a paid employee so I will not venture to guess what they do and don't do behind closed doors, that I would know nothing about. Why don't you tell me, you know a lot more about installs then i do.

I can tell you i am working closely with them about this and if they don't ban accounts over it and allow it to happen I will send my traffic else where. I will not support a company that allows people to hijack my hard earned sales and get away with it.

[QUOTE=will76]You have a point. I am not someone who can't see both sides of an issue. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I could make a STRONG case against many of the practices in this industry (and others) Everyone has the right to thier opinion and all opinions should be respected.

Hey staurt, how hard is it to google a fucking name ? takes 10 seconds. come on man, credit histories, family tree. you the one starting to sound insaine here.

Why don't you ask DH, he seems to work both sides of the fence. Maybe he is also an affiliate for software that can clean up spyware as well :1orglaugh he might have somethign he can recommend for you.

is this like a technicality and you really sell it to 180solutions lol.

or do you sell traffic to anyone that does zango installs.

Why not sell it to zango, they are legal right, and legality seems to be your only criteria to do business with someone.

so you don't do business with them, who do you do business with then ?

http://www.webmastersdirect.com Did you take the program underground and remove your site? Also, we sure do miss your fake nick DJ slave to rock n roll.

how can you be completely sure that it doesnt fuck up other peoples installs if they put a block on say 'Ontario' ip's so you never see the real truth...

Adware is not the same thing as spyware.

That's all I'm going to say.

Nope. Pulled the program and moved strictly to purchasing traffic. Same thing we were doing LONG before the webmaster pay-per-download program was launched. It made up such a small % of our business and was taking to much time and to many man hours to update and maintain. We are buying more traffic than ever. It was strictly a business decision. We would rather deal with the macro vs. the micro. Sorry, no drama.

that's what i plan on doing.... time will show. don't worry. I got a real hard'on for this. And i am going to keep cranking up the fire till some changes are made.

So I was correct in saying that your pay per download program is dead and I'm sure your going to contend that shutting it down had nothing to do with the legal situations you were in because of it.

In theory, that's true. But the term spyware has become the term of choice when talking about adware/malware/keylogger, etc. Kinda like saying kleenex instead of tissue.

Many adware are also spyware and many spyware are also adware. But I'm sure you understand this conversation and in what context the term spyware is being used. If it steals from me and reports every website I look at, then it's spying on me and it's spyware.

Missie

You are correct. The pay per download program is shut down. It made no money compared to straight traffic purchases. You are incorrect about the reason. We are as strong as ever and promoting the same products we always have. Dont you think if it was a legal issue we would have stopped promoting the product itself....and not the affiliate program?

"in theory, that's true"
"many adware are also spyware"
"if it steals from me"

See, now you're just contradicting yourself. Is it ALL illegal and harmful or not?


And for you and the others wanting names... I'll tell you what, lose this "they are all scum" attitude and perhaps a name would be worth something. But since you all seem to think that even yahoo and google are stealing your ref codes, the only thing a name would do is give you someone else to hate on, and that's not the reason we do business with people.

No contradiction here. I've been having this discussion with others who understand these issues for years. I call everything spyware, easier to follow threads and understand what's going on and much less confusing.

If there are adware applications that fully disclose the download and ask for a physical click to say "ok", they don't steal sales, they don't corrupt computers, they don't come bundled with a bunch of other programs, and all they do is show an occasional ad (not dozens per day), that in my view would be adware and I wouldn't have a problem with it.

If you can name one like that, I'm all ears....

Not sure where you got your remarks about google and yahoo?

People who promote scums, advertise via scums, sell traffic to scums, defend and condone scums, ARE scums.

Missie

Will76 / Missie, did you download and install spyware from a p2p network and assume that we were distributing it?

I'm just curious if you have a personal issue here or if you're just fighting the good fight?

Right, no contradictions.

DH, allow me to paint you an ugly picture.

You send traffic to AAC, correct? Now imagine if 10% of the surfers you sent to them had this "legitimate LEGAL adware" installed on their computers and you didn't credit for the sale.

How would that make you feel DH? I realize you're in the business of selling traffic so it doesn't mean very much to you. Which is reason enough for me to stop buying traffic from you.

I officially have 0 respect for you man. That says a lot, especially since yesterday I had the utmost respect for you. I certainly hope you reconsider and stop laughing it up over there with your scumware buddies. Thankfully all of the sponsors I do business with have measures in place to prevent any loss of sales on my end.

Now imagine it didn't.

Every time I got infected with spyware was because of an illegal download. Never installed once of those things on purpose. Some have been from porn sites, others came from who knows where, can't remember. Spyware has affected my relatives' computers, my friends' computers and has made my life a miserable hell trying to get rid of it.

I haven't had spyware problems for over a year. Illegal/silent downloads are automatically blocked.

If in your eyes that's a personal issue, then I guess it's personal. I don't like anything that fucks up my computer or the computer of people close to me, especially when I'm the one who has to go fix it. And I especially don't like people or programs that help people steal from me.

Missie

just my 2 cents.. there is no such thing as a legit install.

if i was ever a target of someone trying divert traffic away from my company from a "legit install" i would definatley seek immediate legal action against ALL, and WHOMEVER was/is involved. I would spend my last dollar going after them even if it meant recouping nothing at all.
Duke

I completely agree with you.

But how is spyware the fault of P2P Ads?

Hey StuartD, I'll take some of whatever you're smoking buddy. I wouldn't mind a break from reality. If you truly think this doesn't happen, you're mind is beyond repair.

??? I'm not following this... where did I say that?

Missie

Google advertises and directs traffic to their toolbar. There really is a difference between a software install and spyware in my mind Duke.

Oh ok - sorry for the confusion - with the title of this thread and a few of the comments, I guess I just figured.

Glad we're on the same side of this Missie.

Where did I say it doesn't happen? You said to imagine that it did happen... and then went on to say that it is happening specifically with p2pads traffic.

I imagined it... I also imagined the alternative. Can you?

But this isn't the kind of install being talked about here. Trying to bring Google and other legit software in this conversation is taking everything out of context.

These arguments seem to come more from people dancing around the real issue. Not saying you or anyone in particular.

Missie

You grow a business that soon dominates the market and then one day decide to fuck over all your valued customers. What a tool. GTS buyers should file a class-action lawsuit and bankrupt his fat ass.

How so??

StuartD, do you promote install affiliate programs? Do you use "adware" to advertise?

Missie

I don't mean to cloud the issue here Missie. It's just that Duke commented that there isn't a difference between directing traffic to a program that installs and spyware. Brining a reputable product like the google toolbar into this hopefully shows that a company can direct traffic at a product that doesn't harm people.