[Closed] Warning - unsolicited video download from STW ads can cost you money!

lol @ all the flouncing, this thread wins this week, espcially since the Epic (fail) TV ads have disappeared..... permanently ???

I wasn't trying to do a wind up but part of the thing that I have seen over the last few years is a big change in the way people are connected. The Mobile or Home distinction is gone, people have different ways of connecting, people are picking the best options for them which isn't traditionally what people expect. As more are moving into the cloud etc. with huge data up/downloads there are an equal number using less. When the difference is of orders or magnitude then it is a problem, if your best mate switched his number to premium rate without telling you when the bill came in you would be pissed off. Considering I pay to have no ads, receive a magazine etc. I was a little pissed off to see random loud videos in my browser, and yes it's not just here it's everywhere. In this case for those who have missed it before it goes back live properly would someone mind putting a sticky up top explaining that as a P Member you can turn them off and if the data is excessive advising what the consumption would be for those non P members.

Jamie - god knows how much bandwidth I've just had to consume to watch all those glittering stars - it's still running too! Arghhh!

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I think your flouncette is showing cougar 🙂

I browse over a limited contract mobile tether once every week. At home I also live down the end of tiny little tin pipe of a broadband connection. BT may be screwing me by making me pay the same for unlimited broadband at <2Mbps as some bastard sucking in 50Mbps, but it would seriously annoy me if STW were the cause of most of my 2Mbps bandwidth puckering up to a drizzle as well.

Unsolicited video download is wrong no matter how vital advertising revenue might be to the site. The number of people not sitting at the end of a high speed unlimited grot fountain is not insignificant and it's insulting to be treated as such.

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Don't take it to heart - you can't always be right. 😉

I'm bowing out of this thread before I get properly cross, and going to find a puppy to kick or something.

was it you in the nursery with aa's kid!!

Making friends and influencing people is your strong point Zokes well done.

Indeed it is. I just choose who I wish to make friends with. I guess you missed out. Sorry.

This is a forum for a UK-based magazine.

Just in case you hadn't noticed, its a forum on the [b][u]World Wide[/u][/b] Web. I would have thought you of all people would know what that acronym stood for 😉

I don't want 2 GB+ used per day by an idle STW tab and I'm on a normal 'unlimited' (i.e. not unlimited) broadband connection (and certainly not browsing on a C64 with handrolled TCP/IP stack either 😆 )

Onion (and cougar), I agree that in normal circumstances a website ought not be held accountable for the volume of data it serves but in this instance STW is an order of magnitude away from what might be expected of a mag forum. Not even heavy data sites like iplayer force unsolicited volume on punters. I can't think of any other site that presumes to do that.

[quote=Cougar ]If it were me in that situation, the first thing I'd be doing is uninstalling Flash (which I have anyway in my primary browser cos it's hateful bloody software) and Java, and then probably disabling images as well.

Are you allowed to write that sort of thing on here? Or does it not count if the filter doesn't change it to "freeloading"?

(I have to admit I do similar, though without actually uninstalling as sometimes it's useful 😉 )

Various news sites pop up "unsolicited" videos - The Scotsman for one.

That Mondraker ad has really screwed up the page format.

Not even heavy data sites like iplayer force unsolicited volume on punters.

Indeed quite the opposite, I'm pretty sure at one point it used to advise you as to its usage (and may still do if you've wiped your cookies). Certainly ABC's iView here in Oz makes it easy to find out how much it uses. That, and you'd be going to iPlayer / iView to stream a video. Here, you're coming to browse a forum which occasionally has stuff about bikes in it.

So - it's a surprise [i]every[/i] time you open the forum?

So - it's a surprise every time you open the forum?

That depends on which add-ins you may have enabled, or as Cougar handily identifies: disabled.

I guess you missed out. Sorry.

Its like a knife in my heart twisting and turning x x

and going to find a puppy to kick or something.

This is a forum for a UK-based magazine.

French ski resort websites are just as bad. Auto play background music. Really bad music. I always keep speakers turned off at work "just in case".

Maybe we could just ban australian based posters?

Maybe we could just ban australian based posters?

Enjoy the rugby at the weekend?

If it were me in that situation, the first thing I'd be doing is uninstalling [...] Java

So I can't use my netbank, because of Epic TV ? Strange priorities!!

Enjoy the rugby at the weekend?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha that is simply brilliant chapeau 😆

*mwah*

We have a solution. I am about to start work on it and it will solve a great many problems. EpicTV have got back to me and there will be a much neater solution coming inabout 2 weeks time that won't drain data and will introduce user instigated plays.

The player IS popular. I know it isn't for all of you or indeed many of you on this thread but we see the interactions with the player and they are positive in the main. It is not an ad that is selling anything - it delivers MTB related videos that are actually quite popular. This is a MTB website and so the demographic targeting is very accurate. This is born out by the interactions.

However, it is a problem. It should not be draining anyone's data in the way that it has done and for that I apologise. There is a temporary cap on how many times you see it, which I put on yesterday and later this afternoon I'll be making a more fundamental change to the way it works. I need to wait for some info from EpicTV before I do that. And then, as I said, in 2 weeks or so there will be a much better player that essentially lays all the controls in your hands.

Why don't we turn it off?

1) It's actually quite popular
2) It's an important revenue stream for us.

But... we are fixing it!

I'm just going get my lunch and then I'll start work on the interim modifications.

Thanks to OP (perthmtb) for the alert.

I keep losing my login on my phone and ipad so until such times as this is sorted I won't be using my phone to view stw and I use firefox (with an unmentionable running) on my laptop. I clear cookies after every session anyways and at work run 'inprivate' so need to remember to login.

Found that the epic disable was dodgy for a start seems to be working now.

All in all it will mean I personally will visit less... which will probably ultimately lead to unsubscribing if it continues.

Just my 2p.

Thanks Mark. A reply people were waiting for.

Thanks for the update, a guide to data consumption when it's working properly would be nice.

Also what's the measure of popularity on epic? If it's click through that could just be people trying to shut it up. At this point I feel old...

Enjoy the rugby at the weekend?

There's a thread for Rugby.

have to admit after my moaning I did click it for the snowdonia video and found it enjoyable. 😳

*ducks*

That seems like an entirely reasonable response Mark and it's good to see some acknowledgement recognising it as being an issue for some.

For everyone else I don't think I'm affected, my concern was for those who were. I invariably browse via my phone even when I'm on my home broadband so I don't think I've even seen it.

Out of interest though, I experience the screen going blank when trying to load a thread and then reloading far more frequently these days. Is that likely to be influenced by the ads or just browsing a UK site from Australia? I don't get anywhere near my advertised download speed, more like 1-3 (can't remember the standard units), which can be pretty marginal for video playback anyway.

Dofts Cap to Mark..

Ta
Very
Muchly
😉

I'm confused. Who are we angry with now? Cougar, Mark, Epic TV, STW or Perthmtb?

When do we get to blame Hora?

Changes now made.

The EpicTV player will autoplay on the first two pages only per session/visit. After that it will sit there waiting for you to hit the play button. This doesn't preclude the instance that you may leave a browser window open on either of the first two page visits but we have a fix for that but we can't implement it until monday now.

franksinatra - Member

I'm confused. Who are we angry with now? Cougar, Mark, Epic TV, STW or Perthmtb?

When do we get to blame Hora?

Someone wants to blame the aussies' I think but am not 100% sure.

I liked the vids but perhaps they ought to be on a different tab? or embedded on a sticky thread?

not really.

it's the webdev's responsibility to ensure that sites don't cause inadvertent unethical use of paid-for connections.

I don't think i've seen so much hand wringing from people who should know better before.

All this talk of "unethical", "unsolicited" etc is laughable.

If you've got a potentially fuel hungry car you should either fill it full or be careful how you drive. This is the same thing.

Just because you don't understand or think you know what you're doing is no excuse for not taking measures to preserve your data usage, especially if you're using a tethered connection.

I'm glad Mark and the STW have made the changes as it was badly implemented before, but most of the content on this thread is ridiculous. I'm going to flounce now and have a beer, ta ta 🙂

to correct your analogy, whatnobeer, it's more like having a fuel hungry car, but knowing full well to go easy on the noisy pedal. Then finding out some underhand cad has been swinging underneath your chassis drilling holes in your fuel tank.

No one disputes the idea that you manage your downloads if it's metered, but having your connection reamed to the tune of 2Gb by an unsolicited bandwidth thief is poor form and takes responsibility away from the user to to the hoster.

[quote=whatnobeer ]
All this talk of "unethical", "unsolicited" etc is laughable.
If you've got a potentially fuel hungry car you should either fill it full or be careful how you drive. This is the same thing.
Just because you don't understand or think you know what you're doing is no excuse for not taking measures to preserve your data usage, especially if you're using a tethered connection.
It's even funnier when lots of the complainers are whinging just because they might get caught out using their companies resources for personal web browsing.

If you don't like the tone of my responses so far, I'd wager you're really not going to like the tone of the one I'd like to give you right now, because frankly I'm spitting feathers.

Well it made me chuckle

I do know that if I worked in that magical land of IT, and I found that some one being paid to work was also spending time on STW, I'd be making very, very sure that they didn't get paid for the time they spent here, and then I'd make sure that they never even looked at it again.

I work 12 hour shifts, and most days, I get a total of 30 minutes break over the entire 12 hours.

Then I read about the lack of productivity in the UK...

zokes - Member

That's it, carry on antagonising the customers...

We're not Cougar's customers, the mods here make it possible for the site to run, and I suspect they do it for free. So how about don't be a ****. You might always like them but you need them in order to keep on using this free and excellent resource. Customers 🙄 I'm a customer of the mag and a leech of the forum.

That said the Epic TV adverts pissed me off too, my connection's not fast and it took me a while to realise that the reason my internet's running so slow is because of the tiny little window in the sidebar that could probably be done with a millionth of the bandwidth. So just gone in and switched all the ads off which I've never been irritated enough to do before. I'm sure the other advertisers will be well chuffed 😉

you need them in order to keep on using this free and excellent resource. Customers I'm a customer of the mag and a leech of the forum.

Is it free? Suppose the ads delivered to you by Google started consuming large chunks of your system resources - would you be happy with that, too?

and I suspect they do it for free

Nah, they get to keep all the stuff from Fresh Good Fridays.

Strikes me that the original alert by perthmtb deserves some gratitude and recognition by members, users, hosters, modders and anyone else adversely or otherwise, affected by the issue. It's good to also recognise how quickly and seriously the issue has been dealt with to what seems like a best fit compromise.

It's been rather entertaining catching up on this one this evening, in amongst some very entertaining flounces, there's been an awful lot of willy waving too. The testosterone was palpable about pages 3 & 4 IIRC, it's kinda easing in the last couple, which has got to be a good thing. Boys eh? 😕

Just one question, given that the issue was identified by perthmtb and he has now decided to flounce off, only to return maybe when it's all sorted. How will he get to know? 😉

some kind soul will tell him

unless the rest of us have flounced off as well

I don't think 'souls' are allowed to exist around here 😉

There's a thread for Rugby.

I'll take that as a "no" then 🙂