Anyone notice the new ProBoards terms & conditions

[Hellbender]

Since they put an announcement in my face, I went and looked at them. The one disturbing item is the one where they prohibit you from using ad-blocking software, or from re-arranging the display of ads and other features in their website (via GreaseMonkey or similiar add-ons, no doubt), as a condition of using their site.

Whether you plan to honor that prohibition or not, be aware that Dead Zone is now running on a service that can toss players arbitrarily for what software they run on their own computers!

Me personally? I swear by Firefox with Adblock Plus, NoScript, CookieSwap and LJlogin as my essential add-ons. I ALWAYS Adblock, because too many sites have unscreened 3rd-party ad-servers that can and occaisionally do serve up malware. I recommend everyone else do, too, unless you *know* for a fact that a site's ads come from a safe source.

Trying to prohibit me running Adblock as a term of service is just as offensive and unrealistic as trying to prohibit me from running a firewall and anti-virus software. Blow me, ProBoards.

[Rodimus Prime]

Hmm. That reminds me. We should probably look into doing another board back-up. It's been, like, years now.

[Victoria Raines]

Eep! Yeah. I'd hate to lose all this. Backing up would be most prudent.

[Rattrap]

I like their "my way or the highway" stance. Don't like having to allow ads – including ads that potentially carry malware (even Google Ads aren't immune) – on your computer? Then GTFO.

Class act, these guys. And yeah, definitely time for a backup, methinks. Wonder how long it'll take, eh?

EDIT: A peek at their support forums sees admin responding to queries about that part of the ToS with "Blocking ads is stealing from us" (how do you steal something that isn't technically theirs yet? </Packrat>). There's also the part about having no expectation of privacy on ProBoards, even in private messages. Am I the only one scratching my head over the thought process behind this revision?

[Hellbender]

Been a couple of months since I've done a back up. I really ought to improve that software to grab icons, too. I also should upload it to my website, since it's not useful sitting on my computer.

Edit: sounds like they have the lamers from Ars Technica over here, too. Sorry, no, you can't disclaim liability from everything and then demand I not block potential malware and then claim I'm stealing. If you're not liable for damage to my computer, I must take any and all actions necessary to protect my computer.

I may go comment over there with one of the dropped/dead DZ-3 accounts.

[Springer]

May 2, 2010 9:21:04 GMT -5 Rattrap said:

I like their "my way or the highway" stance. Don't like having to allow ads – including ads that potentially carry malware (even Google Ads aren't immune) – on your computer? Then GTFO.

Class act, these guys. And yeah, definitely time for a backup, methinks. Wonder how long it'll take, eh?

EDIT: A peek at their support forums sees admin responding to queries about that part of the ToS with "Blocking ads is stealing from us" (how do you steal something that isn't technically theirs yet? </Packrat>). There's also the part about having no expectation of privacy on ProBoards, even in private messages. Am I the only one scratching my head over the thought process behind this revision?

Huh. Shades of the Allspark...

[Rattrap]

Eh, ain't just the 'Spark. You name a place that has free service due solely to ad revenue, odds are they've argued at some point that using adblockers is the same as stealing from them.

[Rattrap]

Oh, wow. I decide to disable my adblocker to see if that fixes my problems with the server randomly not connecting (thinking this is some way Proboards is using to "convince" ad-blocking users to stop) and not only does it not fix the problem, all my page load times are doubled. And I'm on cable broadband.

Nice, Proboards. Nice.