problem with nexus?

[Captain Cobra]

 

 

Suspected

• You will most likely be infected with spyware when using the NMM.
  

 

 

What kind of spyware?

[srayesmanll]

So lets summarise what we know and suspect about NexusMods.

 

Known facts

• Your IP address and User Agent will be public to all visitors on the site.
  
• It is likely you will be banned for expressing your opinion or standing up to one of the members of staff.
  
• You will not be treated fairly unless you're a premium member.
  
• Your questions will most likely not be responded to unless you're a premium member.

 

1) Very possible. Since you label this as fact' date=' where is this fact coming from? From the ability to IP ban a person? Then I would agree that this is fact

2) Let's split this in 2 since the statement it is unclear.

a) Expressing your opinion: If done in a boorish, asshole manner, then yes you will be banned. It states so in the ToS. Comment trolling - yep, banned. Offering constructive criticism - not banned.

Standing up to member of staff: Too many instances of this occurring to disagree.

3) I think that statement should be modified to "If you're a premium member, you will be given chances that other non-premium members with lesser issues will not." I think the case of 83Willow basically verifies this one.

4) Need to be clearer on this one. Are you talking general questions asked on individual mod comment sections? Then I call bullshit on that statement. Are you referring to questions to the moderators? Then possibly. Again, there is anecdotal evidence to support that statement.

 

 

Suspected

• You will most likely be infected with spyware when using the NMM.
  
• Your personal data can be obtained by third party marketing organisations.
  
• You can expect to be stalked.

 

1) BS

2) MS

3) PhD

 

OK, kiddies - for those following along at home and need a translation of my response, it's: Bullshit, More Shit, Piled Higher and Deeper.

[gregathit]

 

Suspected

• You will most likely be infected with spyware when using the NMM.
  

 

Do you have any proof?

I'd love to have another reason to rag on the Nexus' date=' but I'm going to need some evidence first.

[/quote']

 

I will have to do a bit of digging but the spyware in question is in fact built into NMM. They track your IP address and usage of the nexus and make that information available to their advertisers. I will update this post (or someone else can jump in and provide it) when I find it. The post was from the nexus staff and they admitted it after another user took a look at NMM's coding and blew the whistle.

 

Now to my knowledge that is the only thing that it is doing. Whether they can, have or will add more, or if it is vulnerable to be hacked and make it do other things is something I am not aware of, nor have I heard any reports of.

 

Folks were and still are right to be upset that this was admitted only after someone blew the whistle on it and not up front. If they are sneaking shit like this through the back door on day 1, then what other items might they try. It set a bad precedent which in my opinion they did not properly apologize for and have not stopped doing.

 

EDIT: Here is the nexus page that blew the whistle on the tracker: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/604889-why-are-our-details-being-shown-to-the-world/

[deathparade]

 

Suspected

• You will most likely be infected with spyware when using the NMM.
  

 

Do you have any proof?

I'd love to have another reason to rag on the Nexus' date=' but I'm going to need some evidence first.

[/quote']

 

I will have to do a bit of digging but the spyware in question is in fact built into NMM. They track your IP address and usage of the nexus and make that information available to their advertisers. I will update this post (or someone else can jump in and provide it) when I find it. The post was from the nexus staff and they admitted it after another user took a look at NMM's coding and blew the whistle.

 

Now to my knowledge that is the only thing that it is doing. Whether they can, have or will add more, or if it is vulnerable to be hacked and make it do other things is something I am not aware of, nor have I heard any reports of.

 

Folks were and still are right to be upset that this was admitted only after someone blew the whistle on it and not up front. If they are sneaking shit like this through the back door on day 1, then what other items might they try. It set a bad precedent which in my opinion they did not properly apologize for and have not stopped doing.

 

Advertisments, which?

Also running Do Not Track and alot of that crap!

[gregathit]

 

Suspected

• You will most likely be infected with spyware when using the NMM.
  

 

Do you have any proof?

I'd love to have another reason to rag on the Nexus' date=' but I'm going to need some evidence first.

[/quote']

 

I will have to do a bit of digging but the spyware in question is in fact built into NMM. They track your IP address and usage of the nexus and make that information available to their advertisers. I will update this post (or someone else can jump in and provide it) when I find it. The post was from the nexus staff and they admitted it after another user took a look at NMM's coding and blew the whistle.

 

Now to my knowledge that is the only thing that it is doing. Whether they can, have or will add more, or if it is vulnerable to be hacked and make it do other things is something I am not aware of, nor have I heard any reports of.

 

Folks were and still are right to be upset that this was admitted only after someone blew the whistle on it and not up front. If they are sneaking shit like this through the back door on day 1, then what other items might they try. It set a bad precedent which in my opinion they did not properly apologize for and have not stopped doing.

 

Advertisments, which?

Also running Do Not Track and alot of that crap!

 

 

If you are blocking the ads then you obviously won't see them but if you turn that software off (I wouldn't if I were you) you will immediately notice them. The nexus stays afloat purely by the advertising revenue from its adds. Darkone admitted furnishing this to his sponsors. To my awareness they are not selling or doing anything else with your info but the potential is there. The nexus is a business and businesses don't always have protecting an individuals privacy as their primary concern.

[srayesmanll]

If you are blocking the ads then you obviously won't see them but if you turn that software off (I wouldn't if I were you) you will immediately notice them. The nexus stays afloat purely by the advertising revenue from its adds. Darkone admitted furnishing this to his sponsors. To my awareness they are not selling or doing anything else with your info but the potential is there. The nexus is a business and businesses don't always have protecting an individuals privacy as their primary concern.

 

Love AdBlocker Plus and NoScript on FirefFox. They take care of most site BS for me. As far as selling your info, the only way they can do that currently is if you voluntarily give it to them. The only thing that's required to sign up with them is your email address. Now if they start requiring address info and other personal info, then I'd start worrying.

[gregathit]

If you are blocking the ads then you obviously won't see them but if you turn that software off (I wouldn't if I were you) you will immediately notice them. The nexus stays afloat purely by the advertising revenue from its adds. Darkone admitted furnishing this to his sponsors. To my awareness they are not selling or doing anything else with your info but the potential is there. The nexus is a business and businesses don't always have protecting an individuals privacy as their primary concern.

 

Love AdBlocker Plus and NoScript on FirefFox. They take care of most site BS for me. As far as selling your info' date=' the only way they can do that currently is if you voluntarily give it to them. The only thing that's required to sign up with them is your email address. Now if they start requiring address info and other personal info, then I'd start worrying.

[/quote']

 

Some marketing folks are interested in IP's so potentially they could sell that but as I said, I am not aware of them stooping to that low a level.

[loder]

Here is a link to the World of Tanks Nexus extreme tracking page. You can see all of the private details there. Each sub domain has a tracking page and I'm not going to provide the URL to each one. After I started to inform people about it, the link was quickly removed however the tracking code still remained. It was clearly an attempt to mislead the community.

 

http://extremetracking.com/open?login=wotnexus

 

Dark0ne deletes a lot of topics which reflect badly on him and the other admins. Its only thanks to the diligence of my friends and the wayback machine that we have been able to retrieve them.

 

You can read about the exposed IP addresses here. I would like to clarify that I do not have any evidence about the stalking and NMM, yet. I'm only relaying what I have been told by other individuals. They have never lied to me and I'm inclined to believe them based on the other actions taken by the administrators at NexusMods. There is a detailed topic about Dark0ne's view on Adblock here.

[Grumpf]

Funny how people living from an annoying source of economy things that the world will burn if this source fade out... Guess what? The day ads on internet will stop being profitable, webmasters will find another source of income.

 

Former French President decided to force stop advertisements on the French TV. All public channels freaked out and gave warning messages. Nothing changed. Except now: French have no ads on their public TV. QED.

 

AdBlock was not used before the web started to exaggerate with ads. Just like some TV are not being watched in real time anymore because of all the ads. I say let it burn.

[srayesmanll]

Exactly ^^^

 

I read something a bit disturbing' date=' NMM actually does a sort of check to see if your game is legit? What business is it of the Nexus?, there a mod site not a game developer/publisher. They hold no claims to any game, period. Internet snitch? I guess there following suit with AT&T's six strike anti-piracy campaign. This is the age of the "Internet Snitch Machine". While I do not condone piracy this whole thing has such a huge level of (From Skyrim itself) "Forget the books, he goes to the block" Off with his head. Feel to it. So much room for error made worse by incompetence. What's the gaining point for The Nexus?.

[/quote']

 

The only scenario I could see for them doing this is to better automate catching and releasing ("banning") the pirates by flagging the account as a potential pirate, then having the moderators focus on posts from those members to look for them actually being dumbasses and STATING that they use a pirated copy. (ASIDE: I am still astonished by the number of really stupid people over there that flat out state that they use a pirated copy. There are really some stupid people in this world.) However, until someone has actual verifiable proof of this, I'm going to call shenanigans on this.

[srayesmanll]

Funny how people living from an annoying source of economy things that the world will burn if this source fade out... Guess what? The day ads on internet will stop being profitable' date=' webmasters will find another source of income.

 

Former French President decided to force stop advertisements on the French TV. All public channels freaked out and gave warning messages. Nothing changed. Except now: French have no ads on their public TV. QED.

 

AdBlock was not used before the web started to exaggerate with ads. Just like some TV are not being watched in real time anymore because of all the ads. I say let it burn.

[/quote']

 

I'm really curious about Ashal's opinion on this since this site appears to be one that makes money on ads (and has no Premium service to supplement the ads, although there is the "Donate" button). My understanding on web site ads in general was that the web site only makes money from the ads if they are clicked, not just displayed. So if that's the case, DarkOne has a point (although he expressed his point like the typical jackass that he appears to be). But one question does remain since ads are currently used for revenue, are we shortchanging LL some caps by hiding (AdBlocker) and not clicking on any of the ads?

[Grumpf]

Tough question. I remember in Belgium, at some point, a phone company was offering free phone calls (land lines, with phone booths, a circle with holes in it to dial and everything! I'm talking about those old times punk kids!) but in exchange you and your correspondent had to endure being interrupted every now and then to listen to adds...

 

You imagine it never worked and I remember how enraged I was if anyone was daring doing calling me using their service!!!

 

ROFL.

 

So we're back to point n°1: If adds don't work anymore, something else will appear to replace them, no need to accept pollution by retards marketing guys.

 

Let it burn...

[gregathit]

Funny how people living from an annoying source of economy things that the world will burn if this source fade out... Guess what? The day ads on internet will stop being profitable' date=' webmasters will find another source of income.

 

Former French President decided to force stop advertisements on the French TV. All public channels freaked out and gave warning messages. Nothing changed. Except now: French have no ads on their public TV. QED.

 

AdBlock was not used before the web started to exaggerate with ads. Just like some TV are not being watched in real time anymore because of all the ads. I say let it burn.

[/quote']

 

I'm really curious about Ashal's opinion on this since this site appears to be one that makes money on ads (and has no Premium service to supplement the ads, although there is the "Donate" button). My understanding on web site ads in general was that the web site only makes money from the ads if they are clicked, not just displayed. So if that's the case, DarkOne has a point (although he expressed his point like the typical jackass that he appears to be). But one question does remain since ads are currently used for revenue, are we shortchanging LL some caps by hiding (AdBlocker) and not clicking on any of the ads?

 

I'll have to do some digging but from what I remember Ashal said something to the effect that he preferred that we don't use them (so the site is able to pay its bills) but completely understood if we did block the adds. I don't want to put words in his mouth so I will try to find his post and link to it.

[gregathit]

Ok, as to Ashal's opinion it starts in this thread OP: http://www.loverslab.com/showthread.php?tid=8727&page=3'>http://www.loverslab.com/showthread.php?tid=8727&page=3 where the adds are discussed. Then he makes a further statement in post 24 of the same thread: http://www.loverslab.com/showthread.php?tid=8727&page=3

[srayesmanll]

Ok' date=' as to Ashal's opinion it starts in this thread OP: http://www.loverslab.com/showthread.php?tid=8727&page=3'>http://www.loverslab.com/showthread.php?tid=8727&page=3 where the adds are discussed. Then he makes a further statement in post 24 of the same thread: http://www.loverslab.com/showthread.php?tid=8727&page=3

[/quote']

 

Thanks. I remember reading those awhile back, but I forgot about them. Although it only partially answers one question: Are we short-changing LL by AdBlocking/not clicking the ads? The question comes from how LL makes money from the ads. Is it just the existence of the ad on LL (and therefore AdBlocker is not preventing money from reaching LL), the actual displaying of the ad (i.e. not blocked by AdBlocker), or does the ad have to be actually clicked on for LL to make money? Or is it now a combination (base fee for having the ad, plus bonus for click-through)? My original understanding of ad on sites was that the only time the site got money was for click-through - this was gleamed from Ernie at ehowa.com on a post he had a long while back about the subject. That's why I wonder if we are costing LL potential caps (been playing FONV too much ) by not displaying/clicking ads.

[srayesmanll]

AdBlocker Plus allows you to turn it off per site. Also NoScript also allows turning things on/off per site. You might check those out instead of whatever you are currently using if they don't allow "per site" settings.

[Samu]

ghostery has a whitelist too, and if you really want to be nitpicky you could use requestpolicy.

[Guest]

Anyone remember when DarkOne apparently went on a tirade against AdBlock users on his personal blog, apparently calling them thieves? Would have loved to see the post in question, but I only heard about it long after it got deleted.

 

The blog post in question was titled "People who use adblock plus are filthy scum bags."

 

Nexus forum thread on it.

 

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/61932-i-cant-believe-my-eyes/

 

Seems his blog has been deleted entirely.

 

Edit: Wait, seems someone actually posted it to ModsReloaded, quoting the entire blog post. No idea how I missed it before.

 

Editor’s comments: some people, mostly Americans not used to my personal flavour of humour, have taken personal offense to this article. The idea when reading is that, with most blog posts (and especially mine) you take the article with a big pinch of salt. All is not as it seems..

 

Lets not beat around the bush on this one; if you’re one of those people who sings the praises of AdBlock Plus, the plugin for FireFox that allows users to broadly disable advertising on all the websites they visit, then you’re a filthy scum bag. But we’re all filthy scum bags really. Only the other day I was bored in my Marketing lecture and managed to amuse myself by flicking bogies at a nearby sloan girl (the skill is aiming for those girls that have that deliberate “out of bed” frizzy style hair that just screams “define me”). But still, if you use AdBlock Plus, you’re scum.

 

I’ve had pretty hard-line views on the subject for quite some time now. As the owner of TESNexus, a popular video game site that is very resource and bandwidth intensive, I began taking personal offense to the members of the site forums who would openly suggest using AdBlock Plus, or similar applications, to circumvent the advertising on the site. As offenses go, I’d say it’s up there with those gimps who work behind the tills in nightclubs who think, just because you’ve drunk too much, you can’t count your change.

 

I’m willing to be realistic about this; I can see certain uses for an ad blocker. One of those uses doesn’t include financially raping those webmasters who run an honest resource for community members with good quality advertising. In the interest of keeping the peace, what I advocate is a more subjective use of adblock programs, rather than a “**** them all” approach. These programs allow users to specify whether all ads are blocked, or just ads on specific sites. So here’s a clue, why not block sites that you subjectively view are taking the piss when it comes to advertising? I’m sure we’ve all been to those sites that manage to trigger massive brain hemorrhages with their epileptic flashing colours, ads that scream out in some tard-tastic yank accent that you’ve won a free iPod or ads that bounce around the screen, and even when you click that tiny little “x” in the corner to close the ad it seems to think you’re interested in what they’re selling. OK, that’s lame, and no one wants to experience that, so at this point, why not block the ads for this particular site? Then again, the only sites that do that these days are porn sites, or sites with nil content, so you’ve got to start questioning your own browsing habits if you’re experiencing this **** regularly.

 

If you’re one of those Adblock users who has this retarded idea that advertising has no effect on them and turning off the ads is perfectly acceptable, I’m going to be blunt: you’re an idiot, and you’re wrong. Use the internet or go do some psychology night classes. Irrespective of whether you think you pay attention to advertising or not, the whole point of it being there is to provide revenue to the webmaster, revenue used to help pay for the site you are using. There are plenty of blog articles and internet bitch fights on the net about this **** that normally revolve around some headline grabbing, middle-aged codpiece referencing the concept of adblocking = theft, and I’m not going to do it here (you dirty thieving shits). Instead I’m going to take the high-ground and avoid all the name calling and hype phrases and get to the point: using ad blockers in your browser is your prerogative, in the same way that downloading the latest episode of Lost to satisfy your bleak concept of imagination via bittorrent is also your prerogative. Just don’t start whining like a bitch when the original sites you use start limiting your bandwidth, or doing similar things to screw you back.

 

I’ve been toying with the idea of limiting the download speed of users on TESNexus who are using adblocking programs. Rather than completely screwing them over by blocking them completely, or doing something ridiculously thickwitted, I’ll continue to provide the site for the entire community, including the dickheads and thick shits who blanket block all advertisements on all sites irrespective of circumstance, but simply limit the download speed for files to something rather small, say, 20kb/sec. No problem for those hill-billies still on dial-up, but those guys are so backwards already that I’m sure any reputable advertisers wouldn’t want their interest anyway (yes, haha, except broadband ISPs).

[lemonbalm]

Well, I for one am about as sick of Dark0ne, his continual "reminders" about how grateful we should all be for the money he has poured into the Nexus sites, and the people who defend him as I am of hearing about why I should vote for one candidate over another in the American elections.

 

Personally I don't give a crap about how much money the "great" Dark0ne has poured into the site because asking me to be grateful for it and telling me I should contribute and calling me names if I don't carries about as much importance as a man who decided to buy a mansion he can barely afford and then proceeds to tell everyone they should be grateful enough to pay for the privilege of being his guests. I had no hand in his decision to make a financial obligation that is difficult to afford. I will not accept being guilted into any action that I have no part in being responsible for.

[The Irreverend]

I don't care that he felt that way. However, posting that (especially in the purported sarcastic tone) shows an inexcusable lack of judgement. He comes off as petulant in it as well as what he said regarding the post. If he wanted people to disable AdBlock, he could of simply posted a message on the site saying that the ads being displayed is the source of revenue for the site, so he would greatly appreciate if people didn't use it on his site. However, I do think it was a good idea to remove the post.

[Guest]

I don't care that he felt that way. However' date=' posting that (especially in the purported sarcastic tone) shows an inexcusable lack of judgement. He comes off as petulant in it as well as what he said regarding the post. If he wanted people to disable AdBlock, he could of simply posted a message on the site saying that the ads being displayed is the source of revenue for the site, so he would greatly appreciate if people didn't use it on his site. However, I do think it was a good idea to remove the post.

[/quote']

 

True, one catches a lot more flies with honey than with vinegar. If someone explains to me why adblock is harming their site and asks me politely to disable it for their site, I would do so gladly. I certainly won't do it when he tells me I'm a thief and then says he was just trying to be humorous afterwards.

[Ginnyfizz]

Well I am a Premium member at Nexus so I don't get the ads, but I can tell you that if I were not a Premium Member I would still apply Adblock. I acquired Adblock in the first place because another site of which I am a staff member (and which cannot be mentioned on Nexus either as it happens...) decided to introduce ads. At the same time, I was applying for a credit card. When I next went to the site....I got an ad for the same card that I had just been applying for. I was totally shocked and wondered just how deep Google Adsense mines into your PC, and acquired Adblock immediately.

 

I might even have posted at Nexus when he made that remark, can't remember, to the effect that some people have good reason to distrust Adblock.

[Grumpf]

I personally added that several days ago: https://privacyfix.com/start

Seems to work for me...

 

This is not spam Here let me say "Milog" so you know I'm not a bot

 

Fact: Adding some add to your website allow you to run it for free, people block adds, no more money, site is not free anymore. Blame yourself for choosing an unstable source of income not people for not wanting to be bugged.

[ringgold99]

Hey, Ginnyfizz, nice to see you here. I have been an admirer of your biting and to the point posts on Nexus for a while. You don't seem to care what others there think of you and I really appreciate that. Damn, this seems too much like sucking up. Can I insult you now so I feel better about myself?

 

And I too have adblock and noscript and several other things because of many privacy and other problems in the past. So I guess I am scum too (a Premium scum, I guess).

[ringgold99]

I personally added that several days ago: https://privacyfix.com/start

Seems to work for me...

 

What exactly does this do? Delete cookies or what? I like to know what things do before I try them, especially when screwing with my main computer with my Oblivion with "so many mods I cannot count anymore".