Intrusive Net Neutrality "Pop-up Ad"

[seapancake]

I recently noticed that this stupid pop up will appear when any user connects to pcsx2.net regardless of on mobile or desktop

It can be dismissed with one click and it won't reappear if you close/browse to the site again so it's only displayed once.

Uh yeah, we should do something about that IMO. It makes the site look very shady(regardless of it's purpose)

How is it 'shady'? It has a clear description of the banner?

The real question is who/how this is being injected this into our site

The code is open source and there is a Github if you're that paranoid. The Github is very clear on what code is added.

It just goes to show even with the best intentions, somebody's work can be used for the wrong purpose - and maliciously if you want to call it that.

You're saying the script is malicious? I'm not clear on what you mean, the source code is listed and the popup's purpose is clearly defined.

But most users will likely not know.That's my issue with it. Some users will be driven away by it because of that. But if you want it there that's your prerogative.

The description is right there, you would have to actively ignore the writing to think that. I'm looking at Cloudflare analytics and they do not backup this claim at all.

I thought it was a random site lol. I guess a little heads up would've been nice, but I can understand not wanting to tell us.

All you need to do is read the message although I do admit advance notice may have been beneficial, it was not a decision not to tell people that runs counter to the whole point. I want to make it clear that my intention (As I was the one who suggested it) was never to hide anything.

but this is just not the way to go about it.

What way would you suggest? If it was mining bit coins to fund the campaign I would agree with you however it is one message that has a clear description of it's purpose and fully-documented source code.

This affects the entire internet and if the law is changed it will affect everyone, I would argue it is our duty as a site with a significant amount of traffic to help ensure that net neutrality is supported. From the comments above my interpretation is people don't like the coloring which is a fair point but to put it in context we are debating the design of a modal popup compared to the open nature of the internet.

[Blyss Sarania]

Well if you stop for 5 seconds and read, you will know what it's about.

You don't have to be short with us. I could say the same thing - if you read our posts you will see that we already know what it's about(and it's something I'm quite concerned about as well) my concern was those who don't already know and how they would interpret the visual presentation of the widget. With due respect you are the webmaster. You can do as you like. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't voice our concerns.

How is it 'shady'? It has a clear description of the banner?

It's just strongly reminiscent of shady things I've seen in the past. "CONGRATULATIONS! You are this sites 1,000,000 visitor! Please click here to claim your prize" and the like. I determined it wasn't by seeing where the links actually went by mousing over them and then googling before I even posted the very first time in this thread. I've known what it was about from the start.

The description is right there, you would have to actively ignore the writing to think that. I'm looking at Cloudflare analytics and they do not backup this claim at all.

You would have to ignore it, yes. Or you would have to not intrinsically trust everything comes from where it says it does(like me). But back to ignoring - that's what users do. How many posts do we get asking for pirate this or that because users don't read our rules. The ones we make them read and accept before joining the forum(we still do that right... it's been a long time since I joined here LOL)? How many questions do we get regarding things that could be easily answered if the user would look at the readily available FAQs and guides?

I can't speak to what it says in the analytics and maybe they do back up the fact that people are more aware than I'm giving them credit for. But we have several members that took it the wrong way initially. And we aren't talking your average Internet scrubs here but tech savvy people. That's all I could base my opinion on. I've also learned to expect users to interpret things incorrectly in my years as a mod and dabbling in software development.

Personally at the very first I thought it was a malicious doohickey that was using the net neutrality thing to boost it's own credibility(hijacking of the credibility of a known name or organization is a common thing on the net). As I said, I moused over it and found out that it was legit. However I did NOT think it was something purposefully put there until I was told. I thought it was something like CK1 did - something injecting itself on to our site.

What way would you suggest?

Personally I would suggest a banner ad at the top of the site would be more appropriate. True, it would get blocked by adblock or ublock users in that case I guess(but if we served it from pcsx2.net it wouldn't.) But it wouldn't lend that suspicious aura to the site that it currently does.

---

Let me make it clear since this thread is a whole lot of misunderstanding - I fully support getting the word out about the issues surrounding net neutrality. My issue was with how things appeared visually and that's all. I think we should at least be free to voice our opinions on things like this and discuss it.

[ssakash]

Maybe it would be nice to add something like "Verified as genuine by PCSX2 Team" along with a green check mark at the top of the popup to make it look more credible? Anything which is so flashy asking for phone number might seem shady to normal people. (No one generally goes through the URL provided in popups)

[Blyss Sarania]

^ Not a bad idea, if it's possible.

[Bositman]

Then with the same mindset, people would not read that or would think it's a scam using our name to mislead them. You can go on and on with this, there is no foolproof way to communicate something like it. If people won't read, it has no purpose anyway so I guess the whole internet using this pop-up is useless So no matter what text I put there, people won't read it, so there is no way I can use it? I think the problem was that the people who posted here visit pcsx2.net daily and saw something out of the ordinary. Most people visiting pcsx2.net are new visitors (like 60%) and I *think* they will not panic like you people.

In any case, even if you DO panic, you just click X and it's gone. I'll set it to reappear after 7 days or so, to cover the 'intrusive' argument and we're done.

[rama]

The thing looks fine to me.
It also goes away if you click anywhere outside the window.

[seapancake]

It's just strongly reminiscent of shady things I've seen in the past. "CONGRATULATIONS! You are this sites 1,000,000 visitor! Please click here to claim your prize" and the like. I determined it wasn't by seeing where the links actually went by mousing over them and then googling before I even posted the very first time in this thread. I've known what it was about from the start.

An argument could be made either way, since modals like this are used across the internet (Your example is one) it comes down to the content/layout, this is something that can be changed.

But back to ignoring - that's what users do. How many posts do we get asking for pirate this or that because users don't read our rules. The ones we make them read and accept before joining the forum(we still do that right... it's been a long time since I joined here LOL)? How many questions do we get regarding things that could be easily answered if the user would look at the readily available FAQs and guides? 

Those who take that interpretation are also likely to ignore, close and click away like they would about a message from say an online newspaper who asks a reader to 'Signup for subscription'. You are comparing an annoyance (Banners, rules, signups, etc) with what the user might want (PCSX2, DS3 or FAQs) there is no direct comparison.

I can't speak to what it says in the analytics and maybe they do back up the fact that people are more aware than I'm giving them credit for. But we have several members that took it the wrong way initially. 

If you'd like to see the statistics let me know, I'm happy to run you through them if you'd like. While it's true 5 people did have a similar experience we have had over 30,000 unique visits in the last 24 hours we can confirm if we have had any feedback easily enough.

Personally at the very first I thought it was a malicious doohickey that was using the net neutrality thing to boost it's own credibility(hijacking of the credibility of a known name or organization is a common thing on the net). As I said, I moused over it and found out that it was legit. However I did NOT think it was something purposefully put there until I was told. I thought it was something like CK1 did - something injecting itself on to our site. 

I think again this comes down to the design, if this is the case your description is not accurate enough as to why you think this.

Personally I would suggest a banner ad at the top of the site would be more appropriate. True, it would get blocked by adblock or ublock users in that case I guess(but if we served it from pcsx2.net it wouldn't.) But it wouldn't lend that suspicious aura to the site that it currently does.

Tt would require a modification of the template however as Bositman said the point is to alert you and we already have banner ads on the site so the message is diluted that way. Best to discuss via PM

Maybe it would be nice to add something like "Verified as genuine by PCSX2 Team" along with a green check mark at the top of the popup to make it look more credible? Anything which is so flashy asking for phone number might seem shady to normal people. (No one generally goes through the URL provided in popups)

It can be done in the JS easily enough.

[avih]

The thing looks fine to me.

Looks fine to me too.

I wasn't aware it was added, but when I saw the notice it was immediately obvious to me that it's not a malicious thing.

Well worth keeping IMO.

[-StrikER-]

Imho it needs a bit of design tweak and rewording, in all honesty it looks quite shady, due to the color selections for instance, which is similar to many shades less trustworthy sites use, the first thing i thought when it poped out was that PCSX2 was compromised and immediately i closed the whole thing. And it seems by checking around this thread i wasn't the only one thinking that, which is why i suggested a design tweak so that it doesn't do the opposite and drives people away.

[avih]

which is why i suggested a design tweak so that it doesn't do the opposite and drives people away.

No one at the PCSX2 team designed it. It's how they designed the "widget". Here's a demo https://widget.battleforthenet.com/demos/modal.html  and that's the source code on github: https://github.com/fightforthefuture/bat...net-widget

You're overestimating the effort which was put into adding it to the page