This thread:

"New cartoon on survivalists getting interviewed by clueless TV talking heads"

has this tag:

meta HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" Content="2; URL=http://www.y2kculture.com/cartoons/19990304.tv.html

Which forces you on to the new site. Can posts with the string (caseless) "meta HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" Content="2;" be stopped and queued for editing? Maybe Craig can help here, too.

-- Lisa (nomail@work.now), March 04, 1999

Answers

Declan McCullah, you're a scumbag. This forced-tag tactic to get hits on your website is the lowest yet.

I retract any apology I ever made to you during my heated posts on the disgust I had for your involvement in TIME mag's irresponsible article.

You were a scumbag then, you remain one now.

Sincerely,

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 04, 1999.

Can someone turn off the darn goto tag on that post? Hotlinks are fine, but forced hotlinks are just not cool.

-- Cash (cash@andcarry.com), March 04, 1999.

Chris, you were too restrained in your comments! Seriously, you were.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 04, 1999.

Somebody should hunt Declan down and smack him on the nose with a rolled up newspaper like the DOG that he is!

Chris, I TOTALLY agree with you, this guy is a scumbag. I used to try to be gentle in my criticism of his shilling his site before because he has done some great work on this issue in the past. But now, he's crossed the line and needs to be punished. Declan, I'm never going to your site again, and I'm cancelling mine and my company's subscriptions to Wired. (which is pretty much a waste anyway, though I like Negroponte) Oh, and what the hell, I'll send a letter to Wired and tell them about this too.

This latest litlle trick of yours was totally unscrupulous...

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), March 04, 1999.

Interesting. I wouldn't be overly concerned as whoever did it looks like they are having a bit of fun with us. If they'd wanted to mess things up they could have with a bit more imaginitive code.

Anyway, I've got an idea to maybe fix it. I'll give it a try.

It's impossible to close that type of tag. However, as new posts are inserted higher on the page I may be able to override it by using the same command but with a much longer timeout before it executes. Instead of redirecting in 2 seconds I'll set it to 1000 seconds which will give anyone lots of time to view the page.

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), March 04, 1999.

Can't be too positive that it's Declan actually doing it....... moderator can tell whether....

(Although I agree he's a shameless huckster...)

-- Lisa (lisa@.work.now), March 04, 1999.

And after the first time a suspected person uses the forced goto tag, do not return to that post or any other thread by that person. Ya, know this one? "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), March 04, 1999.

Nah.......i overlooked one thing. The posts are implemented below the previous threads. Therefore the new rendition of the tag doesn't get read before the first is executed. Oh well........

I believe the fix I mentioned above would work though if a redirect had been placed on the main forum page as on that page new headings are placed above previous ones.

Actually, all this site needs probably is a minor rewrite of the cgi program that basically inserts each new heading and message onto the appropriate page with the proper HTML tags. It would be programmed to search for strings such as SCRIPT and META etc. and reject those messages.

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), March 04, 1999.

It wasn't Declan - do a 'view source' on that page and you'll see.

-- Ned (entaylor@cloudnet.com), March 04, 1999.

I don't think it was Declan - IP never available in source, mod should know (that's how we "lost" JBD, possibly?)...

But how funny if it was someone equally disgusted with the plugs to get Declan in trouble..........RUOK, for example. Hee hee.

Thanks for trying, Craig...

-- Lisa (lisa@back.fire?), March 04, 1999.

peoples,

DISABLE JAVA & JAVASCRIPT, everything else for that matter, under "preferences"... the naughty little javabombers can't annoy you then.

Sysman addressed this elsewhere.

-- Mutha Nachu (---@naughty,naughtybadjavabombers.com), March 04, 1999.

um...Ned is right. I had to try several times before I could quickly click on view source before it brought me to Declan's site.

On view source, the culprit signed "yaydeclan" and gave the address "declansgood@gothere.now" after RUOK's disgusted comments.

Well Declan, maybe you should get a hint from this mess. Take this as half an apology if you like, and make those last 5+ forced hits to your site my last.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 04, 1999.

BTW Mutha, the tag is in HTML, not Java script. I have java disabled.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 04, 1999.

Mutha, the principle for removal is that Declan will accumulate even MORE web hits because of that post, which irritates the shit out of some of us.

That's why we want the meta link in that post gone: he's getting UNWILLING pinball-like hits (Hi-jacking, it is - not very principled) that he doesn't deserve.

-- Lisa (hi@there.mutha), March 04, 1999.

Declan, if it wasn't you or one of your lackeys who did that, then I apologize for calling you a scumbag. Shameless huckster, yes, scumbag, no...

(IF!)

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), March 04, 1999.

sorry all,

using netscape, everything disabled, I "fwooop" no-where. try it. don't know about MSIE... don't much care.

Agree that it is very churlish to force links on others...

-- Mutha Nachu (---@totiredtothinkofonerightnow.com), March 04, 1999.

'Tweren't me, folks. I'm thinkin "yeydeclan" is the same idjit "maryjo" who screwed with the forum last weekend. Some people's kids.

-- RUOK (RUOK@yesiam.com), March 04, 1999.

Wasn't me. I wouldn't do that, and didn't encourage anyone else to do it either. Didn't know about it until Ed emailed me about it.

-- Declan McCullagh (declan@y2kculture.com), March 06, 1999.