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Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs

bbc.com

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Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs

#14

Post by mikekchar »

Nursie wrote: post #10

If this is done without explicit permission from the user, I can see it being some sort of hacking offence. So yes, I run adblockers. I will also run coinblockers. You're not going to be mining on my laptop processor and battery. Not yours. If you don't want me reading your stuff for free (which is perfectly reasonable!) then block me, instruct your server not to send content on those terms. I'm happy with that. But…

Out of curiosity... Rather than blocking ads, why not block sites that have ads? This way you comply with their implicit wish not to have you read their content without some sort of monetary return.

Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs

#15

Post by xaerise »

abusoufiyan wrote: post #8
DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes it's likely that these domains end up on some list. E.g.: $ curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroDot1/CoinBlockerLists/master/hosts|grep salon.com 0.0.0.0 worker.salon.com

Yikes, you'd think a media company would be smarter than to use a software that returns hundreds of articles about malware as the top results of a google search for its name.

Many media companies doesn't think longer than their nose. Only thinks about money but not the impact the decisions they make.

Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs

#16

Post by NKCSS »

abusoufiyan wrote: post #8
DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes it's likely that these domains end up on some list. E.g.: $ curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroDot1/CoinBlockerLists/master/hosts|grep salon.com 0.0.0.0 worker.salon.com

Yikes, you'd think a media company would be smarter than to use a software that returns hundreds of articles about malware as the top results of a google search for its name.

Why would they care? They make money off of the ads, if you use an ad blocker, you just run up their server costs. Don't think they care.

Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs

#17

Post by dmix »

abusoufiyan wrote: post #8
DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes it's likely that these domains end up on some list. E.g.: $ curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroDot1/CoinBlockerLists/master/hosts|grep salon.com 0.0.0.0 worker.salon.com

Yikes, you'd think a media company would be smarter than to use a software that returns hundreds of articles about malware as the top results of a google search for its name.

Salon is well known for some poor quality journalism/blogging. Not surprised to see that is reflected in their management/technology descions.

Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs

#19

Post by acgh213 »

BigTex420 wrote: post #4

I think it’s a good thing. Better than sacrificing journalistic integrity for clickbait that helps drive more ads

Journalistic integrity doesn't die if your content is worth the price of admission.

Excessive ads on a site that serves click bait isn't a site worth a 100% hit against your PC, unless it allows you the profit, the entire amount or a portion depending how you are mining the coins using Moreno.

New York Times wants to charge for subscription over 5 articles a month, they put forth the effort to earn it. While not abusing my trust. They aren't forcing a user into a choice that is similar to a loss/loss situation like Salon.

I pay for electricity, I pay for internet. I pay for hardware. I don't pay directly to visit a site online. I pay a fee to access the content if it is locked down. But if someone wants to places ads, that doesn't take a hit on a system. Then the content is worth it.

If Salon wants to offer a choice of blocking those who AdBlock, or mine a currency for them. The site isn't worth any bit of it's content. I'll waste my processing power and actual power bill on something that benefits my own life and not the Salon Media Group.

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