Once upon a time, I was a forum administrator and served as a moderator and still part time admin another site. I'd like to say I've seen it all, but I probably haven't.

One recurring theme is that people take these sites far too seriously.

I have left LQ a few times, without any fanfare, it's usually nothing to do with LQ per se, but there comes a point when I simply "burn out" and get fed up with these types of sites and the large numbers of precious, entitled feeling individuals who post on them.

I've seen from sundial's posts that he takes his own political and sociological views quite seriously and every thread is seen as a platform for disseminating those views. We all do this in small ways, but sundial does seem to steer many of the threads he participates in into an essay about his favourite subjects. This kind of thing inevitably leads to burn out, because it's a one way communication channel.

The ads don't bother me, I block most unnecessary scripts from running anyway and LQ just falls under this. Once logged in you don't see them - and that's a lot better than many other sites. The site is "free to use" - something which many people here seem to have forgotten - but many have also forgotten how their OS is also completely free - as evidenced by some of the posters in the ongoing multi-page wishlist thread, so maybe it's not so surprising.

If you want to have a pop at something, then look no further than the free services or OS who are actively data mining, not a site like this one.

1 members found this post helpful.

I've seen these posts by Sundialsvcs before. Just texting. But, technical issues were caused on witch end last times?!.

You can hardly blame him. Whether you block, ignore, tolerate or click them is on you.

I eat the cost for my own hosting and I'm sure it's much less than what it costs to host LQ. I just renewed mine, but if I decide one day to shut it down I can do so at my discretion.

Would you prefer that he wake up one day and ask himself why he's doing it at all? What good is he really getting out of it personally compared to what it costs in terms of just money? Only he knows.


Personally, when I leave a site I try to do so quietly and without drama. That way if I decide to come back in the future I don't feel like such an ass.

i totally respect & fully support your decision!

1 members found this post helpful.

I get it.

I, too, have never seen an advertisement on this site when logged in, however. Things are pretty slow here today...maybe that was a one off?
Have you shared the specifics with management?

And, I ,for one, will miss your expertise and insight.

Yes they should come back.

I have always touted live boot.

Sundial always touted VM.

I now find myself with an actual need to use a VM, and I have a question they could probably answer.

Well, for example, today I saw an ad to download something if you are having trouble with email. That's a well-known method of getting someone to install malware on their system. I'm not saying that this was malware; I just didn't like the look of it. And there was another ad encouraging people to invest in bitcoin, which is surely a scam in itself!

Script based ads are also a vehicle for downloading malware, hazel. If you're seeing them you're potentially vulnerable to exploit. Several.

I'm on an OpenBSD box using Seamonkey and the only extensions I have are NoScript, HTTPS Everywhere and the default DOM Inspector it ships with. I don't see any ads, only the placeholder in my shot, so it's script based and blocked by you know what.

The only scripts I am allowing are for linuxquestions.org, thequestionsnetwork.org and that gives me full functionality, unless I want to upload an image and have to enable two more safe scripts.


I just got though talking about a site I belong to where the owner had sold ad space to someone who used script based ads to download malware when people landed on the site. A Drive-By. Members said it had happened to them in the forums. It didn't happen to me and knowing about it didn't stop me from going there daily.

I'd hate for it to happen to you, hazel. I'm not talking about it happening here, but it could when you least expect it.

Here's another one I saw today on this site:
"GCSEs and SATs: Examiners show your child how to get 100%"
with a link to schoolexams.co.uk.

That's an invitation to cheat on exams. If it's genuine, it's fraudulent!

From looking at the their website, it's not about cheating. More like teaching to the test kind of thing. Which is perhaps not a great thing, but not cheating as such.