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Gwen's comment about Malwarebytes brought a response but then it kept going and I couldn't stop so I am dropping my own blog.
Coincidence it updated one night ago? It hasn't ever flagged BCTS on my computer. One of the other virus protectors gets over exuberant at times but again BCTS isn't running a bunch of free loading cookies. The girls are running the cleanest web site on the net as far as I can tell.
I kid you not, some sites try and load over thirty free loading cookies when I touch them. Look at Newsweek, Bloomberg, Foxnews, yahoo, and others if you have a cookie blocker running. Most sites tattle back to Google you looked at a certain web page. I believe that is the most prolific cookie dropping on the net. Youtube is almost as bad.
BCTS? Zero, zilch, da nada, goose egg. It's one of the reasons the ladies need donations to keep the site up and running. They aren't receiving a whole lot of help from outside sources as they aren't tattling on who is looking at BCTS.
A monthly donation of change from the cookie jar would probably be appreciated by the ladies who do so much for all the authors and readers with so little payback or praise for their long hours and efforts. Their need to request donations every month for something we all enjoy and take advantage of while keeping our secrets, truly is sad. Several authors have donated the proceeds from their published stories to BCTS. In the past I sent a small donation in memory of Denise A. Trask who wrote, The Last of The Fey. The ladies are preserving the stories and memory of many great authors who are no longer with us.
My secrets? I don't want the world to know where I live or what I do with my private life. Who, what, I am, my views and opinions aren't secret. That much is way out in public. It's like wearing clothes. Some things don't need to be exposed. There are some things one should never search for. The Anarchist Cookbook, Make Your AK-47 Fully Automatic, would have FBI and NSA knocking on one's door. Don't do it, along with a lot of other really bad things to search for on the net.
Back on track here. Think of the ladies who put in some ungodly hours keeping BCTS up and running. It sure isn't for the monetary payment they are receiving as many times they are using their own credit cards to keep the lights on. Daddy told me when I was little to make sure I count the nickles as the dollars will take care of themselves. Moral: A lot of small change can add up faster than the larger dollars. A lot of small donations to BCTS I am sure would be appreciated.
hugs people
always
Barb
The more we know, the more we understand we know nothing.
Comments
A well stated plea.......
From one of my pantheon of favorite authors.
You have brought up several very important points Barb, and although I do not have the same worries of being outed as some who read here, I do still appreciate the fact that I am not inundated by junk e-mail due to spending time on the site. I spend enough time blocking and unsubscribing from e-mail lists that I never subscribed to in the first place.
Yes, there are plenty of sites making money by selling your contact information, and it is a pleasant surprise to find one that doesn’t.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Emails from strange lists
All it takes is for you to sign up to one site and your email is fair game to anyone with a few $$$ to spend on a list.
I once ran a company. There was only ever one employee... me. It was for when I was a software contractor. I closed it down in 2008. I still own the domain and the email. Some old sites are just too much of a PITA to get the email changed.
That email gets lots of 'stuff' from all sorts of companies, mostly in the USA even though it is a .co.uk domain.
Last year and with nothing much on that day, I responded to one email. I told the sender that they'd been scammed as the company no longer existed (I even included a link to the companies house record that showed that it was 'struck off'). The verbals I got back from this company were amazing. They blamed me for wasting their time and money. Doh!
The moral is... these lists will continue to get circulated forever and ever. Companies will still be stupid enough to pay $$$$ for a list that is 95% rubbish. They simply don't care (that's my take on it anyway)
Send them to the Junk folder. Most email clients allow you to create filtering rules. Then you can say sayonara to those emails.
Samantha
automatic name rotating on spam eMail
I've fought with several email spammers where the name at the beginning auto rotates.
Example [email protected]
Changes to [email protected]
In my early programming years *.* was an all inclusive catch
Thus block *.*@spamU.com would stop any email coming from that site no matter what name they hung at the front.
Not that simple any more. Every time I get one of those rotating emails, I have to ask my net provider to put the block on it. They haven't shared with me the filter they are using but one of these days, I'll figure it out.
Despite all that, what really ticks me off are the ones trying to sell me ocean front property in Oklahoma. That's my sales spiel and they are infringing on my turf. Not going to mention all the names of everyone who has invested. Jill and Bru of course. Don't know why they stopped speaking to me? Nunnan said she wanted to look it over first. I sent her six by eight glossies. Don't know why she would still insist on seeing it personally? I don't think she trusts me. The property is getting harder and harder to sell. I'm thinking of going to power ball winnings. "Congratulations, you have won the state power ball drawing. Please send us your name, address, telephone number, your bank account number, and all your credit card numbers so we can begin transferring your ten million dollar winnings into your accounts."
You can be my first winning customer, Sam. How about it sugar? I trust you, you can trust me.
your BFF
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Thank you hon
Your support is appreciated.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
NO ACCUSATIONS MADE !!!
I am more PISSED and hurt than....
I felt it likely that my problems were due to something that Malwarebytes had done. Now I am being admonished not to spread rumors.
FUCK IT. At no point did I blame anyone at BCTS!!! Way to shoot the messenger!!!
Yes, I know, don't let the door hit me in the ASS.
So done with this.
Don't feel like that.
If Malwarebytes won't tell you to update or at least notify you that there is an update available then that's their problem.
The problem is that these companies think that all their users are IT Experts when they clearly aren't.
You are right to get frustrated because of the downright stupidity of these companies.
By all means vent your anger at them. They deserve it with bells on.
Samantha
MWB
One of the first things MWB asks you is if you want notifications when updates are available. They are one of the good companies in a business that is full of scabrous operators. They don't send you update notices unless you ask for them by clicking the box on their screen. Their product is free if you use it to make manual scans; automatic scans and auto-updates they charge for.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Malwarebytes
I have the paid version of Malwarebytes (Malwarebytes Premium 4.0.4) on my main computer, and it updates itself automatically. I have the free version on two laptops, and every time I launch it, I search for updates. It's not hard, and any one who cares should do it.
Updates
From now on, promise, as soon as I am told about an update, I will do it, PROMISE !
I got the notice, but forgot. I really need a big brother to grab my computer from me, but everyone drank themselves to death! I'm too old and ugly and disobedient so everyone who seemed to give a shit left. To reiterate, I am not a Geek of any sort. I was a scrummy Electrician, who should have been a Nurse, and my brothers thought I should have been a Preacher. I hated messing with electricity, and eventually got a disease that makes me hurt a lot. I love to read History, but Hate (!) computers. I touch keys and the screen does things that are magical to me, and that is as far as it goes. I am sure that if Trump gets elected again, Homeland Security will come take my computer.
Some people at BCTS have been kind and helpful to me, thank you very much. I promise that next time I get an update notice, I will act on it immediately. Sorry that I am so dumb.
You are not dumb Ok!
To reiterate, I am not a Geek of any sort.
That's the point I was trying to make. Most IT companies think that everyone is like them. They aren't.
Back in the day...(the 1980's) we used to get people in off the street and sit them down in front of a computer and see if they could do certain tasks with our software. They got a few pounds for their trouble and the data was used to make things easier for the real users.
That all takes time and money. Very, very few (if any) companies do that sort of testing today. They merely assume that everyone is a geek and throw products out there with hardly any testing.
So Gwen, don't feel bad when something like this happens. Roll with it. Swear at the designers by all means. I do that on a regular basis and you know how long I've been in the software business.
Samantha
Don't worry, Gwen :)
Most likely you were just scammed by a piece of malware to believe that an antivirus program flags BC as a bad site. Luckily it was cleaned - otherwise you would soon be asked to pay something for "cleaning" a problem that, of course, doesn't even exist.
Updating you antivirus as frequently as possible is always a good idea. Cybercriminals never sleep, and these days they have the backing of some states, in exchange for doing their bidding in political and other matters. You might be valuable to them simply with the fact that you exist, and maybe can be tricked into doing some things they need done. Distributing rumors that appear credible to a person with your kind of thinking, for example. Voting for the candidate they want elected. Supporting people they want thriving around you. Etc, etc, etc...
Thumbs up for you! :)
remember it is called anti virus for a reason
They also can get false positives. it happens some script seems to be like a virus etc, so it will flash to be overprotective. if you let them know when this happens it helps to reduce the number of "false positives" so they can work even better.
it seems this was just an outdated version, which is good. I use Malwarebytes and AVAST, avast is a lot pushier on the selling stuff but you do NOT have to, and having a "second opinion" is always a good thing
Teresa L.