SourceForge Appeals To Readers For Help Nixing Bad Ad Actors

Last week, we mentioned that the GIMP project had elected to leave SourceForge as its host, citing SourceForge's advertising policies. SourceForge (which shares a parent company with Slashdot) has released a statement about those policies, addressing in particular both ads that are confusing in themselves and their revenue-sharing system called DevShare, based on the provision of third-party software along with users' downloads. Among other things, the SF team is appealing to users to help them find and block misleading ads, and has this to say about the additional downloads: "The DevShare program has been designed to be fully transparent. The installation flow has no deceptive steps, all offers are fully disclosed, and the clear option to completely decline the offer is always available. All uninstallation procedures are exhaustively documented, and all third party offers go through a comprehensive compliance process to make sure they are virus and malware free."

Comments

Missing the point

[finkployd]

I don't want useless add on application/browser extension/etc being installed when I chose to download something. No matter how much vetting and transparency, this is simply wrong.

Re:Missing the point

[twocows]

This, and I believe this was a big part of why GIMP left. Just because other download sites are doing it doesn't mean it's tolerable. Sourceforge is pretty much completely unusuable without ABP at this point (which, when enabled, makes SF completely bearable; forcing users to use ad blocking software means your advertising model isn't working).

Re:Missing the point

[Desler]

Timmeh is paid to miss the point. Did anyone really expect Dice.com emoyees to speak against this adware?

Re:Missing the point

[TWiTfan]

I couldn't believe it when I installed some software from Sourceforge a while back and ended up with a malware toolbar in my browser (that was a huge PITA to remove, no less). At first I thought it was a mistake, that I *must* have gotten it from somewhere else. Then when I heard similar stories from others and realized it was intentional, just a cheap money grab--I knew the Sourceforge I once knew and trusted could never be trusted by me (or supported) ever again. Sad day.

Re:Missing the point

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Exactly. Its scummy, gives a bad taste to sourceforge. It will only drive people to github.

Re:Missing the point

[Charliemopps]

What's really funny is how they completely failed to understand who their customers were. It'd be like Whole Foods spritzing free Pesticides on your produce as you checked out.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing personal but it seems kind of ironic coming from someone named twocows....

Re:Missing the point

[twocows]

Oddly enough, I didn't base the name off the site, but I doubt anyone cares.

Re:Missing the point

[rudy_wayne]

What's really funny is how they completely failed to understand who their customers were. >

No, they know exactly who their customers are. their customers are the people who pay them to display ads and inject extra crap into downloads. That's where SourceForge's revenue comes from. Not from you.

Re:Missing the point

[i kan reed]

And there's the fact that the dumb things Sourceforge was doing was harming Gimp's reputation as a legitimate piece of professional software. That's a reputation they've been working hard to develop for years(name complaints aside).

Re:Missing the point

[i kan reed]

The weirdest thing about the lack of honesty here is that everyone reads slashdot for the comments. Did they think the facade of caring would last past the last word of the summary?

Re:Missing the point

[cffrost]

I couldn't believe it when I installed some software from Sourceforge a while back and ended up with a malware toolbar in my browser (that was a huge PITA to remove, no less). At first I thought it was a mistake, that I *must* have gotten it from somewhere else. Then when I heard similar stories from others and realized it was intentional, just a cheap money grab--I knew the Sourceforge I once knew and trusted could never be trusted by me (or supported) ever again. Sad day.

Was there a check-box to opt-out of the malware installation, or was the malware installed silently? I've installed several programs from SF recently, and I read all of the dialogs, but I haven't seen any opt-outs or malware.

Re:Missing the point

[amicusNYCL]

I don't even think their statement is very honest. We have this line:

The installation flow has no deceptive steps

So, when I go to a project's download page, and I see a bunch of ads with giant green "DOWNLOAD NOW" buttons, that isn't supposed to be deceptive? Then there's this:

the clear option to completely decline the offer is always available

The "clear option" is a greyed-out "Decline" button on the bottom left of the installer. The green Accept button is on the bottom right of the installer, which is the place that people have been trained to click to go to the next step. While it's true that the decline button is always visible, making it appear greyed-out and away from the Accept button is not exactly clear (and possibly deceptive). Moreover, instead of "Decline" and "Accept", how about "Only Install Filezilla" or "Install Offer And Filezilla". THAT would be clear and non-deceptive.

Here's a hint for SF: if you want to identify bad actors, one indication is that they are an advertiser. The advertiser's goal is to steal attention and make people click on something, even (especially?) if it wasn't what they intended to click on. Advertisers ruin everything about the internet, they're the reason why we needed popup blocking in the first place. Whenever a new technology comes along, advertisers are there to shit all over it. Excuse me, "monetize" it. If you're putting ads on your site, and you have no control over the content of those ads (i.e. fed from a third-party network), then those ads are going to be annoying and deceptive. I fully expect to go to SF one day and see some ad screaming about how "one weird tip" can allow me to download Filezilla.

Re:Missing the point

[mwvdlee]

Atleast they were honest enough to add "which shares a parent company with Slashdot".
This loosely translates to "everything here is lies, and you have been warned".

Re:Missing the point

[mwvdlee]

It's probably the big green download buttons that appear on every download page.
I never got quite as far as installing toolbars, but only because the downloaded executable name didn't look like the one I was expecting (and, 10 seconds later, the real download started).

Re:Missing the point

[icebike]

Mod Parent UP.

Most people probably don't realize SF is owned by the owner of Slashdot.
SF is probably a good indication of what will befall Slashdot.

Re:Missing the point

[PopeRatzo]

I would hope that at the very least, Sourceforge would make these add-on sales pitches to be turned off by default and make them opt-in instead of opt-out.

I've had to sit my wife and daughter down and explain to them how when they update Java or Adobe anything they have to be sure to turn off all the BS programs that those installers will try to slip by them, because of their horrible opt-out malware installers.

Re:Missing the point

[mcgrew]

Agreed, that's one reason people ditch Windows. Windows users are use to that sort of bullshit, open source folks won't stand for it.

SourceForge, this shit needs to stop. Advertising is fine, but damn it, leave the trickery to the corporate... oh, oh... Dice owns SourceForge now, doesn't it?

SourceForge is SO screwed...

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

The comments are what drew me in after visiting here back in like '07 or so. They are pretty much all that keeps me here (that and the occasional tech or science-related thing I don't see elsewhere).

I'm just a schmuck with an MBA (who is fucking reviled here) who likes to read what really smart people have to say.

I'm a pro-gun MBA. That seems to make me a double pariah here lately........

Re:Missing the point

[gbjbaanb]

their customers are the people who used to pay them to display ads before everyone left for the competitor sites that didn't spew disingenuous ad buttons over every download.

TFTFY.

Re:Missing the point

[TLHarrell]

Use Ninite for install of most usual programs. www.ninite.com Checkbox all the software you want, download their installer app, run it. It downloads and installs everything you asked for in the background and bypasses all the crapware and other offers. Just used it on my wife's new box and it was glorious!

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, it's not all bad. You could also like Apple and be conservative. (Of course, stereotypes being what they are, people will assume you're conservative if you're pro-gun.)

Re:Missing the point

[cffrost]

It's probably the big green download buttons that appear on every download page.
I never got quite as far as installing toolbars, but only because the downloaded executable name didn't look like the one I was expecting (and, 10 seconds later, the real download started).

I'd guess I use the big green button about 67-75% of the time, and never got a download I didn't want. I suppose ABP, NoScript, RequestPolicy, Ghostery, PeerBlock, HOSTS, or referer/user-agent spoofing might have something to do with it.

The user above who said that Adblock is security software is right — I consider the countermeasures I listed above to be so as well.

Re:Missing the point

[yuhong]

Well the deceptive part IMO is the "bait and switch" part where they showed one filename but in reality download a different file.

Re:Missing the point

[tqk]

What's really funny is how they completely failed to understand who their customers were.

No, they know exactly who their customers are. their customers are the people who pay them to display ads and inject extra crap into downloads. That's where SourceForge's revenue comes from. Not from you.

If you get it for free, you're not the customer. You're the product. True from Facebook through to The Salvation Army.

Re:Missing the point

[Charliemopps]

I'm tired of this ridiculous argument. It sounds stupid when you say it but you think you're technically correct. Well you're not. They actually have 2 sets of customers. They get something non-monetary from one set, which they trade to the other set for cash. If they lose either customer they are going out of business.

Re:Missing the point

[dalias]

I would guess he based it on some ascii art from the infamous "annoy.irc" script (nsfw)...

Re:Missing the point

[Desler]

The last sentence is also extraordinarily patronizing and seems to think we're dumb enough to fall for it. "It's okay that we installed this crapware that you didn't want because we document how to uninstall it!" I would like to think Timmeh doesn't actually believe such crap. It's one thing to parrot the company line it's another to actually believe it when it's so obviously absurd.

Re:Missing the point

[TapeCutter]

Exactly, it's so simple even a SF marketer could understand it, users with half a brain do not want crapware and do not trust it no matter how many times you scan it. Sure, plaster as many ads as you like on the project page, you can even make them blink if you must, but leave the fucking installer alone, it is not YOUR software.

SF are also shooting themselves in the foot for a few extra pennies. The hated (and I mean HATED by everybody) crapware is getting a free ride on Gimp's reputation and damaging both SF and Gimp's reputation in the process. That may be legal but it ain't right,

Re:Missing the point

[dalias]

Wouldn't it be better to just uninstall Java and Adobe-anything? Chrome can read PDFs and play Flash purely with the components packaged with it; there's no need to install third-party add-ons. And Java is pretty much 100% useless except in corporate intranets with Java-based in-house software.

Re:Missing the point

[Jane Q. Public]

Timmeh is paid to miss the point. Did anyone really expect Dice.com employees to speak against this adware?

"Miss the point" is a good way to put it. The point is not (entirely, anyway) that the "sideloads" are deceptive. The point is that people don't want to have to screw with it, deceptive or not.

Speaking of missing the point: Slashdot's new policy of having to wait 5 minutes between posts is causing me to hit the "post" button many times more than I used to. Arguably, that represents more network and server traffic, not less.

Re:Missing the point

[yuhong]

I think the quote from the article directly should be enough of a warning.

Re: Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

Chrome ships the Adobe plugin for Flash, so you're still using the 3rd party plugin regardless.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

The thing is: How many sites or networks would have ran something like the original story about GIMP leaving -- with the reasons clear why -- and after the negative comments in that thread, ran another story knowing full well the comments will be similar? I think people here are acting more cynical than skeptical, and slashdot's actually done a decent job with this for its particular role and situation.

Re:Missing the point

[tibman]

lol, could be worse! You could be a libertarian, AMD hating, apple loving, microsoft shill. Also, you'd be fine if you 3d printed that gun.

Re:Missing the point

[Greyfox]

I nixed the bad actors by putting all my projects on github.

Re:Missing the point

[mpicker0]

I've never understood the whole "Your download will start in n seconds" countdown, followed by an automatic download (hopefully). Is there a reason they do that instead of simply giving you a link to the file? To be fair, this behavior isn't recent; it's done that for years.

Re:Missing the point

[ad1217]

I would guess that they are trying to prevent bots from crawling the whole site, or DDOSing them.

Re:Missing the point

[Luckyo]

Customer is the entity that drives your business by paying for services you provide. Product is the service you provide.

Views by the people who download are the service that is being provided to advertisers who pay. That is the business model. No amount of spindoctoring will change that.

Re:Missing the point

[mysidia]

I couldn't believe it when I installed some software from Sourceforge a while back and ended up with a malware toolbar in my browser

According to This; it is never done without the developer opting in.

In July 2013, we launched a pilot version of an opt-in revenue-sharing program called DevShare. DevShare is a partnership program offered to SourceForge developers to turn downloads into a source of revenue for them, by bundling their applications with third parties’ offers.

...

This is a 100% opt-in program for the developer, and we want to reassure you that we will NEVER bundle offers with any project without the developers consent. The DevShare program has been designed to be fully transparent.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

yet I have no problems with just Noscript configured in a default "Deny All" mode when hitting Source Forge. Never have to use jscript as they've always provided a direct/alternative download link for those where the damn script/server times out - far to frequent a happening. In fact, with ABP, I have more problems because I am not in control of the filters unlike noscript where it's my choice to allow/whitelist any website.

Simply put, ABP is going about solving the problem bass-acwards when I've found that "Deny All" is the preferred method with temporary permissions being granted when needed that are revoked afterwards. I also have the menu configured to never show the allow all option in any of the menus nor do I have the allow scripts globaly even available to prevent setting them by accident and disabling noscript. Over the last 3+ years that I've been using Noscript, I have had no problems with this configuration as I only allow scripts on a couple of dozen sites.

Posted AC to preserve mods
Fast Turtle

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless you used the exploding thermoplastics

Re:Missing the point

[schnell]

Advertisers ruin everything about the internet

They are also the reason most websites on the Internet are free. They are the reason Gmail is free, maps, and, hell, even Android are free. Everything on the Internet that isn't a charity needs to get paid for, and if you aren't buying something then an advertiser is paying in order to get to you.

It sucks that some ads are annoying and intrusive. Those should be avoided at all costs along with the sites that allow them. But advertisers don't ruin everything about the Internet ... they actually are responsible for 95% of the Internet being free of charge.

Re:Missing the point

[spmkk]

Here's a hint for SF: if you want to identify bad actors, one indication is that they are an advertiser...Whenever a new technology comes along, advertisers are there to shit all over it. Excuse me, "monetize" it.

The problem here is you (well, us) as consumers. We not only want FOSS, we want delivery to be free, too -- without regard for the fact that the infrastructure to facilitate that delivery actually takes tangible resources (i.e. money, not just developer time) to operate.

So, in effect, we the consumer base are CHOOSING this advertising model. If you were willing to pay $0.25 to Sourceforge every time you downloaded a program or code tree from them, you could make a reasonable demand for SF to do away with the stupid ad shenanigans. But you're not. Even if you personally are, the user base as a whole has gotten accustomed to delivery being "free" and now demands it. And since it's not actually free, sites like SF have to find a way to stay solvent.

The "bad actors" here are consumers of free stuff who get their panties in a bunch whenever the silver platter that their free stuff is served on is even the slightest bit tarnished.

Re:Missing the point

[mindwhip]

The "clear option" is a greyed-out "Decline" button on the bottom left of the installer.

More or less the same reasons I stopped recommending Avast to friends who often ended up malware infected due to pre-installed Mcaffee not doing anything useful... Constant popups prompting to download a version 'upgrade' with the version that costs more button in bright yellow and the free or currently paid for version on a practically invisible 'greyed out' button. Even when I knew they were doing this I found it difficult to avoid ending up on a shop page...

Imagine if every time you got in your car and turned on the engine you had to decline an upgrade to a car that cost twice as much or every single bite of your burger at someone came up to you and tried to sell you another complete meal...

Re:Missing the point

[J'raxis]

Plenty of sites use inoffensive, non-deceptive ads. GMail was mentioned above, for example. The only reason these advertisers are resorting to trickery is because their products suck and no one would actually install them if they knew what they were.

Re:Missing the point

[J'raxis]

But who the hell would opt in to being assaulted by this kind of shit? The only way these kinds of ads even remotely work is to force them on consumers.

Re:Missing the point

[cHiphead]

Hold on let me go grab a copy of Debian Linux and install it. No ads. And it's free. Advertisers have nothing to do with the internet being free, they have to do with people making money off stuff that could be free in the first place. An entire ecosystem has developed around supporting the advertising based internet, as opposed to an infrastructure ecosystem being built based around 'actual' free services provided for the sake of community/social improvement/etc.

The internet advertisers are attached to is free because otherwise people would do it for free anyway, without a way for the advertisers to make their middleman money off the system.

It is what it is.

Re:Missing the point

[J'raxis]

Well, that's good to know. So not only does SourceForge deserve to be boycotted because they even offer this shit to their developers, but if it's actually in a package you download, the dev wilfully put it there, so they deserve to join the boycott list.

Re:Missing the point

[HiThere]

It's making *me* wonder what alternative sites exist. At some point I'm just likely to decide that Slashdot has gotten too irritating to use.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's just the website trying to get a guaranteed n seconds of advertising before giving you what you want (after which, you will presumably leave, because clicking anything on a download page can be hazardous to your [computer's] health)

Re:Missing the point

[atomicxblue]

Well, without the projects who upload to SourceForge, they wouldn't have a business in the first place. One could argue that their revenue comes from the people they're trying to screw over in the first place.

Re:Missing the point

[jones_supa]

I recommend InfoQ.

Re:Missing the point

[L4t3r4lu5]

ABP works on /. too. Well, except for slashvertisements.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

It's true. And I accept that SourceForge needs advertising revenue to run. I'm fine with that principle, and have never griped about the way they delivered advertisements ... until now. Bundling stuff into installers is NOT acceptable practice.

Re:Missing the point

[khakipuce]

It's more like ranching or fishing. The cattle and fish are not customers, they are your feedstock or raw materials. Treat them badly, over-fish, poison them and you have no feedstock and hence no revenue. Google gets this fairly well, they actively farm their users giving them plenty to feed on, and doing their best not to pollute the food supply (i.e. search results in google's case) they also add in cool stuff, new toys, etc. and hence Google's customers are happy fat cows who keep coming back for more - I know, I am one!

Re:Missing the point

[Xest]

"While it's true that the decline button is always visible, making it appear greyed-out and away from the Accept button is not exactly clear (and possibly deceptive)."

This raises an intriguing point. What's the difference between phishing e-mails, malware attachments, or ads that used to install things like Bonsai buddy by throwing up pretend warning messages and such?

In each case the UI has been manipulated to try and make me install something I don't want and that to me is detrimental to my computing experience, and all these examples above have been deemed to be illegal. How does SF not also break the law for doing the exact same thing? just because of historic reputation? does that somehow give you a get out of jail free card?

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

Not all payment is monetary. You've heard of barter systems, I take it?

When you visit a 'free' site you're giving them something. Your time, your attention, your traffic. This isn't money, but it is valuable to them. Without this, they have nothing to sell to their advertisers. Hence, you are as much a customer - and just as important to them - as the advertiser they're selling ad space to.

Any online company that fails to understand this will fail. Many have.

Re:Missing the point

[TheNastyInThePasty]

It could be worse than that. At least he's not cold fjord.

Re:Missing the point

[Luckyo]

Yes, it's kind of like the barter that fisherman and fish have.

Seriously stop regurgitating the same spindoctoring bullshit. Just because fisherman needs an attractive bait doesn't mean that he's bartering with the fish.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

Standard response because you people aren't worth a unique response every time:

I'm a developer who writes free "apps". The developers who think that their
website, program, or whatever is a privilege and deserves to advert the hell
out of people for viewing it are the real ignorant ones. Add a donation link,
if you don't like that route then remove your website or program from the
internet while users find a better alternative not written by arrogant
people. I prefer you didn't use stupid generalizations and say that all
free programs earn money by tracking/ads. The programs written by
shortsighted people are like that, perhaps.

Your website or program is not an awesome epitome of software. It's a tool that
people may or may not use depending on their whims. If you don't want people
using your stuff for free, don't make it free in the first place. The internet
was fine before idiots thinking that ads are the only thing that makes the
internet run started piping up, and it will continue to be fine once everyone
blocks them.

Re:Missing the point

[V for Vendetta]

They are also the reason most websites on the Internet are free.

Not sure how old you are, but lots of us do remember the internet from long before Big Corporation Overlords discovered this "new-fangled web thingy". And it was always free ("free" both as in "free beer" and "free of ads"), although hosting did cost a shitload of money compared to nowadays. But people ("people", mind ya, not "money-grabbing corporations") put up free content nonetheless. Because they enjoy sharing stuff.

Remember: the same people that complain about ad-blockers are the people that make money off of the free contribution of others. That's the Facebook model: let users provide free content - we collect the money by selling their souls.

Re:Missing the point

[lsatenstein]

Here's a hint for SF: if you want to identify bad actors, one indication is that they are an advertiser...Whenever a new technology comes along, advertisers are there to shit all over it. Excuse me, "monetize" it.

The problem here is you (well, us) as consumers. We not only want FOSS, we want delivery to be free, too -- without regard for the fact that the infrastructure to facilitate that delivery actually takes tangible resources (i.e. money, not just developer time) to operate.

So, in effect, we the consumer base are CHOOSING this advertising model. If you were willing to pay $0.25 to Sourceforge every time you downloaded a program or code tree from them, you could make a reasonable demand for SF to do away with the stupid ad shenanigans. But you're not. Even if you personally are, the user base as a whole has gotten accustomed to delivery being "free" and now demands it. And since it's not actually free, sites like SF have to find a way to stay solvent.

The "bad actors" here are consumers of free stuff who get their panties in a bunch whenever the silver platter that their free stuff is served on is even the slightest bit tarnished.

Perhaps SourceForge is financing Slashdot via those ads. I find though that most software is available directly from the vendor's website, and that vendor rarely ever posts ads along with his product.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot's new policy of having to wait 5 minutes between posts is causing me to hit the "post" button many times more than I used to.

How long you have to wait depends on your karma. It's 1 minute for me when I'm logged in, sometimes hours when I'm not. You've obviously had a few too many downmods and not enough upmods.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

The flamebait moderation on this is so wrong... GIMP is a great project with a nice goal, sure, but it's a complete POS for actually doing anything productive. It's faster to write a bash script and use imagemagick tools, and then run and tweak that script a dozen times to get the desired result, even for somebody who's totally new to scripting.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

Not being forced to be part of an audience is a much a fundamental right as freedom of the press, or freedom of speech.

Legal protections such as contract enforcement, copyright, trademark, and patent invariably come with a price, and the price is that the party receiving the protection does NOT have the right to use those mechanisms to abuse the fundamental rights of others. Any laws or precedents to the contrary are themselves illegal.

All internet and television content that is available bundled with advertisements must also be available to consumers, for a reasonable price, without the advertisements. Anything else is a violation of fundamental rights.

Re:Missing the point

[PopeRatzo]

Yeah, I'd love to have them get rid of Java altogether, but their university (wife is a prof and daughter is a student) use a Blackboard-style platform that makes use of some Java, it appears.

I should take a closer look, though. I know one of their platforms, MyMathLab, used to use some of those technologies and then moved away from them, so maybe there's been improvement.

Re:Missing the point

[redlemming]

But advertisers don't ruin everything about the Internet ... they actually are responsible for 95% of the Internet being free of charge.

The concept that commercial content providers should be able to make their content only available with advertisements is opposed by huge numbers of people (hence the common use of home recording systems to skip the ads on TV, and the massive use of ad-blockers in browsers).

This whole situation ultimately ends up creating yet another nail in the coffin for the whole concepts of a copyright system, which hurts people with a genuine stake in copyright (bad) as well as the sleazy entities (good). It also harms the legal system, by providing yet another justification for the public to view that system with contempt.

There has to be a middle ground (or another option) between the sites supported by ad-sponsored materials and the sites supported by the public (a lot of stuff gets mirrored by universities and government agencies, which ultimately is funded by our tax dollars), and a way to cleanly separate the ad-based content from the rest.

The system that some providers have, where people pay a small amount each year ($20) to have ad-free email seems like a good model.

If the content providers aren't smart enough to figure this out, eventually the public will start demanding that some of these "essential" services be treated like utilities, and regulated by the government. Intellectual property protection is a privilege, and if enough of the children continue to misbehave and abuse this privilege it will be taken away.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

Um...even charities have to be paid for. They just don't use annoying ads.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

While you are waiting, take a look at the "relevant" advertising around this notice.

If you are impatient maybe you will click on sometihng in the hope of speeding up those 10 seconds.

Don't make users opt-out

[hawguy]

If you don't want complaints then make the DevShare program opt-in instead of opt-out.

You may argue that few people would choose to opt-in, but that's the point, isn't it?

Re:Don't make users opt-out

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the best solution for the users.

Re:Don't make users opt-out

[Anonymous Coward]

The vast majority of everything on the Net should be opt-in.

Or, to put it a different way: deceptively exploiting the techno-challenged is not an ethical business model.

Re:Don't make users opt-out

[Desler]

Which is why it won't be done. Dice.com cares about ad revenue not the users. They've gotta make their money back somehow on these purchases. Squeezing blood from a stone seems to be their tactic.

Re:Don't make users opt-out

[Anonymous Coward]

From the article:

Currently in the Pilot phase, we only have 3 projects participating in the DevShare program all of which explicitly opted-in. This represents 3 out of 300,000+ projects in our entire catalog. This is a 100% opt-in program for the developer, and we want to reassure you that we will NEVER bundle offers with any project without the developers consent

Sounds pretty opt-in to me.

Re:Don't make users opt-out

[Unknown Lamer]

Although still iffy, DevShare is entirely op-tin (FTA): "Currently in the Pilot phase, we only have 3 projects participating in the DevShare program all of which explicitly opted-in. This represents 3 out of 300,000+ projects in our entire catalog. This is a 100% opt-in program for the developer, and we want to reassure you that we will NEVER bundle offers with any project without the developers consent."

Of course, with all the ill-will caused by the mere existence of the program...

Re:Don't make users opt-out

[mwvdlee]

Of course, with all the ill-will caused by the mere existence of the program...

Does the DevShare program warn about it's inclusion in software before the user requests a download?
Otherwise it's just a case of users being uncertain whether any particular download can be trusted or not.

Re:Don't make users opt-out

[SFnetTeam]

If you don't want complaints then make the DevShare program opt-in instead of opt-out.

You may argue that few people would choose to opt-in, but that's the point, isn't it?

The DevShare program is opt in by projects; meaning that if they want to participate, they indicate as such when we inquire if this is something in which they may be interested to help fund their development. For users, it's the same. Clicking the decline button through the offers will download the software they were seeking. - Daniel Hinojosa, SourceForge Community Manager

Re:Don't make users opt-out

[Anonymous Coward]

>clicking the decline button through the offers will download the software they were seeking.

You don't know what the fuck "opt in" means, do you? Opt in would mean I'd have to takes extra steps to get your shit ware.

SF used to be a good site, now it's shit and everyone knows it. You're C|Net, only not as competent. Just die already, you obviously don't want to stay in business.

Re:Don't make users opt-out

[Luckyo]

Opt in for DEVELOPER. People who download get boned and don't get asked if they want a condom or not.

Re:Don't make users opt-out

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't want complaints then make the DevShare program opt-in instead of opt-out.

You may argue that few people would choose to opt-in, but that's the point, isn't it?

The DevShare program is opt in by projects; meaning that if they want to participate, they indicate as such when we inquire if this is something in which they may be interested to help fund their development.

For users, it's the same. Clicking the decline button through the offers will download the software they were seeking.

- Daniel Hinojosa, SourceForge Community Manager

It looks like you're capable of writing, so that hints that you are, at least, somewhat literate.

Have you understood one word of the complaints here? Based on your previous response, I wonder if you're mentally challenged.

Re:Don't make users opt-out

[Anonymous Coward]

What they are saying that the people who want to receive the money opted in to having ad-ware installed on YOUR computer.

That's not opt-in in the usual sense.

how about...

[Anonymous Coward]

just not doing the installation share thing AT ALL. I don't care how well it gets documented, it's a tactic that is built to take advantage of the large group of people that will do nothing but hit "next" 7 or 8 times and not look at anything.

Re:how about...

[icebike]

Exactly.

I just checked yesterday, and the thing is still loaded with malware Download buttons.
This morning, it looks slightly different, but on four different projects the biggest button
on the page was MALWARE download button. (Adblock switched off).

Why can't they just put them all in a separate box labeled MALWARE - DON'T CLICK!.
Or header the column they are in with a ADVERTISEMENT - Not the software you were looking for" banner.

SourceForge has definitely suffered since being picked up by Dice Holdings, and it is probably
an indication of what will happen to Slashdot over time.

Re:how about...

[Anonymous Coward]

Over time? That ship sailed a long time ago.

Re:how about...

[Anonymous Coward]

many legitimate sites and services have very misleading advertisements.. hell, even amazon's ad system used by 'free' apps and games distributed through its kindle 'store' shows bogus 'you have a virus. click here to clean' ads just like you see for computers on ordinary web pages...

one site in particular is bleepingcomputer.com, a pretty good resource for malware and virus cleaning tips, malware information, and legitimate downloads of real tools to do the job of cleaning up an infested computer... but often there's the problem of choosing WHICH download icon to hit.. if you aren't familiar with the site, boom, you clicked on a bogus ad.. still worse is a site intending to help you clean your computer allowing ads to programs that claim to do the same, but are either bogus ripoffs, avenues to install malware, or simply companies or software of very questionable reputation .

ANY service or web site that displays ads not entirely under their own editorial control runs the risk of displaying misleading or malicious advertisements... ANY... even open source projects that display ads on their web site to generate a little extra revenue... just one example.. infrarecorder.org (gpl licensed cd burning program for windows) has two ads to a 'free download' of some sort or another on their download page... besides the legit links that take you to sf (which has its own ad issues).

search engines that display ads on result pages are no different. the ads are misleading, poorly distinguished from actual result links to get clueless people to click and generate revenue for the search site.. and the ads can also be malicious.

it is these types of dangerous bogus misleading advertisements that makes adblock plus (or similar) a necessity online... you can't trust the ads (even legit third party ad networks have been serving-up malicious ads off-and-on for years now), so why let them through at all?

and i will never switch from a no-frills 'feature phone' to a smart phone until there's an adblock plus equivalent at the operating system level of android, ios and/or windows mobile to stop not only the ads, yes even in the 'free' or 'ad supported' apps, but also the crazy ridiculous (and 99.99% of the time totally unnecessary) amount of usage tracking and data sharing between device and app publisher.

Re:how about...

[jones_supa]

SourceForge has definitely suffered since being picked up by Dice Holdings, and it is probably an indication of what will happen to Slashdot over time.

Drama queen much?

Horse, Stable, Bolted

[OzPeter]

All they are doing now is stepping up their tap dancing in the hopes that people will fail to see the obvious about their bundled downloads.

Re:Horse, Stable, Bolted

[TWiTfan]

Nothing they could ever say or do will ever win me back. When you install malware on my system, we're done--for good.

Re:Horse, Stable, Bolted

[i kan reed]

When you try to install things of any sort I don't ask for, it's malware, by the way. It doesn't matter if you're screening for things you consider malware, it's my system, and configuring it in ways I don't intuitively intend to configure it is abusing your power as an installer, thus is malicious.

Re:Horse, Stable, Bolted

[Princeofcups]

All they are doing now is stepping up their tap dancing in the hopes that people will fail to see the obvious about their bundled downloads.

Ads are targeted at the gullible, i.e. idiots. It's just another form of spam. Their statements are written by the sales/marketing/MBAs who have taken over SourceForge. They are targeted at the idiots who may believe it. Their previous customers are less susceptible to advertising and BS. Therefore, we are no longer their customers. I too got virused on my last visit to them. SourceForge is dead to me. Hopefully Slashdot gets a new overlord soon, lest the same shit happen here.

Re:Horse, Stable, Bolted

[DrGamez]

Therefore, we are no longer their customers.

This is my sentiment. Rip in peace SourceForge, was fun while it lasted.

Re:Horse, Stable, Bolted

[messymerry]

No, no. The only thing worse than a Republican is a Democrat... and the only thing scarier than a bureaucrat with a gun is a bureaucrat in a robe.

Unfortunately...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

With rare, mutually beneficial, exceptions, it seems to generally be the case that if I can get paid for putting an 'offer' in front of a user, no matter how transparent and not-spyware and whatnot, that's a good sign that the value to the user is negative.

Gosh, yes, I'd love to receive offers from your carefully selected content partners!

Obviously, a continuum exists, from pure drive-by malware to the-box-isn't-even-checked-by-default opt-in stuff; with various levels of 'all the boxes start checked; but you can uncheck them if you can find them' and 'sure, just go down the stairs, take a left at the sign that says "beware of the leopard", pick the lock on the third door on your right, and choose the 'advanced install' package from the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet'; but just because sleaze occupies a continuum doesn't mean you want to get any on you...

Re:Unfortunately...

[mwvdlee]

Even if unchecked by default, it's easy to encourage mistakes...

[ ] Install for all users
[ ] Install shell extensions
[ ] Include common file format plug-ins
[ ] Include third party informational tools
[ ] Enable automatic updates
[ ] Disable anonymous usage statistics

Yeap Dont want it at all

[ghinckley68]

dont mind ads and most people that use Sf are smart enough to see around them.

But SF had a reputation for be clean installs that could be trusted. That is no longer the case.
SF you blew your done and gone.

Re:Yeap Dont want it at all

[atomicxblue]

They have screwed over their reputation. They could come out tomorrow and say they are getting rid of ads, and people would still be leery of using the site.

People still use Sourceforge?

[Anonymous Coward]

SVN is lame; Gimp is where it's at, baby.

Github is 6th Street. Sourceforge is the old Main Street, with mostly boarded-up buildings.

Ad vendors are scum.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have I better idea. Don't partner with ad vendors/networks that try to put malware on your user's computers.

Adblock plus is security software.

Re:Ad vendors are scum.

[cffrost]

I have I better idea. Don't partner with ad vendors/networks that try to put malware on your user's computers.

Adblock plus is security software.

I thought we had a civic duty to download and absorb corporate propaganda in order to earn a profit for individuals or organizations that want to publish information on the Internet, but don't feel that their information is important enough for them to pay the cost of publishing it themselves, like the individuals with Internet access in the early 1990s did.

Now that the Web is commercialized, it's all "hey asshole, install this malware that's disguised as corporate propaganda, so I can make money..," or "hey dumb-ass, gimme all your private and personal information so I can sell it for shitloads of money, and you get to use this crap-SaaS with no privacy or guarantees, instead of that quality FOSS that you install locally and have control over..."

the whole concept is messed up

[Chirs]

When I want to download software, I want that software, not other piece of software that's going to install itself in my browsers and mine my information.

As others have said, make it purely opt-in and I can live with it. The opt-out stuff just pisses me off because it is so transparently trying to profit off people that aren't paying attention.

Re:the whole concept is messed up

[SrLnclt]

When I want to download software, I want that software, not other piece of software that's going to install itself in my browsers and mine my information.

I know computer savvy users who have refused to give Chrome a try precisely because it has been bundled with so many other things over the years.

If your software is bundled with something I am installing, I assume your software is junk unless I already know otherwise. Even if your software is decent (e.g. Chrome), I can decide independently for myself when or if I want to install it.

Re:the whole concept is messed up

[Anonymous Coward]

So why aren't people paying attention to their own actions on their own computer system?

Re:the whole concept is messed up

[PReDiToR]

I'm still never signing into Chrome and make sure it only ever runs in Sandboxie because it's GOOG spyware.
This comment has reminded me to update it.

The only reason that it's on my system at all is because TomTom's "moron on the phone sheets" insist that their software (the new stuff that works badly and the old stuff that works badly, not the old, old stuff that almost worked) you install Chrome as part of the diagnostics.

SourceForge has shown it can't be trusted.

[Animats]

SourceForge has shown it can't be trusted. The only way they could regain trust at this point is by legally committing themselves to never bundling anything with an installer, and using an open source installer. Instead, their terms still read "We reserve the right at our sole discretion and at any time to ... change the terms and conditions of this Agreement."

Sorry, SourceForge. You got caught. Promising you won't do it again isn't good enough. That's just PR spin.

Re:SourceForge has shown it can't be trusted.

[Anonymous Coward]

Worst case study happened to me.,

Clicking too fast installed the bundled crap. loaded all three browsers with toolbars. System restore didn't get rid of all of it. Stuff from Conduit still would not delete. Had to nuke from orbit and reformat to get rid of all of it. Couple days lost to reinstall everything.

Interestingly, the bundled installer pulls the junk from the internet during the moment of install. This means the spyware bypasses the automated download scanner, and that it can be avoided altogether by disconnecting the internet during installation.

So now you know...

Re:SourceForge has shown it can't be trusted.

[X0563511]

Why the hell does SF even need an installer?

Don't. Just don't. Serve the files people upload into their projects, and hands-fucking-off.

download.com did it...

[Anonymous Coward]

... and I left them too, almost a decade ago. it cost me downloads, but saved my customers from their intrusive bundled downloads.

"Advertising policies"? Try borderline malware.

[Alphanos]

The bottom line is that GIMP didn't want to be associated with tricking its users into installing borderline malware. If a program's installer is filled with traps that you have to carefully watch for to avoid - that sets off huge blaring alarms in the heads of most experienced users.

This is especially a problem for the open-source community, which still struggles to get a fair comparison with commercial software in the corporate IT world. If even major software gets saddled with nonsense like SourceForge is trying to pull, it could set back progress by years.

SourceForge had better smarten up before it becomes a ghost town. GIMP is certainly not going to be the last high-profile departure if things don't change.

While we're at it, the summary of this story was blatantly whitewashed. Mentioning the parent company link should be a bare minimum, not an excuse to abandon all pretense of impartiality.

Fuck Advertising.

[Anonymous Coward]

And those who promote, err advertise it.

Cesspool of reality.

zenlessyank was here..

PS. Fuck your karma ratings slashdot....

Meh

[Anonymous Coward]

I just want a clean layout without adding additional code to my installers and passing it off as something i added. Seems fraudulent, and there are other people who will offer me clean installs with fewer ads.

Just another download site now

[symbolset]

I hope they don't mess up /. too.

Re:Just another download site now

[i kan reed]

Have you been to beta.slashdot.org? It's only a matter of time until they deploy it and I'm gone.

Re:Just another download site now

[Anonymous Coward]

Ditto that. I told them as much in their surveys about it. It's like they're trying to out-AOL:Engadget AOL:Engadget. Slashdot needs to be more than just another tech blog. Posting anon to keep mods, but I'm ElectricTurtle.

Re:Just another download site now

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy fuck that's ugly.

Re:Just another download site now

[duke_cheetah2003]

I just glanced at beta.slashdot.org (the actual one, your link is incorrect, its just a link back to this story).. and .. I don't see the problem? Looks pretty good to me.

Re:Just another download site now

[mwvdlee]

To be fair, http://beta.slashdot.org/ looks a lot less crap than it did when they first announced it.
It's still form over function though, so still crap.

They just need to make a more sane font and color choices and it might just work.
I know hairlines and white are "hip" these days, but they also make things indistinguishable.
There nothing wrong with conventional design; there's a good reason it became convention.

Re:Just another download site now

[symbolset]

I actually don't mind that one. The modern look is fresh and it remembers most of my preferences. The "read more comments" button doesn't work on my browser though, and the right side boxes for notifications is not there. Of the left column all I use is the "submissions" link, which could be moved over to the right side, maybe in a pulldown. It seems incomplete. I'm sure they'll keep classic slashdot maintained for us geezers if they go that way. It has been in beta unchanged since the turnover though, I believe.

I wish the mobile site would remember I prefer the "classic desktop view". It's a pain to have to tell my phone to request it every time I come to /.

Re:Just another download site now

[X0563511]

WTF is that garbage? DO NOT WANT.

Re:Just another download site now

[Anonymous Coward]

How many /. programs are you trying to download from here? Would you install something if you thought it was from this site? Yikes!

Re:Just another download site now

[wjcofkc]

I just took a second look at beta.slashdot.org right now and it's come a long way since they first published that ugly link in the story they ran about it. You should take another look.

Re:Just another download site now

[cas2000]

too bad the site doesn't work properly - for example, click on an article, you'll get the article page and a dozen or so comments plus a "load more comments" button. clicking that button returns you to the index page.

the current slashdot site works just fine with noscript. beta.slashdot does not. fuck that shit, slashdot's stories and comments just aren't worth the risk of letting them and their corportate parents and their advertisers and whoever else run arbitrary code on my computer.

if slashdot becomes just another site that requires javascript for basic functionality then it'll be just another site that I ignore.

Re:Just another download site now

[Anonymous Coward]

I haven't used it much at all, but it just looks like a coat of paint over the general layout. I find it hard to get worked up over, at least compared to the redesigns Google has pulled with youtube; now those really kick usability in the shitter.

Re:Just another download site now

[readacc]

It still has a number of problems. I don't know if it's my browser or operating system or both (Firefox in Windows 7), but the fonts seem way too thing or the hinting is not appropriate, at least compared to the full-body fonts of the traditional Slashdot design. I'm no typography expert but something about them just does things to my eyes that aren't as pleasant to look at compared to the basic fonts that we normally have in the traditional layout.

But you're right - they have definitely worked on it. At least it spreads out horizontally to actually use widescreen displays properly now.

Re:Just another download site now

[evilviper]

Have you been to beta.slashdot.org? It's only a matter of time until they deploy it and I'm gone.

I'd say the same thing about the CURRENT /. interface, except there's still an option in the preferences to use "classic" mode. If classic mode gets bumped off, and it's necessary to use either the current or beta interface, I'm done, no more comments for sure.

Re:Just another download site now

[atomicxblue]

WTH? io9 and Koutaku went to this style layout and I stopped going there. I love the current layout of ./ because I don't have to scroll endlessly to find a story. They've added an extra "screen" in the vertical layout. Badddd!

Re:Just another download site now

[WuphonsReach]

Still looks like arse and when you go to read the comments, they're packed into the middle third of the screen.

Shove your crapware up your ass

[Desler]

All uninstallation procedures are exhaustively documented, and all third party offers go through a comprehensive compliance process to make sure they are virus and malware free.

Except that you and the Sourceforge people know damn well that next to no one actually wants that crapware. 99% of cases it will be installef by someone merely clicking through not expecting crapware in the installer.

Re:Shove your crapware up your ass

[Anonymous Coward]

Worst case study happened to me...

Clicking too fast installed the bundled crap even though I do know better, usually. Loaded up all three browsers with toolbars. Removed those. System restore didn't get rid of all the rest of it. Leftover directories from Conduit/Sweetpack were still in use and would not delete. Had to nuke from orbit and reformat as only way to be sure. Couple days lost productivity to reinstall everything.

Interestingly, the bundled installer pulls the junk from the internet during the moment of install. What bundle option you get depends on what server it connects to is passing out. This means the spyware bypasses the browser's automated download scanner, and that the crap can be avoided altogether by disconnecting the internet during installation (until they mandate a live connection during install).

So now you/we both know how this scam works ...

I was pissed but cool headed enough to be glad I diagnosed it and realized it wasn't the wonderful utility that had afflicted me, but the poor choice of installer wrapper from Sourceforge host.

I had adored the utility enough to previously donate something and had been thinking about doing more again...until this, I'm currently feeling in the hole effortwise...though I may change my mind favorably again.

Re:Shove your crapware up your ass

[mwvdlee]

All uninstallation procedures are exhaustively documented

Also, it would be nice if those uninstallation procedures could be found by googling for it and if they didn't involve installing yet another untrusted application.

Re:Shove your crapware up your ass

[Anonymous Coward]

Even worse if it's not the same crapware. I once helped someone clean their computer and they had over 10 toolbars on their browser. 3-4 different search bars, a few weather bars, a couple of "antivirus" (I use the term loosely here) bars. They were wondering why the internet was so slow... If it wasn't for RevoUninstaller, that machine would have needed rebuilding.

Re:"Advertising policies"? Try borderline malware.

[Obfuscant]

If a program's installer is filled with traps that you have to carefully watch for to avoid - that sets off huge blaring alarms in the heads of most experienced users.

This is why I will never willingly install Chrome. Just once too often I found it was going to be installed by default with a java update. McAfee AV now seems to be the beneficiary of such stealth installation.

And worse are the ones where it isn't just stealth by having small text somewhere during the download, it's complete secrecy. I needed an AC3 codec for my PVR device and found myself the proud owner of a new web search provider that would reset itself to be my search provider every time I unset it.

Confused! DevShare *is* opt-in for developers

[dwheeler]

I actually read the article (I know, you can't do that on Slashdot). It says DevShare is opt-in for developers, not opt-out, and that's what inserts the additional stuff in the executables. So were the GIMP folks just confused? It sounds like GIMP left over something that was in their control in the first place. (No, I don't work for any of these folks.)

Re:Confused! DevShare *is* opt-in for developers

[pr0fessor]

They also noted on their front page http://www.gimp.org/

In the past few months, we have received some complaints about the site where the GIMP installers for the Microsoft Windows platforms are hosted.

SourceForge, once a useful and trustworthy place to develop and host FLOSS applications, has faced a problem with the ads they allow on their sites - the green "Download here" buttons that appear on many, many adds leading to all kinds of unwanted utilities have been spotted there as well.

I've seen those ads on the sf pages as well and am not fond of them but sf doesn't offer a premium developer account that provides ad free project and download pages.

Re:Confused! DevShare *is* opt-in for developers

[Anonymous Coward]

I think they were more concerned about the on-site ads that look like download buttons.

Wait, what?

[d18c7db]

They are putting these ads on their site and they are getting the revenue from the ads and they want me to to tell them which ads are appropriate and which are not. For free! Screw you, I already have a paying job, I don't need to do your job for you as well.

Sourceforge is dead

[Anonymous Coward]

Thousands of apps have already left the site. They just don't announce it.

They just stop using it.

I've run into more than a few programs that sourceforge was outdated on by a long time.

Re:"Advertising policies"? Try borderline malware.

[Anonymous Coward]

I needed an AC3 codec for my PVR device and found myself the proud owner of a new web search provider that would reset itself to be my search provider every time I unset it.

I have found that FFDShow is all you need for codecs, and has no crapware. Most of the other things you'll come across seem sketchy.

SourceForge also shown it's hard to use

[Chemisor]

In the wake of the scandal I have just finished moving all my projects to GitHub, and man, it's been worth it. I mean, have you noticed how incredibly slow SourceForge is lately? I've been using it for over ten years now, and it's been getting slower and slower. I got used to it, but now on GitHub I'm constantly amazed that I don't have to wait a few minutes for the project page to load. Or the fact that I don't even have to go there any more because I can make releases by creating a tag and project web page is just another git branch. How do you update a SourceForge web page again? I'll have to look it up, 'cause I don't remember at all. I only remember that ssh, scp, and lots of manual copying was involved. SourceForge's release system is a pain, and really, the only feature SourceForge has that GitHub does not is access statistics, but this feature hasn't worked properly ever since the big UI overhaul a few years back. Frankly, I don't see any reason to ever go back to SourceForge.

SourceForge now added to my HOSTS block

[Khyber]

Won't go there any longer. Devs better start leaving in droves and hosting their own stuff.

SF and Oracle

[Dracolytch]

This is near the top of a(quickly growing) list of reasons I no longer tolerate, and now simply hate, Oracle. Gee SourceForge, want to be bucketed with Oracle? Yeah... kind of thought not.

As far as I'm concerned third-party inclusion-ware might as well be called parasite-ware, and is a form of Malware that's just easier to remove. It's the same level as crapware that comes pre-installed on a laptop.

Stop providing services that I don't need.
Stop giving me software I don't want.
Stop getting in my way.

If I need something, I'll come find it. Promise.

Many companies are afraid I won't come to them. That's often because they provide inferior tools / services. Make better things that I actually need, and I'll give a damn (For a counter-example, see Atlassian and JetBrains).

Re:SF and Oracle

[atomicxblue]

My thought to this is the same that I tell people who sell shit door to door: "If I need you, I'll seek you out."

Dice doesn't need our help

[Anonymous Coward]

What a transparent sham. Dice knows full well what misleading advertising is - that is what they are selling.

The answer is simple - eliminate the MITM installer and make all adds click-proof.

Obviously that is not going to happen, so good bye SF, I'm moving my projects elsewhere.

Reason # 1 to Avoid

[Anonymous Coward]

Their explanation sound like the lawyers/marketing people have been heavily involved.

Don't be evil

[onyxruby]

Don't bundle /anything/ other than what the user wanted with the download. Don't bundle toolbars, helper programs, utilities, assistants, or anything else you choose to call your advertising product.

Trust that is lost can't ever really be regained, especially on the Internet. The quick dollars gained came at the expense of the dollars in the long run. You need to start with an apology that acknowledges what was wrong along with a promise in plain English never to do it again.

Now, I didn't say anything about not running advertising on the pages. Advertising is what makes sites run, and anyone with any length of time in the industry understands their importance. Google style ads that aren't disruptive are generally respected and static graphical ads from companies like Microsoft and IBM must work as they have advertised here for years. The problem is if things get pushed too far and the content can't be read without irritation.

If the website isn't functional (loads within 1 second without distractions or intermission ads) than you site has gone over too far and the next visit and every visit thereafter will be filtered. We also understand how these things work on the back-end, know how to implement ABP, No Script, Ghostery and other things with advertising gets overbearing.

At this point it is up to the WebMasters to show that they understand "don't be evil". You can't do it with fine print though, for this audience, reads the fine print.

Re:Don't be evil

[atomicxblue]

Your comment reminded me of that picture that was floating around with all the toolbars and utilities installed, leaving only about a square inch of viewable space in IE. I honestly stopped caring for ads the day they went from being static like in a magazine and moved more to the "Poke the bear in the butt and win an iPod" variety.

Nothing more annoying than trying to load a webpage and at the bottom you see it's hung accessing the ad server. I'm to the point now, if something covers the entire article and must be dismissed before reading, the article probably wasn't worth reading in the first place. I just close out and go to the next site.

Chrome was promoted this way

[Anonymous Coward]

I was quite disgusted that Chrome used to be pushed on the unsuspecting this way, sad to know SourceForge has joined the dodgy crowd too.

Re:"Advertising policies"? Try borderline malware.

[TangoMargarine]

If I can't run it in vanilla VLC, it ain't worth it. (Granted, this is on a desktop)

Nothing but excuses. It's still wrong.

[FSWKU]

All uninstallation procedures are exhaustively documented, and all third party offers go through a comprehensive compliance process to make sure they are virus and malware free.

You clowns at SourceForge/Dice are missing the point. Users DON'T WANT this garbage on their system. You are deliberately trying to get them to install it, even if it's by mistake.

And what about all the institutions providing you with mirroring? Are they getting a cut of this revenue now? If they're not, then you are DELIBERATELY attempting to profit from their charity and generosity. Personally, I hope every single mirror deletes any SourceForge related material from their servers and tells you to go die in a fire. You are attempting to profit from the work and resources of others who believed they were contributing to the free software community. For that, you are to be shamed, shunned, and written off as yet another group of clueless MBA's out to monitize the entire fucking world at the expense of others. Go fuck yourselves and look for a real job where you have to WORK instead of ruining other people's reputations by bundling useless shit with their software.

Re:Nothing but excuses. It's still wrong.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sourceforge gets a lump of coal in its stocking, followed by its metaphorical rotational application upside their head.

Capture was "yearned"!

Who Cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

Everybody in the know has already migrated to a GitHub.
At this point, hosting a project on SourceForge just seems quaint.

The big question is where to start....

[argStyopa]

I mean, I don't really understand why SourceForge is behind this, but hey, I definitely support the effort:

Pauly Shore
Keanu Reeves
Sarah Jessica Parker
Stallone and Schwarzeneggar, of course, but they're almost too old to be worth the effort. Same for Madonna....

Aside from that off-the-cuff list, there's a host of really bad female and male actors that are hot, so I'd say give them a pass.

Re:"Advertising policies"? Try borderline malware.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is especially a problem for the open-source community, which still struggles to get a fair comparison with commercial software in the corporate IT world.

Does it? Every Fortune (insert ever decreasing numbers) company I've worked with has been all over open source.

Where it makes sense.

Office alternatives rarely make sense. Gimp never makes any sense. Apache/Lighty/nginx? Absofuckinglutely everywhere. Various open source content management solutions? As far as the eye can goddamned see.

So yeah, I don't buy the age old excuse. (Baaaw, they don't like us, because, uh, just cause!) It hasn't been the case for at least a decade.

Hey Dice!

[tunapez]

I haven't posted much since the takeover but I wanted to log in one last time to say:
 
1) Thanks for ruining SF, that was remarkably fast.
 
and

2) FUCK OFF!
 
All /. feeds will be deleted now, no more clicks to read comments for you parasites.

what concerns me

[swschrad]

are the slopbucket add-ons. I download Audacity and GIMP, and I can't find a way to get rid of sneakware throwing "congratulations! take my survey" when I open another tab, or "you need to upgrade Chrome now," both of which are adware that should NOT be served in the first place. two thumbs down.

Dear SourceForge: Don't. Fucking. Care.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey SourceForge: Here's a hint you clueless idiots. We don't care how much vetting you've done with the third party shitware you're trying to convince us to install. We do not use your site so we can be convinced to install a bunch of crap we're never going to use. The community has voted, and you lost.

Too late, Adforge

[fluor2]

You ate too much of your own cake.
The migration to other services has begun.
You might never recover from this.
May it be a lesson for all other "free" services trying to make hasty profit.

Re:Too late, Adforge

[couchslug]

"You might never recover from this."

They should never recover and deserve "excommunication" as punishment.

It's easy to steer people away from SF....

Re:Too late, Adforge

[atomicxblue]

I'm partial to "drawn and quartered". We haven't had one of those in awhile.

What?

[ledow]

"Find and block misleading ads"

Why is this our job?

Why do you not know what's being advertised on your own website?

Why do you run a business based on something you can't control?

Why don't YOU go through your ads and start removing the misleading crap?

No Way

[BenSchuarmer]

William Shatner has to make a living some how.

Cut to the chase

[Anonymous Coward]

In short SourceForge, fuck you.

SourceForge double talk: fully transparent != OSS

[fluke11]

A key point made by the GIMP project was:

[they] strongly encourage the top projects to use a new (closed source only) installer

SourceForge not only seems to have missed this key point but has completely reversed it's previous position on Open Source being a key component to transparency. Instead, SourceForge claims:

The DevShare program has been designed to be fully transparent. The installation flow has no deceptive steps...

Who says it has no deceptive steps? How do I audit the source code to the installation flow?

For anyone that reads the SourceForge blog, this seems to be a very jarring change in prospective on the part of SourceForge. Several previous SourceForge blog posts bring up transparency, but always in the context Open Source Software. Before November 2013, I can't find any SourceForge blog posts that refer to close source as "fully transparent." I also can't find any other SourceForge blog post that tries to claim close source software contain no deceptive steps. Once SourceForge is able to make the leap that a close source installer is fully transparent, there really is no common ground to continue a discussion on. It isn't a matter of a third party being a bad actor, SourceForge itself is the bad actor. This SourceForge blog post is proof of erosion taking place on fundamental ideal which where the foundation of SourceForge.

Aaaaaaarg, "Conduit" crapware

[careysb]

I hadn't used SF in a while but I was expecting the same straight forward, no BS install I've always had. I didn't navigate the fine print and whamo! "Conduit" is installed. OK, uninstall Conduit. Not so much. It inserted itself all over the place. I had to resort to regedit and directory deletion to (mostly) wipe it out. I still have someplace that's causing a "cannot find .dll" pop-up to show. SF you are now flagged as "BAD-BAD-BAD" in my list.

Re:Aaaaaaarg, "Conduit" crapware

[thejynxed]

I've had to remove that nonsense - make sure you dig into your browser settings and check both the extensions and plugins sections (it installs to both, and also changes your default search engines, etc). Conduit also installs itself into more than one directory, so make sure you triplecheck your ProgamFiles and ProgramFiles(x86) folders if on 64-bit Windows. This particular bit of spyware also tries to reinstall itself when you remove it.

You'll also need to check under Users/Appdata/Local and Users/Appdata/Roaming AND under services.msc as sometimes it tends to install a service (and this service does two things - handles calling the mothership and the self-reinstall mechanism).

This particular bit of software can install itself silently and it can completely bypass UAC due to more certain undocumented stupidity by Microsoft (aka they have a mechanism by which you can use a certain switch in certain signed installers to A) elevate privs for the installer process and B) bypass UAC while C) not asking for permission for the first two).

Is this supposed to be hard?

[slashmydots]

Are they even seriously asking right now? All of them. 100% of them. Fucking pick one at random. They ALL have undesireable, misleading, coinstalled crapware. None of them don't have it. How else can I phrase it so these dishonest scam artists?

Re:Is this supposed to be hard?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the FCC should address this. Retailers can't advertise free pink hats for girls in the newspaper, then offer only free blue hats for boys in all but one of their stores.

Dice.com is shooting it's own foot without a legal leg to stand on.
If a "download" page contains fraudulent links that obfuscate the link that was obviously intended by the user, due to being advertised on a previous page of the website as the download page for a specific application, then the web-site owners are responsible for FAILURE TO DISALLOW FRAUDULENT LINKS from appearing on that download page .

In fact, it doesn't matter if you wanted an App, Picture, Article, or anything else available via a web-page. If you choose to download via ftp from pink.com, but end up at blue.com, by choosing an OBVIOUS link that says "DOWNLOAD", then that web-page contains fraudulent content, and its owners should be held responsible.

I understand that dice.com might think of these links as "Add-On" links, similar to getting an additional toolbar, when you update Adobe,
but it becomes fraudulent, when it is not obvious between what is advertising and what is the link to your intended download.

Re:Is this supposed to be hard?

[atomicxblue]

They could, but it'll be ignored just like the federal do not call list. The FCC now has no teeth, thanks in no small part to the lobbyists who care about protecting their bottom line, not the rights of the citizenry.

APK was right!

[wonkey_monkey]

Is it time for us to point Sourceforge to a non-address in our hosts files, and let Sourceforge know we have done same?

Re:APK was right!

[geminidomino]

No, you blackhole it in your internal DNS server. This way you don't have to keep a ton of devices synced up, and a visiting family member can't get around it and spread compu-chlamydia through your network.

Re:APK was right!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why I still read /.

Re:APK was right!

[atomicxblue]

I already block any link with the word "ad" or "ads" at the router level. Maybe it's time to add SF to that list.

New installer doesn't work from behind my firewall

[klossner]

I think I'm careful enough to avoid including the malware during an installation. But the install program doesn't work at all from behind my employer's corporate firewall. It looks like it tries to connect to a server at a TCP port number not normally associated with HTTP.

Too little, too late.

[Insomnium]

For the record, I haven't used sourceforge for a long time. On the other hand... Last few weeks I had several autoplaying video adds on /. front page. I often leave slashdot open when I do something else. For a few days straight I went gaming with a couple of friends using skype. In the middle of the game a frigging add starts playing... yeah. ,,,on /. main page... I do understand having adds on main page... BUT GODDAMN AUTOPLAYING VIDEO ADDS ON /. FRONT PAGE THAT REFRESH WITHOUT ASKING: Contemplating on finding a better source for my nerd news.

Re:Too little, too late.

[atomicxblue]

Autoplay ads are evil! Since the US is, apparently, going to metered access, we should start blocking them en masse!

RIP SF

[Anonymous Coward]

You had a great run. I'll remember the good ol' days.

What happened to it being an OPT-IN Program?

[mysidia]

Per the Sourceforge blog article:

Last but not least, we will only include projects that have opted into our program. Our compliance processes are very strict and, as such, our beta program is going to be invitation-only during this first phase. If you would like to participate in this revenue-sharing program, just drop us an email, we’ll be back to you as soon as possible.

Put the adware/shitware in a separate category!

[couchslug]

If it's so fucking wonderful it doesn't need bundling.

Dicetastic...

I just moved ELKS off of SourceForge

[nctritech]

...in protest of this behavior. I don't think any active OSS project should stay there if they think this is ethical behavior.

Re:I just moved ELKS off of SourceForge

[Zero__Kelvin]

" I don't think any active OSS project should stay there if they think this is ethical behavior."

So you think the only OSS projects that should stay there are the ones run by people who think this is unethical?

Re: I just moved ELKS off of SourceForge

[Anonymous Coward]

I apologize for the English ambiguity. I meant that as long as SourceForge believes that it's okay to inject adware into open source installers like they are currently doing, I think open source projects that are hosted there and capable of going elsewhere should do so.

Re:I just moved ELKS off of SourceForge

[Anonymous Coward]

Easy cowboy... slow down. Your parent is doing the exact thing most here on /. are saying do... MIGRATE. Don't start throwing shit at random targets because you are pissed at something you can't throw shit at.

I applaud Jody Bruchon for making that move... you should too.

Buh-bye, Sourceforge

[bwcbwc]

I stopped using C-Net when they started pulling this little trick and thought Sourceforge had more respect for open software. I can understand why they need to do this, but why didn't they reach out to the community to discuss new revenue streams rather than pull this stunt and then "reach out to the community" after the fact? Maybe they actually want to kill the project hosting service?

Sorry, guys. SF needs to back down from this before I D/L there again. I'll probably continue to use Freecode and D/L direct from the developers where possible, but even that seems like it won't last for long.

Stick it to the man!

[vettemph]

>> SourceForge Appeals To Readers For Help Nixing Bad Ad Actors

So you're sticking it to yourself? /sorry

Once again

[clickclickdrone]

The suits and money spot something successful and wade in without understanding why it's successful then mucking it up.

Using hosts: This SHOULD be fine... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Block THESE ad-servers from SourceForge, like so:

0.0.0.0 ads.sourceforge.net
0.0.0.0 master.sourceforge.net
0.0.0.0 images-aud.sourceforge.net
0.0.0.0 gipacipam.sourceforge.net
0.0.0.0 sflogo.sourceforge.net
0.0.0.0 boincwapstats.sourceforge.net

* Those are what are in my custom hosts file here! You DON'T have to "block ALL of sourceforge"...

( & I download + assist projects there - yet I never ever have issues downloading others' work though either... seems to work for me, JUST fine!)

---

In any event, as to what you said about ME? Yea, usually am, lol - Even IF only in "the long run"...why?? Einstein said it better than I ever could:

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."" - Einstein

APK

P.S.=> Ctfrost (another replier to you) has "a way", however ONLY IF you have a DNS server locally @ home, & most folks, don't!

(& doing so would waste either the extra electricity on it on a SEPARATE system, or on a single system wasting CPU cycles, RAM, & other forms of I/O (& yes electric power too))!

HOWEVER - the thing is, you'd only be doing what hosts can do for you, but "adding on" something, creating complexity + room for breakdowns, that you DON'T REALLY NEED!

(Especially considering you can supplement hosts with "secured" filtering DNS servers like OpenDNS or ScrubIT DNS & hosts DO compliment external DNS servers (via hardcoding your favorite sites in hosts), actually overcoming/shoring up DNS' weaknesses vs. Dynamic DNS or FastFlux utilizing botnets for your FAV. site, since those types of botnet designs take advantage of weaknesses in DNS itself in order to work via their misdirect-redirect &/or "spoof" zone-transfers they cause/create to do so - or EVEN vs. DOWNED dns servers also!))...

... apk

SF has been garbage for years

[Anonymous Coward]

They can just curl up and die, they betrayed the users with their adware several years ago.

Fake download buttons

[Anonymous Coward]

Fake download buttons in ads should be illegal.

Try downloading paint.net or 7zip with AdBlock turned off to see what I mean.

umm, a correction

[Anonymous Coward]

>and the clear option to completely decline the offer is always available

Yes except the opt-out does not take. When opting out the additional offers always install. Always. For me, it is easy to abandon the site due to this.

*Trying* to "hide" this?

[Anonymous Coward]

g bogus unjustified downmods? I won't allow it: Hosts do more w/ less (1 file) @ a faster level (ring 0) vs redundant addons (slowing up slower ring 3 browsers) by filtering 4 the IP stack (coded in C, loads w/ OS, & 1st resolver queried & 45++ yrs.optimization):

---

APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ 32/64-bit:

http://start64.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5851:apk-hosts-file-engine-64bit-version&catid=26:64bit-security-software&Itemid=74

(Details of hosts' benefits in link)

Summary:

---

A. ) Hosts do more than AdBlock ("souled-out" 2 Google/Crippled by default) + Ghostery (Advertiser owned) - "Fox guards henhouse", or Request Policy -> http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4127345&cid=44701775

B. ) Hosts add reliability vs. downed & redirected DNS + secure vs. known malicious domains too -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3985079&cid=44310431 w/ less added "moving parts" complexity + room 4 breakdown,

C. ) Hosts files yield more speed (blocks ads & hardcodes fav sites - faster than remote DNS), security (vs. bad domains serving mal-content + block spam/phish), reliability (vs. downed or Kaminsky redirect vulnerable DNS, 99% = unpatched vs. it & worst @ ISP level + weak vs FastFlux + DynDNS botnets), & anonymity (vs. dns request logs + DNSBL's).

---

* "A fool makes things bigger + more complex: It takes a touch of genius & a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." - Einstein

(Addons = more complex + slow browsers in message passing (use a few concurrently - you'll see))

---

** "Less is more" = GOOD engineering!

(Vs. slowing SLOWER usermode browsers layering on MORE in addons slowing them more: I work w/ what you have in kernelmode, via hosts - A tightly integrated PART of the IP stack)

APK

P.S.=> "The premise is, quite simple: Take something designed by nature & reprogram it to make it work FOR the body, rather than against it..." - Dr. Alice Krippen "I AM LEGEND"

...apk

News for Timothy

[hicksw]

Dear Timmie,

Sourceforge is dead, just like Santa and the Tooth Fairy.

And anything sourced from Timothy.
Good night, sleep tight, get a real job in the morning.
--
Oblivion keeps looking better every day.

Adblock = Inferior (especially @ security)

[Anonymous Coward]

Hosts do more w/ less (1 file) @ a faster level (ring 0) vs redundant browser addons (slowing up slower ring 3 browsers) via filtering 4 the IP stack (coded in C, loads w/ OS, & 1st net resolver queried w\ 45++ yrs.of optimization):

---

APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ 32/64-bit:

http://start64.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5851:apk-hosts-file-engine-64bit-version&catid=26:64bit-security-software&Itemid=74

(Details of hosts' benefits enumerated in link)

Summary:

---

A. ) Hosts do more than AdBlock ("souled-out" 2 Google/Crippled by default) + Ghostery (Advertiser owned) - "Fox guards henhouse", or Request Policy -> http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4127345&cid=44701775

B. ) Hosts add reliability vs. downed or redirected DNS + secure vs. known malicious domains too -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3985079&cid=44310431 w/ less added "moving parts" complexity + room 4 breakdown,

C. ) Hosts files yield more speed (blocks ads & hardcodes fav sites - faster than remote DNS), security (vs. malicious domains serving mal-content + block spam/phish), reliability (vs. downed or Kaminsky redirect vulnerable DNS, 99% = unpatched vs. it & worst @ ISP level + weak vs FastFlux + DynDNS botnets), & anonymity (vs. dns request logs + DNSBL's).

---

* "A fool makes things bigger + more complex: It takes a touch of genius & a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." - Einstein

(Addons are more complex + slowup browsers in message passing (use a few concurrently - you'll see))

---

** "Less is more" = GOOD engineering!

(Vs. slowing down SLOWER usermode browsers layering on MORE in addons which slow them down more: I work w/ what you have in kernelmode, via hosts - A tightly integrated PART of the IP stack itself)

APK

P.S.=> "The premise is, quite simple: Take something designed by nature & reprogram it to make it work FOR the body, rather than against it..." - Dr. Alice Krippen "I AM LEGEND"

...apk