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New annoying virus-y ads?

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New annoying virus-y ads?
The virus problem disappeared yesterday afternoon, but started having problems with pop-ups. Cleared my browsing history this morning and now everything is okay with my computer.

Also checked my phone this morning and seems to be fine now. Didn't do anything with my phone, so hoping Cicada worked some magic in regards to that.
 
On my phone I was getting ad popups and ones trying to add apps to my phone. This was yesterday and I've not accessed the site from my phone since then as I don't want to risk further contamination.
 
Yeah, I was getting the updates for Flash every time I clicked on a new page. I just ignored it, but I got about 9 automatic downloads for Flash that I'm now going to delete without opening...
 
I haven't had any problem with pop-ups... but I've noticed that for the last week or so, whenever I click on "New posts," instead of listing just the posts I haven't read yet, the site lists about 8 pages of randomly listed threads to sift through. Makes it very hard to keep up with what's new.
 

The first page or two is usually what's new. Then there is usually a header that says there are "unread posts" in the threads below (for what isn't "new")
 
It seems all right now, but I was a bit worried about logging in for awhile because I was afraid of getting a virus. But I never clicked on any of the flash player things or whatnot, so I'm hoping I'm good.
 

Originally, the site was entirely free -- and still is. So there's no "premium" option for now. I did think about the idea that would offer some incentives, namely more PM space as a lot have asked, but it never materialized.

I started the forum on a cheap shared hosting plan for the first year or so for about $10-20/month) -- the site quickly outgrew that and I moved to a VPS @ about $60/month -- about 3-4 years ago, I moved to a pair of SSD VPS's that split the web traffic (page loads, etc) and the mySQL database -- the pair of servers costs $171/month currently.

There was a donation drive many years ago to help the switch to the first VPS, and it covered the hosting costs for about 2 years, but right now I'm the only one paying for and managing the technical upkeep of the site.

I do want to thank @dancecats and @starry_solo for notifying me when things go wrong, as I'm not here daily, but do get to fixing issues as soon as possible, so the forums stay up.

I'd like to maybe make a thread and see what people want for the forums in the future, as I'd like to keep this community around, and thriving. Donations would vertainly be welcome, but not required. Maybe i'll create a thread soon, once I've had some time to think about it.

For the near future, my plans are to at least update the forums to the new software (vBulletin 5.0, or perhaps move to XenForo), as budget allows.
 
with regard to the plugins/add-ons to the site, most remain off, but I've turned iTrader back on, as I know it's an integral part of the site.

if any issues come up, let me know in here!
 

Thanks for everything you do behind the scenes to keep this community up and running, even if you don't spend a lot of time actively on the forums. It's a great resource and a wonderful place to make friends with common interests. I too would be willing to pitch in if there is a "donation drive" to help offset your costs in keeping DPF functional and thriving. It's worth it to me, because I get so much out of the community. Again, thank you! <3
 
Yes I would help too?? do you have anymore dpf lanyards for sale? ,if so you could sell them to help too
Judy
 
A donation button would be nice so that people can donate as often as they can. I don't have much but I'd certainly be willing to help. Plus, even small donations can add up with multiple people donating.
 
The popups went away for me for awhile, but they came back a few hours ago.

I am certainly open to donating money to keep the site running.
 
I've also noticed a return of the pop ups and we already have contacted Cicada. Until further notice, the best I can advise (not much, I know) is just use pop up blocker and close those pesky things as possible. I just hope that their recurrence now indicates to Cicada what allows them to appear so the problem can be sorted.
 
I just experienced the pop up while trying to type this message. I am on my iPad. I am on the site multiple times a day and this is the first time I have had the pop ups. Multiple times now just clicking in this box.
 
I'm currently getting them too, again.

I'm really not sure where the problem is — I did the same thing I did last time to get rid of them. I've turned itrader back off too, again, for the time being, as that may have been it. iTrader, at least on this version of the forum software hasn't been updated in years, and it's likely there's been some vulnerabilities found in some of the older plugins.

vB still supports vB4, but vB5 has been out for years (along with XenForo, which I've run on some of the forums before) -- but I have not been able to upgrade this site to either vB5 or a different forum software yet.

still looking at the current issue; may need to move on moving to a different software or trying to get something together to move to VB5.
 
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