Some may say that this isn't the place to put this, but C&V is the only place I visit, and this is where I'm seeing this phenomenon. I just visited an old thread that's back on the first page (let's see old touring bikes) and in the place of old member's photo's I find these huge political ads (stop SOPA). I don't really object to BikeForums taking sides in this debate and putting ads into the threads, but putting ads in place of member's photos or other content, with the member's tag still attached, strikes me as crossing a line.
If I had posted a photo of a bicycle in a thread only to find that a few months later the photo had been removed and I was now supposedly championing one side of an issue or other, completely unknown to me, I would strenuously object. Even if I agreed with the gist of the new post.
Sorry if this has already been addressed somewhere on this site, or if I'm somehow misunderstanding what's going on. I hadn't run across this before.

cheers, Joe

I see them too in the thread you mentioned. Must by spamware or whatever they call it.

I realize my OP sounded awfully accusatory, I didn't mean for it to be. I don't know how those ads pop up and I hope it's something less sinister than what I implied.

Joe

I checked it out and I don't think it has anything to do with BF. The pictures that are replaced with the Stop SOPA images are remotely hosted. If you check out the image info on the photos in the old touring bikes thread, they're hosted on buggytexas.com, which is a currently defunct site. I think what's happening is that after this site was taken down for whatever reason, the pictures that were hosted there got redirected to a default image set by the hosting company.

If anyone has any more info on this, I'd love to hear it - especially from McDave, whose post includes aforementioned images.

I started to realize I may be barking up the wrong tree after I posted. I think hxzero has it figured out.
I see ads among the threads once in awhile, which never bothers me, but when I saw those political ads the bells went off. Being such an internet tyro it never occured to me that there could be a number of explanations.

apologies if I'm out there crying wolf,

This. Closing the thread. Thanks for being it up so we could check it out.


// likely removing this thread later this evening or tomorrow, leaving it hear for those involved to see the close notice. No harm, no foul, just not needed here anymore.