Weird tool bar at bottom of page

[makelele]

If you have a java script blocker (e.g., NoScript), blocking amazonaws.com gets rid of the toolbar.

If you have ad-blocking software, block this CSS element: div id="ad_global_above_footer"

[onion]

I am running Chrome for my browser, and after spending hours (yes, hours!) trying to get rid of "meebo" I now find that it is coming through your website. I am not happy. Neither am I a newbie regarding computers, as I run several apps specifically to keep my cpu clean. I do not like things that show up without my authorization, but this is exactly what is happening here. In addition, I have had a recent increase in spyware and tracking cookies since approximately the time I noticed meebo show up. When I say increase, please note that I have been running maybe one offender per week for several years, but now for the past week have been running three and four such hits per day. The history of the internet is loaded with profitable websites which collapsed after not responding appropriately and quickly to consumer's demands for security and safety. PLEASE do not put yourselves in this category!

BTW, "hiding" the toolbar is not the same thing as removing its' influence. Ask any ostrich.

[NICK@HQ]

I've still yet to see it. I must have something blocked already that took care of it. I have no idea what you guys are seeing.

[makelele]

I am running Chrome for my browser, and after spending hours (yes, hours!) trying to get rid of "meebo" I now find that it is coming through your website. I am not happy. Neither am I a newbie regarding computers, as I run several apps specifically to keep my cpu clean. I do not like things that show up without my authorization, but this is exactly what is happening here. In addition, I have had a recent increase in spyware and tracking cookies since approximately the time I noticed meebo show up. When I say increase, please note that I have been running maybe one offender per week for several years, but now for the past week have been running three and four such hits per day. The history of the internet is loaded with profitable websites which collapsed after not responding appropriately and quickly to consumer's demands for security and safety. PLEASE do not put yourselves in this category!

BTW, "hiding" the toolbar is not the same thing as removing its' influence. Ask any ostrich.

It's actually being served by s3.amazonaws.com and is associated with something called big lead sports (apparently a part of fantasy sports ventures, which owns BaseballHQ).

This is the html code that calls the java script that runs the bar:

<div id="ad_global_above_footer"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/bigleadsports/bls-toolbar/bigleadsports1.js"></script></div></div>

By blocking this with ad blocking software or java script blocking software, the bar will disappear.

[bluester]

Not to sound like a technophobe, but why do we need to be blocking unwanted content. It seems like the problem is on HQ end and that's where it should be handled.

[NICK@HQ]

Not to sound like a technophobe, but why do we need to be blocking unwanted content. It seems like the problem is on HQ end and that's where it should be handled.

It actually sounds like the issue is on the FSV end, not HQ.

[bluester]

Aren't you owned by FSV?

[NICK@HQ]

Aren't you owned by FSV?

Yes, which is why I pointed that out. It's not an HQ decision, and thus not something HQ can control other than providing feedback to the decision makers.

[Whistler]

FYI it did sorta block content. When running CDG to find current values earned for 2011 for my league, when I used the "find" function to highlight a player, in this case the player was highlighted but noted behind the popup at the bottom, so I could not tell the player had been found. Only took a few moments to figure it out, but just a point that it can get in the way of some content due to taking over a small portion of a screen.

[Howie M]

big lead sports was founded by an ex-colleague of mine. just created a blog that basically was an aggregator of links to sports stories that he thought was cool. It's now the 4th-largest sports website, behind espn and yahoo but ahead of cbssports, mlb.com and many other huge names. They recently partnered up with Fantasy Sports Ventures, which bought the company and took on the big lead name. Guy made a fortune this way, and good for him. He still runs the site.

I found the little hide item on the lower right, and the thing on the bottom left seems to be gone. Are you guys saying it's still going to cause me problems, or is that the end of it?

[onion]

FYI. The best advice from computer experts, regarding things that pop up on your screen is "never" click on that item. They point out that doing so can infect your machine with virus, spyware or malware. Hackers have discerned the ability to make .exe files do some very nasty work from such contact. They advise to use a combination of alt+F4 to entirely back out of the situation. That completely shuts down your browsing experience, but keeps you safe. Although some may say "meebo" is safe, take a lesson from other phishing and spoofing cautions. In short, I will not click on anything on my screen that appears without my requesting it to be there. And although Makelele's suggestion seems credible, her intelligence in the matter is far beyond my own. I do not have the routine capacity to monkey around with java script code, and I suspect that neither do 95%+ of your readers.

I repeat gentlemen and ladies, count the number of responses, questions and complaints to this problem. Measure your responses wisely. Facebook recently re-revised security settings to keep up with consumer concerns. They do not have meebo poking around; not even aol has meebo jumping in.

[RAY@HQ]

FYI, we have scaled back the toolbar rollout. It now only appears on non-premium areas of the site (aka the main baseballhq.com home page). That will likely change when we roll out our site redesign in a few months, but we'll deal with that when we get there.

Thanks to all for the feedback.

[Bill_in_PDX]

Never saw the pop-up myself. Not sure why. As to unwelcome advertising on paid content sites, I will not lie, it's not the kind of thing that would get me to unsubscribe, but I do find it annoying at other places where I pay for content (wsj.com for example) and hope BHQ isn't going that way in the future.

I will say though that ads for Rotolab are always welcome!

[onion]

I appreciate the affirmative and timely response.

For your further information, when I reviewed/googled questions regarding the "removal of meebo", there were such questions/requests dating back to at least 2009. I doubt that a "delay" of implementation will be more acceptable to your subscribers at that future time.

[Doc Daley]

Here's my 2 cents:
Glad to find out why that thing was occurring. I wondered if my computer had been compromised.
Would have been nice to have had a heads up on this.
I would prefer that it not take place. Find silly moving graphics annoying.
I think it cheapens the site, it takes away from the previosly nice clean look.