# viglink



## Shades228

I can understand getting as much revenue as possible from the site. However when that product starts to interfere with use it should be looked at. Lately it seems that when posting links to sites the api.viglink tracker messes up the URL. This is becoming more and more common. It's making the site less useful to those looking for help and more frustrating for those of us attempting to help.


For the record the the link that caused me to post this was in fact a joke however there have been a few links I've posted lately that get broken and were meant to help.


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## makaiguy

See this post from an earlier thread re Viglink: http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=2884309&postcount=12


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## Carl Spock

There's another way to get rid of Viglink. You can opt out.

http://www.viglink.com/support/optout

I don't know how this affects the income from Viglink that goes to DBSTalk. Maybe one of the administrators can comment.


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## James Long

Carl Spock said:


> There's another way to get rid of Viglink. You can opt out.
> 
> http://www.viglink.com/support/optout
> 
> I don't know how this affects the income from Viglink that goes to DBSTalk. Maybe one of the administrators can comment.


David's post linked in makaiguy's post above speaks to that:


David Bott said:


> Hey Guys...
> 
> We are using Viglinks on the site in order to maybe drive some a little more revenue. Been using on AVSForum for some time with very good success and some nice deals found.
> 
> In any case, I did not forgot about the fact that some people do not like it, so if you go into the USERCP and click on "Edit Your Details", at the bottom of that page you will see two new options that can control this setting. The first one if to shut them off for you seeing them and the second is to omit your posts from being word linked. While the first one is no biggie, kind of think about the second one as it does help to support the site being able to word link.
> 
> Thanks all.


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## TheFigurehead

Just double checking, but does allowing ads help support DBSTalk? Here is what it lists when I go to "Edit Your Details" in the UserCP:

"No - Do not turn off the ads and continue to help support AVS Forum in this simple way."


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## dpeters11

Yes, it's one way that does help, along with being a club member, using the ads to buy things from advertising merchants etc.

Dbstalk is affiliated with AVSForum which is probably why you saw that.


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## Shades228

I didn't want to turn them off completely but if that's the solution rather than having them not break links that are posted so be it.


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## David Bott

TheFigurehead said:


> Just double checking, but does allowing ads help support DBSTalk? Here is what it lists when I go to "Edit Your Details" in the UserCP:
> 
> "No - Do not turn off the ads and continue to help support AVS Forum in this simple way."


OPPS!!! My Bad! That was because the plugin that I had made was first made and tested on AVSForum. After that I installed it on DBSTalk and, well, missed that.

I have fixed it, thanks!

In regards to the ads...Yes, without them, DBSTalk could not operate as it does cost to run a site. So we do what we can and in the case of Viglink, I wanted to be sure people could turn it off if they wanted.

In regards to the issue, can you please point out and example and I will get it over the the Viglink team.

Thanks.


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## TheFigurehead

The one thing I don't like about the ads at the top of the screen is that when you click on one of the links, it doesn't open the site in a new tab/window. It takes you out of dbstalk altogether. 

When you click on a highlighted word in a post VigLink does seem to open a new tab, which is better. Although the it seems to take a really long time for the new tab to actually load...

The ad banners at the bottom of the page seem to spawn new tabs, too.


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## Shades228

David Bott said:


> OPPS!!! My Bad! That was because the plugin that I had made was first made and tested on AVSForum. After that I installed it on DBSTalk and, well, missed that.
> 
> I have fixed it, thanks!
> 
> In regards to the ads...Yes, without them, DBSTalk could not operate as it does cost to run a site. So we do what we can and in the case of Viglink, I wanted to be sure people could turn it off if they wanted.
> 
> In regards to the issue, can you please point out and example and I will get it over the the Viglink team.
> 
> Thanks.


I have posted a few links lately and due to the vigilink it won't allow it to link to the site correctly. It's mainly been a problem when linking to retailers sites such as monoprice or best buy. I even had the problem linking to turbotax.com once. I thought it was a bad copy paste at first but this is too common. For instance:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dynex&#153;+-+6'+HDMI+Cable/2648583.p?id=1218342637879&skuId=2648583



> wwwdotbestbuydotcom/site/Dynex%26%23153%3B+-+6'+HDMI+Cable/2648583.p?id=1218342637879&skuId=2648583


So even with them off completely it still breaks them. It doesn't inspire me much to help support them as an advertiser. So I'd ask that you get it fixed because ultimately it impacts this site.


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## Shades228

You can check posts 10 and 11 in this thread as well to see the problem.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=2955309#post2955309


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## David Bott

test

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10114&cs_id=1011407&p_id=7114&seq=1&format=2


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## Alan Gordon

dpeters11 said:


> Yes, it's one way that does help, *along with being a club member*, using the ads to buy things from advertising merchants etc.


Off-topic, but I've been meaning to ask... is there any way on this site to be able to tell when your club membership runs out besides checking financial statements? I know mine will run out during the first half of this year, but I don't remember when.

~Alan


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## David Ortiz

Alan Gordon said:


> Off-topic, but I've been meaning to ask... is there any way on this site to be able to tell when your club membership runs out besides checking financial statements? I know mine will run out during the first half of this year, but I don't remember when.
> 
> ~Alan


It should be in User CP--Paid Subscriptions.


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## Alan Gordon

David Ortiz said:


> It should be in User CP--Paid Subscriptions.


DOH!! :lol:

I knew that...

It expires in April. 

Thanks!
~Alan


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## David Bott

In regards to the Club...It will also remind you before it does.


In regards to the Viglink issue...Should now be resolved...thanks for reporting it!


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## Laxguy

David Bott said:


> In regards to the Viglink issue...Should now be resolved...thanks for reporting it!


Looks good, David, and thanks for the fix.


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## Shades228

David Bott said:


> In regards to the Club...It will also remind you before it does.
> 
> In regards to the Viglink issue...Should now be resolved...thanks for reporting it!


Thank you for the fix I'll re-enable it in my cp now.


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## P Smith

Today the viglink interception goes totally wild. Actually it's very useless - it blocking any URL from posts making a page like this:


> <Error>
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> AccessDenied
> 
> <Message>Access Denied</Message><RequestId>E73E3A00EC81FD71</RequestId><HostId>USGHxeguqHMHnJn5LiutH9GrmyCwYOa8pbYyHRHxZM7gcRGbVG8nxXJmHNsO9hp7</HostId></Error>


I did opt-out for both check boxes and still gettin this sh^%$^.


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## Laxguy

Test of URL. What ho!?

This space intentionally left blank, except for these words.


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## Laxguy

Laxguy said:


> Test of URL. What ho!?


The link embedded here resolves all right. precisely 11:03:59 PM PST on Friday, February 10, 2012


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## P Smith

Good to know, but useless for other URLs what I did try to open.

It's pointless to test it while other URLs disguised to meaningless value.


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## Laxguy

P Smith said:


> Good to know, but useless for other URLs what I did try to open.
> 
> It's pointless to test it while other URLs disguised to meaningless value.


What URLs would those be??

What does your second sentence mean?


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## James Long

Yesterday I had one link open to an error code similar to what P Smith posted. But when I attempted the link again it worked. It seems to be an issue on viglink's servers ... perhaps overloading?

Try the "broken" links again. They likely work, and did soon after their initial fail.


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## P Smith

Laxguy said:


> What URLs would those be??
> 
> What does your second sentence mean?


It means I did OPT OUT and don't want the f$^%$ interceptor at all as it PREVENTING to use URLs on the site !


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## P Smith

James Long said:


> Yesterday I had one link open to an error code similar to what P Smith posted. But when I attempted the link again it worked. It seems to be an issue on viglink's servers ... perhaps overloading?
> 
> Try the "broken" links again. They likely work, and did soon after their initial fail.


Did try - same sh!t; you can test it here too: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=2959058#post2959058


> Got <Error>
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> AccessDenied
> 
> <Message>Access Denied</Message><RequestId>F499FC29A95E4798</RequestId><HostId>2oShFCB7iCakd7UYqF3URXfmofh7zU9njj5UqmVcsVRiJnGKhVpBXI3BDsBcmAZ/</HostId></Error>


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## Laxguy

Your browser may be florkerated. Try another one, and/or clean caches and cookies on the one you use. 

The link you just posted works fine here.


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## P Smith

I'll say last time for listening ppl - I did *OPT OUT* and I'm still get interception by the f%^$#^% site.
It should be a bug or something in local underlining of vB.


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## Laxguy

You're that certain there's not something wrong with your browser??


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## James Long

Laxguy said:


> The link you just posted works fine here.


Agreed. The link in the post P Smith linked is working fine for me as well.


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## P Smith

Well, if not want to read - I did opt out not to use the feature, but it's still intercept URLs and doesn't work for my FF.


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## longrider

I just found this thread, and viglink seems to have completely failed. When i click on a link I get this:


> This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.
> <Error>
> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> 
> AccessDenied
> 
> <Message>Access Denied</Message><RequestId>A4975C3342D75D61</RequestId><HostId>Bh97gFcWNkVnP+6X3WWodvNFS5hgg8LA3ZbMzamQh3qmzlIz6ZKqO8dRVcui7nQJ</HostId></Error>


Unfortunately teh displayed link is abbreviated so I can even use that


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## Laxguy

What browser are you using? Did you try another one?


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## P Smith

So, the question to ppl who support the vB - *why OPT OUT doesn't work* ?


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## jdspencer

I too opted out, yet this vigilink thing is totally forked up.
Tried with FF and Chrome. They report that the server can't be found.


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## Shades228

P Smith said:


> So, the question to ppl who support the vB - *why OPT OUT doesn't work* ?


We're talking about 2 different functions.

The one we can choose to opt out of is the one that changes specific words in your posts, and others, to links that people pay them to advertise. For instance the word satellite would bring up an add for a company if you hovered over it. That function we can disable completely from seeing or allowing to happen in our posts.

The problem that this thread entails is that all URLs are sent through a viglink server that tracks all the data they can then sell. So if we link solid signal all over the place then they can sell data to whoever about the links. It's all just marketing data that gets sold all over. That specific feature is beyond our ability to stop because it happens at the software level of the forum which has been added in. While I'm sure it's possible to design a function to allow you to opt out there is not one at this time.

Hope that clears it up even though it doesn't solve the premise of your complaint. I can say however that new links posted after the fix have all resolved fine however old links will still be broken to me. It's also possible you have some aggressive settings somewhere which won't allow the viglink urls to resolve due to ad blocks or firewall settings. However I would be under the assumption that you set these yourself and would know.


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## P Smith

Doesn't matter what I'm using at my side (FF with AB) - the site *added * viglink inserts to each posted URL and bring havoc to major Internet function - *use the URLs* !
It works before the "feature" OK. It should works with it. Hence opt out choice is must be supported. I'm sure it's doable and probably exist already.


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## jdspencer

Okay, its still messing up posted URs.
This makes this forum totally useless.

And, yes I did OPT out and tried different browsers.

Please give me specific instructions on how to stop this stupidity.


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## Shades228

jdspencer said:


> Okay, its still messing up posted URs.
> This makes this forum totally useless.
> 
> And, yes I did OPT out and tried different browsers.
> 
> Please give me specific instructions on how to stop this stupidity.


You can't but I would report the url's it is still impacting in this thread.


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## P Smith

Shades228 said:


> You can't but I would report the url's it is still impacting in this thread.


I did report these and what is result ? Same. Today I got other scrambled URL.
It's doesn't matter where is the URL, report it or not - it's matter of viglink devastating interception.


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## SayWhat?

Highlight and copy the URLs and paste them into a new browser tab/window instead of right-clicking them.

Works as long as the full URL is posted instead of alternate text.


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## James Long

If _EVERY_ link is bad there is likely a problem with your computer or browser. I've clicked on a few of the links during the course of this thread and nearly all have worked. (The only one that failed for me was noted earlier in the thread and it worked later, as noted, and still works now.)

If specific links do not work while others are working then it could be helpful to know where those specific links are. Simply link to the posts with a failed link. But if it is every link in every post please see the paragraph above.


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## Scott Kocourek

I have to agree with Mr. Long on this one. Please post the link so we can get to the bottom of this. I've tested many links myself and I just click on them and get where I need to.


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## jdspencer

Well, the link in post #3 here doesn't work for me.

This on my notebook using Win 7 and FF v11. BTW, they failed with IE and Chrome too!

A problem with copying and pasting links is that if the URL has been shortened by forum software, you don't get the whole thing. Like the link in post #10.

I just tried the link in post #3 using my desktop and it still didn't work.
This desktop is running Win XP SP3 and FF v10.

Also, I'm a member on AVSForum and things seem good there.
Although when you place the mouse curser on a link it doesn't show viglink in the URL as is does here.

Any other ideas?


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## Scott Kocourek

Clicking the link on a Win7 machine using Chome and the links in post 3 works perfectly.


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## jdspencer

That's fine! But, any ideas of what I need to look for with my PCs?


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## Chuck W

From the other thread...


David Bott said:


> Hey Guys...
> 
> We are using Viglinks on the site in order to maybe drive some a little more revenue. Been using on AVSForum for some time with very good success and some nice deals found.
> 
> In any case, I did not forgot about the fact that some people do not like it, so if you go into the USERCP and click on "Edit Your Details", at the bottom of that page you will see two new options that can control this setting. The first one if to shut them off for you seeing them and the second is to omit your posts from being word linked. While the first one is no biggie, kind of think about the second one as it does help to support the site being able to word link.
> 
> Thanks all.


Those options work great for the posts themselves, however they seem to not be working right for the Signature section. I have both these options turned OFF yet I see one of the HR24-500 mentions in my signature with a viglink in the "Why Can't Slow Receivers Be Fixed" here...

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=2984388#post2984388


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## jdspencer

I'm still having trouble linking to inserted URLs. The viglink stuff gives me the unable to locate blah blah.

Here's part of the message.


> Server not found
> 
> Firefox can't find the server at apicdn.viglink.com.


Same message if using IE or Chrome.

I also don't understand how the two options in the UserCP work.



> Show inserted links
> Relevant keywords are linked to targeted products. When you mouse over the link, additional product information is displayed.
> 
> Would you like to see these inserted links?
> Yes	No
> 
> Allow inserted links in my posts
> Relevant keywords are linked to targeted products. When you mouse over the link, additional product information is displayed.
> 
> Is it ok to show these links to other users when they're reading your posts?
> Yes	No


These seem to affect whether or not relevant product information is displayed.

These two options don't seem to reference how the "Viglink" is getting involved. I've tried both Yes and No settings.

Just how does "apicdn.viglink.com" get added to inserted URLs?
And why can't I open these affected links?

For example the link at the top of this post won't open.
http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=2987841&postcount=26


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## P Smith

I lost ability to follow URLs posted here not that long and it still not working.

I'm just stop using any URLs here .


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## Stewart Vernon

FYI... I have seen some other posts on the internet of some people having issues but most people not.

Some seem to have traced the problem to a DNS issue, probably specific to their internet provider.

For those having viglink issues, who is your ISP? And are you using a different DNS (like OpenDNS for example) or your ISP's DNS?


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## Laxguy

jdspencer said:


> I'm still having trouble linking to inserted URLs. The viglink stuff gives me the unable to locate blah blah.
> 
> For example the link at the top of this post won't open.
> http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=2987841&postcount=26


But have you tried a different browser? This link you show works on Chrome onna Mac.


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## jdspencer

In my Post #44 I mentioned that it doesn't work with IE or Chrome.

My ISP is Frontier Communications. I'm using Win 7 on a notebook.

I have disabled Viglink on http://www.viglink.com/support/optout

What's interesting is that the link I just posted doesn't work.


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## Laxguy

jdspencer said:


> In my Post #44 I mentioned that it doesn't work with IE or Chrome.
> 
> My ISP is Frontier Communications. I'm using Win 7 on a notebook.
> 
> I have disabled Viglink on http://www.viglink.com/support/optout
> 
> What's interesting is that the link I just posted doesn't work.


I'm not talking about copying and pasting a link. I meant entering DBSTalk through another browser and trying that.


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## jdspencer

Yes I did that.


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