Saturday, January 19, 2008

Lavasoft Removes Ask Toolbar Inquiry

Winchester73, a long-time and respected member of the security community spent many years providing hour upon hour of his personal time devoted to helping users of Ad-Aware. He posted an inquiry at the Lavasoft support forum specifically directed to "urizen", the online name used by Nicolas Stark.

Unfortunately, I did not think it necessary to make a copy of Winchester's question to urizen. In hindsight, I see that would have been a good idea. Although my subscription to the topic still exists,



the post has been removed from http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=15455.



Unlike the days when Lavasoft had a reputation for hiding/removing questionable topics from their customers' view, hoping that would end the issue, Ad-Aware users have other means of obtaining information today, evidence this blog post.

20Jan08 Edit Note:

Someone provided me with a screen capture of Winchester73's inquiry to urizen. As is obvious from the image below, the post was certainly not inflammatory or negative.



Related topics:

Remember - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...

9 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 19, 2008 at 11:13 AM

    To quote IAMSKINZ from another time and place:

    "In all honesty I cannot believe what I am reading here.
    I am in complete disbelief.
    I truely believe that all here know that Lavasoft was formed for one reason and one reason only.
    It was a mans desire to provide the means for all to use the internet and not be taken over by malicious software, no matter who you are."

    http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,12685010

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 19, 2008 at 11:16 AM

    It is a shame to see this. I used to install ad-aware on almost every computer I touched. I participated in the beta for ad-aware 2007 and could see it was going downhill then. I made several comment about the UI and they basically told me to go away because it was still broken in more important areas. They released it just 3 weeks later. Clearly, money has become more important than customer service.

    ReplyDelete
  3. CorrineJanuary 19, 2008 at 12:27 PM

    @Winchester73 -- As you posted at DSLR, http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19830703-AdAware-AskToolbar-

    Yeah, I saw my thread over there had been deleted. I'm not sure why really ... it was a simple request to urizen for some clarification. There was nothing inflammatory or negative.

    I had hoped that there would be a message in my box explaining "why" it was removed or "who" had done so. I guess no one thought it would be a courteous thing to do. When I was a moderator on the old LS forum, I always sent a message to each and every person whose post I tampered with, in any way, even if I was just breaking a link to keep someone from clicking on it.

    Oh well, times change.

    Not that anyone cares, but count me in the disappointed camp should LS start packaging the AskToolbar with their download.

    IAMSKINZ would have had our "skinz" if we edited a post without leaving an explanation and "edited by" or removed a post without contacting the poster with an explanation.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 20, 2008 at 11:20 AM

    "Not that anyone cares, but count me in the disappointed camp should LS start packaging the AskToolbar with their download."

    Quite the opposite Corrine. Many of us care, respect your observations.

    I stopped using Lavasoft when they just couldn't get the updates to work and the new version came out. Now that they are considering including the AskToolbar too there is even more reason to not recommend it to my freinds.



    Keep warm

    ReplyDelete
  5. CorrineJanuary 20, 2008 at 1:02 PM

    Actually, Cel, that was a quote from a post by Winchester73 at DSLR. Rest assured, I highly respect his opinions.

    (A bit of history: my buddy Canuk wasn't online when I was about to post my first "official" instructions on the old LS forums. I remember being afraid of giving improper instructions which could damage the user's machine. Winchester73 willingly reviewed the thread and my instructions, giving me the much needed reassurance that my instructions were correct. Winchester73's help and patience with my many questions throughout these many years has been most appreciated.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. CorrineJanuary 20, 2008 at 1:20 PM

    @Cel

    P.S. Its headed your way -- current temperature 12F, wind chill -2F (-11C, wind chill -21C).

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJanuary 21, 2008 at 9:08 PM

    Corrine, this post on LS has been put back as of 22 Jan. It has a reply from CalamityJane.

    regards, Peter.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousFebruary 8, 2008 at 12:02 PM

    Is this the post you were looking for at lavasoft forums?
    http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=15455&st=0&p=67326&

    ReplyDelete
  9. CorrineFebruary 8, 2008 at 1:06 PM

    Hi, Andy. Yes, I know the post was returned to the public forum. See the follow-up post, linked to and quoting the Lavasoft response at "Lavasoft Responds to Toolbar Inquiry", http://securitygarden.blogspot.com/2008/01/lavasoft-responds-to-toolbar-inquiry.html

    ReplyDelete

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