As I'm having a bit of a cookie storage problem in Ie at the moment (another story), i have to regularly reenter my username and password, ---- and the register link is just sitting there on the page.

I checked this morning by hitting register and agreeing to the tos, ---- and I got a page up asking for username E-mail address and password.

I checked the fartman page and the register link is stil there, ---- and stil appears to lead to the forum.

the upshot of all this is I think when the forum was updated, the register link went to the default setting, ---- just stuck on the forum's main page as usual.

If spam issues do become too bad we'lll have to talk to Sander about removing it again and so having the fartman link as the only place it's  available.

Possibly, --- though after writing the above post I noticed another one in the general game discussion area which I subsequently banned and deleted the topic of (it was about selling disertations for some odd reason).

I fail to understand how these companies think people actually read! the adds put up by spambots popups and the like, sinse the majority of the time people will just say "oh, another bloody add" and delete it.

The only decent form of net advertising I've seen (actually getting back on track here), are the google adds, which say clearly "google adds" at the top, only appear on one part of the page, do not popup or interfere with the brouser otherwise, ---- and are in fact possibly related to what your looking at, ---- I've tried a couple of brouser games from google adds on occasion.

The yahoo version I've seen seems to plaster adds all over the place, --- and random adds too, ---- and especially if the site space is linked to yahoo, ---- yahoo adds can be a nightmare!

Woopse indeed, though that does explain why I've sometimes had the odd video clip activate by mistake on me.

There are several gamebook sites i've seen, where authors have got web space from yahoo, ---- the only problem is they get literally covered in yahoo adds, which is a shame, especially when the person has something good like a gamebook to put out.

Sinse I'll be reviewing a lot of gamebooks to add to the database, ---- I'll let you know if I come across any.

A nasty idea, ---- but as you said, this wouldn't be the first time useability of any product has been sacrificed upon the alter of capitalism, ---- pluss it'll make the job of researchers a nightmare when trying to find specific newspaper stories related to their work.

One thing does confuse me though. I would've thought that it was mostly the independent, net only newspapers which had most to gain from search engines. Surely the old established news services don't have to worry, ---- sinse if you read the guardian, news of the world or whichever newspaper, ---- your more likely to check their site for news before consulting a search engine anyway.

Then again, I admit I don't particularly use the net for news, ---- I mainly use radio or tv for that, though if a news story interests' me I'm not above looking it up on the net more specifically.

I always assume thtat the websites which hosted news stories etc financed themselves with adds, and indeed with encouraging people to physically buy their paper, when they sell one.

Actually, I could see this having the precise opposite intended effect,- --- sinse why should I pay the guardian for their website, when I can probably find either an independent, or a website which offers similar news elsewhere for free, --- for instance oneof the bbc websites (I was looking up a news story on the bbc site the other day).

As for the search engine business, I personally would rather change my news site, ---- than change my search engine, ---- and sinse that search engine is google, well certain news sites would lose out on my patronage if this comes into effect.

I suspect there are lots of people who will think in a similar way, ---- afterall, people are more likely to use what they're used to, than change just to access other stuff.

Thus, if your a fan of the guardian, you'll always consult it first for news and not bother with a search engine, ---- and if your a fan of google, you'll consult it first for research.

Afterall, you can always go to the guardian website directly and do an on site search with your favourite brouser anyway.

All I can really see this doing is causing serious researchers who have to check many news sites for information and use a search engine extensively, ---- really bad headaches!

Luckily, my own research involves basically looking in lots of academic jernals, ---- which you couldn't find through google anyway, and on the occasions I have to look up a specific fact, ---- such as the actual medical criteria for mental disability or visual imparement, ---- I can use wikipedia, ---- sinse in philosophy it's not generally necessary to exhaustively reference sources for publically available information as it would be in history or law, ---- though of course, referencing academic sources is very important, --- but I wouldn't get those from a net search anyway.

True Cx2, though to be honest I thought paper sales was mostly on occasions where people do not have the availability of online viewing.

for instance, I went for breakfast this morning to my favouite local sandwitch shop down the street. They have no online access, ---- but a big stack of newspapers sitting on their table which can be freely read by anyone (accept me of course, ---- ;D).