General Questions

[RBS]

Those windows pop up, no problem. Browse then takes me right into My Pictures.

[elle]

I come across these pop-up ads every time I visit the home page. They pop up in the background and are usually those ones that claim you have won a prize or something. However I don't have the hassle of pop-ups when I'm in the forums. Well maybe the problem is that I have disabled the pop-up blocker from this site through Tools/Internet Options/Privacy in order to get rid of what RBS refers to as a nag screen. So now I changed that and made Gamershood a trusted site using the Security tab instead. I shall see if this does make a difference. Thanks guys for looking into it. However if the problem persists I will let you know

[RBS]

However if the problem persists I will let you know

Good luck and please let us know if it goes away.

[Mistery]

Okay, try it.
Otherwise it might be really some adware/spyware problems on your computer.
I had once or twice such spyware, and those "you have won" pop-up messages (on all kinds of sites), but gladly I could get rid of them fast by doing a scan for adware.
If the problem persists, or if you experience it on other sites also often, I'll be happy to help

[elle]

Well after some serious searching and reading I discovered that my laptop had a Vundo-ZLOB-SDBot infection. I came across a very helpful site and managed to get rid of this nasty thing.

I did make Gamershood a trusted site but this doesn't get rid of the "nag screens". I'm now afraid to allow pop-ups from this site in case I get infected again. Any other suggestions?

[Mistery]

Great news that you've been able to get rid of it, elle!
I have PMed you with 2 great software that should be able to keep you free from adware/spyware if you update them regularly and make a regular scan. Although there is of course no guaranty that you won't be infected again.

And remember once you get a pop-up, your computer is already infected. The pop-up is a symptom/sign of the infection, not the cause of it.
Unfortunately you can get an infection almost everywhere, on gaming sites, on MySpace, on sites with funny pictures, forums, personal websites etc.
Most of these sites do not put any malware on the site themselves (although there are such examples), but some people with malicious intentions manage to do that.
Additionally you can get malware from emails, or by using chat programs if you are not extremely careful.

Btw, just as an info @all:
Professionals who are dealing with spyware/adware/virus removal on a daily basis recommend to have 1 firewall, 1 antivirus software and at least 2 spyware/adware scanners (only one with real-time protection though).
Unfortunately there are many rogue antispyware and antivirus software, which are advertised aggressively but do nothing helpful apart from getting your money, and in the worst case they infect your computer!

This is a great independent and professional site about spyware, viruses, adware, rogue software etc. if you are interested:
http://spywarewarrior.com/

[Karanu]

general questions 2

Sorry, I could not post this in the original general questions...for some reason the info would take forever to load and then I would get a blank screen...odd since I had just perused it to see if my question was there, but I did not search all 18 pages...but didn't find them on the 10 that I did look at.

Anyway, some questions...how does a game get put in room escape or point and click. There are several point and click games that I thought would be great in room escapes, and some "room" escape games that were easily as point and click and the point and click games (i.e. more than one room)--I had thought that the number of rooms might be the reason, but it is obviously not a hard and fast rule. Pt. 2--if it is already in one category, it will not be moved to also be in another? I ask because I have only just now started straying out of the room esape games and expanding my horizons and didn't realize that there were room escape (okay, city, home, hospital escapes) in other places.

Let's see, that was 2 questions, now for a suggestion. my sons love to play games also but they are 9 and 6 and many of these games are way to complicated for them. Do you have a category of easier games for children (not to mention bloodless, scaryless, violentless)? I saw that under this forum it mentions children's stuff, but I hadn't seen anything for games

Oh, a third question, is there a way to see if someone added to my thread...like receiving an email...or if someone responded to one of my posts?
(I did find instant email for thread subscription, but if I write in a thread, am I automatically subscribed to it?)
Thanks for all of your time.
Karanu

[EscapeGirl]

I will answer your questions to the best of my ability, and if Gamershood himself, or another mod has more to add, I welcome the help!

1.) The games are moved into the appropriate category normally based on Gamerhood's knowledge of style of game, but I also know that sometimes the poster of that game states it's a point and click style game, etc. In this case, it's possible he just uses that description when he moves the game to the chosen subforum. (Being the admin is the only one who moves the games from NEW GAMES to the appropriate subforums, I may be misinformed.) The games are also listed on the main site under each category. (ie. puzzles, escape the room, etc.) I understand your question, and am not sure why there would be escape the room games in the point and click categories...I will have to look into that.

2.) Once a game is moved to a particular subforum, no, it doesn't get switched to another unless it was incorrectly moved to the wrong subforum from the beginning.


3.) As far as having a subforum for young kids, we don't currently have that, no, but I would be more than happy to bring up your suggestion with the rest of the moderation team for discussion. Oh, and we try very hard to use STOP SIGNS on games that are of an adult nature, violent, bloody, scary, etc. to help keep young kids from playing them, and we also add warnings to the lead posts of those threads. So keep an eye out for those threads so your children can avoid them.

4.) To my understanding, the subscribed threads are threads you have posted in, or created when that setting is checked in the USERCP>OPTIONS. You can manage those in the USER CP. Also in the USER CP is the OPTION to receive an email verification when someone replies to you, or posts in a subscribed thread. (Which it sounds like you already found. Select that to receive the email notification and whenever someone replies to one of your subscribed threads, you will receive an email.)

I hope that helps, and we will take your suggestion into consideration regarding the childrens' games.

[Adventure]

In addition to what Escape already told..

So far I know there isn't one criteria that decides if games should be placed in rooms escapes or point and click games. Generally room escapes are games where you have to escape the room(s) or a house by collecting items and/or solving puzzles/codes. 99 percent of all the room escapes are point and click.
Our Admin GamersHood and our supermod Carts are the ones who are moving games to the appropriate catergory and they too submit games to the main game site. It's always possible a game is placed in the "wrong" section, or that a game in fact would suit better in another categrory. If you see a game that really belongs to another category, please feel free to PM the admin about it, or any of the moderators.

What I do know for sure that is sometimes not that easy to decide where a game suits the best, because they fit in more than one category. To name an Example: the Locked Forever series. Here is your task to find 10 keys in order to escape the room. Is it a real room escape as you primarely only have to find keys? Or would suit it better in Hidden Objects or Point and Click games? Like you already found out yourself it isn't always that clear.


No, you won't be automatibally subcribed to a thread only by posting in it. Also when you create a thread yourself you won't have an automatic subriction to it.

To subcribe to a thread..
1) Click Thread Tools in the top bar of the thread, and choose Subcribe to this Thread.
2) Choose the Notifictaion Type and press Add Subcription.

In User CP you can find you list of subribed threads and you too can change there the type of subcription.

EDIT: After some chatting with Escape we found out it is possible to automatically subcribe to to all threads you have posted in.
Go to.. User CP >> Options >> Default Thread Subscription Mode.. and choose your type of subcription that pleases you.
Note that this only counts for the threads you posted in AFTER you turned this option on.


If something is still unclear, just post again.


Edit: Gonna merge this with General Questions no 1.

[Karanu]

Thanks Escapegirl and Adventure. I appreciate both of you taking the time to answer my questions so quickly and thoroughly.

I did see that some of the games had those big warnings for my kids (of course, I just HAD to check them out for myself and some definitely DO deserve those warnings! LOL)

And thanks for merging it. I couldn't get Gen. Questions to open but it seems to be working again. (I was playing around with my preferences and probably confused the poor thing earlier).

[Hitman]

Hello mods! Is the "Who's Online" quick link removed?

[Mistery]

No, it shouldn't be removed

What forum skin/style are you using?

[Hitman]

I'm using the default "Grey Style". The "Who's Online" option used to be the last one on the Quick Link list. Now it's "Your Profile". I tried using other styles but still the same problem!

[Mistery]

Strange, for me it's available.
I'm going to test how it is for regular members, hold on.

[Crimsonthread]

It's available for me...