How cheap are OA collectors? 2 2

[PhilipB2k17]

3 minutes ago, SquareChaos said:

Every site has 'possible malware' issues. I think it is irresponsible to claim this. An aggregation site by it's very nature pulls in other resources. As long as they're not pulling in and executing unknown scripts... everything should be fine shouldn't it? 

I'm just stating my issues. I'm blocked from accessing all of the dealers who display at CAF on my home wifi network too. So, it's not just CAF, it's infecting everything else. Something CAF does is causing this problem. I e-mailed Bill about it, and he claims they are not blocking my MAC address, so it's not that either.

In any case, unless that issue is fixed, there's no way I would pay for CAF.

Edited October 31, 2017 by PhilipB2k17

[NicoV]

28 minutes ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

 I'm blocked from accessing all of the dealers who display at CAF on my home wifi network too.

That's really weird.

What do you mean by "blocked"? Do you have an error message on your browser? Did you try with another browser?

[rocket1312]

My work firewall will not allow access to CAF, unless I manually edit the web address to from "http" to "https".  Even then, it's still not fully functional.  For example, I cannot search.  This is also the case for some (not all) of the dealer sites associated with CAF (Romitman, Albert, some others).  I assume this is all related to how our IT administrator has set up our security and access.  I can access everything at home fine and can't really imagine why anyone would have trouble unless they were running a strict firewall or web blocker of some kind.  And if that were the case, I would think you'd know about it.

[zhamlau]

Yeah, I cant view any images on CAF from work. I can only see heritage and ebay listings from research. The 3rd party dealer sites links dont show up either. It really has hurt my desire to look at stuff.

[malvin]

1 minute ago, zhamlau said:

Yeah, I cant view any images on CAF from work. I can only see heritage and ebay listings from research. The 3rd party dealer sites links dont show up either. It really has hurt my desire to look at stuff.

Some workplaces have filters that block "non-work related" sites. and often CAF gets flagged as such.

Malvin

[Pirate]

I used to be premium, but not footing $75 anymore.  Not enough of a value for me these days with my limited buying.

[Bill Cox]

4 hours ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

I'm just stating my issues. I'm blocked from accessing all of the dealers who display at CAF on my home wifi network too. So, it's not just CAF, it's infecting everything else. Something CAF does is causing this problem. I e-mailed Bill about it, and he claims they are not blocking my MAC address, so it's not that either.

In any case, unless that issue is fixed, there's no way I would pay for CAF.

If you're blocked from all those resources this is not a CAF issue. It's a firewall issue from our end, ie we blocked you because someone at your IP (or once had your IP) was doing something wrong so you're prevented from accessing anything on our network, or conversely, your ISP and wifi blocked you all on it's own for it's own reasons. But it isn't a CAF issue and certainly isn't a malware issue. If CAF had malware anywhere on the site every browser on the planet would not allow anyone to visit the website. You can email me privately again and we can see if your wifi IP is being blocked.

[SquareChaos]

18 minutes ago, Bill Cox said:

If you're blocked from all those resources this is not a CAF issue. It's a firewall issue from our end, ie we blocked you because someone at your IP (or once had your IP) was doing something wrong so you're prevented from accessing anything on our network, or conversely, your ISP and wifi blocked you all on it's own for it's own reasons. But it isn't a CAF issue and certainly isn't a malware issue. If CAF had malware anywhere on the site every browser on the planet would not allow anyone to visit the website. You can email me privately again and we can see if your wifi IP is being blocked.

Your site does produce a mixed content warning when viewed via HTTPS. 

https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/security/prevent-mixed-content/what-is-mixed-content

 

 

 

Edited October 31, 2017 by SquareChaos
Clarity - added image

[Bill Cox]

4 hours ago, SquareChaos said:

The most likely change is that they'd likely go out of business.

That's my philosophy, but as most people know I've also never entertained an "everyone has to pay" philosophy. We're pretty close to 1 million artworks on CAF today. Anything that would cause that number to drop by 10-33% isn't worth it. I built CAF because I wanted to see the hidden gems in a person's collection, the guys with only 10 con sketches, etc. The Lowry was great in it's day, but limiting with only 5 images allowed. I don't want people to have to pick and choose what they show or don't. About the only thing I've ever considered was limiting the number of active artworks in a gallery, but it would still be a high number like 50 or 100, and even then I highly doubt I'd ever really consider doing it. This issue pops up a lot, and I do appreciate everyone's concern about CAF and even more that they care about it as much as I do. To clear up a misunderstood comment in another thread - CAF is my full time job. It is not a hobby and hasn't been for over 10 years. CAF will be 15 years old in Feb, and it really has been a blessing to be a part of it. Like all of you I grew up on comics and the art they contained fueled most things in my life (D&D and my TRS-80 coming in a close 2nd and 3rd in importance). I would never have thought I'd be able to be a part of comics and art in a such a meaningful way to so many.  I will  tell you all that if I was ever in trouble there would be a bat signal on CAF and I'd let everyone know that I needed some support. I've been self employed for over 20 years and every year gets more challenging than the last, but good things tend to come from challenges so I've never been upset when things are not always perfect.

[Bill Cox]

10 minutes ago, SquareChaos said:

Your site does produce a mixed content warning when viewed via HTTPS. 

https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/security/prevent-mixed-content/what-is-mixed-content

 

 

 

That is because the site isn't running on HTTPS. You can switch your browser to use HTTPS like you have done, but then ANY item on the page not also running on HTTPS is considered suspect. When we make the switch on the site to be 100% HTTPS you wont see that. The only thing on CAF we run through HTTPS today is the login for security purposes. 

[SquareChaos]

4 minutes ago, Bill Cox said:

That is because the site isn't running on HTTPS. You can switch your browser to use HTTPS like you have done, but then ANY item on the page not also running on HTTPS is considered suspect. When we make the switch on the site to be 100% HTTPS you wont see that. The only thing on CAF we run through HTTPS today is the login for security purposes. 

Right. My guess is that this is why some people's workplace may be blocking CAF (unless they are somehow blacklisted). Google has been pushing full HTTPS everywhere for several years now, and the entire web is pretty much following on that because of the potential consequences of not doing what Google wants... basically, being dinged on SEO. 

 

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-is-requiring-https-for-secure-data-in-chrome/183756/

https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/08/chrome-is-helping-kill-http/

[stinkininkin]

19 hours ago, Brian Peck said:

Plus you can see your collection at 2000 pixels high for premium members

That's a biggie for me too.  If I'm going to show something or want to see something, I want those bloody pixels!

That said, I'm an automatic premium member every year and always have been, regardless of the features and the upgrades.  It's a no brainer for me.

Scott

[stinkininkin]

One thing I've noticed is that it appears number of views and comments seem to be noticeably down in recent years, even on great new additions to CAF.  Am I wrong about that?  Are other platforms taking eyes away from CAF, or is there another theory?  Just curious.

Scott

[Brian Peck]

6 hours ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

It's not a DNS issue. It's not an ISP issue. It's not a firewall issue. It's not a spam filter issue. CAF is tied into all sorts of dealer sites that display in both locations. If you do a CAF search for art, stuff from dealer websites shows up in CAF galleries. I believe that makes the site rife with bugs, and possible malware issues. 

Not sure where you are getting you info. All dealer sites linked to caf and search results from them appear in caf are sites Bill Cox and his team create and maintain. Bill would never allow malware. You need to do more research.

[MyNameIsLegion]

31 minutes ago, stinkininkin said:

One thing I've noticed is that it appears number of views and comments seem to be noticeably down in recent years, even on great new additions to CAF.  Am I wrong about that?  Are other platforms taking eyes away from CAF, or is there another theory?  Just curious.

Scott

I think you are right Scott- I attribute it mostly to FB. Nowadays you post a-list art and you will top out at a hundred or so views and maybe 10 or so comments. I personally don’t like posting art on FB, I prefer to keep my hobbies separate from work and family - plus it’s a crappy experience - I like having a virtual gallery.

I shudder to mention it- but I wonder if CAF will need to update to responsive design so it’s more mobile friendly- people would howl, just as they did on the CGC upgrade, but it might become necessary at some point.

 

[comix4fun]

3 minutes ago, MYNAMEISLEGION said:

I think you are right Scott- I attribute it mostly to FB. Nowadays you post a-list art and you will top out at a hundred or so views and maybe 10 or so comments. I personally don’t like posting art on FB, I prefer to keep my hobbies separate from work and family - plus it’s a crappy experience - I like having a virtual gallery.

I shudder to mention it- but I wonder if CAF will need to update to responsive design so it’s more mobile friendly- people would howl, just as they did on the CGC upgrade, but it might become necessary at some point.

 

Whattsa-matta? You no like-a da bots? Nothing like posting a piece of art and getting friend requests from various computer generated women who don't really exist. 

[MGS]

1 hour ago, stinkininkin said:

One thing I've noticed is that it appears number of views and comments seem to be noticeably down in recent years, even on great new additions to CAF.  Am I wrong about that?  Are other platforms taking eyes away from CAF, or is there another theory?  Just curious.

Scott

Yeah, I feel like there was a noticeable change maybe a year or so ago where I started to see fewer views on stuff I posted in my gallery.  I mostly collect current Valiant art, so it's not like I was getting hundreds of views on most of my pieces (you're missing out, people!), but it seemed like all of a sudden I was getting maybe half as many views as before on newly posted stuff.  I remember wondering at the time if there had been a change in how views were registered or something since I was basically posting the same types of pieces as I had been weeks or months earlier.

Mike

[malvin]

1 hour ago, stinkininkin said:

One thing I've noticed is that it appears number of views and comments seem to be noticeably down in recent years, even on great new additions to CAF.  Am I wrong about that?  Are other platforms taking eyes away from CAF, or is there another theory?  Just curious.

Scott

yes, I agree, I have noticed that too.  The real reason is unknown of course but reasons could include:

1. Other platforms

2. CAF moving the most commented pieces off the main page (due to slow loading)

3. It just takes more to impress people as they have seen lots of great art

Malvin

Edited October 31, 2017 by malvin

[Bronty]

9 minutes ago, malvin said:

yes, I agree, I have noticed that too.  The real reason is unknown of course but reasons could include:

1. Other platforms

2. CAF moving the most commented pieces off the main page (due to slow loading)

3. It just takes more to impress people as they have seen lots of great art

Malvin

all good points, the last one is interesting.   We are 15 years into heritage auctions now, and there is something great listed constantly.   Early on we would have collectively seen less showstoppers.

[Bill Cox]

30 minutes ago, malvin said:

yes, I agree, I have noticed that too.  The real reason is unknown of course but reasons could include:

1. Other platforms

2. CAF moving the most commented pieces off the main page (due to slow loading)

3. It just takes more to impress people as they have seen lots of great art

Malvin

The only time CAF had a decline was a few years back when the CAF site was cloned for EU related comic art. Certain countries no longer come to CAF like they used to.  Some gallery owners closed their galleries to move under their umbrella. It was disappointing but there wasn't anything that could be done about it. Traffic has been the same for over two years and we still get over 40 new registrations every day. The same amount of art is posted every day. 

And I do think FB is the other main culprit. People spend a lot of their available time on the internet there, so it leaves less time to hang out on CAF. But FB is also one of the single biggest referrers to the site after Google, so it's a blessing and a curse at the same time.