Hey folks, just wanted to give ya an update on Allakhazam. We have officially launched the item collector. Head on over to the lucy site to download, http://lucy.allakhazam.com/static/itemcollector/setup.exe. Right now it only works with ethernet NIC's and not wireless. So break out those cat5 cables if you are running wireless. Also we have lowered our sub prices, check out http://everquest.allakhazam.com/story.html?story=36914 for the new prices.
Man I wish there was some way to prune all of the data out of Alla and re-launch that content on a fresh site. Up until I retired about 4 years ago, I always had a paid subscription and they were hands down the best info for EQ on the web. In coming back at TBM launch, it really made me sad to see what has happened to the site after it has changed hands a couple times. Anyways... thank you volunteer admins for doing what you can to keep one of oldest and best information resources alive, if even by a thread. Having a working item collector again is sure to help your efforts significantly.
There is, for example https://web.archive.org/web/20050905172725/http://everquest.allakhazam.com:80/ People just coming to the party don't know how good Allakhazam used to be. I don't buy the combination of letting the site get ~obsolete/no new data while increasing ads and worst of all, vicious ads that crash your browser or redirect it. Sheesh! I've run a web site as far back as 1997 and it just isn't that hard to throw something up. It is made hard with people hacking your web site but that is a different story. Site is completely down as I write this *BUT* the archive mirror works just fine. This link is back to 2005. There is probably a sweet spot in there before all the of data and browser hijacking took over, maybe 2015? Anyway, probably not a huge need to recreate the wheel when the data we all helped build for FREE with our contributions got sold for cash. Now we have to get our information sold back to us through ads? I think not.
Why would I reward a website that assaults me with browser-crippling, out-of-control scripts and redirecting virus-inducing flash ads by giving them money?
Well I wish to report a positive interaction I recently had with zam. Randomly my login stopped working. As I subscribe by the year I wanted to get the login working. Sent a email about it, after some back and forth to no success the person who I was emailing (stephen "sas148") invited me to use Google hangouts so he could watch my screen and talk in real time. We tried many things, until he set a second new password for me . Oddly enough the issue was that I had a ! In my password. Changed it to one of my choosing without the ! and it worked fine. He worked out that it was the ! causing the problem. Regarding the virus stuff etc, while I now subscribe I cannot say that I ever had any problems with zeus malware ads showing up. But then again I use a adblocker...
The problem with the ads we had should be resolved. There is a new person in charge of their ads and I've been helping that person figure out how to find localized targeted ads so they can watch for ad networks pushing out bad ads. I check several times a week for these bad ads as well. If anyone has issues with ads again, let me know please. DamnataAnimus, I'm glad you were able to get your issue resolved. Stephen is awesome. He is ZAM's Customer Service Manager and has helped me with many different things even after he is off the clock.
Ive noticed that if I post on an item page the zam site chokes up. It laggs hellishly and sometimes returns an error. Still happening after your fix so I guess its from a different problem.
The site lagging and locking up is a different problem. Soon I'll be able to get in and start looking at the code/databases so I can figure out what's going on.
Site is still hijacking my browser and telling me there is a virus. I use adblock on my PC and get no problems. But I looked up an item on my phone last week and got hijacked. The ads are still being malicious. Need to look into whatever company is putting ads on your site.
quoting this because people missed it before: There is a large amount of information about why these ads are a problem in the link provided.
Look into getting adhell. If you use a android phone anyway. I use it on my tablet and it works well, some get past eg YouTube ads but no adblock works for it.
The site is still terrible. I don't know what the heck was running but it completely stopped my computer and I had to manually restart. Do yourselves a favor and stay away.
I have premium. I see zero ads and have zero issues. I use the site heavily on a daily basis. Sure, the data is submitted by players, but storing, organizing and maintaining takes time and effort. You want to access the repository for free, you have to deal with ads - some of which can be quite aggressive.
Ad's playing audio or giving up a popup are one thing... but the ad's currently on Allah will Re-route all your pages (That were on allah, leaves the other tabs on different sites alone, lol) to a virus / spyware warning site, trying to infect your computer, and your only result is to end browser all together. While this falls into your statement of "You have to deal with the adds and they are aggressive" It is counter productive as a site as a whole. Why would I pay money to a site that when i was using their free version it was trying to infect my PC? Why would I pay money to a site that was trying to re-route me off of it? Maybe it's just me, but I don't like to spend money in areas I don't trust. Almost seems like they don't want paying customers.
For those having ad issues, what area do you live in? Some of these ad networks will only push out certain ads in certain parts of the country. ZAM has a ton of ad networks so these ads aren't easy to catch sometimes. Let me know so I can email ZAM's ad person so they can get a proxy in your area to catch these ads.
Your ad network is ridiculously slow, if you leave a browser window open for a while the tab will crash with out of memory. Bye Zam. And no, I'm not going to pay for it because they've made the site an absolutely horrible experience. That's not the way to get people to pay for it.
Send your complaints to their account email address at accounts@zam.com. I don't work for them and I don't have any control over how they handle their ads.
Ive never had it lockup my computer however whenever I post a message on an item page it locks up their site for about 2 minutes. And yes I know its them not me because 1. If i close my browser and reopen a different browser - their site is still stuck 2. I messaged them about the problem and got a this reply If there were any other site that had what they have then I wouldnt go there, but really for what they have its the only game in town. Please someone prove me wrong and show me another place. And dont say EQR - they are only good for the last few expacs
