Complain Section [Double Post will Result in deletion and timeout from posting]

[Kureha]

There should be Name X theme that has different colors and darker colors.

[byrobyAGAIN]

@Ted Crilly
Sure. Delete inconvenient account and pretend that problem isn't real... Why do I get the feeling that mine was merely one of MANY silenced posts/accounts ?
This is "Complain Section" isn't it? And I still claim that mine was very deserved, as I have never seen more cancerous download process in my life. A Thousand redirects going in circles, going as far trying to install god knows what on my pc with every click. I even made honest to god effort and still ended up using bypass for your shotrlinks to finally be able to download anything. I totally get it that you need to generate revenue but there surely has to be less hellish way to do so? How much can you possibly make on those shortlinks per user? Tenths of a dollar?
How about an option for some premium account for couple of $$$ for people that would much rather pay and be done with it instead of dredging through dozen of malware ridden sites to not be able to download anything in the end anyway?
Only reason that I even bother to come back is that you provide much needed service. I read my books on kindle. Anything I read I have to send to kindle one by one and doing so with web novels and their countless short chapters is very unconvinient. So far I couldn't find source of such novels in neat glued together pdf other than your forum. Whether you do it by hand or software doesn't change the fact that you provide service that I would be willing to pay for. And if I'm not the only one wouldn't it be a sound decision to provide users with option to pay and skip your horrid system?
But then again. How dare I complain in Complain Section. Ready that ban button mods

[Ted Crilly]

@ byroby - I didn't delete your account, so no idea why you're complaining about that in a reply directed at me? I have no affiliation with this site or anything, in case you thought I did (such as where you say "your forum" and "your horrid system". How is this "my forum", or "my horrid system"??).

And the problem I had, and I can only speak for myself and no one else, is that you were complaining without even attempting to ask for help. And not just here in the complain thread either, you were complaining on one of the novel threads as well. If you had asked for help and either didn't receive any, or it didn't help you, meaning you were still having problems, then that would have been something. But you didn't. You didn't bother to ask for help at all, you were just moaning and complaining, and making entirely false and baseless accusations about this site being a scam.

Because for all anyone else knows your problem with the ad sites could be easy to solve for someone else, and a simple tip from someone could be all that's needed for you to navigate the ad sites with minimum problems. But the point is nobody else does know, except for you, because you haven't given any specifics about your problem at all, and/or what ad sites in particular are causing you problems. All you're doing is complaining about the ad sites in general. Which aren't going anywhere by the way, so either you learn to navigate them yourself, ask for help with navigating them, or... I guess you can just keep complaining about them in this complain thread ad infinitum.

[shirenEiri15]

Not really a complain, but I wanted to ask why linkvertise appears whenever I click a link. What should I do about these? :3

[Ted Crilly]

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but I wanted to ask why linkvertise appears whenever I click a link. What should I do about these?@ shirenEiri15 - Check the following pinned thread for info about that linkvertise link, and the ad links in general.
http://www.vn-meido.com/k1/index.php?topic=9907.0

But in short, and to quote the relevant part:

"There is a single outgoing linkvertise ad when you click on a link that exits the forum"

and this exists because:

"It was a compromise implemented so that there are no ads on the forum itself. Hosting, hardware, domain, heck even the routing and internet isn't free. The exit ads don't even begin to remotely cover costs."


And as for "What should (you) do about these?". IMO you should click the link and be happy at knowing that your click, and your visit to the linkvertise site, helped in its own small way to support this site and keep it up and running.

[soulrunner@hotmail.com]

Edited my post because it seems Linkvertise is married to the forum, and no it's not a quick passthrough as another poster above has noted. Have any of you actually been through there? I humored the link and disabled my adblocker thinking it won't be so bad... Wrong!!! Immediately my security programs went nuts active and passive protection went nuts no fewer than 15 programs attempted to download without authorization all carrying infections and malware, everything from TRJ programs to Keyloggers, and registry hacks. Trying to click past the selection of  targeted ads was futile and all required you visit the  ad site, view crap download services then return once the visit was verified Further exposing your device to possible infection. All of this before the file wanted could be displayed or downloaded. I mean Goddam if you're that hard up for money just implement a subscription. There's a reason for Adblock and why mmorpgers like me use them, 2003-2006 MMO Hackings shall never be forgotten millions of online accounts  hacked and stolen. The entire reason most games have password authenticators, and the source? Adsites, like the one used here. Anyway policies like the one that marry adsites to this forum may be ok for some as for me Nyaa.si is still free and does not use any funny business all you have to do is hope they have your missing book. To the mods who are no doubt foaming at the mouth by now, provide proof that the adsite is safe that their ads are not containing viruses and hacks, best if the site itself stakes their own name on it so if something happens like for instance a ransomware virus gets through so we can go after them legally by all means ad your brains out. Yeah it seems like a good idea to let ads pay for everything but as it is if someone really vindictive decided to go after you after being infected via this site you'd be up doodoo creek in a toilet paper canoo after Mardi gras. Sorry For the wall of text but for every argument for adsites, there is a much larger argument against it, this site in particular is extremely invasive compared to others. 95% screen coverage and auto downloads.

[Kureha]

Not quite fair to say "this site", when the forum itself doesn't have a single ad on it.

Yes the forum does insert a linkvertise redirect when you leave the forum, but it's not even hard coded and can be bypassed simply by copy and pasting the link instead of clicking on it.

Kureha knows no one likes ads has made it so that you don't see any ads while browsing the forum, made it so that outbound linkvertise redirects can be defeated by just copy and pasting the links themselves. The cold hard truth is that domains aren't free, hosting and bandwidth isn't free, even for something as small as the forum with no files, it's still over a million views a month, a million views that are not monetized if they are just viewing the forum.

For thread OPs that have their own redirects, there is honestly not that much Kureha can do about it, Kureha has no source or means to source, host and update those files, and what can Kureha actually do? Ban all the OPs? That would be hypocrisy since outgoing links have a single linkvertise redirect.

Kureha has always been open to contemplating alternatives, but "Everything should be a direct link to something like Mega" is not an alternative, bots will just scrape it, and all the links would just be C&Ded into oblivion.

If you wanted torrents, then why the heck are you here? There are plenty of better sites out there already who specializes in torrents and don't have funding problems.

If you want to use nyaa.si or any other site, then by all means do so. K1 was never meant to be the primary source of sourcing things. There are plenty of better sites out there sure, Kureha doesn't even know why the forum is getting that much traffic, Kureha doesn't advertise K1 to be the source of anything, the forum is on a crap backend held together by hopes and dreams and has deviated so much from VNs that the original sections are basically dead.

K1 was started as a place to archive links for VNs, and for crappy K1 fansubs to be released, other groups quickly came on to the scene with much better subs in the same genre so K1 was quickly pushed out of the fansub space.

As for mods, technically all K1 mods have gone MIA for a while now. There is not a single active "moderator" as of this post. Kureha is not a "moderator"

When something gets reported, Kureha does check the report, when it's about links, Kureha does check the links, if Kureha is able to get to the file, then the report is closed, if the link is dead or doesn't point to a file eventually, Kureha either msgs the thread OP, or if the thread OP is no longer active, the thread is either pruned or sent to the Bin.

From experience, most links reach their destination on an average of 4~6 clicks not counting the first linkvertise redirect, which honestly most people probably won't even see if they copy and pasted the link, or if they have an adblocker, Kureha has taken no measures for anti adblocking. It would be nice if people do see the ads, but Kureha doesn't force it.

Kureha has non of the files, and reporting a topic to ask for updates does nothing, those reports only get closed.

TLDR: Kureha yet again stress the fact that no one is forced to be here, no one is forced to look at the first linkvertise redirect, yes there are better sites out there, you're welcome to use them instead, and plz don't crap up other threads, there is a reason this complaint thread exists.

-The Management

[KaLlanto3164]

soulrunner@hotmail.com your complaint is really absurd. 15 software attempting to download? lol what kind of browser are you using? cuz it didn't happen on me, my chrome is even outdated and the only extensions I use is ublock origin, pop up blocker and ghostery (had to use this) and because linkvertise won't work  if I turned this on I use usually exempt those sites that wont work cuz of extensions and once you get on linkvertise link all you really had to do is click free access and once you pass that there will be multiple "I'm interested" ads and at this point you only have to click it cuz anything that popup on this site will be block by ublock or popup blocker after that you only need to wait until the color changes to gray and you can now click the proceed and viola you are now on the intended link

for me I think it's a win-win situation for kureha and users cuz you help kureha have funds to maintain the site so that the site will still exist in the future therefore your complaint is really absurd

yes I use extensions because I have been victim of hacks too but as long you are vigilant and careful on what you download you will have no problem at all and it's really impossible that the 15 programs you said that have attempted to download without your authorization was not detected by your anti-virus (malwarebytes exist hecc even microsoft defender is enough) unless you have none it's really idiotic to be honest

sorry for my bad English and my explaination on the linkvertise is really ambiguous but i did my best to explain properly. i just wanna defend kureha and the site against allegations that have no concrete evidence at all cuz i've been visiting this site for almost 7 years and did not get a single virus and from the looks of it you only created an account just to complain bruh...

[Ted Crilly]

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15 software attempting to download? lol what kind of browser are you using?@ KaLlanto3164 - My guess is soulrunner@hotmail.com has a script blocker extension of some sort and has ludicrously equated every blocked script to a "program attempted to download without authorization". Which is obviously complete nonsense because a huge number of websites use JavaScript for basic functionality, which includes the ad sites. They use JavaScript to display some of the ads and control the pop-ups as well, but several of these won't function at all without a certain number of their scripts enable. On top of it being pure hysteria to assume that every time a script blocker blocks a script, it is a malicious program being blocked. Since that's based on nothing but pure paranoia.

But then a lot of people, especially the computer illiterate type, and/or those generally paranoid about computer viruses type, think that "every website is out to get me, and wants to steal my data and infect my computer". And they likely read somewhere that script blockers can help protect your browsing, so they installed a script blocker, noticed how the script blocker blocks scripts on just about every site on the net, and which has only fuelled their paranoia and reinforced their conviction that "every website is out to get me, and wants to steal my data and infect my computer". So it's quite possible for a script blocker to have blocked 15 scripts on an ad site. But I'd be surprised if even one of those had any sort of malicious intent, since they were likely just scripts for controlling the ad displays, CAPTCHA, and user interactions (ie. clicking). With the latter being a likely source of the problems some people have with ad sites:

"I can't navigate the stupid ad sites" - That's probably because the script blocker you installed to appease your paranoia has shut down all the basic functionality of the ad site making it impossible to navigate. And obviously that's the ad sites fault. And the uploaders vault. And VN-Meido's fault. And Kureha's fault. It's basically everyone else's fault, and not your fault in any way.

[KiTA]

Double checking the ReadMe thread suggests this is better posted over here than in the individual threads...

Cuty.io appears to have been cybersquatted and now goes to a different link shortener, and the links it sends you to are EXE files that are artificially expanded in size to make scanning them on Virustotal impossible -- but if you re-archive them and do so (since they go from ~~655 megs to about 3 megs when archived), they come out as infected with the HULK.5 trojan (first links I tried) or a host of random ones (second ones I tried).

In short, the url shortener cuty.io appears to be dead.  Either that, or my adblock is causing it to malfunction or maliciously send me to a malicious mediafire URL instead.

Since I tested with all 5 links on one novel and all 5 sent me to the same mediafire link, and all 5 changed to a different mediafire link later on (mediafire blocked the original file for abuse) with no change in the cuty.io URL in the post over here, I'm guessing it's the cuty.io webmaster doing it and not the poster over here.

If anyone wants to test them out, please let me know if it's on my end.  It's not a case of the obnoxious ad loop ones, where you have to go through like 8 link shorteners in a row scrolling to the bottom to buff fake SEO results on some fly by night crapware site, it's a fairly quick process, which is sus in and of itself.

Edit:  So yeah that's what's going on.  If you click go, it instantly sends you to a fake mediafire link with a virus.  After this happens, if you go back to the page and click go again, it actually sends you to a second link shortener (god, this is cancer) and eventually the file.

I'll be glad when these link shorteners all die, heh.

[Ted Crilly]

@KiTA - Tested some of the Cuty links in the thread you posted on and yeah, they're bad.

Tested Chrome, Firefox, and Opera on a PC, and couldn't find a way to navigate them without automatically downloading that .exe file. I didn't bother checking it for a virus cuz anything that forces you to download a random .exe file is guaranteed to be bad shit. Tried messing around with a script blocker to see if there was a config that could get to the file while bypassing the .exe download, but no good. I found no way to prevent it happening. Others might though. You can get to the file eventually as your edit says, but there's an obvious risk of those inexperienced with link shorteners ending up clicking that .exe file and getting fucked over by it installing who knows what.

So with how Cuty is right now I'd be on board with banning Cuty links. They're just too risky for some users, and as a community I don't see why we should be making users take on that risk. There's plenty of link shorteners out there for uploaders to use, so don't see why they should be allowed to use dodgy ones that put users at risk.

[KiTA]

I got Cuty links to work.  Here's the scam.

• Load a cuty link
• Click the blue button, Captcha appears
• Solve Captcha
• Timer
• Button changes to go
• Click Go
• Cuty sends you a popup/new tab that cycles through like 10 redirects (each one of these is Google search SEO scam javascript, I'm sure) until it gives you a URL for a Megafire link.  It does NOT go there, it makes you copy/paste it.
• This link is a virus, with a ~500-900 meg text file inside (prevents auto-scanning by Megafire) and an encrypted zip file inside.  In the encrypted zip file is a 655 meg EXE (makes it impossible to scan via Windows Defender and VirusTotal).  If you zip this file and scan it via VirusTotal you'll find a shitload of malware.
• Go back to the Cuty tab
• Click Go
• Go works this time, sending you to ANOTHER link shortener (christ)
• This sends you to the file

So the scam is that when you click go it doesn't click, the popup takes priority.  You have to go back to the original tab after the popup has appeared to get it to work.

Link shorteners for pay were a mistake.

[Ted Crilly]

Opening new tabs and pop-ups, and checking to make sure you're on the original tab to progress, is standard for a lot of shorteners, so not a problem by itself. Annoying as fuck for sure though, but it's just part of the navigation process that people have to learn when using download sites. The only way to prevent it is to basically ban the monetization of links, which is a conversation that's been had here before, and isn't going to happen last I heard. Not least cuz all the major uploaders here use them.

But the automatic and unavoidable downloading of random .exe files should be a red line for any download community, and all the decent download communities I've known always draw a line and ban any file hosts or shorteners that do that. It's simply a line that uploaders shouldn't be allowed to cross, and it's the uploader's responsibilty to make sure their choice of file hosts and shorteners aren't doing that shit. And for them to remove/change any that start doing it.

[Kureha]

Tested, Cuty .io links for "Inferior Magic Swordsman: Using the Skill Board to Become the Str"
Yeah the mediafire link it tries to tell you do use is definitely malicious, links deleted.

[Ozmadeus99]

All the uploaders here use cuty io this made me hesitate to download any novels here again, especially this news about auto download shit. Is it safe to download the uploaded new novels here? Any solutions?

Edit: so as I've understand this, I'll be safe so long as I don't get dragged to the auto exe download site, but honestly I don't want to risk anything with virus. Regrettably most uploaders use cuty io, and fortunately the two currently active novel uploaders traitorAizen and Animestuff are safe to download, traitorAizen didn't use cuty io and Animestuff has removed cuty links