Merlin Pop-up; Allowed?

chompie

i went on to an auction re; a TFT monitor, and all of a sudden i noticed a new icon in my task bar, and then a 1.5" figure of Merlin the Magician popped-up and jumped around ala the Paper-clip/dog/Etc that you get with Word.
telling me how wonderful the seller was and what preferences he had.

the thing that worries me is has this installed something on my PC? (to get the icon on the taskbar)
the icon did dissapear after i left the auction, but still a bit worrying.

also do ebay allow this sort of thing (it was like a pushy salesman coming to the door, that won't !!!!!! off)

any comments welcomed

HairyHatMan

It won't have installed anything on your PC. It's just making use of something that's already there as part of windows/office. It is generate by a few lines of javascript in the source code of the listing that is then executed by your browser.

I doubt that it's against ebay rules, but it is really annoying and I'd automatically not bid on anything that has it.

danmanchester

The instant I see that damn Wizard popping up - no matter how interested I am in an item - I click out of the page! As HHMan says..it's not harmful or anything just very very VERY flippin' annoying..and it's about time some of the sellers realised that what was at one time a mildly amusing gimmick is now about as welcome as junk mail.

soolin

Oh I'm so glad that someone else finds that wizard thing irritating, I hate it. I can't click out of the auction fast enough.

I don't know why people think it is clever to play music at me, or have flashing icons or pop ups when all I want to do is read the auction description and check any small print. I never buy anything from auction listings that are OTT as I'm always worried somehow that it is covering something up.

Soo

beachbeth

soolin wrote:

I don't know why people think it is clever to play music at me, or have flashing icons or pop ups when all I want to do is read the auction description and check any small print. I never buy anything from auction listings that are OTT as I'm always worried somehow that it is covering something up.

Soo

Me too! If a listing states clearly what the item is and describes the item and postage then Im happy. The more they gush and go on and on about how wonderful it is and the more gimmicks they use then the more it puts me off. Although I must say Ive never had a pop-up or music!

chompie

beachbeth wrote:

Although I must say Ive never had a pop-up or music!

just for you, check out how annoying this is
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=41808&item=5188398461&rd=1

PASCALI

Theres a guy on Ebay that sells MERLIN,people are paying to put this on their auctions !!!