Offer pop-ups

[Rednose]

Original the Free vs Paid model from Avast had nothing to do with using the ( Free ) userbase, but with a simple marketing model :
A certain percentage of the Free users will buy the Paid version for whatever reason.
That said, the Free users benifit too from the developement that is made possible by the Paid users.
So what is the discussion here ?

Greetz, Red.

[midnight]

dude seriously.... do you realize you have spent more time writing your responses right now then would ever be consumed by the current avast ads in multiple lifetimes?  Get over it and move on.

+1

[lakrsrool]

Original the Free vs Paid model from Avast had nothing to do with using the ( Free ) userbase, but with a simple marketing model :
A certain percentage of the Free users will buy the Paid version for whatever reason.
That said, the Free users benifit too from the developement that is made possible by the Paid users.
So what is the discussion here ?

Greetz, Red.

.... "So what is the discussion here?", you ask....

OK, so then we should all be able to conclude that "a mutual benefit is rendered by both" based on comments posted reflecting both sides of the issue.  At which point we can take it one step further to say that it can also be reasonably concluded from this that the loss of either would necessarily negate the mutual benefit provided to both.  Hmmm, and there lies the discussion as to how far can a relatively intrusive method of marketing go before that approach potentially crosses the threshold of alienation keeping in mind the alienation of one side inherently negatively impacts the other.

[lakrsrool]

I updated avast 2 days ago and ever since I been getting an annoying pop-up daily asking me to upgrade.  Is this how its going to be from now on?

Read through the thread if you like, I'd only say if you just get one POPUP daily then consider yourself fortunate.  Of course as I've  pointed out in this thread it all depends upon how much of the time a user is on their respective computer but I can tell you someone like myself who works most of the day and sometimes into the night on many different things on my computer I will get several POPUPS (far more than 2-3 times) within that time.

And of course I discussed this below (in part) in a reply I posted on the previous page 4 (where the OP was arguing 2-3 times a day shouldn't be a problem) in regards to how there exists a much greater impact for users who are on their respective computers longer than most:

I can tell you that I've had just the "seasonal sale" POPUP alone appear far more than 2 to 3 times a day.  A couple of times a day, well OK, but if you think about it, you might experience a bombshell epiphany and recognize that the frequency that a user might experience repetitive POPUPS will inherently depend upon how much of the time a person is on their computer (hmmm head scratch, light bulb turns on). 

A person can be on their computer for various reasons (i.e. they may be involved in application programming and/or designing websites or they maybe involved in an on-line business or they may be involved in their own respective marketing program etc etc for example) which requires them to be on the computer most of the time.  In my case I am mostly on my computer various times throughout the day and night for prolonged periods of time and again I can assure you that I get various types of Avast POPUPS FAR MORE than just 2 to 3 times a day and when you happen to be diligently working on something it is clearly distracting to be interrupted with the irritant of an incidental ad when the fact is I have other applications that provide me with much more meaningful POPUP messages throughout the day and night that are far more critical to my needs than the insignificance of a repetitive ad all day and night long.  Which is why I have previously suggested that either "learning" software or giving the user the option to minimally reduce the ads in situations where the user happens to be on their respective computer for longer periods of time than most is a reasonable option to consider offering the user. 

Personally, I don't see how POPPING UP an ad (especially the very same one) more than once a day is necessary and more than that it would seem to me to be in the realm of "badgering" hence not only unnecessary but actually work against the goal of promoting the product as a result of this aggressive approach to marketing a product.

[lakrsrool]

Great, 15 minutes after I connect for the day as the POPUPS saga continues, I'm the fortunate recipient of another POPUP informing me of the number of recent "attackers" obviously intended to make me feel exposed presumably for the express purpose of informing me that my "risky behavior" needs to change and purchase an Avast product that as a 15+ Avast user I'm certainly very well aware of by now.  Oh, well, here we go again with just another day of trivial distractions courtesy of Avast as I go about my busy day trying to do work on my computer.

[DavidR]

Great, 15 minutes after I connect for the day as the POPUPS saga continues, I'm the fortunate recipient of another POPUP informing me of the number of recent "attackers" <snip>

All quiet here on silent/gaming mode.

[lakrsrool]

Great, 15 minutes after I connect for the day as the POPUPS saga continues, I'm the fortunate recipient of another POPUP informing me of the number of recent "attackers" <snip>

All quiet here on silent/gaming mode.

OK, you've convinced me, also in combination with this setting I will now go with aggressive Hardened mode excluding what I need to work with on my computer.  Presumably Avast will cover the on-line protection in the proper manner without user intervention considering there will be no threat alerts. 

[DavidR]

<snip quotes>
OK, you've convinced me, also in combination with this setting I will now go with aggressive Hardened mode excluding what I need to work with on my computer.  Presumably Avast will cover the on-line protection in the proper manner without user intervention considering there will be no threat alerts. 

I haven't come across any Hardened Mode (Aggressive) screens for some time - so it may need some old or very new programs thrown at it to see if there is any interaction.

The same would be true for any alert - can be tested at http://www.eicar.org/ - whilst I wouldn't expect any interaction, you would have to set your actions on alerts 1. Fix Automatically, 2.Repair, 3. Send to chest, etc. etc.

[lakrsrool]

<snip quotes>
OK, you've convinced me, also in combination with this setting I will now go with aggressive Hardened mode excluding what I need to work with on my computer.  Presumably Avast will cover the on-line protection in the proper manner without user intervention considering there will be no threat alerts. 

I haven't come across any Hardened Mode (Aggressive) screens for some time - so it may need some old or very new programs thrown at it to see if there is any interaction.

The same would be true for any alert - can be tested at http://www.eicar.org/ - whilst I wouldn't expect any interaction, you would have to set your actions on alerts 1. Fix Automatically, 2.Repair, 3. Send to chest, etc. etc.

For the Hardened Mode what happens is that I will get a Windows message that the path does not exist, presumably because Avast has already blocked it.

For the File Shield I've already set those 3 sequences as well and for the Archives setting I've got: if removing the packed file fails then remove the whole archive.

On the other two Shields (Mail and Web) the default is fine the way it is, but of course I changed the Archives to what I've mentioned above.

Thanks for the pointers, I'm hoping this will suffice since I'm otherwise in the dark.  Any other suggestions are appreciated as well.  (to bad this is necessary to achieve peace of mind)

[Majhoul]

It's a free product, they have a right to advertise.

Yes. But don't forget the reason for a free version - they do it not just for fun alone, it brings a much broader basis of AV-customers than the paid version alone. And it's very useful for fast recocnition of malware.

And as an end result, those of us using the product, benefit through quicker protection to the latest discovered malware.

The real reason for the free version is that it provides Avast with an army of unpaid beta testers who help them fix the multiple bugs in every new version, and so avoid driving away corporate customers who would not put up with such shoddy programming.

[Rednose]

The real reason for the free version is that it provides Avast with an army of unpaid beta testers who help them fix the multiple bugs in every new version, and so avoid driving away corporate customers who would not put up with such shoddy programming.

Nonsence !

As I explained earlier : The free vs paid is what they are based their business model on.

Greetz, Red.

[REDACTED]

Has anyone started to think creatively yet - change avast settings to silent/gaming mode. This however, may have other undesired effects.

i've been using (and recommending) Avast for over a decade. the popups are pretty annoying. if you're doing work or research or whatever, they are totally distracting. you can't measure this in the amount of time it takes to close the advertisement. and it's just getting worse. i switched from AntiVir for the exact same reason.  i'm also considering switching again

Did you not read the post directly above yours before posting - that surely should avoid distractions when "you're doing work or research or whatever"

you are suggesting that silent mode is a solution, but i want to be interrupted for a virus alert. as for being creative: i don't think that will help in the long run, if Avast wants to make it as hard as possible to disable the ad popups

[DavidR]

I'm not suggesting it is a solution, just an option to consider if the popups bug people so much.

Creative, as in the fact that there is no option to stop the popups (unless you purchase the paid versions), so you need to look at other options though not specifically designed to stop the popups, but as a consequence will also stop them.

[REDACTED]

I'm not suggesting it is a solution, just an option to consider if the popups bug people so much.

Creative, as in the fact that there is no option to stop the popups (unless you purchase the paid versions), so you need to look at other options though not specifically designed to stop the popups, but as a consequence will also stop them.

as said. these loopholes will eventually be closed. they already did it with specifying a time of 0 seconds for popups.

[DavidR]

Zero has never been a valid delay, ever since the popup delay was instigated, zero has meant no delay remains open until closed.

Plus the auto update notification popup & duration that was previously available has been removed. Since these popups are essentially piggybacked with the virus definitions auto update, they can't be removed, nor could the duration be adjusted.