Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2023 February 5

= February 5 =

regarding videos uploaded to 'What'sApp'
Occasionally, there are videos that can't be passed forward to others, or saved (the menu includes: response, emoji, starring, report & erase only). Is there, even though, a way to overcome or bypass this problem ?

It's quite intriguing why it happens in some of the cases. What causes it ? בנצי (talk) 12:19, 5 February 2023 (UTC)
 * This is probably just WhatsApp generally forwarding limits kicking in [//faq.whatsapp.com/1053543185312573/?category=5245251]. These limits are intended to try and help reduce the problem of viral "fake news" spreading via WhatsApp a well known problem which has lead to people being murdered or lynched e.g. Indian WhatsApp lynchings [//www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46145986]. Nil Einne (talk) 16:39, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

What do sites that say your [Samsung Galaxy S24, replace with actual phone model] is [scary BS like infected] click here to fix do?
Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 16:08, 5 February 2023 (UTC)


 * Probably attempt to extract the data needed for using your credit cards. --Lambiam 17:15, 5 February 2023 (UTC)
 * User:Sagittarian Milky Way - I have seen versions of that message. They come from browsing a web site that is infected with the malware that displays that message.  The objective is to install the same malware (or a different related variety of the malware) on your machine.  As noted by Lambian, it might be to steal your credit card numbers, but it could be worse.  They could be trying to turn your computer into a spam zombie.  Close the browser window immediately.  Robert McClenon (talk) 02:52, 6 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Malvertising or just spam directing users to download and/or buy some shady cache cleaner utility on the Google Play Store. It's likely they get commissions for every successful ad click from such schemes. Blake Gripling (talk) 04:22, 6 February 2023 (UTC)

Conflicting results from Firefox
Anybody else having a wierdness with Firefox accessing password sites today? I tried multiple times to access a financial site thru Firefox - one I'd been accessing for years. Everytime, it told me either my ID or password was wrong. While waiting on the phone for a live person at that financial site, I decided to try the same ID and password at Chrome. Bingo! - got right in. No other password problems using Firefox, but I conclude the Firefox is acting rather strangely today. Anybody else? — Maile (talk) 17:25, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

Bulletin board peak/crash
Bulletin board system appears to contradict itself. The introduction talks about "a rapid crash in the market starting in late 1994-early 1995" and "the sudden obsolescence of bulletin board technology in 1995". (The rapid crash is sourced to, which says nothing about the 1990s, and the obsolescence is unsourced.) Elsewhere, the article says that BBSes "reached their peak usage around 1996" and "rapidly declined in popularity thereafter", but no source is given.

When did BBSes peak and crash? 192.180.91.15 (talk) 23:07, 5 February 2023 (UTC)


 * From the internet article: "By 1995, the Internet was fully commercialized in the U.S. when the NSFNet was decommissioned, removing the last restrictions on use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic." I used BBSs and once the internet came along that was the demise of BBSs. 41.23.55.195 (talk) 06:44, 6 February 2023 (UTC)


 * I think that Windows 95 was one of the big factors in the increase in popularity of a browser using the WWW, as opposed to text-only BBS software. In the UK at least, dial-up internet access was being rolled out for home subscribers by 1995/6, see List of United Kingdom ISPs by age. When ADSL became widely available from around 2000, that was pretty much it. In the US cable modems were much more popular but I have no experience of them. MinorProphet (talk) 00:02, 12 February 2023 (UTC)