Ancestry Template getting Hijacked!! [closed]

Question

Why are my Ancestry family Tree Template links getting hijacked by an advertiser?

Example:

Ancestry.com Ross Family trees: {{Ancestry Tree|23123043|1373165293}}

is being redirected to:

https://www.partnerize.com/?clickref=1101lwIbBhFx&adref=&clickref=1101lwIbBhFx&o_xid=01011l4xx5&o_lid=01011l4xx5&o_sch=Affiliate+External

Answer 1

We are already aware of the issue and working on a fix. See: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1569003/problem-with-ancestry-com-links

Comments

Yes,  if I edit the page with the Ancestry Link and do a Preview, the link in the Preview works.

The Problem occurs on all of my Ancestry Template links, in both Firefox and Chrome browsers.

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The error is site wide, not dependent on any browsers or settings.

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Steven Harris,  

  You seem to have narrowed down where to look for the problem.  But  3 hours later my links are still being redirected. Will you be able to fix the code and prevent further hacks from hijacking my links?  I have many months of work invested in this site.

HSR

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Unfortunately, not all fixes can be instantaneous - however much we wish they could be :)

Also, this is not a "hijacking". That would mean malicious intent...

I have posted an update to the original thread.

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Obviously I cannot prove malicious intent.  A simply broken link could imply to me a possible programmer error.  I'm sure in 30+ years as a Computer Programmer I might have made such mistakes.  However, a link that is specifically redirected to another commercial site implies to me some degree of intentional mischief.  Either to benefit Prioritize, or simple discredit WikiTree or Ancestry.com links. I find significant damage to the value of my many months of work copying my family tree from Ancestry and other sources to WikiTree. It makes me angry, and distrustful.  But fixing the link is more important that placing the blame or finding the guilty party.  Ancestry.com is a significant primary source for most of my added profiles, including over 5,000 CC7.

HSRoss

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WikiTree has a partnership with Ancestry. We get a small credit for clicks over their to site, purchases made, etc. This is one of the ways that WikiTree is able to remain free.

The system used for this is changing and it was a bit disorganized. We had to regroup and implement a solution. So again, there was no intentional mischief, 'hijaking', etc. Just a simple issue we had to deal with in an appropriate manner.

I find significant damage to the value of my many months of work copying my family tree from Ancestry and other sources to WikiTree. It makes me angry, and distrustful.

There was no damage done. There were documented workarounds, and as of now, most links should be working as intended.

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Yay!  My Ancestry Links are working.

Thanks for your support and all comments as this was worked out.

Harvey S. Ross

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Even when I block the partnerize link it recurs again.

Usually only on the first try to access the website, then on subsequent tries it doesn't do it.  It's now 21 May 2023 and still no fix?

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Where are you seeing partnerize links, Eleyan? Since about 19 April, they all should have been replaced with linksynergy ones which go to Ancestry as expected without a problem.

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@Eleyan & Jim, there may be instances where people have manually copied links that contain partnerize prefixes.

If you run across those, let me know.

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Good point, Steven.

This WikiTree Plus query finds 256 profiles with such apparently hand-copied links:

https://plus.wikitree.com/default.htm?report=srch1&Query=Domain%3Dancestry_prf_hn&MaxProfiles=500