Wang_WebRanz

[yasutaka-kamei]

This artifact includes documentation and script files that run WebRanz, which is a tool for randomizing web pages for better advertisement advertisement delivery.

According to the CFP, artifact papers are expected to include:

• Insightful
  • Timely (i.e., addresses a problem that is most current and most pressing)? Yes. WebRanz tries to allow websites to disable Ad-blockers.
  • Makes researchers “smarter” in some way (e.g., identifies and fills some significant gap in prior work)? Yes. It makes researchers better understand how online advertisements are blocked.
• Useful
  • Serves a useful purpose? Yes. WebRanz allow content publishers to derive their contents with advertisements without being blocked.
  • Cost-effective? Yes. If we use the virtual disk image the authors uploaded, it takes about less than one hour to generate web contents that will not be blocked by Ad-blockers.
• Usable
  • Easy to understand? Yes.
  • Accompanied by tutorial notes? Yes. The 2nd page helps me to use WebRanz as tutorial.
  • Artifacts need not be executable but if so, are they: Yes.
  • Easy to download, install, or execute?
  • Yes. I used a VM version in VMWare Fusion 8.0 Pro. It easy to download and execute WebRanz of the VM version, because all dependences have already been installed.
  • The authors' "Try Now" page at https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/wang1315/webranz/trynow.html is also helpful to check whether or not WebRanz works well.
  • Available in a virtual machine image? Yes.
  • Available online? Yes. Source code and a VM image are uploaded at Google Drive.
  • Supported by configuration management tools to permit easy updates? No.
• Misc Please add an explanation about what AdBlockers, Web-bots and Adblock Plus are.
• Score I think that this artifact is insightful, useful and usable. So I would like to say "Platinum" for this paper.

[Felienne]

This paper presents WenRanz, a tool that randomizes web pages for bot protection. I found it hard to understand exactly what the use of the tool is, and what researchers could use it for. Even in an artefact paper I think that should be made more clear.

I very much like the provided example page, it helps understand what the tool is doing. Source and VM are available and work properly.

Minor issues: to capture above -> to capture the above.

Because of the low explanation of impact, I suggest gold.

[timm]

Note these labels are still "under discussion" and are still subject to change prior to the final notifications Friday.

[emhill]

In this paper, the authors present WebRanz, a tool for randomizing web applications to avoid ad blocking. I think the idea behind this tool is very valuable, and many will find the tool useful. However, I question it's relevance to enabling future software engineering research. It would be helpful if the authors made this connection more clear.

Because I find the relationship to SE research unclear, I have marked the artifact as maybe other.

[timm]

@obaysal : looks like the presentation of this artifact had some issues completely winning over three reviewers. that said, "other" seems too strict to me. so i would propose "gold". do you agree?

[weiwei16]

Dear Prof. Yasutaka Kamei @yasutaka-kamei ,

Thank you very much for the valuable and constructive comments!

As per your suggestion, we have added explanations about Adblockers, Web-bots and Adblock Plus on our website. Adblockers/Adblock Plus: https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/wang1315/webranz/adblocker.html Webbots: https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/wang1315/webranz/webbots.html

Moreover, the explanations are also in our paper. In particular, they are in Section 1. Introduction and Section 2. Motivation (2.1 and 2.2). They are omitted in the "Artifact Submission (Wang_WebRanz.pdf)" due to the page limit. We will add them in the next version of the artifact pdf.

Best regards, Weihang

[weiwei16]

Dear Prof. Felienne Hermans @Felienne ,

Thank you very much for the valuable and constructive comments!

To the best of our knowledge, WebRanz is the first system to randomize DOM elements and URLs to protect web pages from being accessed by other programs. While Adblockers and web-bots are two popular applications, WebRanz is a general technique and its application is not limited to them. As per your suggestion, we added more detailed explanations of the application and the impact of our tool on WebRanz project web page. (https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/wang1315/webranz/why.html)

We will also add them in the next version of the "Artifact Submission (Wang_WebRanz.pdf)".

Best regards, Weihang

[weiwei16]

Dear Prof. Emily Hill @emhill ,

Thank you very much for the valuable and constructive comments!

We believe the idea, design, and implementation of WebRanz can facilitate future SE research in various ways. First of all, WebRanz has explored how advertisements are technically delivered in practice. Second, our analysis results are helpful to future research on advertisement ecosystems because the results include many insights and observations. Moreover, our design and implementation are general and not limited to the ad-delivery system. Therefore, our technique will facilitate future research on web contents delivery and protection. More detailed explanations of the impact of our tool and the relationship to SE research can be found on WebRanz project web page. (https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/wang1315/webranz/why.html)

Best regards, Weihang

[obaysal]

@timm I support the nomination for "gold".