experimenting with a new type of ad

Bringer of Death · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 10:18 pm Post subject:

I'd prefer you guys to just keep the banner ads. The in-post thing sounds sooooooooooo flippan' annoying. I'm happy my Opera doesn't show them.

I know that if I went onto the forums with IE, it'd feel exactly like IGN. I hated the feeling I got from IGN, having products pushed in my face, like DF said. How long's it going to be before you guys get in-between ads?

Please, ditch this word-linking stuff and stick with the banners.
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iperson wrote:

EBT wrote:

Hey man, what's for dinner tonight?

You have asked for infinity and you don't deserve it.

slkmmm · Trick Member Joined: 14 Apr 2002 Location: Ripon, ca

Why are so many people so bothered by this? A green word once in a while sure doesn't bother me. I'm seriously curious as to what makes you not want this.
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hi.

Bringer of Death · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 10:35 pm Post subject:

It feels like IGN sold out. I can't really explain it, but I actually avoid IGN if I can just because it feels like they sold out.

I can understand the need for them, J Dogg, but can you do something else besides this?

Wait, are the words underlined before you drag your mouse over them? If so, why not just make the words black? Less annoyance++
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iperson wrote:

EBT wrote:

Hey man, what's for dinner tonight?

You have asked for infinity and you don't deserve it.

VxJasonxV · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 1:31 am Post subject:

Drenchfur · Trick Member Joined: 27 Feb 2003

Sohcahtoa · Trick Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002 Location: Portland, OR

As long as the ad links are a different color from normal links, it doesn't bug me at all. Seriously. Its nothing.
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J Dogg · Administrator Joined: 16 Jan 2002 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

The forums are the single most expensive thing to keep on the site because of the large bandwidth usage. It contributes to 70% of the traffic of the entire site, but it contributes barely anything for revenue. The reason I am experimenting with these is because of this discrepancy. I still don't know if these ads will do the trick, but I'll have to run them for a while before I can determine that.

If the color or style of the linked text is annoying, I can reduce the maximum number of sponsored links per page (right now it's at 5), or I can change the color. I was thinking maybe blue, double underlined text would look better than the current green, bold underlined text.
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Bringer of Death · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 2:27 am Post subject:

J Dogg · Administrator Joined: 16 Jan 2002 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

wait... Death Bringer, have you even seen these ads?

I've done the donation thing before, and it's something I don't like to do. First of all, DDR Freak is a for-profit organization and I would feel bad just taking money from people for our own operating expenses. Also, when I had the donation thing up in the past, one person donated, and that was a mod.

I already said I never plan to put pop-ups on the site, or anything else that would be super annoying, like interstitials (those in-between-pages ads). I'm experimenting with these because they seem unobtrusive and they may have the potential to actually get the forums to generate their own income instead of relying on everything else.
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Edible Bondage Tape · Trick Member Joined: 26 Jan 2002 Location: Kerri

well i for one dont ming them its a far better alternative than what could happen (pop ups pay to post or no forum)
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Junior Asparagus · Administrator Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Location: Natick, MA

I don't mind them at all either.
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MPB3.Radio · Trick Member Joined: 05 Dec 2002 Location: P-Town

I don't see anything because I use the browser for cool people.

IguanaGrrl · Staff Member Joined: 17 Jan 2002 Location: Sacramento, CA

It amazes me how insensitive people can be. They don't want to consider the cost behind keeping this site up, so when alternatives to charging for use come up, they even whine about that.

It's a few links, people. Ignore them and move on. If you want to keep using the site, then stop complaining. Things like this fund the site.

Geesh.
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Agilab · Contributor Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Location: Baltimore, MD

They kinda caught me off-guard at first, then I realized what was going on and noticed not to click them anymore.
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Cutriss · Staff Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002

El Cliffórdo · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 1:51 pm Post subject:

Personally, I don't think the ads are that intrusive, and as long as they're pulling in enough cash (i.e. you're not playing with the forums for pennies), they can be tolerated. I mean, lets not fool ourselves, aside from certain cases, adverts in general are tolerated as opposed to welcomed, their only advantage is allowing the displayer to get some cash. Compared to the alternatives, such as popups or interstitials, however, they could be worse. I've seen them but I use Firefox, so in day to day browsing they're not going to crop up for me.

Spike · Administrator Joined: 17 Jan 2002 Location: Denver

I have no problem with them. I didn't really like the green color, but if you do change the color don't make it the same color as the regular hotlinks so people don't get confused.

Anyways, I don't get the people who say "I don't see them anyways...but please change them!" If you don't see them, then who cares? I had to load up IE just to check them out. I won't be seeing them for quite some time (assuming they eventually are made compatible with FireFox) so why should I be bitching about it? Actually, even if I was still using IE I still wouldn't have a problem with them.

If you have some other options you'd like to suggest, I'm sure JDogg would love to hear them. But saying "I don't like it change it" isn't very helpful. Be happy that he isn't doing popups or interstitials or anything. This is pretty mild, ESPECIALLY if it doesn't show up on your browser.
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IguanaGrrl · Staff Member Joined: 17 Jan 2002 Location: Sacramento, CA