Instrusive adverts

Damuna_Nova · Post by **Damuna_Nova** » Tue May 16, 2006 6:26 am

This is really bugging me, these X-men III game adverts are intruding on my forum usage. The ads don't stick to their bought space, they jump out into the main body of the page, causing unwanted distractions.

I think the fact that they're overstepping bounds is bad enough, but that they're also ticking me off as I rant about them? That's just pushing it.

I find it rather stupid that ads go to crazy lengths to be seen, because I tend to boycott the products of ads that over-do it and annoy people, and I'm sure that others do this as well.

Now, I'm not sure if I should adblock these, seeing as I've used forums in the past which featured ads, and the people advertising got pissy (is that a little too much?) Would it be alright to block the ads? I know that ad sponsorship depends on users seeing ads, and if ads aren't seen GB is getting money when people aren't seeing it, so that might make the advert people angry.

Thanks in advance,

Damuna.

Oh, WONDERFUL! The advert slowed my computer down so much I had to restart my PC, that's so going to make me want to buy the product.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Tue May 16, 2006 6:44 am

The advertisments "debate" have been up numerous times, and as of this moment the continued "survival" of GameBanshee is depending on these adds.
Buck sells the space to an advertisment provide which in turn rotate various adds on the space, and as such Buck has little possibilities to influence the adverts as long as they aren't showing "offensive" material (for what is deemed offensive, the forum rules is a good indicator of what Buck normally allows on the site).
So for the moment, you'll have to live with advertisments.

As for the blocking of adverts, that is the moral descision of yourself. There is as far as I know nothing Buck will be able to do. But of course, dwindeling renvenues from adds could influence the future runnings of GameBanshee.
If wanting to discuss such a topic in full, I suggest taking it up in SYM.

It is also logical that with the widespreading of add-blocking, the adds will become even more intrusive and thus in turn turn more people onto addblockers.

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Damuna_Nova · Post by **Damuna_Nova** » Tue May 16, 2006 7:14 am

Ad-blocking the advert screws up my browser.

Also, my main point for action against it was that the advert goes out of the space provided for it, which is surely not allowed.

EDIT: Adding screenshot of advert...

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Tue May 16, 2006 8:04 am

I know the add as well, but whether or not Buck has allowed these adds to exceed the "space" I do not know and well - neither do you.
We will have to see Bucks reaction (if any) to this, before making such conclusions.

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Post by **BuckGB** » Tue May 16, 2006 9:15 am

Xandax pretty much summed it up. I sell the advertising space to UGO and they serve whichever ads publishers are paying to have distributed on their network. I have no involvement with the advertisements being displayed other than setting up the ad scripts to rotate them properly and revising UGO's code when necessary. If the ad doesn't contain objectionable content, it is very difficult for me to have it pulled.

It's not just the X-Men ad that's going to be an annoyance. I'm betting than almost every rollover ad causes some irritation, and you're unfortunately going to be seeing them for weeks, months, and years to come. This may make you want to block them, but the sad truth is that ad blockers are what spawned rollover ads in the first place. Publishers wouldn't have even had to create them if popup blockers hadn't become so common. I don't like popups much myself, but I personally feel that they're far less obtrusive to web browsing than some of these other alternatives.

However, if an ad is forcing visitors to cold boot their computers, I have no problem bringing it to UGO's attention. I'll need a few more details before pursuing that route, though, so please post more information here so I can refer our UGO rep to the thread.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue May 16, 2006 9:34 am

I just want to mention that this issue also seems to be browser specific. That ad exceeds its space for me when I use IE/Avant. When I use Opera it stays in its allocated area.

So, Damuna, if this bothers you, you might want to consider using Opera. That way, you are not blocking GB's ads, but they aren't causing you any trouble either.

Ravager · Post by **Ravager** » Tue May 16, 2006 11:59 am

That's absolutely true for me. I haven't had a single problem with rollover ads on GB since I started using Opera. It may be a painful browser for some sites, but for this it's worth its metaphorical weight in gold.

Sparrow · Post by **Sparrow** » Tue May 16, 2006 8:15 pm

I just run IE with ActiveX turned off. This is my personal security precaution when using the net, and I'm not necessarily recommending this for everybody. I want adds to be seen, because I want GB to prosper, but if adds are causing tech problems, just disable ActiveX. Most of the adds still display when in this mode... a few don't.

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Tue May 16, 2006 10:53 pm

Yeah, the X-Men III ad is slightly annoying though it doesn't go up till jamming or screwing up both IE and Firefox for me. Actually, I don't mind ads just as long as they don't do something stupid.

Denethorn · Post by **Denethorn** » Wed May 17, 2006 2:40 am

The rollover aspect doesn't particular bother me... its the fact that the ad is sometimes glitchy; as the ad expands over the page (which again doesn't bother me too much) if the flash is loaded incorrectly, it renders the upper links of the page unclickable (for instance the forum tree, which I use to go back to the main forum).

I'm using Firefox I might add.

Damuna_Nova · Post by **Damuna_Nova** » Wed May 17, 2006 9:06 am

[QUOTE=DesR85]Yeah, the X-Men III ad is slightly annoying though it doesn't go up till jamming or screwing up both IE and Firefox for me. Actually, I don't mind ads just as long as they don't do something stupid.[/QUOTE]

It screws up Firefox for me.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed May 17, 2006 9:38 am

[QUOTE=Damuna_Nova]It screws up Firefox for me.

[/QUOTE]

I'm not one to normally advocate blocking GB ads, but couldn't you use the Firefox adblocker extension to block just that one particular ad (and not the others)?

Or, as I mentioned earlier, just try Opera, it is very small and compact, so won't take up much room on your hard drive, and it is fast too.

Darzog · Post by **Darzog** » Thu May 18, 2006 9:57 am

Well, it's not something that is easy to document, but if the X3 ad shows up on the top ad and Wolverine pops out, all links under the area he popped out in stop working. So if I happen to have the front SYM page loaded and he pops out, I have to close that tab and reopen it if I want to click on any of the top 5 or so threads.

mr_sir · Post by **mr_sir** » Thu May 18, 2006 1:29 pm

That happens to me too with firefox but its fixed just by refreshing the page so its not really too much of a problem.

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Thu May 18, 2006 10:56 pm

Well well well...I can't even get into GameBanshee Discussion normally if the ad glitches up, which it does, often.

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Fri May 19, 2006 1:38 am

[QUOTE=mr_sir]That happens to me too with firefox but its fixed just by refreshing the page so its not really too much of a problem.[/QUOTE]

Heh Heh:laugh: . Forgot to mention that. Also did the same thing and its back to normal again.