Jimquisition: The Adblock Episode

[CWestfall]

I use a browser add-on that modifies my core browsing experience. I had it disabled on a certain gaming news website I frequent after a plea from a content creator to do so. Then, as I was watching the video with this add-on disabled, a loud auto-playing video ad started up in another tab on this website, and then I turned the add-on back on again.

In unrelated news I just bought a publisher's club membership today.

 

[IceForce]

That beeing said, cosidering marketing companies actualy need to BUY the space for adds on your site, might I suggest that admins stop tolerating every single bullshit add that they get asked to post?

I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain that ads are not individually vetted by site admins.

If they were, that would add a massive amount of extra workload (considering the hundreds of millions of ads there are out there on the internet).

 

[IceForce]

Wow, look at this. The Escapist is in the news:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140306/06471226459/escapist-website-content-creator-puts-up-video-about-adblock-moderators-warnsuspend-people-discussing-adblock-comments.shtml

That doesn't happen every day.

 

[the_green_dragon]

I'm actually scared to comment on here but I have to voice this:

Jim sterling made a video about adblock and tons of people seem to be getting warned or banned for talking about the issue and subject of said video. This just seems wrong.

I would have thought this post would be exempt.

oh also for the mods: I DO NOT USE ADBLOCK ON THIS SITE

 

[deathmothon]

I really think they shouldn't have modded the first reply to this post. It really sets a bad precedent in everyone's mind. It surely doesn't promote free discussion of the issue.

 

[IceForce]

I really think they shouldn't have modded the first reply to this post. It really sets a bad precedent in everyone's mind. It surely doesn't promote free discussion of the issue.

Really? Of all the warnings in this thread (50+, according to a mod), that's the only one that matters? Interesting.

 

[XDSkyFreak]

That beeing said, cosidering marketing companies actualy need to BUY the space for adds on your site, might I suggest that admins stop tolerating every single bullshit add that they get asked to post?

I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain that ads are not individually vetted by site admins.

If they were, that would add a massive amount of extra workload (considering the hundreds of millions of ads there are out there on the internet).

Hmm ... fair point. I am not familiar with the exact proces that goes into allowing adds on one's site, so it is entirely posible that on large sites like the escapist adds don't really get screened. Good point about the extra workload too.

Still, they don't actually need to do that extra work. A "suggestion box" type of deal would work just as well. Users can voice their complaints about a certain add or adds that have been intrusive (and other problems they might have, in a civil manner) and the admins can take steps to stop adds like that from entering the site. Like not allowing the people who posted that add to buy add space on the escapist again for that particular add, sending them feedback about the negative reaction/complaints people had about said add and in the case of repeated adds that disrupt the viewing process they could just tell that advertising company to go someplace else. Trouble is for this proces to be effective it needs to happen on all maor sites ... and that is an uphill battle, I tell you that.

 

[XDSkyFreak]

What really drives a nail in the coffin of any discusion on this thread is the rule that states peoplem aren't allowed to mention that they use of addblock ... this means at least one side of the argument (the side that actualy uses addblocking tech) gets silenced if they so much as admit to using it. Look, I get the point against people coming up and saying "I use it and so should you". That I get. But a person comes on a thread dedicated to discusing addblock, it's reasons to exist and be used and when and where it should not be used and says "I use it because my experience on your website has been constantly ruined by intrusive and disruptive adds that you might want to tone down, especialy for people with low bandwith" and that guy gets a warning, and his post gets hidden? That is feedback. As long as no venom was spat at you (and there are plenty such posts that got banned) then why ban the guy for sharing his opinion/thoughts wothout trying to force them?

And I've also read a reply I missed earlier about why such annoying ads get on. Because they offer more money per view. God do I hate short term thinking like that. This is what we call around these parts an unsustainable business model. You get more money per view and make more money in a small time frame. Kudos. You know what also happens? Your prestige gets a nose dive, people get annoyed, they start using addblock, and BAM: you just lost (in many cases forever) thousands of viewers whou could have generated a mountain of cash much bigger than the one you got for that annoying add. You don't get more money with annoying adds, you LOSE money in the long run. It's basic economics, yet aparently today they don't teach the value of a sustainable busines model and instead everyone just goes for "GET AS MUCH MONEY AS FAST AS YOU CAN AND FUCK THE CONSEQUENCES" Trouble is that works (to be PC about it) only in short term business like said annoying adds. When you apply that logic to a long term, potentially infinite term thing like a web-site, congrats: you are running a marathon but you shot yourself in the foot 100 metres into it's course.

 

[CWestfall]

-snip-

That attitude is a symptom of a modern age. Well, not so much "modern age" as "Post 2005-ish when advertisers realized they could use flash player".

I frequent several websites where I'm fine with the ads (eg. The Reddit), because they're curated, unobtrusive, and have never given me spyware. If they aren't negatively affecting my browsing experience, blocking them would just be being a dick.

(This post is obviously not discussing nor passing judgment on the advertising habits of The Escapist, since that would probably be against some forum policy.)

 

[Floppertje]

What really drives a nail in the coffin of any discusion on this thread is the rule that states peoplem aren't allowed to mention that they use of addblock ... this means at least one side of the argument (the side that actualy uses addblocking tech) gets silenced if they so much as admit to using it. Look, I get the point against people coming up and saying "I use it and so should you". That I get. But a person comes on a thread dedicated to discusing addblock, it's reasons to exist and be used and when and where it should not be used and says "I use it because my experience on your website has been constantly ruined by intrusive and disruptive adds that you might want to tone down, especialy for people with low bandwith" and that guy gets a warning, and his post gets hidden? That is feedback. As long as no venom was spat at you (and there are plenty such posts that got banned) then why ban the guy for sharing his opinion/thoughts wothout trying to force them?

And I've also read a reply I missed earlier about why such annoying ads get on. Because they offer more money per view. God do I hate short term thinking like that. This is what we call around these parts an unsustainable business model. You get more money per view and make more money in a small time frame. Kudos. You know what also happens? Your prestige gets a nose dive, people get annoyed, they start using addblock, and BAM: you just lost (in many cases forever) thousands of viewers whou could have generated a mountain of cash much bigger than the one you got for that annoying add. You don't get more money with annoying adds, you LOSE money in the long run. It's basic economics, yet aparently today they don't teach the value of a sustainable busines model and instead everyone just goes for "GET AS MUCH MONEY AS FAST AS YOU CAN AND FUCK THE CONSEQUENCES" Trouble is that works (to be PC about it) only in short term business like said annoying adds. When you apply that logic to a long term, potentially infinite term thing like a web-site, congrats: you are running a marathon but you shot yourself in the foot 100 metres into it's course.

Irony is that the escapist is often shaming publishers for business models like that. That smells a bit like hypocrisy

 

[Doclector]

Well, I have a clean health meter, so I'll use this one time to be perfectly honest about my opinion on adblock.

Basically, I've always been massively paranoid when it comes to viruses. With some ads, not just here but on other sites, I've come to feel that it simply isn't safe to browse without adblock on. I can use some examples here of two sites where I don't use adblock, crunchyroll and thatguywiththeglasses.com.

On thatguywiththeglasses.com, I am forced to use adblock, lest blip.tv (which is a shitty service in the first place) put up an anti-adblock notice that stays on the screen for one and a half minutes, as opposed to most of the ads which only last thirty seconds at absolute maximum. Thing is, the ads on there are terrible. Some shorter videos end up with ads less than five minutes from each other. The banner ads are the thing that really concern me. I thought I had seen the end of "WIN A FREE IPAD" ads somewhere around 2008, but thatguywiththeglasses seems content to let them live. I would never conciously click on these of course, but even the thought that I may slip, as I may well do being a mousepad user, and completely fuck up my computer with this malicious ad terrifies me. I end up feeling kind of angry, I understand, they need to keep the site running and I'd hate to see things like nostalgia critic and todd in the shadows go under, but they would force me to put my computer at actual risk in order to do so.

Crunchyroll on the other hand, I actually CHOSE to remove adblock from. Sure, it's annoying to see the same shitty travel insurance advert over and over and over, but their banner ads seem largely harmless. I do so largely because the overpricing of anime in the UK is appalling. I don't pirate anything, partially because I'm a wannabe filmmaker myself and partially due to my aforementioned virus paranoia, but I see perfectly well why people do when HMV asks for £20 for a few episodes of FMA, never mind the chance that you may never find the next few episodes or the difficulty of finding complete series boxsets. I'm glad for the chance to be able to watch anime without either having to fork out massive amounts of money if I can even find what I want to watch or having to pirate it.

I, too think it's the fault of advertisers. There needs to be some standards put in place, yes, maybe even some actual laws, about how you can advertise on the internet. On here, I was terrified to browse without adblock. I'd get popups that I would come dangerously close to accidentally clicking when I was trying to click on something else as it suddenly appeared, I'd have to mute my computer entirely to avoid the risk that clicking an ad to mute audio would take me to another, malicious site. I can't even join pub club because as much as I'm sure the escapist takes care of our personal information, nobody is safe. I don't feel safe putting my bank details anywhere. I want to support the escapist, I don't like seeing it go through financial troubles, but I don't want to have to put my computer or bank details at risk to do so.

So, that's pretty much the gist of it, until someone out there steps in and stops the horrible advertising techniques for good, adblock's gonna have to remain on, not something I'm proud of, but simply something I have to do to maintain some feeling of safety, and for that, I am truly sorry.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I have never even needed to entertain the idea of blocking ads on a website. I have only seen an auto-sound playing advert once, and that was on a website that was probably dodgy in the first place... (the fact that the afore mentioned ad was placed in a position where you had to scroll way past the normal page, past a few meters of blank space to a point where the ad was just sitting, playing to itself!) I have also never had a problem on most sites on either my laptop, tablet or phone!

I completely understand the need for ads. It's what allows us to view the content of this site free (yes I pay for it, but I could have it free, like I used too, and like I often do at work) just like many, many other sites. I also understand that the websites need to attract the right kind of ads. Ones that interest the users, and from better companies, because at the end of the day they pay the site more money to host the ads in the first place.

How do you think a company will think if it is looking at perspective sites to host on, and site A has a zero ad-block policy, site B doesn't seem to take any interest in what the patrons do, and site C actively encourages it?

Site C is obviously out... why would they pay if no one will see it... so it's between A and B.

Site B is the next to be out, because next to site A it looks like users won't see the ads. They want to pay for the site that will get the most views, so A will be chosen over B. That's what the Escapist has to do. Most people on here don't pay the company, the ads do, so unlike a normal business with customers they have to weigh up having better paying ads with having the number of people visiting the site.

The ads pay for the content, and the content draws in the customers...
You can talk in hyoerboles and say that they will lose loads of customers because of obnoxious ads, or you can see that actually the number of customers will probably rise due to the better content.

If you have a problem with ads, then why don't you let the devs know in the groups made for that purpose? They can't see the site formatting on your screen, so Kross and his team can't tell you have a problem unless you maturely let them know...

 

[james.sponge]

Seriously if people block ads on your site there is something wrong with your advertisement model, I don't mind few banners at the bottom of the page and perhaps something bigger at the top but playing sounds, flooding people with pop-ups and launching videos in separate windows is just too much for many of us to bear. So thank you and you may now warn me -.-

 

[Tsun Tzu]

I tend to frequent some...less than reputable sites, so a blocker of some sort is pretty much a requirement for me.

In relation to the escapist?

I do what I need to do in order to avoid being blasted with loud/brazen adverts while perusing media. If the ads here weren't so god damned obnoxious, I would be more inclined to disable my protection.

...It's honestly worth saying, the potential for a warning being as strong as it is, that the Escapist's advertising practices (big banners everywhere, pop out windows, long unskippable videos, loud elusive banner videos, etc.) were a big influence on my decision to run blocking software.

That said, I try to whitelist where I can, here and everywhere else, on anything I want to support. Specific youtube channels, random site videos, and such.

Just feels like I'm getting punished every time I disable the damned thing though.

And I've considered a pub membership, was just the other day in fact (trying to work it in to my budget purely for the sake of supporting you kind folks in some way), but this thread...what the hell, guys? You're not making that decision any more palatable for me.

 

[Queen Michael]

I'll just say that it's a good thing I got a raise recently and could afford to join the Pub Club.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

I can't believe ZamielTheHunter got a warning for his post. Essentially saying "I use adblock but didn't realise how much you guys rely on ads. I'll try find the money for a subscription". When your ads are so bad they are driving users like this to adblock, you really need to think about what you are doing. The only person you are hurting with this moderation is yourselves. You ban somebody who was using adblock? Congratulations you gain nothing. You may also have lost somebody who may one day have bought a subscription. They certainly won't be telling their friends about you. No revenue gained and potential revenue lost. It's also driving me, somebody who did get pubclub to re-consider it. This site is heading in a direction I'm not sure I'm on board with. Intrusive, malicious ads, viewgrabbing headlines with no real content, "top 10s"...

Either way, I'm definitely not renewing my subscription. Not even sure I'll still be on the site.