Jimquisition: The Adblock Episode

[saregos]

The core of why it exists is that people who block ads are leeching resources, encouraging/enabling someone else to do the same is close to directly stealing from those of us who make a living off of this website. While we would all like to have a mutually enjoyable discussion about our views on the topic, our rent money makes it less flexible then most topics. While there's plenty of misunderstanding or non-personal reasons for running an ad blocker, we're generally disinterested in spending money on resources for these self proclaimed leeches. Please respect this.

Breaking my self-imposed Escapist ban to comment on this (saw article on techdirt - Nice going getting on the wrong side of history that badly)

There are any number of ways to support yourselves and your content - Obnoxious and frequently broken advertisements do nothing but drive people away. I was, at one point, one of the first members of Pub Club within a week or two of its announcement, because I supported that model (I cancelled said membership when the reporting quality of many articles went severely downhill - if memory serves, the first time I saw the same "durr Piracy is Stealing" argument you just deployed).

I continued to visit, without adblock, up until relatively recently when you broke Zero Punctuation for several hours so that it would play ads over... and over... and over... and over... but never get to the actual video. That, to me, was the last straw.

I won't be using adblock on Escapist, so you needn't worry about my "stealing" revenue from you. But nonetheless, you won't be getting that revenue, because it is eminently clear that I can no longer visit this website due to a combination of lack of quality and arbitrary, draconian policies.

Your actions have consequences. And lost revenue due to people getting sick of your shit is still lost revenue. Something worth keeping in mind.

 

[cjbos81]

I've never used "ad block" software and I don't plan to.

But I will add this little tidbit to the conversation. I clicked the play button for "Jimquisition" and an add for something called "Psycho pass" played. Immediately before or after this (I'm not sure) my cursor must've gone over an ad for Jeep which expanded and began playing it's own video.

So there was a Jeep commercial literally overlapping a "Psycho Pass" commercial.

That's all I have to say.

 

[wildstars]

I use Adblock and no-script, but I'm conflicted about it. I totally understand the need for revenue streams, but there has to be some balance. For those of you who listen to commercial radio, would you listen to a station that played an advertisement between every song? How about if it was the SAME ADVERTISEMENT each time? And if you are listening to the radio in the car, would you allow the radio to force you to pull into McDonalds to try to sell you a happy meal?

In my opinion, that's what internet advertising has come to. And don't even get me started about the system attacks. Its far from only porn sites. That's a myth propagated by the 'she was raped because she was asking for it' crowd.

So, I go thru a cycle of white listing sites until they get out of hand, blocking them, and then feeling guilty about it after a while and white listing them again. Wash, rinse, repeat. I like the escapist, and I'm feeling guilty, so its white listed again.

I'm not about to buy Jim a dildo. Because, in the interest of fairness and equality, I'd have to buy one for Movie Bob and Yahtzee. I doubt they'd appreciate it (as much).

 

[Zipa]

It's the official Escapist Forums Reading Drinking Game! (accept no substitutions!)

1. Read from page 1.
2. Take a shot every time someone gets a warning.
3. Take 2 whenever someone gets banned.
4 (optional). Mix a cocktail and chug it <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/6.843934.20799598>whenever someone tries to be civil- and gets a warning anyway.
5. Take 3 whenever a mod or admin posts in the topic
6. Down the whole bottle when it gets featured in a news editorial.

Will anyone take up this challenge? Will anyone survive?

Damn that is nearly as hardcore as the drinking games in the LRR livestreams.

 

[ERaptor]

It's the official Escapist Forums Reading Drinking Game! (accept no substitutions!)

1. Read from page 1.
2. Take a shot every time someone gets a warning.
3. Take 2 whenever someone gets banned.
4 (optional). Mix a cocktail and chug it <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/6.843934.20799598>whenever someone tries to be civil- and gets a warning anyway.
5. Take 3 whenever a mod or admin posts in the topic
6. Down the whole bottle when it gets featured in a news editorial.

Will anyone take up this challenge? Will anyone survive?

Damn that is nearly as hardcore as the drinking games in the LRR livestreams.

Dude, just call the hospital and down 4 jackies right away, it'll save you a decent amount of time and you wouldnt have to dig trough 27 pages of this BS beforehand. Seriously.

In all honesty, I'd probably follow the previous advice and migrate over to Youtube if the above rubs you the wrong way. Personally im a bit dissapointed there is no direct way to give Jim or Yahtzee money, because honestly, I want to support THEM and not the site. For a variety of reasons allready stated before by other people.

 

[Ender910_v1legacy]

You know... if you're worried about malware from ads, you could try using something like noscript instead. Noscript basically stops any non-white-listed script from running unless you set it otherwise, so it's a lot more reliable, protects your computer more effectively, and doesn't exactly block ads across the board like adblock might (since you can whitelist any safe/unobtrusive advertising source on an individual basis). It's kind of a win-win option for everyone.

 

[FFMaster]

As people are getting warned for things (and the message on Jim's post seems to have changed, i swear at the start it mentioned an amnesty but I may be wrong) I feel i have to say that I do not use AdBlock.

That fact that I do not use AdBlock is the reason why I just encountered a autoplaying video, with no pause button or mute button, only way to shut it up was to click it and close the window that appeared. The escapist isn't the only site to do this sort of thing, autoplaying videos are becoming more and more common.

I say again, this is a two way street, advertisers however seem to be holding a gun to both site owners and site readers heads saying do what we want or we stop giving money to make content. TBH i don't know how this sort of situation can be fixed unfortunately

Gonna be a interesting few years, wondering what will happen to online advertising if the tech bubble bursts.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

Everyone here seems to have a nightmarish time with Escapist ads. I don't have adblock or anything but I don't get these intrusive ads. No ads before the videos. No hidden max-volume ads. Not unless safari has a setting I don't know about and I doubt it because there are many other sites on the internet that are nightmarish for me.

 

[Charli]

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.

...Define 'the news' ...because that's no outlet I've ever particularly paid much attention to regarding current events. Even events on the internet. Hell Twitter keeps me more up to date on current events. If it was on some place 80% of us have ever heard of maybe that'd be a thing to behold.

That's just...news. Which we are experiencing here.

Clearly a member of that website had an account here and no longer does. And wishes to let people know that.

 

[lord.jeff]

Quick tip for future poster instead of saying "I use adblock" replace it with "I don't see the problem with adblock" now you're not breaking the rules and can still discuss the subject.

 

[luske3]

Oh, fine, since you asked so nicely. Unlike Linkara, that git.

May I ask you please to link to the post\video Linkara made where he was an ass on this? Would be an interesting read\watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67ZZUSpeS4k

There you go. And I agree with Durgiun, Linkara's video is way worse.

 

[Deathtoheaven731]

Signed up to say that I am whitelisting this website with Adblock. I am willing to do so with content creators that ask me to do so in order to allow them to do what they do. For me, Adblock is not an absolute principle, but rather a choice: You don't have the inherent right to profit off of by web presence, but you do have the right to ask for compensation for your service to me, and if that means putting up with a few banners then that's fine with me.

EDIT: So I disabled Adblock on the Escapist, and lo, the flash ads crashed my YouTube video. I tried using something similar to NoScript to be selective, but I couldn't figure it out. Too much trouble. Sorry, guess I'm going to just support you with affection.

 

[Zipa]

It's the official Escapist Forums Reading Drinking Game! (accept no substitutions!)

1. Read from page 1.
2. Take a shot every time someone gets a warning.
3. Take 2 whenever someone gets banned.
4 (optional). Mix a cocktail and chug it <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/6.843934.20799598>whenever someone tries to be civil- and gets a warning anyway.
5. Take 3 whenever a mod or admin posts in the topic
6. Down the whole bottle when it gets featured in a news editorial.

Will anyone take up this challenge? Will anyone survive?

Damn that is nearly as hardcore as the drinking games in the LRR livestreams.

Dude, just call the hospital and down 4 jackies right away, it'll save you a decent amount of time and you wouldnt have to dig trough 27 pages of this BS beforehand. Seriously.

In all honesty, I'd probably follow the previous advice and migrate over to Youtube if the above rubs you the wrong way. Personally im a bit dissapointed there is no direct way to give Jim or Yahtzee money, because honestly, I want to support THEM and not the site. For a variety of reasons allready stated before by other people.

I don't get ads here anyway as I am a pubclub member. That said though no one likes obnoxious ads so I can totally see why people do get pissed off with them to the point of using you know what.

 

[Superlative]

First off I would like to say: IF YOU WANT TO SUPPORT A SITE AND HAVE NO MONEY TO GIVE, WHITELIST IT!!!!!

That being said, I feel like the Escapist has had a real problem with ads for a long while now and this thread is simply the flash point. I started visiting the escapist my freshman year of college and am still on it three months after finishing a Masters, the vast majority of the time keeping the site whitelisted (I started going here before i knew what Adblock was).

Most of the time I can deal with the Ads on the Escapist but this site has a tendency to host experience destroying ads like the one I ran into just the other day. I was trying to watch a moviebob video but some autoplay ad about some dude on a bike started playing at the same time as the video, making the audio and video de-sync on the video I came to see in the first place. There was also an ad a while back that blocked the reply to thread box. as a result I stopped using the forums for a few weeks.

I understand that the Escapist needs to make money and that ads are a major way of generating income, but some of these ads place the user in the situation of either having to turn adblock on to use the site or leave it entirely. The Pub Club was a very good idea but you have to remember that a fair number of your users cannot swing $20. For that much money a person could get 5 or 6 meals off the dollar menu. On top of the pub club, I think a simple donation button on the front page would generate more money than these ads that are chasing your users off site and behind adblockers more and more as time goes on. I'm typing this from my mother's basement so I can;t swing $20 a year but I and many other users could donate $5 every so often.

I'm also rather surprised by the moderating on this thread. The Escapist Forums are the best moderated I have seen since Megatokyo in it's hay day. I've attracted some mod agrro once or twice in the past but I'd earned it each time. The Escapist mod staff is really good at telling the difference between telling the difference between vitriolic bile and honest discussion, although I must say y'all dun goofed a bit on this thread.

Don't beat your users about the head and face with censorship and public shaming because you can't adapt to a new market reality you just happen to dislike. (Tech Dirt)

I'm not trying to be inflammatory or to urge anyone to adblock the site, I'm simply stating my own thoughts and opinions based on my own experiences on the site. The true test of a company is not just in how well you can keep your customers happy, but in how well they respond to situations like this in which your customers are unhappy. I hope someone in a decision making capacity is paying attention to this thread.

 

[chiggerwood]

I don't get it, I haven't had adblock for years and I have none of the problems a bunch of people are claiming. I had one, ONE! noisy ad a couple days ago, but it was the first one I ever had on this site, and I was eventually able to silence it. I don't get anything malicious or filled with viruses, so what are all the anti ads people talking about?

 

[PoloniumFist]

To AdBlock users and to people who want to improve the state of online advertisement:

https://adblockplus.org/en/acceptable-ads

AdBlock Plus' dev team doesn't like intrusive ads, neither do most people. They have a feature that allows "acceptable" or "non-intrusive ads." I like this idea a lot as it provides advertisers incentive to make less intrusive ads. Only problem is, more people need to know about it.

The feature is enabled by default, but I turned adblock on for the Escapist to test it out and noticed that none are flagged as non intrusive, even though the ones on the right were fairly acceptable (static, non-moving, no sound, etc.).

I'm no expert on the flagging thing but if someone could figure out how to make the Escapist's less intrusive ads allowed through adblock, that might start a trend.

Something to consider...

For the record I disable adblock on all sites except ones that I deem it necessary. I.e: when they're realllly annoying.

 

[Addison Wilson]

I am more than happy to pay the $0.10 per add you get as revenue, if content driven sites such as the escapist would start putting some kind of button to let me give you that money via pay pal, I am more than happy to do that. How ever, the annoying adds that play sound, capture mouse movement and other potential security concerns I have with allowing any form of flash, active X, or any other scripts that I do not explicitly white list (with my current set up I must allow each and every single script to run that has not been explicitly white listed). Furthermore, I would be more inclined to allow adds if I was on a secure HTTPS connection rather than a simple port 80 HTTP connection.