Jimquisition: The Adblock Episode

[myainsel]

I never even thought about this, honestly. Have taken the escapist off the block.

The ads I mainly despise are the ones on facebook, which are either depressing stereotypes e.g - "you're a woman, you must want diet pills!" or creepily harvested from your searches "how about those shoes you were idly looking at? you want to buy them now? HOW ABOUT NOW?? Have you bought them yet?? SHOES!!".

 

[Britpoint]

Youtube ads are a great example of some of the sneaky crap some ads do that definitely encourage more people to use adblock. There was one the other day for a car insurance company, whose video had a graphic that looked a lot like the 'Skip Ad' button placed just above where the skip ad button would appear, labelled 'skip to your car' or something.

I can't stand stuff like that. Want to advertise your product or service? Go ahead. Just don't try to trick me into clicking your link.

 

[Chimera242]

I can heartily recommend not using Adblock on YouTube. The channels I'm subscribed to I'll watch anyway, ads or no ads, but now I also support them (admittedly in a very small way, but support nonetheless). But also, now if I randomly click on a suggested video and an ad starts playing first, I have a few seconds to reflect on my decision. Do I really want to sit through an ad for a video I'm only mildly interested in? Something I only clicked on because it caught my attention for a second? More often than not, the answer is "No", and I stop watching.

So yeah, I spend more time watching ads for videos I enjoy, true. But I also spend waaaaaaay less time watching one random video after another. Added together, I think whitelisting YouTube has actually saved me a lot more time than I lost.

 

[Rblade]

as long as it isn't pop ups or automatic audio playing ads (those last once can die in the brightest of fires) I have no problem with ads around the internet.

And to be perfectly honest, I have zero respect and understanding for people how can't manage watching a 15 second add before 10+ minutes of perfectly free content. Get the monsterously oversized stick out of your ass, you're not that busy.

 

[iniudan]

Me I tend to switch ghostery on and off on site I visit regularly, basically I turn off the white list, for a while, if I start to get annoying ads. Which make me think I need to turn white list on again for the Escapist, hopefully what made me turn it off is gone.

 

[chiggerwood]

I just deal with flash player crashes and annoying-as-fucking-shit-for-the-love-of-Zeus's-nutsack-would-you-just-shut-the-fuck-up-you-fetid-chunks-of-rotting-****-cheese ads, but I thoroughly understand why some one would use them, I got ears. And I know that I tend to have more patience than the average person, thank you mom, BUT! What I will never abide by is asshole behavior. If you have an ad-block on just to be an asshole, please know two things:

1. You're in the wrong and you need to change your behavior.

2. The only reason I'm being so kind to you with the first one is because I don't want to upset any mods, and if I were given the permission to say what I wish, it would make Jim Norton blush.

 

[Elfgore]

I'm going to edit this, not worth the risk of a warning. I can understand using ad-blocker on this site. They are God awful and unacceptable. I don't mind ads, but intrusive ones piss me off to no end. I still have to suggest the publishers club as it is well worth the benefits.

But I'm really happy to see Jim being so forgiving for people using ad-block and understanding about it.

 

[Lunar Templar]

not sure how much better a work around it is.

But I disabled the flashplayer plugin, for all of the internet and turn it back on when needed. Some sites have it running full time. but not this one. This one I have to manually turn it back on to watch the things I like.

Why would I do something like this? the fucking adds that expand when you so much as glance at them, the ones that are basically running full audio and video on their own. that's why.

this doesn't stop all the adds, but it does cull the ones that make me want to stop coming to the site all together, and there is the minor inconvenience of having to turn it back on to watch anything. But it's worth it to me.

 

[InvisibleMan]

For those of you who hate ads (like me) but want to still support the excellent work posted by Jim and all other Escapist contributors, I recommend joining the Publisher's Club for a small fee. That's what I do.

 

[Doctor Proctor]

Please give me money for my work

After years of unskippable, looping ads at the start of videos that would repeatedly crash my computer, I'm never touching the "off" button on AdBlock for the escapist ever.

However, if I think about it, I'd say that this website is worth $20 a month, so publishers Club HOOOO!!

[sub]Thank God for Jim[/sub]

I don't know if that was a typo or not, but it's $20 a YEAR, not per month. It's like the cost of buying 1 DVD/Blu-Ray.

 

[knox140]

Never blocked ads, never will. I don't like the idea of consuming media for free. I've never had problems with ads either- yeah, the full screen ones that you get on IGN are annoying, but if someone can't be bothered to watch a 15 second ad on Youtube, or take 2 seconds to mute the ones that automatically play sound, or have to click out the full screen ads in return for content people put a lot of time and effort into, then that strikes me as selfish. You're taking the content producers for granted.

 

[Yozozo]

Yes, I should have made more mention of the fact (rather than just a still image) that The Escapist has a reasonable ad-free subscription service. This is also a really good way to support the site if you have some spare dubloons and want the ads gone.

Also, thanks so much for the frank and civil response thus far!

I was just about to ask, as a content creator, which is preferred, the sub to the site or that we watch the ads... but now looking that pub club is ad-free, I guess that is the answer. Should have plugged the pub club a little harder in the vid maybe. After coming here for *years*, I don't know how I missed that fact that it was ad-free.

Off to permanently disable damn gummy worm commercials.

 

[Lazule]

I have everything adblocked except the specific websites I tell it not to block. The Escapist is one of them, I did it for Yahtzee at first but I didn't knew it didn't affected you as well.

As long as you don't use kick-starter to make money from just nostalgic ideas you're far from pathetic, so be proud about it man this must be a fun job and I understand why you want to keep it.

By the way...
Pro tip for The Escapist: Don't put adds that have sound, its annoying as hell. Or at least use the one that can be muted. (Just in case this happens for some users)

 

[Under_your_bed]

I don't know if that was a typo or not, but it's $20 a YEAR, not per month. It's like the cost of buying 1 DVD/Blu-Ray.

So it is. Thanks god I'm not as bad with my money as I am illiterate....

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

What sucks is that the more time someone spends on particular sites like the Escapist, the more piss-annoying the ads get. This means that the people who support you the most are also the ones most inclined to adblock. Currently there's a Jeep ad right between the header menu and the URL bar, so every single time I move my mouse over that general direction it thinks I give it permission to fill the screen with an extremely loud video. Oh look, there it is again, pretty close to the 'submit post' button. Oh, it also wants to appear on the empty space on both sides the the website? That's GREAT! You want to click on the forums button? "BUY A JEEP INSTEAD. I know I'm physically on top of the forum button, but IF YOU BUY ME I'LL GO AWAY (I lied, I'll ask you to buy another)"

I view sites like this on multiple computers, some with adblock and some without. I'd love to support you guys, and good ads absolutely have no impact on me whatsoever. But I don't want to support the ads themselves, and the way we've both mentioned how obtrusive they can be they can literally prevent me from consuming escapist content in these occasions.

Unfortunately it's hard to find room in the budget for more reoccurring subscriptions, especially when the other budget members don't like the idea of paying for any internet that they wouldn't really have to.

 

[SomeGuyOnHisComputer]

I do have an adblocking plugin, but The Escapist has been whitelisted for a long time. However, I do have an anti-tracking plugin (not going to name it as to hopefully avoid mod wrath), which while not intended as an adblocker - still occasionally blocks an ad, but almost never all of them. I do feel bad about what ever revenue that takes away, but when an ad infringes on privacy, it's gone too far IMO.

The naive side of me does feel that making ads less intrusive would solve the problem, but the cynical side disagrees and feels there will always be a few individuals who don't care. Then again, it would be much easier to convince most people to turn it off if the ads were non intrusive simple banner ad deals. ...

One thing the whole adblock debate brings to mind is HomeStarRunner. No advertising outside an easter egg or a shoutout. Almost completely merchandise driven. The two guys who made it were able to live off what they made with the site. As someone who has done both video and animation, animation also takes a hell of lot more time. So it makes me think ... I mean, that site was also extremely popular, but still.

 

[Two-A]

While I do use adblock, I only use it on sites I have not visited. If I'm going to be visiting a site or watching a webshow regularily, I make sure to whitelist it.

Also, the ads I see on this site are not that intrusive, but considering I live in Venezuela, It's probably a regional thing.

 

[Agayek]

After years of unskippable, looping ads at the start of videos that would repeatedly crash my computer, I'm never touching the "off" button on AdBlock for the escapist ever.

However, if I think about it, I'd say that this website is worth $20 a month, so publishers Club HOOOO!!

[sub]Thank God for Jim[/sub]

PubClub is $20 per year, not month. It works out to $1.66/month to be a subscriber. It's a fantastic deal.

Personally, I'm not sure I'd pay $20/month for it, but I'd gladly pay a bit more than they're currently charging for what it gives you.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

I don't know if that was a typo or not, but it's $20 a YEAR, not per month. It's like the cost of buying 1 DVD/Blu-Ray.

So it is. Thanks god I'm not as bad with my money as I am illiterate....

I'm apparently as bad as you are, so at least we aren't alone ^.^

 

[Vareoth]

-Removed my opinion because of impending warning-

Jim Sterling is still very handsome, in any case. He does need more dragon dildo's though.