Jimquisition: The Adblock Episode

[shteev]

Content isn't free

Whoah there! It doesn't have to be free, but it can be. My friends and family provide me with about an hours worth of free content on facebook every day. Everything I post on forums I give away for free.

Now admittedly, the delivery system for all that free content isn't free... Facebook and the Escapist pay for their servers and their internet connections and so on and so forth. But I personally provide content for them, for free. So do a whole lot of other people.

Buy Coke!

 

[Techno Squidgy]

Okay, so the escapist is back on my whitelist, again, for the fourth time since I got adblock. I wonder how long it'll be before the adverts infuriate me to the point of running adblock again...

I subscribe to the Bill Hick's school of thought on marketing and those that work in marketing.

 

[kasperbbs]

I'm happy to support content creators by having ads somewhere on the screen, but if the site is contantly throwing popups at me and i have to watch a commercial so that i could watch another commercial then i might as well stop using that site as i have done with gametrailers, they have the most annoying ads, sometimes longer than the actual video.

 

[faefrost]

This video reminded me that you can pay a $20 yearly sub to Escapist for an ad free experience which I now do. Well worth it IMHO and I get to support instead of mooch. Escapist should bring more attention to that site feature.

Agreed. For all the moderation the Escapist should thank Jim for the reminder that content does have costs and our favorite content creaters do like to eat. (OK having seen Jim and Bob it's safe to assume that the content creators really really do like the eating part. Besides Yahtzee needs some budget to fuel his supply of gin and rage.)

Giving $20/ year to my favorite content creators is a much more preferable option than the risks associated with the invasive active advertising.

 

[mike1921]

He's being a bit of a hypocrite on this one. If he really does hate the advertisers as much as he says, but wants to get paid for his work, put it behind a pay-wall. Yeah, that'd probably reduce the revenue he receives (I'm certainly willing to ignore an advertisement on the side for free content), but then there'd be no concerns that he's asking anybody to be inconvenienced by the advertisers.

I don't mind him saying those who block how he makes money have no moral ground to stand on when they criticize how he does his show, but when he says that *he* doesn't like how he makes money when there are other options available, and then criticizing folks who have that exact same distaste of advertisers.. that's hypocritcal.

Man up and own it, Jim. You like advertisers. You like them because they pay you more. If you didn't, you'd have a pay wall and suck it up.

REALLY? You don't need to like a company to work with them. There is a paywall system if you don't want to see ads and it's not enough to run the escapist. The system we have maximizes both the number of people who see his content and the money paid for it , but he's a hypocrite for saying that the trade off is worse than it has to be? he's a hypocrite for saying if advertisers didn't condition us to adblock with annoying fucking ads that play sound, expand when you mouseover, and play videos without being prompted, things would be better for all involved?

You don't need to like a company to work with them, no. But then complaining that if other people don't like the company they have lesser rights than those that don't mind the company is absolutely hypocritical.

You're oversimplifying. He only said you have lesser rights if you adblock solely because you don't want to give the him money. If you're using adblock because you don't like the ads or advertisers it doesn't apply

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Unfortunately, any donation drive would only really be good for a few months. It would help with operational costs, but wouldn't scale with contributors. Then we would constantly be begging for money during "dry" periods, eroding good will. :/

This all sounds like business operations stuff. Why is a server administrator commenting on business strategy? And how have you definitively decided this is true? Via extensive studies, or is it just something you believe?

When people ask if we're really so skittish about scaring off advertisers by giving off the impression in our forums that our community uses blocks ads regularly, yes. Yes we are. It's not something people talk about in depth, because it's not something any of us are proud of. This is the sad state of making money off of a website.

Once again - "we" - as if you are involved in making business strategy and decisions for The Escapist.

 

[Kross]

This all sounds like business operations stuff. Why is a server administrator commenting on business strategy? And how have you definitively decided this is true? Via extensive studies, or is it just something you believe?

It's something I believe in my heart. If we all hope together, maybe one day your posts will have something we can aspire to as well.

 

[klaynexas3]

My main problem with some of the ads that do run on some sites is that they do basically make it near impossible for me to just sit down and enjoy what I'm doing on the site. Banners at the top or on the sides is fine. Little block ads at the sides of videos, whatever. Occasional 15 second commercials before videos, why not? However, the ads that follow the screen no matter what and have close buttons that are the size of a gnat and link you to something else if you are even the slightest bit off, those piss me off. Having videos pop up in a completely different screen surrounded by ads preventing me from doing anything else on that page, and then showing a commercial for these same ads in the same video? No, that's just abusing me content watcher. I'm willing to work with you, even inconvenience myself a bit if it means I'm more likely to get to see these videos more(seriously, everyone rags on Hulu plus for having ads, but then go ***** about Netflix having nothing to watch. Think for 5 seconds as to why this situation might be how it currently is), but if I'm just going to get barraged with ads for just opening the site, fuck it. I shouldn't be asked to deal with that.

Jim, I took off adblock during the video, I want to see you get paid, because I'm deeply saddened still that Unforgotten Realms(which has fallen to the point of nonexistence with only a game that has no info on being made for it that might not even make that much money) and Extra Credits had to leave and I wouldn't want that to happen to you.

 

[ninjaRiv]

I don't use adblockers, but I'd seriously consider it on a few sites, especially The Escapist. I love the content and I'd love to support the creators. I don't mind ads bordering everything and such, it's when they show up before the video. They're always FUCKING loud and shitty. It genuinely makes me NOT want to watch videos here. I'll sometimes just wait until the episode is on Youtube, just to avoid the ads here. Granted, I haven't seen one in a while... Have they been ditched?

I also won't click on any ad I see anywhere. At all. It's not worth the risk in any way. I don't have to click them to support creators, right...?

Anyway, I don't understand how people can be proud of adblocking. Maybe if they CREATED adblocking... They probably would have put some hard work into that.

Basically, adverts shouldn't be so fucking shitty. Subtle well made ads grab my attention more than the obnoxious "Fuck you, you have to put up with our shitty shit before you can watch this video!" Yotube is onto something with the ability to skip after five seconds, though; after five seconds you know if the advert is relevant or not, so you can choose to watch the entire thing. And it's not difficult to skip if the ad means nothing to you.

That being said, some of these ads start off incredibly loud, some of them with screaming people and shouting and shit. All that makes me want to do is not view the content.

 

[Zipa]

One thing I am curious about is why the Escapist doesn't seem to advertise the Pubclub as much as it probably should. The only reference to it is at the very bottom of the site and it is tiny compared to the other stuff displayed on the front page. It could be at the very least moved to a more prominent position so that there is a bigger chance that more people will see it.

Alternatively get one of the content creators to do a shoutout about it at the end of their videos, it has been done before to promote Escapist related things like the Expo and I wouldn't think that any of the content creators would mind doing it as it is helping to pay them. It doesn't have to be every video or anything, just once in awhile to jog peoples memories.

 

[franksands]

One thing I am curious about is why the Escapist doesn't seem to advertise the Pubclub as much as it probably should. The only reference to it is at the very bottom of the site and it is tiny compared to the other stuff displayed on the front page. It could be at the very least moved to a more prominent position so that there is a bigger chance that more people will see it.

Alternatively get one of the content creators to do a shoutout about it at the end of their videos, it has been done before to promote Escapist related things like the Expo and I wouldn't think that any of the content creators would mind doing it as it is helping to pay them. It doesn't have to be every video or anything, just once in awhile to jog peoples memories.

I think this could work wonders. Something like, did you know there is the PubClub?

Also, I just love "A thing About Stuff" great way to use the space.

 

[Doctor Proctor]

One thing I am curious about is why the Escapist doesn't seem to advertise the Pubclub as much as it probably should. The only reference to it is at the very bottom of the site and it is tiny compared to the other stuff displayed on the front page. It could be at the very least moved to a more prominent position so that there is a bigger chance that more people will see it.

Alternatively get one of the content creators to do a shoutout about it at the end of their videos, it has been done before to promote Escapist related things like the Expo and I wouldn't think that any of the content creators would mind doing it as it is helping to pay them. It doesn't have to be every video or anything, just once in awhile to jog peoples memories.

I think this could work wonders. Something like, did you know there is the PubClub?

Also, I just love "A thing About Stuff" great way to use the space.

They used to, don't know if they still do since I'm a member now, advertise it at the tail end of videos a lot.

 

[BrainBlow]

I don't use ad block, but I am sorely tempted these days.
Forget about "convenience": These days several sites will wrench control out of your hands and force you to click "leave this page" and such several times, often every damn time you go somewhere else on the site!
That is unacceptable!
Youtube makes this even worse with their inconsistently lengthy ads that you sometimes can skip after a few seconds and sometimes cannot. I fully expect them to come with a subscription model soon. That would just be icing on the cake for Google's corporate "renovation" of the site.

 

[Arakasi]

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!

The problem is that it kind of feels like the ads are as intrusive as they are (e.g. putting an autoplaying video at the bottom of every forum thread, which if you even manage to find to mute, it un-mutes when it autoplays the next ad) in order to push people to go towards subscription to stop 'feeling guilty for adblock'.

Wouldn't it be more reasonable to have the ad content fixed so it isn't intrusive, let everyone know, and I bet the site will get a lot more revenue from ads.

 

[Sgt Pepper]

Well, after reading some of the comments here and thinking about how much I use this site I've decided to pay the $20 for the Publisher's Club

Without necessarily commenting on my own adblock use or lack thereof, the Escapist is one of the worst sites for ads I've seen, hands down. I mean hell, they run those banner ads that try to lure the gullible into clicking on them by saying you've got a virus or something. When viewing on my tablet, I've been getting popups that redirect me to dodgy-looking sites when I try to close them (and yes, I've checked for adware, and this only ever happens on the Escapist). That's not the kind of shit you should see on a legit site.

I love the content creators on the Escapist and do what I can to support them, but ye gods the site needs to do a better job of screening its advertising partners.

I also really wish we could change the rules about discussing adblockers. We're not going to have many constructive discussions about this very current, relevant issue if we have to rely on Jim asking for an armistice to avoid getting warned.

OT: Great video Jim, thanks for being understanding.

I think this is a big reason for Adblock. Essentially, security. Website advertising tends to be quite hands-off for the site itself, with basically portions of the site handed to a third party for the advertising who themselves will often take further third party content to place on the site.

The Escapist should consider looking at the acceptable-ads scheme that Adblock runs.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Okay, so the escapist is back on my whitelist, again, for the fourth time since I got adblock. I wonder how long it'll be before the adverts infuriate me to the point of running adblock again...

I subscribe to the Bill Hick's school of thought on marketing and those that work in marketing.

YAY! Someone who subscribes to the same school of thought I do!

Spoiler: For those uninitiated (NSFW)

I've said it many a time before at work, and I'll say it here - that which makes dollars rarely ever makes a lot of sense.

It's sad that people who want to create and share an idea or present their own form of entertainment via the internet have to also be full time barkers in order to make a profit from their own work. Sadder still is that in order to make this entertainment into a living, people need to meet a certain quota. So, not only do you have to promote someone else's tripe, you have to reach a wide audience in order to really make a living out of it.

That said, I have no adBlock whatsoever. Now that I've listened to Jim and read some of the other posts here, I might consider it down the road. Until such a time occurs, I'll continue to dream of playing my games and making my own YouTube channel.

EDIT: The fact that this thread has gone on for as long as it has shows that the staff of The Escapist needs to address this issue publicly. I think Jim has done a great service in this regard by giving it a voice. Now, it just needs to be examined in more detail and perhaps, conversed about by ALL parties: staff, content creators and forum users.

 

[Sofus]

Not sure if it's at all possible, but perhaps if websites allowed people to vote on which advertisements they like/dislike and possibly also a ranking system for how annoying they find each one, then perhaps it could partly solve the problem by showing the lest annoying advertisements to a community.

I'm perfectly capable of ignoring ads, but if it's bothering a large enough portion of the people that visit the escapist then it might be worth thinking about whether or not a yearly subscription fee would be the solution.

 

[Maszynow]

Well, I might be a little off topic here, but this kind of intrigued me.

I suppose that The Escapist doesn't choose the ads that are viewed on their site (or they do, I do not know), but how come that as soon as I turned the AdBlock off, the page gladly revealed to me an advert about premature ejaculation?

 

[deathmothon]

I'm guessing The Escapist is getting a bump in subscriptions and whitelists for today. But if they can't keep the ads from being overly obtrusive, it will be a short term bump at best.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I'd like to see a one-off "lifetime" pubclub membership. That I would go for. Pay once, enjoy guilt free thereafter.

It would be great though if sites, including this one, might consider exercising some discretion in what gets advertised. Taboola ads on this site are vile, truly. There might be worse ads than those, but not many. I would feel neither sadness nor remorse to learn that Taboola offices, personnel and servers all went up in a fiery cloud.