Jimquisition: The Adblock Episode

[Xan Krieger]

1) Not on any of the pages I've read. But fair enough. If you can't, you can't. Is it because it's based on featured content?

2) Above it says "wombat of war was banned for this post" - hence my confusion. ... what is ticket abuse?

3) 5.5% of 900 is fifty (49.5) posts. 50. That is not a small number.

1) Yes. We don't lock content threads.

When you say that do you mean it's not possible given some technical problem or it's some rule that needs to be changed? If it's the latter then this thread set a precedent, when someone working for the Escapist makes something that is gonna cause so much moderation then it should be locked the instant things start going wrong. Do it for the sake of the users please, it's very unnerving to see so much moderation in one thread.

 

[Marter]

When you say that do you mean it's not possible given some technical problem or it's some rule that needs to be changed? If it's the latter then this thread set a precedent, when someone working for the Escapist makes something that is gonna cause so much moderation then it should be locked the instant things start going wrong. Do it for the sake of the users please, it's very unnerving to see so much moderation in one thread.

The latter. It's not a decision made at a moderator level.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

I guess you're welcome to think that. I don't believe anyone needed to say "I adblock The Escapist" in order to discuss the software. That's what is getting people warnings. Admissions of use. Not even "I can see why people would use it because X, Y, Z." Admission. And I find it hard to believe Jim would create something just so people would get warned.

Also known as mentioning Adblock. Which means people have been warned for mentioning Adblock, contrary to your claim that nobody has been.

Have you always been at war with Eurasia?

 

[Xan Krieger]

When you say that do you mean it's not possible given some technical problem or it's some rule that needs to be changed? If it's the latter then this thread set a precedent, when someone working for the Escapist makes something that is gonna cause so much moderation then it should be locked the instant things start going wrong. Do it for the sake of the users please, it's very unnerving to see so much moderation in one thread.

The latter. It's not a decision made at a moderator level.

So basically talk to Greg Tito about it?

Also nice AJ Lee avatar, she's probably the best diva in the WWE right now.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

I can understand the point. We've laid out in some of the earlier pages why we still had to warn people blatantly admitting to it. That's not something in which the moderators really had a choice, and it's still possible to discuss adblockers without it, which a far greater number of people have done.

But other people are blatantly admitting to using Adblock, but not being warned, because they say they whitelist The Escapist.

Why the double standard? Admitting to using it and having a whitelist is still "blatant admission."

It's also not clear why people "blatantly admitting to it" should be against the rules in the first place. Who is it that writes these rules, and when was the last time they were reviewed?

 

[Durgiun]

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.

watch?v=67ZZUSpeS4k
He makes his money with his bed time readings, you guys. His work is super fucking hard. He has no time to do anything else (discounting conventions, crossovers and masturbating over his greatness).

 

[JamesCameron]

How many suspensions does it take? Before it becomes wrong? Humm? A hundred, two hundred, a thousand? How many suspensions does it take?!

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Sites are becoming more like businesses and jobs than they were 20 years ago where people did a site for fun or a passion for a subject. Problem is whats the alternative? Could make it a subscription only site but you would lose a lot of traffic. Less offensive ads would hurt you financially because im guessing the louder and video adverts pay more than a static banner.

On one site i visit to watch their vids if you use adblock the video has a 2 minute blank screen telling you to unblock the site. The argument was, take off adblock and watch a 20 second ad or watch a 2 minute screen. Pretty obvious what people do and they were pretty polite about it. Maybe this is something you could look into? After all your vids (well the three that i watch) are normally around the 7 minute mark so a 20 second ad isnt that much of an issue.

I guess there needs to be a balance of ads that get you paid but doesnt annoy the consumer. Like on Youtube i used to have it blocked until i found Angry Joe Show and he puts so much effort into vids. Same as Jim, Bob and Yahtze. Im happy to support these peoples content. Though there some groups where money has clouded their mind and they release way to many videos, quality goes down because the more vids they do the more money they get. Where once they made an interesting 10 min video about something, now you get five 3min vids about random crap.

I guess its just about finding that balance as i dont begrudge the escapist needing to make money.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Ya know what Jim, you've got a good point, your videos when I watch on the Escapist I shall not be using adblocker. But for others, I cannot do this for.

 

[IceForce]

I just find the situation upsetting. This thread is poison and it's hurting a lot of forum members.

this thread set a precedent, when someone working for the Escapist makes something that is gonna cause so much moderation then it should be locked the instant things start going wrong. Do it for the sake of the users please, it's very unnerving to see so much moderation in one thread.

I have to agree.

I've said it before, but it's worth reiterating:
If a forum policy means that a certain type of thread can never be locked, no matter how bad the comments get and no matter how many warnings/bans the thread accumulates, then perhaps it's time to rethink that policy.

Because a policy like that, combined with a thread like this, is nothing but detrimental to the site as a whole.

 

[GrindAD]

Thanks Jim for bringing this to my attention, as requested I've whitelisted the Escapist. I'll try it out for a while just to see if I really was as buggered about the ads as I thought I was. Keep up the good work!

 

[Fox12]

*hears about news article, views page*


This whole thing was a mess. I get that the mods were trying to enforce the rules, but now all the users are pissed and a news article has made the Escapist look bad. I don't think anyone benefited from this "discussion."

I still love the escapist, but I feel like there could be a little more discretion used in situations like this...

 

[Otto-matic Reiffel]

The Escapist should really try to get more of their ads from the non-intrusive advertising section. Most AdBlock users would have this option still enabled since it's a default. Currently it would appear that no ads on this site fall into the non-intrusive category.

 

[LadyTL]

When a big site like your officially disavows any responsibility for the ads on your site (as an admin on here did) and placing the blame on users heads for not informing them of the bad ads...

I'm not going to want to watch or be exposed to your ads because you are completely okay with my computer getting messed up. If you don't care if we can't watch your content or use our computers because of the ads you put on your site, then why should I support your site?

Police your ads before they end up on the site and then I would be okay being exposed to them. Continue your refusal to do even basic checking as in not having ads interfere with the use of your website and well...

What do you really expect of your users? That we are all drop dead stupid and love to have to deep clean our systems every week and not actually be able to view and listen to the videos we came to watch?

 

[Swerto]

Okay Jim, you've convinced me. I even had to register an account just to say this.

I'll consider the minor inconvenience of whitelisting sites to allow addblock depending on how much I appreciate their content and how intrusive their ads are. Escapist is on a beta test. I've been addblocking for so long I really only ever run into them while on my phone, so maybe they've became less obnoxious.

But we'll see. You'll get a few clicks worth of add money from me for the time being.

 

[Something Amyss]

How is that not an accurate description of advertising?

How is that anything but a bad thing based on your own use of the dictionary?

I'll give you that TBH some of their adverts in the past were just broken. I think they're getting past that now though.

I'm not entirely sure. Blip's ads had the effect of making me watch less Blip content, so I see fewer ads. I'm still seeing some broken ones, but I don't know if they're getting less, or if they're relatively even.

This is the avenue I'd recommend for people anyway. If you object to the use of ads, or a specific service, or whatever, don't watch the content. I think it sends the wrong message to the content creators and the advertisers if you're blocking the ads because they still seem to think that you'd watch the ads if only you didn't have that software available. And, if possible, make it clear why you're not watching. I really don't want to hurt content creators, but Blip specifically made it such a chore to watch them that I stopped watching a good chunk of the stuff from TGWTG that was hosted through Blip.

The Escapist has had a few problem ads, but at least they seem to be responsive when they're reported. Blip took their sweet time if they have resolved the issues. And part of that problem is they appeared to be spending more time fighting ad blockers than providing a watchable service.

And this is one of the reasons I liken it to piracy. I feel like I'm being punished for what other people are doing. And like with piracy, it mostly affects the legit users since the people who bypass the subject....Well, they bypass it.

Sorry to tangent.

-snip-

Thanks for the info. I had seriously never heard about this. In part because it just doesn't affect me anymore. I rarely miss cable TV, especially since I tend to buy box sets of any show I really like and stream stuff I'm not sure about off Netflix.

Well yes, ad blockers are perpetuating a selfish behavior at heart, so it's no surprise they act petulantly at first when punished for it. However, you'd have to be truly stubborn to waste your time like that over the long term.

In most cases, people will rage audibly while hypocritically caving when no one can see them.

Sounds like gaming consumers.

I don't know about this case, though. The 90 or so seconds seems like a mild inconvenience to not have to deal with the broken ads that Blip was doing. I'm not saying it's right, for the record, just that it seems like it'd be "worth it."

I don't know. Maybe they want their programming more than I do. Like I said above, my response was to stop watching most Blip-supplied content. Your point to selfishness may be an apt one.

 

[ERaptor]

Well yes, ad blockers are perpetuating a selfish behavior at heart, so it's no surprise they act petulantly at first when punished for it. However, you'd have to be truly stubborn to waste your time like that over the long term.

In most cases, people will rage audibly while hypocritically caving when no one can see them.

I dont get that attitude, to be honest. At least not entirely. Most cases of "addon which shall not be named" pop up when someone has another banner popping up in the middle of the screen, or overly loud music playing, or finds another bit of Malware on his drive, whereafter someone goes "You know, theres an addon for that."

To give a simple example, 1d4chan, ironically, has very nonintrusive adds. Its pretty much just a banner to the left and at the very bottom of the screen. I would never even consider blocking those, you barely even notice them if you're not specifically looking for them or if something in it catches your eye. And then you have Youtubers or other people complaining about Adblock, while playing ads that are sometimes longer than the content itself, cover half your screen with stuff, or actively try to hurt your computer.

Dont get me wrong, the morally just action would be Zachary's variant of just not going on the site. And its true that a lot of people will just go "lawl watch it anyway.", but if you KNOW this, wouldnt the correct approach to be either fix the ads your displaying, or block anyone with adblock from viewing your content? The last one isnt really feasible at the moment, since im reasonably sure this would outright kill a lot of sites, if not from less visitors, the backlash surely. But why is it so hard to actually get non-bullshit ads, and THEN ask for people to unblock? I'd reckon that would be the variant that nets you the most people unblocking your site, and keeping it that way. Because look at a lot of people in this thread, who unblocked it to only block it again a bit later. There should be SOMEWHAT of a lesson pulled, other than "Consumers are all thiefing assholes."

 

[The Youth Counselor]

I hope I don't get in trouble for this.

First off I admit to using the A-Word and No-Script(for safe browsing) but not on The Escapist because it prevents videos from loading and causes formatting errors.

I love The Escapist, and your content. I appreciate what you do, and you deserve money to keep producing more. But the ads do not make it easy. You have a header ad, background ads (That interfere with middle clicking), Autoloading videos on the side, pop ups, and tabs that slide out from the bottom. Firefox and Chrome frequently crashes because of this site, and for the past week I have been unable to access The Escapist on a mobile device because the Guild Wars 2 ad causes the entire page to disappear and load only the ad.

On the other side, I wasn't aware that the Publishers Club still existed/is back. I'll be glad to get back on.

 

[Finalplayerryu]

Rather than Ad-Block, i am using Flashblock as i have quite often a few dozen tabs open and flash banners just drag down my pc. So Flashblock blocks all Flash, except that on a whitelist, which i have filled with all the sites where i watch videos on, though only flash from that site is allowed, i still block any third party flash ad banners. So Commercials from the player itself still come through and i dont have to worry about any performance drag.

I dont mind Ads in general, though sometimes i wonder about their decision on how they advertise: Showing a set of the same ad banners over and over again through a period of time is fine since most people dont actually look at them and thus increase the chance of getting somewhat noticed. Ads that come before/inbetween/after a video though make no f***ing sense as people actively see them, they know what they are about so why... why do they keep showing me the same Ad again and again actually making me wish i would use Ad-Block, its like they are trying to brainwash me into buying the crap they offer, which honestly... no that doesnt work.

So in short, my advise to advertisers: stop using flash banner ads and be more diverse with your commercials.

 

[Batou667]

The problem I have with advertising on the Escapist - and this is a problem I only ever encounter on this one site - is the fact that there are adverts that autoplay, unmuted. For me that crosses the line between uninteresting, necessary-evil type advertising, and obnoxious, in-yer-face advertising that shouldn't be expected or tolerated. From the sounds of it, a lot of people share my stance.

So there you have it, Escapist Head Honchos. If you were wondering how hard you can push advertising revenue before it starts negatively affecting site traffic, you have your answer.