Poll: Do adverts Make you angry?

[Saelune]

I hate the obstrusctive ones that have recently plagued this site. Its one thing if its in the corner, but now you interrupt what Im doing!? I cant even click the x on the Dragon Age 2 one, so if it pops up, I have to refresh (and usually just get the ME2 one instead).

 

[Worgen]

I dont mind the banner ads since they tend to all be gaming related and they are the sort of thing you can ignore if you want to but the shit that gets really in your face just pisses me off, the popups make me mad, the captcha shit makes me want to punch whoever though it would be a good idea to put that on the site, the fucken ads on them arnt even related to games

 

[kickyourass]

The only ads that ever really irritate me are when they have the timer that says "You may skip this ad in x number of seconds" when the ad is only 3 seconds longer then that timer. That's just annoying.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Adverts only make me angry if they are for scams like the weight loss and teeth ones. I just don't understand why they bother cluttering up the page, everyone knows they are fake...

I have Pubclub so I don't get ad's on the escapist but the full screen ones would annoy me otherwise I think. They have a right to make pennies though, my friend runs a Sims 3 website and it costs her a fortune and that's just a fansite.

 

[Stryc9]

In general there are only a couple of types of ads that really piss me off. I've seen on a couple of sites now banner ads that when you scroll past them will have an audio clip that announces, "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU WON!" which is really annoying when your speakers are turned up.

The other ones that get to me are the ones on here where you go to watch a video it opens another frame to play the video with the advertisement around the video like for Rift or whatever.

Otherwise I don't care if I have to watch a 30 second ad for laundry soap or whatever before I get to see my Zero Punctuation. Or if there's a box on the side of the screen advertising something I don't care about. I get that the site has to make money to provide us with all the free wonderful content we get every day.

 

[mikespoff]

I went with indifferent because that's my general response to ads. There are exceptions, though.

I really HATE sidebar ads with sound. There are so many occasions when having intrusive audio is a pain, I really can't imagine ever finding something appealing in an ad that unexpectedly shouted at me.

Having a video ad before a video plays is ok, but having the volume control independent of the expected video is REALLY annoying, for the same reason.

 

[drisky]

In general, No, I'm a graphic design student so I've actually studied them. Some are intrusive though. IGN often uses fullscreen flash ones that disguise themselves as the front page menu and take a long time to load, this comes after needing to go though a window just for an ad right before it. Thats just annoying and only pisses people off and turns them off to the product.

 

[Mr. Eff_v1legacy]

If they are really lame or use some kind of cheap gimmick to lure people in. I know most ads do that, but some are worse than others (I'm looking squarely at you, Axe).
People say advertising works if you remember it. Well, I don't think so. Bad advertising harms sales. I try and avoid products that use bad advertising.

 

[crudus]

I tend to only notice the adverts that make noise which are rare but annoying. I never understand what people are complaining about. If you don't like it, leave. I know why ads are there, so as long as I am not made to sit through an ad longer than the video I am trying to watch I am fine.

 

[evilartist]

Banners and video ads aren't that big a deal. It's the ads that jump up in front of me and take up half the window, or the ones that play audio automatically. Normally, that can easily be fixed by muting it, but when a website already has several video ads playing, it's tough to tell which ones are making the noise. Sometimes, more than one ad will be playing sound at the same time. It's a ridiculous clusterfuck.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

The huge ones that cover half the page here annoy me, but the rest are fine, as long as they don't have sound while I'm trying to watch something.

 

[Hman121]

This is how websites make money, so no, I don't mind it. The ones that pop up here on The Escapist though startle the p-AUGHGAUDTHERESANOTHERWUAN!!!

 

[Sunrider]

It doesn't bother me too much in general, but I do find the "watch a commercial to see the captcha" thing really annoying. It feels like an underhanded tactic or something. What's wrong with the old captchas anyway? =(

 

[sam42ification]

Oh yes advertisments fill me with viking rage and make me want to rip the head off how ever thought up the iead of adds. Seriously you need get over it. Advertisements pay to be on websites and that money keeps that website on the internet. I support adds on the escapist because they are keeping the escapist alive.

 

[team star pug]

Oh yes advertisements fill me with viking rage and make me want to rip the head off how ever thought up the idea of adds. Seriously you need get over it. Advertisements pay to be on websites and that money keeps that website on the internet. I support adds on the escapist because they are keeping the escapist alive.

Once again, not advertisements themselves, just advertising tactics that come off as pretentious or annoying. I register the fact that the escapist gets money, but the way there doing it...

 

[Ambi]

I hate ones that carve out a market niche by creating or perpetuating a false need, the style-related ones with models in them, and the ones that use misleading pseudo-sciencey claims to promote something.

You're a bad parent if you don't feed your baby soy-based infant formula!
You're going to get very sick if you don't kill 99.9 percent of germs in your home, do it for the family!
You sweat? How shameful! This chemical formula will keep you dry.
Look at this botoxed air-brushed model having such a good time. LOOK AT HER! YOU UGLY PIECE OF SHIT, GIVE US YOUR MONEY!!! ...I mean, go on, you deserve to be having as much fun as her... YOU'RE DEPRIVING YOURSELF AND YOU'RE A LOSER WITH NO SELF RESPECT IF YOU DON'T BUY OUR GODDAMN PRODUCT.
Buy this Chinese sweatshop manufactured pin to show support for [insert cause] We care... [sub]about our public image and ultimately our profit margin[/sub]

 

[JustJuust]

I don't hate them, but I sure don't love them either. I once thought a pepsi ad for yahtzee's video was funny because in the video he talked about pepsi product placement in the game, and that he hates pepsi

 

[Apprentice88]

I have nothing against advertisements; revenue for site needs to be generated somehow and consumers informed of products.

However I despise long pretentious advertisements that waste my time and tell me nothing, I'd reference some; but the ones I can think of I had no idea what they were on about.
A good advertisement tells you; what the product is, who made it, where you can get it, why you should get it, how much it cost, and does so in less than a few seconds. 10 seconds at the absolute most.

 

[Kross]

if I became a deity the first thing I would do would be to make advertising anything a physical impossibility.

Can you please also conjure up the several thousand dollars a day it takes to keep the site running and paying for content oh mighty one?

Edit: Really, it would be nice. I hate looking at ads. Or any advice at all on an alternate method that replaces the very vital income that ads bring in to keep the site online. We would LOVE it. We would probably even pay you a lot of money for the idea.

Edit2: I should probably make this an open invite. There's a lot of smart people here. Let's figure out an easy way to make the site generate the money it needs to stay online without using ads that people want to sell us! I'll go make the kickstarter fund for the reward on the idea that works! BRB!

 

[evilneko]

You know what makes me sick?

You know what makes me jus' angreh? (cookie for the reference)

Intrusive, screen-obscuring, and/or noisy ads.

I do not mind normal ads that stay in their damn boxes. I understand it's a crucial revenue stream.

However, such ads as I have described, demonstrate a lack of respect bordering on outright contempt that the site has for its user base. This is why I often run with plugins disabled in Opera, and an extension to do the same in SeaMonkey or Firefox. That way, normal, unobtrusive ads may show. Malicious crap doesn't get the chance.