Poll: More ads on The Excpaist - Problem solved?

[Darks63]

The only way to make more ads would be to make ads pop up every time you make a post...forget I said that.

that prolly waht is next unfortunately.

OT: I voted yeah but it wont make a difference, there has to be more going on than just the EC thing that has them drained. Its possible that they just have he wrong person or persons hadling the money.

 

[razer17]

They can add some more ads, as long as they don't add anymore bloody video ads before videos. One 30 sec ad is pretty annoying for a 5 minutes video, but if they added multiple ads before I'd stop watching.

 

[Kross]

I know nothing about how advertising works, but to me that seems fairly logical.

The first time you talk to a marketing person, you will realize logic quickly goes out the window.

When there's no ads on something, it's because we couldn't get anyone to buy ads for it. Although we don't take just any ads, we've tried (for example) Google text ads on the forums in the past, but they paid so little as to not be worth the annoyance to users.

Also, many of the larger ad companies require people to be signed up with third party reporting services like Comscore. Did you know to get listed in a meaningful way in Comscore, you have to pay tens of thousands of dollars a year? And our only incentive for that is for the ad networks that require us to be listed in Comscore specifically before they'd even look at our site to evaluate if they wanted to buy ads. I don't think we are updated on Comscore any more, because the cost was a bit overwhelming when we had so many other things that needed the money, so we had to stop paying it.

 

[wolfcrux]

I honestly don't mind the short commercials. Just happy that 'Gaypan' popup or whatever it was called is gone.

But if you ARE going to have commercials on top of EVERY F****** VIDEO why not make it related? WHY do I have to sit and look at a commercial for fucking LADYSHAVERS?!?!

 

[lacktheknack]

And I hate the ads that tell you you've won a prize with a passion, knowing that there are people that click on this, believing they've actually won something -_-.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/new_car.png

Had to be posted.

 

[lacktheknack]

I honestly don't mind the short commercials. Just happy that 'Gaypan' popup or whatever it was called is gone.

But if you ARE going to have commercials on top of EVERY F****** VIDEO why not make it related? WHY do I have to sit and look at a commercial for fucking LADYSHAVERS?!?!

Because Venus paid for the ad space, and no one else did.

I assume it's Venus, anyways. They didn't pay for an international ad, so I, a Canadian, didn't see it.

 

[Something Amyss]

Hey guys, as most of you know, the Escapist and the Extra Credits guys are in a bit of a fight right now. You can find both sides of the story on pretty much every other thread, but it seems none of this would have been a problem in the Escapist could pay its bills. It seems that currently, this site isn't turning a profit and if they don't fix this, it's not just Extra Credits that will be out of a job.

While some of you support the site by paying for a publisher's club membership, I'm not the kind of person who will pay for that. A better solution is simple.

More ads.

Right now, I see long blue columns at the side of the screen with one ad at the top and bottom. While this looks very classy, I can image why it doesn't get the job done. Personally, I'd rather deal with more ads on the page then watch one of my favorite sites go in the crapper.

What do you think? Would you be okay with more ads? Would more ads even be a good solution? Why or why not?

Personally, I'm of the belief the Escapist doesn't want my ad money.

The base ads aren't so bad, but every time they do one of those frames around one of the videos, it causes my browser to hang. Okay, not every time, but probably 4/5 times. The volume on the vid ads always seems to be different than 90% of the content, which leads to my eardrums bleeding if I want to hear the video. The biggest exception appears to be ZP.

Maybe it'd be different if I viewed more of the site more often, but I'm pervaded by ads with really annoying behaviours. Paying for Pub Club seems like rewarding them for this sort of near-antagonistic behaviour, and I won't do that. But, of course, the alternative is to continue watching ads that do weird things to my browser or make my ears bleed or whatever.

Adding more ads might just drive me away from this site.

It's not that I'm cheap, and it's not that I don't want the Escapist to succeed, but the way they've come about this is all wrong, and I don't want to give them the impression I approve. Or that I'm rewarding them for it. And I certainly don't want more ads that might screw up my already tenuous relationship with the internet (Comcast in my area seems to go down if people even THINK about using it).

 

[higgs20]

I'd rather deal with banner ads than the 30 second long trailer for rise of the planet of the apes which I have now seen around 7 billion times.

 

[Someonetookmyname]

Well then you are derp...

Here you go: http://www.splitreason.com/theescapist

Herp Derp

 

[Xastabus]

While I am not someone who generally likes ads I am willing to put up with them if they are unobtrusive, not repetitive, and speak to my interests. Generally the ads on The Escapist are two of those three. On the other hand I am more adverse to paying for access to web sites, even if it's just access to special features or whatever.
I will pay for tangible goods like merchandise or the goods I have seen advertised so I will take more ads please.

The major failing on The Escapist is the video ads. I am sick and tired of watching the same ad over and over before the start of each video. Nothing makes me loath a product or service more than being forced to watch the same advertisement more than twice in a row. Seriously, I like Newegg, I have bought products from them and had a generally pleasant experience, but if I have to watch that actor pretend to be a know-nothing store clerk in their video ad one more time... I might need a new monitor and I won't be buying it from Newegg.

I know The Escapist uses session cookies because I am logged in and posting this message. I would think should be possible to put some information in the session cookie, or on my account, to track what ads I have already suffered through so I don't have to be subjected to the same one over and over. Better yet, let me vote on the ads I receive so I can tailor what I am subjected to and make it as painless as possible.

Bottom line, if I must sit through ads in order to get to the content, at least give me a variety and make it relevant to my interests.

 

[Xman490]

Honestly I think the solution is to not hire so many damned contributors. They're struggling for money yet they keep adding loads of shows. Seriously, only hire what you can pay for guys.

Indeed. Quite a few shows don't seem to be getting many views, after all.

Personally, I'd pay even more money (if told to) just to avoid 30-second ads for 300-second videos. If we escapists can pay $60 for the newest FPS games so often, we can pay $20 yearly to avoid ads and contribute.

 

[Mcupobob]

If their gonna put up more ads then how about some damn gaming related ads? I rely on this site in helping me make choses on the games I'm going to purchases. I'm a goddamn potential gold mine to gaming advertisement! Instead I'm I get endless slim Jim commercials and I think I once saw a Enzymes one to. I would be 100% more likely to click on a gaming related ad to see what its about then the penis pills.

Side rant -
Not sure why so many people are against ads. Its how we get the message out there about things to buy, it the blood of a capitalist society. If people don't know about your product how are they gonna buy it and how are you gonna pay rent next month? /side rant

 

[Mcupobob]

sorry double post!

 

[Mcupobob]

Triple post! Internet freaked out when I was posting!

 

[AetherWolf]

I have a slow connection, so more than two flash ads on a page tends to kill my browser.
I'd rather not have even more ads, thanks.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

I think the problem may lie with a lot of people using some sort of ad-block.

 

[Yopaz]

I don't mind more ads, but I don't think it would do much of a difference. As some say it might prevent newcomers from joining the site, it might make old users annoyed and leave. Mostly I think that the economy is so far down that it's only a matter of time before the companies paying for ads decide to cut some ads to make ends meet.

 

[eximista]

why do you think they need more money? they have the money... they just don't pay their staff...

//edit stAff not stuff...

 

[LadyRhian]

While I am not someone who generally likes ads I am willing to put up with them if they are unobtrusive, not repetitive, and speak to my interests. Generally the ads on The Escapist are two of those three. On the other hand I am more adverse to paying for access to web sites, even if it's just access to special features or whatever.
I will pay for tangible goods like merchandise or the goods I have seen advertised so I will take more ads please.

The major failing on The Escapist is the video ads. I am sick and tired of watching the same ad over and over before the start of each video. Nothing makes me loath a product or service more than being forced to watch the same advertisement more than twice in a row. Seriously, I like Newegg, I have bought products from them and had a generally pleasant experience, but if I have to watch that actor pretend to be a know-nothing store clerk in their video ad one more time... I might need a new monitor and I won't be buying it from Newegg.

I know The Escapist uses session cookies because I am logged in and posting this message. I would think should be possible to put some information in the session cookie, or on my account, to track what ads I have already suffered through so I don't have to be subjected to the same one over and over. Better yet, let me vote on the ads I receive so I can tailor what I am subjected to and make it as painless as possible.

Bottom line, if I must sit through ads in order to get to the content, at least give me a variety and make it relevant to my interests.

Gods, yes. And if I never have to see those Slim Jim ads again, I will die a happy woman. They were funny the first time or two. Now I just go, 'fhtiohtioehto, not again!'

 

[lacktheknack]

why do you think they need more money? they have the money... they just don't pay their stuff...

That's ridiculously stupid.

Seriously. How would you EVER come to this conclusion?