Poll: Post-video Advertisements

[Extragorey]

You know those videos which have a really sombre tone and you just want to sit back and think about them for a minute when they end?
And then a comparatively loud and obnoxious advertisement plays the second the video ends, with its own music or sound which completely derails your train of thought.
I mean, the Escapist is the only site I know which does it, and I find it quite annoying at times.

Sure, normally I don't really mind either way, but occasionally you watch that video which requires a bit of contemplation; a bit more thought, like most Extra Credits videos, for example.
And then the advert at the end of the video really does it a disservice. If the video just ended with nothing playing after it, I think it would really emphasize the quality of the video.

Ok, maybe I'm just waffling now. But still, those post-video adverts can be annoying.
And you know the ones I mean. The one advertising the Publisher's Club is the current one, but before that it was ZP T-shirts or something; I can't remember (I usually spam the close tab button after the first note).

So what do you, fellow Escapists, think about those post-video advertisements?

EDIT: To make it clear, I'm not disputing the necessity of ads in general, only the way in which ads are presented to the viewer. Banner ads are much more preferable than pre/post-video ads.

 

[Antari]

You know those videos which have a really sombre tone and you just want to sit back and think about them for a minute when they end?
And then a comparatively loud and obnoxious advertisement plays the second the video ends, with its own music or sound which completely derails your train of thought.
I mean, the Escapist is the only site I know which does it, and I find it quite annoying at times.

Sure, normally I don't really mind either way, but occasionally you watch that video which requires a bit of contemplation; a bit more thought, like most Extra Credits videos, for example.
And then the advert at the end of the video really does it a disservice. If the video just ended with nothing playing after it, I think it would really emphasize the quality of the video.

Ok, maybe I'm just waffling now. But still, those post-video adverts can be annoying.
And you know the ones I mean. The one advertising the Publisher's Club is the current one, but before that it was ZP T-shirts or something; I can't remember (I usually spam the close tab button after the first note).

So what do you, fellow Escapists, think about those post-video advertisements?

POST Video advertising is perfectly ok in my book. I can stand it. PRE-Video advertising is the best way to identify your company as one I do not want to do business with.

 

[drbarno]

Don't care about them. I usually click on a link during the ending credits of a video, unless there is anything that I may miss, like the two screenshots of Moviebob's comments on upcoming films.

It's the adverts that come before every video is the ones I mind. Couldn't you tone it down a bit, Escapist?

 

[Extragorey]

POST Video advertising is perfectly ok in my book. I can stand it. PRE-Video advertising is the best way to identify your company as one I do not want to do business with.

I've now added an option for pre-video ads to the poll.
Anyway, I think waiting for the video is no problem - it's never longer than 10-20 seconds, and then the video has effectively used up its "ad quota" so to speak, and you can be relatively sure you won't see any other ads.
But the ads AFTER a video... Those are the ones that really break the mood - which is worse than having to wait a little.

 

[Gaiseric]

I don't mind ads as long as I can mute them or for post vid ads that the volume isn't super loud.

 

[StBishop]

I don't care. I like the imp dancing. I think he's a pretty cool guy.

I also like having the option to become a PubClub member to get rid of all the ads.

I don't particularly like the Pre-video ads, but there's almost never any on here, and I choose to deal with them rather than not watch.

I don't particularly like advertising that stops me from doing what I want to (ie. pre-video) but if it's there in a way that can be ignored, like say an in game billboard, or a banner on a website, or an advert at the end of a show which can't be exited or paused.
But all the adverts here are pretty harmless, it's not like you can't pause at the end of the video to stop the advert.

 

[Snork Maiden]

As long as I can mute video ads I don't mind them - I can just navigate away from the tab or (shock horror) watch the thing. Loud adverts prior to a video that I have no way to mute are a big no no though, and I generally just wont watch the video in that case.

 

[AngryMongoose]

Everything has ending credits. If it bothers you, that's your queue to leave.

 

[shadyh8er]

I've learned to tolerate many things in my life. Pre- and Post-video ads are one of them.

 

[Extragorey]

Everything has ending credits. If it bothers you, that's your queue to leave.

I don't mind ending credits; they're just part of the video. It's just the unrelated ads stuck on to the end of the video (but not part of the video itself) that I find annoying.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Ah, the perks of PubClub. You should join, we have a hot tub.

 

[Jonluw]

Sorry, but I don't think the escapist is willing to cut its ad incomes so that you can sit and contemplate their videos in peace.
There's a pause button, you know.

Let's hope this idea doesn't get a footing so we won't end up with ads before the videos again. Those times were bad.

 

[Kross]

I especially hate how they're simply a way to irritate us into buying a pubclub membership.

The ads are simply a way to pay for the site and people who make content for the site. They unfortunately do not appreciate when we ask them to work for free (I also enjoy not having to work for free). Especially if we signed a contract saying we would pay them earlier.

Even worse, if advertisers do not think our site gets the proper quantity/type of views, they won't even buy ads with us and we have to rely on secondary income like pubclub and the store to help us through until more people buy ads.

There's very few things people will give a website money for, so we try to offer as many benefits as we can in things like PubClub for those who don't want to support us through viewing advertisements.

 

[Extragorey]

Let's hope this idea doesn't get a footing so we won't end up with ads before the videos again. Those times were bad.

I just watched a video (on The Escapist) where the video frame was just a picture, and you click it for a popup of the real video after a pre-video ad plays. How bad is that, then?

 

[Jonluw]

Let's hope this idea doesn't get a footing so we won't end up with ads before the videos again. Those times were bad.

I just watched a video (on The Escapist) where the video frame was just a picture, and you click it for a popup of the real video after a pre-video ad plays. How bad is that, then?

If a pre-video ad played, that's bad. Very annoying indeed.

When I have observed this though, it has normally only been an advertisement as a frame around the video, which couldn't bother me less.

 

[Kross]

tl;dr: Can't take the "but they need the monies" argument seriously when the website in question has paid subscriptions.

While paid subscriptions are certainly a source of income, they only work when enough people are buying them to cover all the site's costs. We don't expect them to cover all of our costs any time soon, but I will say that we have less then the ideal amount.

These are made up numbers, but they are all rounded down quite a bit:

Say, 20 people on full time staff (Tech, editorial, art, marketing/bizdev, management) making 24k a year (about 11.50 an hour before extra things like medical insurance) = 462 new full price subscriptions a week

Server infrastructure costs at least 15k/month (Much more then this with everything totaled, but this is a fine baseline), which is at least 188 subscriptions a week.

Then there's our office fees, travel fees for conventions, paying people like Comscore a LOT of money to even get advertisers to consider our site viable...

My point being, as of now, PubClub doesn't even cover the servers. Not even close.

Ads are the bulk of our income, with video ads being the best per view by far. And by bulk of our income, I mean bulk of the income that we are able to pay back to our investors. Who have been awesome and kept us growing for years. We still owe them a lot. Never mind our current expenses.

I'm not trying to call you out or anything, as everyone contributes what they think things are worth to them, and that's fine. We'd love to get rid of ads and live off the store/subscriptions. But they really do pay for almost everything. And by almost I mean, Adblock makes us sad in very real ways.

 

[Harbinger_]

You know those videos which have a really sombre tone and you just want to sit back and think about them for a minute when they end?
And then a comparatively loud and obnoxious advertisement plays the second the video ends, with its own music or sound which completely derails your train of thought.
I mean, the Escapist is the only site I know which does it, and I find it quite annoying at times.

Sure, normally I don't really mind either way, but occasionally you watch that video which requires a bit of contemplation; a bit more thought, like most Extra Credits videos, for example.
And then the advert at the end of the video really does it a disservice. If the video just ended with nothing playing after it, I think it would really emphasize the quality of the video.

Ok, maybe I'm just waffling now. But still, those post-video adverts can be annoying.
And you know the ones I mean. The one advertising the Publisher's Club is the current one, but before that it was ZP T-shirts or something; I can't remember (I usually spam the close tab button after the first note).

So what do you, fellow Escapists, think about those post-video advertisements?

EDIT: To make it clear, I'm not disputing the necessity of ads in general, only the way in which ads are presented to the viewer. Banner ads are much more preferable than pre/post-video ads.

The advertisements that cover the rest of your window save for the video and give you only two options. One of closing the window or clicking on the link. This bothers me not vids prior to or after.

 

[The .50 Caliber Cow]

By the time an ad starts after the video is over, I'm already onto another page.

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

The post-vid ads don't bother me, because I usually end right before they come on. It's the pre]/i]-vid ads that annoy me. When I'm doing something and I just want background noise, or if I'm level grinding and don't need to pay attention to dialogue on a game I'll usually run a little ZP marathon. Nothing more annoying than having to watch the same 30 second ad every 3 minutes.

 

[Extragorey]

I'm not trying to call you out or anything, as everyone contributes what they think things are worth to them, and that's fine. We'd love to get rid of ads and live off the store/subscriptions. But they really do pay for almost everything. And by almost I mean, Adblock makes us sad in very real ways.

Well, it's nice to have an official word on this. I wasn't expecting an actual server administrator to post, but thanks. =)
With all that you've said in mind, I'll probably find the ads a bit more bearable now. Probably.