Zero Punctuation: Axiom Verge & Stealth Inc 2

[MysticSlayer]

"HOW FUCKING DARE THIS SHITTY WEBSITE TRY TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON AND THE EMPLOYEES PAID!!! I"M LEAVING AND TAKING ALL THE NOTHING I GAVE WITH ME!!!". running a website isn't free and pubclub costs pennies, how exactly do you think Defy is supposed to fund this place?

While this might describe some people who use "the forbidden extension", it's really unfair to label everyone who uses it as just a bunch of greedy people who don't care at all about the content creators or the website. A lot of the comments are about how ads make the site near unusable, if not completely unusable. And things like auto-playing ads, ads that automatically expand, and ads that automatically cover part of the screen until we close them ourselves go beyond simple inconvenience.

Personally, I don't know anyone who uses the extension simply because "haha, fuck those content creators!" Everyone I know who uses it (either on this site or elsewhere) does so because they're tired of overly-intrusive ads. A quick ad at the beginning of a video? Fine. An ad on the sidebar? Fine. A non-expanding ad you have to scroll past while reading through a thread? Slightly more annoying but fine. Auto-expanding and auto-playing ads? So many ads it slows things down to a halt or just makes it very hard to view content? Ads that cause the browser to crash? That's where pretty much everyone I know draws the line and uses the extension. It's either that or they don't use the site at all, and since they could provide links to the site (which helps the site), I think sites would prefer them take the option of the extension than to just not come at all.

And this isn't to say that it is justifiable to block ads. If you think people still aren't justified despite those reasons, fine. I understand why you would think that. However, it would be best to avoid painting everyone who complains as just greedy and inconsiderate.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

To give you a fresh and relevant example, while reading through this very forum post, I decided to disable "That Plugin" and after a page refresh I was immediately greeted with loud audio of someone talking about a product. It took me a few seconds to figure out it was coming from this tab, at the bottom right of the page. Yes, there was an auto-playing video ad with sound. This is not acceptable.

Just want to be clear on this, auto-playing video ads that do not come from the video player are not suppose to be on site.

I've reported that problem to our Ad Operations team, and I'm told they will investigate and disable. Please keep in mind we use a large advertising network so if you find another ad issue please feel free to send me a ticket [/contact/subject/tech] about the ad with a screen shot of the unit (so we know where to look). Usually the more detail the better so I can properly point fingers.

-Mud

Thats the problem with allowing strangers to put content on a site with your name. You can ask them "pretty please" don't put stuff we told you not to but if they don't give a fuck what are you going to do? They have the money.

What I don't see in that post is "If this is true we will sever our relationship with that ad network" or "We will vet every ad before it is allowed to show on our site to prevent this from happening again".

The policy against auto-playing audio is just words on a page unless it backed up with consequences.

But really I don't see a fundamental difference between autoplaying audio meant to distract you and draw your attention and animations meant to distract you and steal your attention. Why is one acceptable and the other isn't?

 

[TaboriHK]

Very few people have followed the steps on the help page to the end... less then 10 people over the past day (or year! [https://31.media.tumblr.com/1613d6bc53603560139edb5dac84c7a0/tumblr_inline_nktfoyHgNs1r66kub.gif])

Why would anyone think otherwise? Of course we're not going to go through a process. When people go to Youtube, do they need a help form to watch the videos? No. And youtube has ads, no matter what kind of filtering your browser uses or doesn't. I'm frankly shocked you got 10 whole people. That number is more reasonable as zero. Killing accessibility helps no one, least of all The Escapist.

 

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

Thats the problem with allowing strangers to put content on a site with your name. You can ask them "pretty please" don't put stuff we told you not to but if they don't give a fuck what are you going to do? They have the money.

What I don't see in that post is "If this is true we will sever our relationship with that ad network" or "We will vet every ad before it is allowed to show on our site to prevent this from happening again".

The policy against auto-playing audio is just words on a page unless it backed up with consequences.

But really I don't see a fundamental difference between autoplaying audio meant to distract you and draw your attention and animations meant to distract you and steal your attention. Why is one acceptable and the other isn't?

The consequences for these kind of offenses is usually termination of the contract with the network. That's after multiple failed request or the network is showing too many scams/bad ads but believe it has happen before. I understand we all have different viewpoints on when this should come into play but I trust in those who are charged with making those decisions to do their job. Their job heavily relies on being properly informed so I always take care to send them an email with a user's report of a bad ad or if I see one.

Thanks for the feedback.

-Mud

 

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

Why would anyone think otherwise? Of course we're not going to go through a process. When people go to Youtube, do they need a help form to watch the videos? No. And youtube has ads, no matter what kind of filtering your browser uses or doesn't. I'm frankly shocked you got 10 whole people. That number is more reasonable as zero. Killing accessibility helps no one, least of all The Escapist.

they do [https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3037019?hl=en]! There's always a chance for an issue which is why the help page exists, we've had ours since 2007.

I'm also unclear as to what your issue is, the video player doesn't do any filtering on browsers as we've tested on all the popular devices and browsers. If you're having a specific issue please feel free to drop us a line [/contact/subject/tech] and I'll be happy to work with you to get it resolved.

-Mud

 

[TaboriHK]

they do [https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3037019?hl=en]! There's always a chance for an issue which is why the help page exists, we've had ours since 2007.

I'm also unclear as to what your issue is, the video player doesn't do any filtering on browsers as we've tested on all the popular devices and browsers. If you're having a specific issue please feel free to drop us a line [/contact/subject/tech] and I'll be happy to work with you to get it resolved.

-Mud

First of all, those help issues are unrelated to the problem here. Which is fine. I'm not here to win an argument. My point is simply this: I watch videos on sites when the work I have to do amounts to "click to play." Not, "click to go to another page and reconfigure my browser." I don't run this site, so I don't care what your policy is. You guys obviously decide in the end because you pay the bills. I'm just not going to do extra work, and suggesting extra work be performed on the viewer's part is unreasonable when pretty much all competition doesn't have this problem.

My personal problem is that these videos don't work. They don't work at home, where I use Chrome, and they don't work at my job, where I use Firefox. I understand temporary outages, like the Youtube help link above talks about. Typically, said outages don't last from the time I get home from work to the lunch break of the next day.

My other problem is this quote, which is either now removed by Kross, or didn't post properly to this thread, but certainly is in my inbox:

We're certainly working towards eliminating useability issues so people don't need to troubleshoot the video player. I am however extremely flattered at the comparison between Google's development team and our own, and hope that the need to use the help page will significantly diminish as we shake out the last few display issues. Thanks for your understanding and gracious patronage! <3

Like I said, I'm not trying to win an argument with anyone. I'm certainly not trying to make out anyone as a bad guy. But I'm also frustrated, and I'm allowed to be frustrated, and frankly, 'frustrating' is a word I'd use as a descriptor for this site, so forgive me if my post is not littered with praises and sunshine in addition to my issues. That being said, I've been a member for quite some time and I don't appreciate the sarcasm above. I'm not an idiot, and whether I've been a member of publisher's club or not (I haven't), I've watched many, many ads in my years spent here which certainly makes me a customer. I don't get sarcastic with customers that are unhappy with me, because that's unprofessional. But, this is the internet, I guess the standards are different.

I'm also well aware that this is not what this topic is about, so I've said my part. Good luck with working out the issues.

 

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

My point is simply this: I watch videos on sites when the work I have to do amounts to "click to play." Not, "click to go to another page and reconfigure my browser." I don't run this site, so I don't care what your policy is. You guys obviously decide in the end because you pay the bills. I'm just not going to do extra work, and suggesting extra work be performed on the viewer's part is unreasonable when pretty much all competition doesn't have this problem.

My personal problem is that these videos don't work. They don't work at home, where I use Chrome, and they don't work at my job, where I use Firefox. I understand temporary outages, like the Youtube help link above talks about. Typically, said outages don't last from the time I get home from work to the lunch break of the next day.

This is a big concern for me as well. I don't want you to have to jump through hoops to see a 5 minute video, it's a waste of your time. We've QA'd the player against all popular Device/OS/Browser combinations we could before I pushed it live. The hope is the help page will help a user with all the common issues that can cause playback issues without needing to talk to someone.

That said, it seems like you're having issues. Mind sending me a message over yonder [/contact/subject/tech] and we can hopefully get you back to working or fix the core issue.

Apologies again about the frustration this issue has caused.

Best,
Mud

 

[major_chaos]

Snip

My statement wasn't directed at every single person who uses "that", it was specifically directed at those in this thread getting indignant and acting like they have somehow been wronged and are now taking their ball and going home. I understand why people would use "you know what", but I find it irksome when they act like they are owed something by content creators they aren't supporting.

 

[Shinkicker444]

As for video ads, instead of the long 30 second clips can you get those ones that have a skip button after 5 seconds? The longer ones are annoying because I don't care what they are trying to sell. I just mute them and go to a different tab and read something for a minute or so and tab back and restart the video i'm interested in sans ad. Also I'm incredibly leery about letting ads on my PC to begin with after a popular MMO related website had an issue involving an ad that installed a keylogger.

 

[Bashfluff]

You know, The Escapist hasn't had a solid track record when it comes to ads. Let's be fair. Last time when Jim tackled this subject, what the administration did was say, "Yeah, they're invasive and annoying, but they pay more, so deal with it." If you want to explore a policy that is more user friendly, I'm sure this change would have prompted a better reaction.

 

[Thanatos2k]

Hey, if someone wants to make a game exactly like Super Metroid, I'm down with that.

The people who actually own Metroid sure as hell aren't doing it.

It's kind of crazy, after a whole day it looks like you and I are STILL the only ones that have bothered to actually talk about the games unless I missed an ot post (I would have quoted you but I initially missed yours)!

Hey don't ask me, I'm using Firefox with Adblocker installed (but not enabled) and had no problems whatsoever getting the video to run. No idea why everyone is whining about it so much.

 

[jackpipsam]

I've never used Adblock in my life and the video works fine for me, so I guess it's my little reward.

 

[Crash_7]

Hey don't ask me, I'm using Firefox with Adblocker installed (but not enabled) and had no problems whatsoever getting the video to run. No idea why everyone is whining about it so much.

The video seems to work now, even with "it" enabled.

 

[Absimilliard]

Ah, Yahtzee has a special gift in that he can make me laugh at jokes about games I really didn't care about, and am still unlikely to buy.
And concerning the technical issues (as I see it's being discussed here, and couldn't find a separate thread for it), I ended up watching the video on my iPhone (on which the video worked fine, but where no adds were displayed), as repeated reboots using the latest Firefox without "that thing" didn't work.

 

[The Grim Ace]

Escapist with no script and adblock and all of that on Palemoon before the new video player: page loading in maybe twenty seconds top.

The Escapist now in Chrome with adblock and everything disabled: two minute load time (Took three refreshes to get the video to load though the ads would always load).

I have slow internet and this site has had awful ad policy for awhile. I've enjoyed this site for awhile but this is the end. After this, I'm logging off for good.