Ad Based Captcha?

[LaBarnes]

Let me begin by saying that I understand the Escapist has to make money. Providing me with a Zero Punctuation, Unskippable, Feed Dump, and LRR ain't cheap, and I'm sympathetic to that.

That said, the brand new ad based captcha system is going beyond that. We already deal with banner ads all over the pages, whenever we watch a video we get to sit through (currently) a US Military recruitment ad (since we know game nerds like me totally want to go get shot at), an overlay for the game of the week (Duke Nukem recently), and little banner ads that display over the video for Verizon or some shit, but that's all fine (see above).
In addition to having to wait for 30 seconds for my video, and big ugly inefficient layout and a little popup (all bearable), we now have to watch this stupid boyband Xbox Live phone ad just to post on the forums? Really?

At least have the decency to change the message explaining that the captchas aren't there just "to prevent spam," they're there "because fuck you that's why!"

Captcha- play xbox live

/rant

 

[Who Dares Wins]

I don't understand? Are different regions getting different ads? I get a video ad after every video and there are banners, but mostly for the already on site stuff and a few for other stuff, but nothing what you are talking about. Can someone explain?

 

[LaBarnes]

My last 3 posts have required me to sit through the ad for the new Windows phone that supports Xbox Live, this one (but less British) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHNWL-WdzsM&feature=related.
Halfway through it shows at the bottom of the ad what the captcha is (some shit like "play xbox live" or "buy Verizon" or "mmmmmmmmmmm ad revenue").

 

[Lizardon]

The new captcha's I've been getting are just enter the word you see style. And they are actually words you can read, "no dice" or "guitar player", unlike the blurry mess of greek characters before.

And I never gets ads before the videos, or during them. All I see are banner ads on the front page, usually only for Escapist related stuff. I'm not a member of the Publishers Club or anything. Is it because I'm in Australia?

 

[Erana]

My last 3 posts have required me to sit through the ad for the new Windows phone that supports Xbox Live, this one (but less British) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHNWL-WdzsM&feature=related.
Halfway through it shows at the bottom of the ad what the captcha is (some shit like "play xbox live" or "buy Verizon" or "mmmmmmmmmmm ad revenue").

What? This is the first I have heard of video caphas on the Escapist, and if that's a new thing, I am not pleased.

Not to say that text advert capchas are quite that bad. I mean, I've seen an ad capha on another site where it was pretty much "YOU LIKE BAGEL? SAY YOU LIKE DELICIOUS BAGEL." with the capcha of "delicious bagel" or something.

With traditional capchas, at least you're helping them make digital books, or something.

 

[Fayathon]

Yeesh, that sounds rough man, I hate Captcha with the burning passion of a thousand white hot stars. Seriously? Ad based video captchas? I can't say as I approve of this.

 

[Snowy Rainbow]

I have never gotten a single ad from The Escapist... I know for a fact I have no adblocking software on. What gives? I'm depriving these awesome guys of some income and that's gotta change, damn it!

 

[LaBarnes]

Here's the example of most of the ads I mentioned (I can't generate the little tiny over-video banner ad today).

Based on my last two posts and the replies, I'm thinking that they decided against the ad-based captcha. Not that this thread was responsible, but just that someone stopped and went "wait, this is an awful idea" and removed it. I may be wrong, I'll screen cap it if I see it again.

 

[LaBarnes]

With traditional capchas, at least you're helping them make digital books, or something.

Wait what? Explain please, how does presenting me with text that is all blurry and weird make a book?

 

[Tsaba]

I'm just glad the questions are common sense answers.

 

[4RM3D]

I have never seen any ads on the site or in the video's, with the exception of ads for things like Extra Credits and Zero Punctuation (no third party).

 

[manic_depressive13]

How on earth do you have seven messages at one time? And the news article doesn't count.

I prefered the old captchas (they were good for lulz) but the new ones are no big deal. I'm not as offended as I was with that meebo crap they pulled.

 

[Erana]

With traditional capchas, at least you're helping them make digital books, or something.

Wait what? Explain please, how does presenting me with text that is all blurry and weird make a book?

Well, its just recapcha, so I suppose I just misspoke there. But this is what I mean: http://www.google.com/recaptcha/learnmore

And yes, now I'm seeing them. This is severely unpleasant.

 

[Lionsfan]

This must only be for certain regions. I've yet to sit through a captcha based ad. As for them being annoying....well sorry but tough shit. Ad's are the primary source of revenue for The Escapist and a website this big costs a lot of money to run. So they either cut down on a lot of content, which would mean less videos, forum options being cut down etc etc. Or they start charging everyone to join and restrict what unregistered users can and can't watch in terms of videos, making it a pay-site. Or.....they run ad's.

If it's such a big deal for you, then just join the Pub Club, there's aren't any ad's there.

And seriously? People are complaining about Banner Ads? At least all the ad's here are quiet and stay out of the way, we could be having it a whole lot worse, think the Meebo debacle except instead of listening to user feedback, the Escapist would have crammed down even more stuff. The staff here are pretty good about what the users want and don't want. After they rolled out the new Forum Health Meter they had updated it after people had complained about never regaining Bars. So yeah, it could be worse

 

[LaBarnes]

Well, its just recapcha, so I suppose I just misspoke there. But this is what I mean: http://www.google.com/recaptcha/learnmore

And yes, now I'm seeing them. This is severely unpleasant.

Ooooh I didn't know that. That's pretty neat.

I think the trick to making them go away is to start a thread bitching about them. I haven't gotten one since I started this. Go forth, and complain as I complain!

This must only be for certain regions. I've yet to sit through a captcha based ad.

Lucky you.

As for them being annoying....well sorry but tough shit.

Woah slow down, too much creative thought and well reasoned response for my tiny brain!

Ad's are the primary source of revenue for The Escapist and a website this big costs a lot of money to run. So they either cut down on a lot of content, which would mean less videos, forum options being cut down etc etc. Or they start charging everyone to join and restrict what unregistered users can and can't watch in terms of videos, making it a pay-site. Or.....they run ad's.

I actually put this right at the top of my post, glad to know you read it. I guess I should just follow your example and repost your post unaltered and call it worthwhile. Thanks.

And seriously? People are complaining about Banner Ads? At least all the ad's here are quiet and stay out of the way, we could be having it a whole lot worse

I wasn't complaining about banners. The thesis of my post was that "we sit through a shit ton of ads, many of them intrusive and slow (like the page layover and the prevideo ads) but that's fine, content is expensive, but ads that directly and INTENTIONALLY slow our usage of the page are not cool."

That's the point, the ads aren't quiet now with the video captcha, I have to sit through that awful insipid "do you want to be in a boyband?" now just to fucking post. Its loud and directly in the way.
Please, don't reply unless you actually read the post you're replying to for Christ's sake.

 

[staika]

I noticed them too and I hate them, I never thought I'd say this but "Bring back the fucking normal captchas!"

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

The new captcha's I've been getting are just enter the word you see style. And they are actually words you can read, "no dice" or "guitar player", unlike the blurry mess of greek characters before.

I did finally get one of those after what I assume were supposed to be the video ones failed to load a couple times. I dicked around with a bunch of stuff attempting to make sure nothing was actually preventing them from loading, but this site loads such a massive amount of crap from so many different places that it's a mess trying to sort any of it out, and I was just going to give up and not bother posting. It then decided to have me type something really mundane in plain English like that instead, though, so I guess that works. Heh.

 

[PiOfCube]

With traditional capchas, at least you're helping them make digital books, or something.

Wait what? Explain please, how does presenting me with text that is all blurry and weird make a book?

Well, its just recapcha, so I suppose I just misspoke there. But this is what I mean: http://www.google.com/recaptcha/learnmore

And yes, now I'm seeing them. This is severely unpleasant.

Okay, I admit I didn't read all of the page about recaptcha but what struck me as funny is; if that the recaptcha is to help OCR to read words... But the words shown on the captcha are already known what would be the need to ask about them again? They would have to be known characters otherwise the turing test wouldn't work.

 

[JWRosser]

I don't like captchas, but at least with the old ones you could make funny words or phrases. These new ones annoy me. Also, I agree with the whole ad thing. Obviously the Escapist needs to make money, but it seems in every video I have to sit through the same ads - I've seen the one for Bad Teacher so much I can pretty much mime along to it.

Video ads are the worst though. I'll just be sitting there when suddenly "DOES YOUR DRAIN CLOG MORE THAN YOU'D LIKE IT TO?!" Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

 

[Lionsfan]

As for them being annoying....well sorry but tough shit.

Woah slow down, too much creative thought and well reasoned response for my tiny brain!

Probably should have worded that differently, but the sentiment is still there. I mean there's nothing you can do about it (except Pub Club)

snip of me

I actually put this right at the top of my post, glad to know you read it. I guess I should just follow your example and repost your post unaltered and call it worthwhile. Thanks.

But you're still complaining about them, you're post isn't just Ad-Captcha, it mentions the Duke Nukem Banners, the Military Banners, a couple E3 related ones from video games.

snip of me again

I wasn't complaining about banners. The thesis of my post was that "we sit through a shit ton of ads, many of them intrusive and slow (like the page layover and the prevideo ads) but that's fine, content is expensive, but ads that directly and INTENTIONALLY slow our usage of the page are not cool."

The banner ads don't really slow down the site that much, I understand you're frustration about the ad's in the video with the pop-up but those aren't everytime either.

That's the point, the ads aren't quiet now with the video captcha, I have to sit through that awful insipid "do you want to be in a boyband?" now just to fucking post. Its loud and directly in the way.

Haven't sat through that yet, I've only gotten reCaptcha, so I can't add either way. :/