This may sound a bit like a complaint but hear me out before pressing the troll alarm. It really is a request for help. I promise.
Like most of you here I've enjoyed the Escapist's content over the years but after months of issues with the site I now feel like abandoning it altogether is my only sane option. Many of my friends feel the same and I'd rather seek some friendly advice before having to give up on something I enjoy.
After the redesign the site's usability plummeted for me but I stuck with it hoping CSS bugs and overzealous banners would be fixed. Some of it was sorted but this year the gremlins are really testing my patience.
First, I could no longer watch the escapist via my only home computing device - my Galaxy Note 2. Not the site's fault, just an Android update killing my Flash player once and for good. No foul called - an alternative means were found.
Next, overzealous banners returned assuming pretty much every click meant I wanted to visit the ad site. OK, zoom for accuracy and be happy my click-throughs may have helped the Escapist somehow.
Next, ad content killing the performance of the site. Pageloads taking forever and the dreaded ads auto playing over the top of content or mixing audio streams.
After a switch of browser (Chrome) to use appropriate ad blocking to get rid of the issue (something I didn't really want to do but felt forced to) I then started to find that videos slowly started to become 'incompatible' with the Chrome's flash player, turning green midway through playback. So, switch back to IE to watch content again.
No problem, I subscribed to the Escapist YouTube channels and decided to take the delay on content loading as a fair recompense for not coming direct to the site. The lack of Escapist content loaded on the channels to YouTube was quickly found to be an issue, however.
Now we're back to ads on Escapist pages interrupting content from behind the playback page and banner and video content slowing down pageloads to a crawl. Tonight it took over 4 minutes to get the main page of the site to load and each video takes a couple of minutes a time only to have ad audio steams play over the content I'm watching (often starting only mid-way through the videos and forcing me to leave content to turn the video ads off). Other gaming content sites I could mention run fast and smooth for me even with their ads so I know my setup here isn't the crux of the issue I see.
Now, set aside the obvious complaint about intrusive ad content - I'm not here to rant or criticise, just to ask for help. I know I can't be the only one on here that's looked for a solution so I'm asking honestly - how did you overcome the speed and overbearing ads issue to make your Escapist visits less of an exercise in frustration?
Some other details:
* I'm on a fully patched Windows 7 laptop, 2.1 Ghz dual core, 4GB DDR3 RAM running IE11 or Chrome. Not fast by any standard but it should cope with this site easily.
* I have 100MB fibre for my Internet connection (Virgin Media)
* I can't really afford the PubClub subscription at the moment (and would resent buying it now as I feel the site had forced me to choose that path given the circumstances)
* I don't currently run ad blocking services, DNS modifications, site filters or any rate-limiters or software firewalls.
* I really don't mind having ads on the page (it helps pay for the content after all) - I just don't want the ads to be so intrusive or performance sapping that they ruin my experience of the site.
I apologise for the way this may all sound. I hope this is taken in the spirit it was intended.
Like most of you here I've enjoyed the Escapist's content over the years but after months of issues with the site I now feel like abandoning it altogether is my only sane option. Many of my friends feel the same and I'd rather seek some friendly advice before having to give up on something I enjoy.
After the redesign the site's usability plummeted for me but I stuck with it hoping CSS bugs and overzealous banners would be fixed. Some of it was sorted but this year the gremlins are really testing my patience.
First, I could no longer watch the escapist via my only home computing device - my Galaxy Note 2. Not the site's fault, just an Android update killing my Flash player once and for good. No foul called - an alternative means were found.
Next, overzealous banners returned assuming pretty much every click meant I wanted to visit the ad site. OK, zoom for accuracy and be happy my click-throughs may have helped the Escapist somehow.
Next, ad content killing the performance of the site. Pageloads taking forever and the dreaded ads auto playing over the top of content or mixing audio streams.
After a switch of browser (Chrome) to use appropriate ad blocking to get rid of the issue (something I didn't really want to do but felt forced to) I then started to find that videos slowly started to become 'incompatible' with the Chrome's flash player, turning green midway through playback. So, switch back to IE to watch content again.
No problem, I subscribed to the Escapist YouTube channels and decided to take the delay on content loading as a fair recompense for not coming direct to the site. The lack of Escapist content loaded on the channels to YouTube was quickly found to be an issue, however.
Now we're back to ads on Escapist pages interrupting content from behind the playback page and banner and video content slowing down pageloads to a crawl. Tonight it took over 4 minutes to get the main page of the site to load and each video takes a couple of minutes a time only to have ad audio steams play over the content I'm watching (often starting only mid-way through the videos and forcing me to leave content to turn the video ads off). Other gaming content sites I could mention run fast and smooth for me even with their ads so I know my setup here isn't the crux of the issue I see.
Now, set aside the obvious complaint about intrusive ad content - I'm not here to rant or criticise, just to ask for help. I know I can't be the only one on here that's looked for a solution so I'm asking honestly - how did you overcome the speed and overbearing ads issue to make your Escapist visits less of an exercise in frustration?
Some other details:
* I'm on a fully patched Windows 7 laptop, 2.1 Ghz dual core, 4GB DDR3 RAM running IE11 or Chrome. Not fast by any standard but it should cope with this site easily.
* I have 100MB fibre for my Internet connection (Virgin Media)
* I can't really afford the PubClub subscription at the moment (and would resent buying it now as I feel the site had forced me to choose that path given the circumstances)
* I don't currently run ad blocking services, DNS modifications, site filters or any rate-limiters or software firewalls.
* I really don't mind having ads on the page (it helps pay for the content after all) - I just don't want the ads to be so intrusive or performance sapping that they ruin my experience of the site.
I apologise for the way this may all sound. I hope this is taken in the spirit it was intended.
