Do people seriously not understand why the Escapist protects their ads? (Warning: Ranty text wall!)

[CrazyJew]

Very serious question, are there still ads BEFORE vids? I don't get any before videos, only 1 after. Seems like the Youtube effect - on Youtube I wasn't getting any ads until recently. Must be Israel. I know I am new here, but if Escapist depends on my watching some bimbo tell me orange juice is good for me, I'd rather watch that. God knows, I first came because of Yahtzee (the handsome bastard), but the community is amazing, I'd hate to lose that.



TL;DR

How do I watch ads which I don't get because of my country?

 

[lacktheknack]

Very serious question, are there still ads BEFORE vids? I don't get any before videos, only 1 after. Seems like the Youtube effect - on Youtube I wasn't getting any ads until recently. Must be Israel. I know I am new here, but if Escapist depends on my watching some bimbo tell me orange juice is good for me, I'd rather watch that. God knows, I first came because of Yahtzee (the handsome bastard), but the community is amazing, I'd hate to lose that.



TL;DR

How do I watch ads which I don't get because of my country?

You can't. I imagine that the Escapist appreciates the sentiments, but the ad block was purchased for USA Only. Even if you could watch it, the Escapist can't claim money for it, as it's a USA Only contract.

 

[Baneat]

Somepony

Kinda did a double take when I read this.. why have you decided to write somepony instead of somebody :S

 

[CrazyJew]

Very serious question, are there still ads BEFORE vids? I don't get any before videos, only 1 after. Seems like the Youtube effect - on Youtube I wasn't getting any ads until recently. Must be Israel. I know I am new here, but if Escapist depends on my watching some bimbo tell me orange juice is good for me, I'd rather watch that. God knows, I first came because of Yahtzee (the handsome bastard), but the community is amazing, I'd hate to lose that.



TL;DR

How do I watch ads which I don't get because of my country?

You can't. I imagine that the Escapist appreciates the sentiments, but the ad block was purchased for USA Only. Even if you could watch it, the Escapist can't claim money for it, as it's a USA Only contract.

What if I use a USA proxy when I browse Escapist?

 

[BabyRaptor]

Somepony

Kinda did a double take when I read this.. why have you decided to write somepony instead of somebody :S

It slips out sometimes when I've been immersed in Ponies for awhile before talking.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I don't object to banner around the edges of the page and the like, but the ads that jump up in front of videos do annoy me. It'd be a shame to see this site die though, as it does have some high quality content.

 

[lacktheknack]

Very serious question, are there still ads BEFORE vids? I don't get any before videos, only 1 after. Seems like the Youtube effect - on Youtube I wasn't getting any ads until recently. Must be Israel. I know I am new here, but if Escapist depends on my watching some bimbo tell me orange juice is good for me, I'd rather watch that. God knows, I first came because of Yahtzee (the handsome bastard), but the community is amazing, I'd hate to lose that.



TL;DR

How do I watch ads which I don't get because of my country?

You can't. I imagine that the Escapist appreciates the sentiments, but the ad block was purchased for USA Only. Even if you could watch it, the Escapist can't claim money for it, as it's a USA Only contract.

What if I use a USA proxy when I browse Escapist?

I dunno lol. Sounds like it would work... Wow, you're dedicated.

 

[Wintermoot]

I get the add thing but what about the captcha thing?
I know it,s to prevent spam but it just doesn't work.

 

[JFrog84]

Look, I definitely agree in theory and I understand how tight the Escapist is right now...

but...

The Escapist is also trying to bail out a sinking ship. The Escapist isn't a viable or sustainable business as it now stands. Fact is that the Internet is a significant game changer; there's no set way to succeed online and no idea of what is now morally right. Behaviour that is seen as unacceptable online (blocking ads) is routine in real life (binning ad supplements from the paper, switching channel during ad breaks) so The Escapist really needs to sit down and look at how it can create a competitive business.

Asking people to do something they find annoying to support a company they don't give two shits about is frankly unrealistic, but other websites survive without annoying ads so they're obviously doing something differently. I say go back to the drawing board and completely rethink how the website operates rather than ask your customers to sustain your business out of the goodness of their hearts.

Appeals to guilt just don't work online because there are no repercussions and there's no consensus on what's wrong.

This.

Also with things like sky plus and other TV recorders on the market most people that own them will pause whenever they get to an ad and go make a cup of tea or something, then just fast farward until the programme restarts. To expect the majority of people to not act like this when online is just rediculous. I'm not saying I don't understand why they exist but I hate most ads whether on TV, radio or online the majority of them are just complete crap and don't work.

 

[Guffe]

Nothing is free, I just don't understand how people still could believe something like that. Most internet sites get their funds from sponsors = they have to show of their sponsors = ads, and as someone said earler, 30 seconds isn't that much.

 

[Nickolai77]

Am i right in thinking the Escapist get's money also based on how often users click on and follow advert links? I just thought it might be an idea if Escapist users, when logging on, clicked an advert five times at the beginning of their session. It would be a way to to increase Escapist's monies.

Also, yeah i understand the OP completely, and i have actually wondered how enough ad-revenue sustains an office, a dozen or so employees, pays contributors etc...

 

[Baneat]

Am i right in thinking the Escapist get's money also based on how often users click on and follow advert links? I just thought it might be an idea if Escapist users, when logging on, clicked an advert five times at the beginning of their session. It would be a way to to increase Escapist's monies.

No, the payment's made under the assumption that clicks are made from the user being interested in the advert. If the advertisers catch on that the clicks are in part wasted then they'll sever their ties. Think about it, it's pretty much the escapist stealing from the advertising company if they condone the practice of fake interest.

 

[Racecarlock]

Why not try searching for other income methods? I mean, ads aren't a big thing for me, but can't you at least try to find another source of income? And if you're in such a bad financial situation, why didn't you post a "Save the escapist" thing on Rockethub instead of trying to get plane tickets for yahtzee to go to pax, which I'm pretty sure he didn't attend anyways. I like the escapist, I really do, but maybe they should think about merchandising or something, because video ads are annoying for someone like me who watches lots of zero punctuation. Also, try to find ad services that don't take up 100% of my CPU by repeatedly pinging me. Seriously, get rid of viglink, scorecardresearch, and chartbeat. One or two or all of them ping my computer until 100% of the CPU is being used, and that continues until I close the window. Fix that.

 

[Alexnader]

Thank you very much for this post. I'm sick of people whining about their free content. Seriously, is it that much of an inconvenience that you have to watch a 30-second ad before watching one of the best 7-minute videos on the Internet for free?

I don't mind the 30 second long advertisements for a video that's a couple of minutes long (not all of them are 7+ minutes), I just wish they'd come up with some different ads for the Australian slot.

One can only take so much of the "Take 40, BFF Show" in which a pair of vacuous "Teenage" girls who claim to be your BFFs and are most likely 21 year old models natter on for 30 seconds about the latest trends in fashion such as wearing Band T-Shirts which "Show off your 'cool' taste in music and make you look totally hot." "Oh and heaven forbid you think you need jeans with a T-shirt, this girl really knows how to rock a dress". Yeah right like we need more 14 year old girls running around with Deathcab for Cutie T-Shirts that they only bought after discovering the band through Twilight.

"And in case you hadn't noticed it's SPRING TIME IN AUSSIELAND SO YOU BETTER WEAR SOME GOD DAMN SUNGLASSES. YOU DON'T NEED TO GO FOR JUST BLACK, SHOW OFF YOUR SEXY F***ING STARE WITH THESE RETARDED LOOKING PIECES OF PLASTIC THAT COVER HALF YOUR FACE, DRAMATICALLY REDUCE PERIPHERAL VISION AND YET SOMEHOW STILL DON'T ACTUALLY WORK AS SUNGLASSES."

At least they update weekly so I get a bit of variety in my pointless, poorly targeted drivel. SURELY there was a product more suited to advertising on a gaming website than this! I'm not even sure what they're selling! "Take 40" is a music show... is this more subtle advertising for their show or what?


I really hope the Escapist gets out of whatever financial ditch it's in, for one thing the thought of people like Susan Arendt working out of a basement is horrifying. Also if traffic picks up they might actually get some other ads to put on!

Somepony

Kinda did a double take when I read this.. why have you decided to write somepony instead of somebody :S

Because he's a Brony, the buggers get everywhere. How do I know the Ponies in MLP say "Somepony" instead of "somebody"? Well... lets just say out of intellectual curiosity I've seen things... terrible terrible things. I tried to get the pink out of my eyes but I still can't *CRASH* oh god what's that? Fluttershy? No...not the bunnies... NO! NOOOOOOO-

 

[Sparcrypt]

Pretty much it really.

I see this argument all the time and it's pretty simple. Of all the ways for content to be paid for unobtrusive ads that you can just ignore if you want to are the lesser of however many evils.

If you prefer a paywall or for a site you enjoy to visit dissapear altogether, sure.. keep complaining. At the end of the day all sites need to run in one of the following ways:

1) Advertising
2) Product sales
3) Donations
4) Pay wall
5) Partial pay wall with premium content locked away

Personally I prefer the first... advertising is everywhere and is easy to tune out.

 

[DustyDrB]

Great points, save one point is just dead wrong:

Five: You don't hold sway over reality.

Also, related to that point. This one is also now untrue:

Two: The Escapist doesn't run on pony dust and kitten farts

That's me. Your reality warping demi-god, using his power for good. Now...RELEASE THE KITTENS and fire up the poo particle energy converters!

 

[lacktheknack]

Why not try searching for other income methods? I mean, ads aren't a big thing for me, but can't you at least try to find another source of income? And if you're in such a bad financial situation, why didn't you post a "Save the escapist" thing on Rockethub instead of trying to get plane tickets for yahtzee to go to pax, which I'm pretty sure he didn't attend anyways. I like the escapist, I really do, but maybe they should think about merchandising or something, because video ads are annoying for someone like me who watches lots of zero punctuation. Also, try to find ad services that don't take up 100% of my CPU by repeatedly pinging me. Seriously, get rid of viglink, scorecardresearch, and chartbeat. One or two or all of them ping my computer until 100% of the CPU is being used, and that continues until I close the window. Fix that.

1. They have found other income sources. See my exchange with Generic Gamer earlier.

2. Rockethub doesn't do charity runs. Extra Creditz had to pull the "Pay for the continuation of our show" card and had a specific action planned for the money (fix Alison's arm and start a small games company), The Escapist probably couldn't spin that way ("give us money to cover our overhead" is charity). Besides, Extra Credits got a LOT of money... For them. If the Escapist raised the same amount of money, then they've covered... One employee's salary.

3. If they've gotten desperate enough to use more intrusive ads, they can't very well "fix it", can they? I mentioned in the OP how they simply can't conjure ad contracts out of thin air... They are not getting offers right now.

 

[Quigglebert]

It's kinda sad that people still ***** about ads on free sites. Hell, half the comments on Youtube are about the ads and how "GOOGLE CARES NOTHING FOR ITS USERBASE! RAAAAAGGGEEE". I'm totally fine with watching the ads because I know that The Escapist needs the money. I'm also fine with paying taxes and tollbooth charges (WHAAAT?!) because I know that that's how the government gets its money. It's the same concept, and people need to build a bridge and get the fuck over it.

in all honesty i prefere the youtube idea of actually letting you end the ad after a set period, i watch more of those ads waiting for those 10 unskipable seconds rather than ignore the whole 30 secs of an escapist ad, now dont get me wrong their a buisness, but im a human, an my needs are more interesting and immeadiate to me than a buisness model that relies on irritating and highly avoidable ads on vids