Insidious Marketing on The Escapist

[idarkphoenixi]

=snippy

Seeing as how I no longer need to squint my eyes and flip the moniter upside-down in order to read the captcha, I couldn't really care less. Besides, advertising could easily be a lot more intrustive than a simple captcha (2minute commerical before the video you want to watch actually plays.)

 

[The Funslinger]

I don't really care. Whenever the captcha asks for my opinion on a company or product my response is usually 'skdjdjsvxh' or 'fuck you' and those seem to work fine. So it doesn't bother me.

I tend to entertain myself with them. For instance with an airline, I typed 'slave transport'.

Honestly, though OP, this seems very alarmist. Somewhat irritates me that whenever a site like this finds a way to make a little extra money, you do tend to get the "making money is automatically evil!" reaction.

How is this any more annoying than a regular captcha, exactly?

 

[geK0]

I believe this picture is relevant

my capcha from the other day


OT:
I find it less annoying than the original capchas, because now I can actually read the damn things!

I mean like, really? wtf is ndtoc?!
(had this image saved because I planned to make an inglip meme out of it)

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

How is this any more annoying than a regular captcha, exactly?

Well, for one thing, I didn't know about the Chevy Sonic before they switched to SolveMedia. Now that I do, the ad has annoyed me so much that I'll go out of my way to avoid ever buying one.

OT: While annoying and a transparent moneygrab (seriously, anything that lets you roll your face over the keyboard, hit enter, and get in is going to be useless against bots), it's hardly the worst thing this site has done in the name of money. I don't like it, and I never did have a problem with Recaptcha, but it takes a lot at this point for The Escapist to make me angry with a moneygrab, mainly because I've come to expect them to do some pretty crazy stuff; remember the Meebo fiasco?

 

[evilneko]

I like the SolveMedia captchas because they're easy.

I don't like the SolveMedia captchas because they're often longer. (I'm lookin at you, the all-new Chevy Sonic!)

I don't care that they are ads.

I like that because the SolveMedia captchas are so easy, they prove that the forum doesn't need captcha to protect from spambots.

 

[mjc0961]

I think they're great. I haven't seen anyone end their post by sharing their reCAPTCHA with everyone (while failing to realize that absolutely fucking no one gives a shit what your goddamn captcha was) in a while, because there is nothing to share anymore. So I say keep the new ones with the ads. Anything that stops people from shoveling random shit I don't care about into my eyes is great in my book. And if the site makes money from making itself a better place by making a lot of posts less stupid, so much the better. I call that a win-win.

I like marketing and advertising. It is my job after all.

The problem is that if you want the companies that you take for granted to stay in business, then they have to keep selling things, how do they make sure that people are going to keep buying? Marketing.

Basically any company that doesn't market fails. A lot of people think that if a company already has a good rep then it will sell on that alone, but it's completely false. Companies need to put out new marketing campaigns in cycles, some as fequently as monthly, otherwise their competitors will.

And with the digital age, stuff like this is a brilliant way to market. We do it, and we use all sorts of other digital media to promote ourselves.

Plus, ads in captchas are way better than those obnoxious ones that take over your browser with a giant pop-over (complete with slow loading music and video) that block you from accessing the page until you manage to click on their little X with a hitbox so tiny that you usually hit the ad by accident on the first try. Seriously, I hate that kind of ad.

 

[almostgold]

You want me to disable AdBlocker, Escapist? No probs, I'm willing to do that for you. But when you shovel ads into such a fundamental part of the mechanics or the site, I must protest.

Discussion value: Do you like the change? Not like it? Didn't notice? Don't care?

Eh. Its high-quality website with good discussion that gives me hours of otherwise free videos to watch. I'll gladly put up with advertising.

Seems like everybody just gets to use to free shit.

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

Lord Inglip is not best pleased.

Fear, Escapist. Your day of reckoning is nigh.

OT: Captcha is captcha, I don't really care and I wouldn't call it insidious. In fact bully for you escapist, gotta squeeze dem pennies in this day and age.

 

[Melon Hunter]

Every time I see one I chuckle, because LittleCeasars are actually paying someone to advertise their brand to me when I live in Germany and they dont have any restaurants here.

Yeah Little Ceasars, real foolproof marketing plan you have going on.

I got a Bank of America captcha and I live in the UK. Explain that

OT: I feel a little left out, here. Everyone else gets amusing captchas and I get nothing of the sort as a member of the Publisher's Club. Ah, well.

Seriously though, if they bother you that much, a $20 annual membership fee (which also blags you a load of upgrades to your account) isn't a huge investment to avoid having to type captchas.

 

[lacktheknack]

Ah... ahahaha... AHAHAHAHAHA... HAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHAHHHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!

BUAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!

(And YOU can have your own evil laugh to rival this one for use in these threads, not to mention store discounts, larger avatars, custom titles, and a good feeling of supporting The Escapist for just $20 a year!)

 

[Spambot 3000]

I don't really care. Whenever the captcha asks for my opinion on a company or product my response is usually 'skdjdjsvxh' or 'fuck you' and those seem to work fine. So it doesn't bother me.

The problem with that is, passing the Captchas can easily be done by a spambot. >.>

Well ... yes, actually that's true. Although in all fairness, the spamming bastards could also sometimes pass the previous captchas that looked like heiroglyphs anyway.
Still, when all you have to do is type in 'bewbz' to be able to post, chances are the bots will take advantage of it.

 

[Saltyk]

The main one I see to see is about free rent or "The All New Chevy Sonic". They annoy me for the fact that I feel like they are blatant advertisements disguised at captchas, and I seem to see the same one over and over again. Beyond that, if it helps the Escapist stay afloat, I say go on. It's not that big a deal. And they aren't as bad as the previous ones where I would have to reload it a few times almost as a default just so I could read some of the letters? (Is that a q or a s? I don't know!)

 

[Furioso]

The worst one I've had asked me to type out the entire sentence "The all new Chevy Sonic" that's just way too much

Captcha: "poison apple" well that doesn't sound very good

 

[Total LOLige]

I think it's quite funny because they aren't going to get any information, if everyone is like me they'll just get pages of fuck yous, I like cereal.

 

[DANEgerous]

I have to say the only one that bother me are the one that you have to enter a phrase of more than two words, i ignore them as much as most Caiaphas but it is simply easier to put in "shit beer" or "Pizza" than "sfdos&^&Bg" so to be honest is just do not mind them unless it is the ones like "The all new Chevy (fuck i even forgot the cars name on that note so much for it being memorable)". So yeah as long as it is short i don't honestly care beacuse i can enter it faster than a capcha, also I like the fact i can call Miller Lite shit.

 

[tthor]

I despise this solve media crap. what ever happened to Recaptcha?!

Edit: Solve media captcha- "it will pass"
No it won't, fuck you solvemedia! >.>

 

[Zombie_Fish]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is that the SolveMedia captchas have less bugs in them such as asking users to type out characters not on a standard keyboard or captcha errors. It's a choice between users complaining about captcha ads and users complaining about faulty captchas and the Tech Team happened to go for the advertising one.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Insidious? Verily? Why, good sir, I fail to see the nature of your perceived ethical quagmire.

Nah, seriously; they aren't insidious at all. They're pretty much in-your-face, and I'm okay with the site managing to stay up through adverts and finding a way to check that I'm not a sneaky spam-bot.

As for Pub Club... Eeeh, I think I have a few Cheap Bastard genes. Or Ferengi genes. Whatever. I'll eventually work up enough nerve to splurge on a membership.

 

[The Thinker]

If you can't post an actual image of the captcha in your post (like people used to do with the old one), then don't post it at all.
For all we know, you might be making it up.

Huh. It never occurred to me that I should do that. But, now that you mention it, I guess I will.