Insidious Marketing on The Escapist

[ajemas]

I know that it sucks, but it is important to keep the Escapist that we know and love up and running. In the absence of significant donations, this is the best that they can do. Besides, it's a total of 5 seconds out of your day anyway.

 

[tthor]

I know that it sucks, but it is important to keep the Escapist that we know and love up and running. In the absence of significant donations, this is the best that they can do. Besides, it's a total of 5 seconds out of your day anyway.

can't we do that with less intrusive ads??

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

What's so bad about advertising? Are people not allowed to advertise the things they make? Just because something is advertised to me doesn't mean I have to go out and spend my money on it if I don't want to, so what's the problem?

 

[Big.Bad.Blowback]

They have a new system?

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

I usually type stuff like 'shite' or 'I prefer your competitor's products' just on the off chance someone from company does read I type in the captcha.

 

[requisitename]

It's the other half of the new capture that bothers me. It's quote-ability has increased the number posts with Capture: XXX at the end. It's a bit of a pet hate of mine.

Also this.

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.

Okay, so I know this is off-topic, but.. what? I can understand not liking it - that's a personal preference.. but, seriously, what difference does it make if someone did make it up to make other people laugh? How does that even matter?

OT: As I've said many times already, I prefer them to the old ones that I couldn't decipher. At least now I know what I'm supposed to type.

 

[TheGauntman]

obviously it is insidious that the escapist uses advertising to pay the bills so you can come here and use the site FOR FREE to ***** about said advertising

long story short... the advertising is neither sneaky nor wrong... it's how they pay the bills so you can enjoy the site for FREE... stop being so fucking ungrateful and bitching about the 2 seconds you have to take to contribute


I love the new Captchas... not only are they making the Escapist money so I can continue to enjoy this site for free but they are a hell of a lot easier to get through than those horrible random letter/symbol ones written all fucking squiggly and over top themselves which I have to refresh 12 times to even get one I can read and that doesn't have symbols my keyboard is missing

Like I said in my OP, I disabled AdBlocker for The Escapist, because I'm not opposed to them earning a buck or two. But random peripheral ads are ignorable and don't require me to actively participate, unlike these SolveMedia ads.

Also, was the swearing really necessary?

 

[BaronUberstein]

I've never understood this HATRED for ads people have.

Tivo at home got rid of the good ol' ad-break, instead leading to having to get everyone to agree it's a good time to pause. That and the frantic fast-fowarding through ads + the remote in the hands of my parents meant missing parts of the show.

The only time ads bother me is when they refuse to buffer properly on videos. Having a stop-and-go stuttering ad before a video just irritates me to no end.

 

[Mettking]

A captcha should be something simple that can be used to stop bots from spaming, hiding a captcha in a video is a neat idea or an advertisement for revinue is alright. My problem is sticking it at the end of an annoyingly long ad or just make it something long in general.

 

[Elate]

Eh, they're easy to read than most of the older ones so I can live with it. When it asks to describe something, just write a word from what it is trying to advertise, works just fine.

 

[Doom-Slayer]

What's that about paying money to be here?
Something called the Publisher's Club?
No CAPTCHA tests at all?
It costs basically nothing?
Crazy talk!

Ads? Captcha? Ive never heard of these strange thin...ooooh..you mean the things on OTHER websites..ooooh..

In all seriousness, I doubt Escapist would choose a more difficult Captcha system if they didn't have to. Its most likely imposed on them, or they are trailing it.

 

[Guardian of Nekops]

I think it's important to note that the captchas aren't here to advertise... they were here before because they were (arguably) needed to stop spammers.

Then, seperately, someone got the bright idea of, "Hey... we're making our customers type in this stuff anyway, and there's this service that's give us a couple cents every time they do that," thus turning useless effort into something that helps keep the site afloat.

That, and they're easier to read. I don't have to squint at them anymore, and I don't think they're going to succeed in brainwashing me into buying a RAV4 if I won't spring for an Escapist subscription.

I'm all in favor.

 

[applesandoranges]

edit

 

[ResonanceSD]

Forgive the sensationalist title, but this has been irking me.

Has anyone else noticed that the Captcha prior to posting has changed recently? It is still a 'type text when prompted' option, but it is now generated by a company called Solve Media and it asks for your opinion on a product or to type in a couple of words that describe a consumer item (like 'power tool').

If you think I'm just swinging at shadows, check out their website http://www.solvemedia.com/ and tell me it's not a promotional tool.

Perhaps I listened to too much Bill Hicks when I was younger, but I loathe marketing and advertising, and to see it implemented in such an underhand and sneaky fashion makes me angry.

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?

In all seriousness, the only reason I have a Pubclub membership is because of the captcha.

What's that about paying money to be here?
Something called the Publisher's Club?
No CAPTCHA tests at all?
It costs basically nothing?
Crazy talk!

Ads? Captcha? Ive never heard of these strange thin...ooooh..you mean the things on OTHER websites..ooooh..

You realise that this kind of post is exactly why some people intensely dislike the pub club right?

 

[renegade7]

>Raises flame shield<

I admit, I prefer it. I always had trouble reading the old captchas and could sometimes not tell whether an l was a 1, O or 0, etc. This is easier for me to read.

And hey, if the Escapist gets some extra money out of the deal to keep the server-gerbils running, I see no problem.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

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. >.>

Kinda defeats the purpose of captchas if you (or a Bot) can write anything and get through.

THAT is my big issue with them.