That new bar on the bottom of the screen

[Double A]

Is there any need to disable it? I've found hiding it isn't a problem at all, in fact I've only just noticed the tiny little arrow to show it now that I've really looked for it.

Actually yeah, 'cause it's still slowing things down to a crawl. It's Meebo.

Really? I've literally noticed no difference, that's strange.

Naturally, your mileage may vary. Reactions to it are clearly this. Even still, I feel there's enough who say "BOO!" that it's a problem. That's the point of it. People are being badly inconvenienced, not just mildly annoyed.

That's fair enough, it's just you have to be wary with new additions to the site. There are a lot of people who will complain about a change just because it's different to what they're used to. Not saying this is one of those occasions, because it isn't.

But this time it's fairly valid. Not to mention it blocks my view of the bottom right corner.

Which is why I finished with

Not saying this is one of those occasions, because it isn't.

I was giving credence to your point and totally saw that last sentence.

On a somewhat related note, has anyone else noticed a large increase in annoying video adds on these forums?

 

[Hero in a half shell]

It has slowed the Escapist down to a crawl, it can't just be site traffic, because the Escapist has never been this slow with me, and worst of all it brings up a big "Share" bar whenever the mouse cursor passes over a youtube video, planting its share function over the play button, so you can't actually play the thing.

I fully understand that the Escapist is costly to run, but this Meebo bar is ridiculous, it is making certain functions of the site unusable, and slowing everything up, it also plants cookies in your browser to track all your online browsing, with the other sites you go to, and shares that info with a few 3rd Party advertising companies.

 

[Nimcha]

I don't mind the bar but I do have a habit of selecting random text on the screen when reading and then this reaaaaaally annoying pop up comes up all the damn time. It's making me not even want to visit the site anymore. I don't think it's meant to do that.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I was just about ready to make a thread about it. Between the meebo bar and those Gakai ads that pop up at the bottom of the screen, this place is starting to look like a porn site. Seriously, The Meebo bar is like the fake facebook chat bar that a lot of sites have, where some "girl" will start IMing you about sex with local singles, while the Gakai ads are like the video chat ads. I understand that The Escapist needs to keep the ad revenue coming, but they might want to think about the message they send by having the same kind of annoying ads that are common on porn sites.

 

[Antari]

I'm getting huge delays loading the pages too (and I've paid so I don't see the ads), so I think the lag today must just be standard Wednesday server overloading.

I logged out to see what this new bar was, and I agree that it's annoying. I hate it when that sort of feature appears on sites, especially the ones that underline key words in articles and tell you to buy things related to that word. They're annoying.

Still, the site has to make money to stay up.

After some testing I can garentee you the Escapist is running perfectly fine. Lightening quick even. However Meebo is a whole different story.

 

[Harkonnen64]

Huh, I just clicked the disable-key-thing in the top right corner of it and haven't seen it since.

 

[Goofguy]

I'm completely content with the 'out of sight, out of mind' approach to this problem.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

One at the bottom isn't annoying... the damn ads that pop out the side and bottom are. Close one and another appears...

 

[bob1052]

I just checked and this Meebo bar did place a cookie on my PC.

Fun thing.

 

[Dags90]

I'm completely content with the 'out of sight, out of mind' approach to this problem.

What about the fact that it still takes anywhere from two or more seconds to load the widget even when it's minimized? You can't unsee load times.

 

[intheweeds]

I just checked and this Meebo bar did place a cookie on my PC.

Fun thing.

only one? i got 3 cookies and 4 local storage points.

 

[Sporky111]

I don't even know what this bar is. But I'm in the PubClub, so that's something to think about.

What was that about "incentive to get rid of it"?

 

[mikev7.0]

It has slowed the Escapist down to a crawl, it can't just be site traffic, because the Escapist has never been this slow with me, and worst of all it brings up a big "Share" bar whenever the mouse cursor passes over a youtube video, planting its share function over the play button, so you can't actually play the thing.

I fully understand that the Escapist is costly to run, but this Meebo bar is ridiculous, it is making certain functions of the site unusable, and slowing everything up, it also plants cookies in your browser to track all your online browsing, with the other sites you go to, and shares that info with a few 3rd Party advertising companies.

I agree the bar, and the annoying survey that pops up and redirects your cursor if you try to close it, as well as the pop up ads are all new and so is the fact that a single page here now takes 10 minutes to load. Other sites? About 10 seconds. Also if they ARE installing spyware on my computer that is unacceptable as well. What the hell is going on around here?

 

[Snotnarok]

I don't notice it after it's disabled because firefox displays what it's loading right over it. So not only is it useless it's also hidden by basic functions of my browser, oh the comedy of it all.

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

What bar? What are you talking about? Where am I?

 

[Ashcrexl]

oh god i just noticed it THANKS TO YOU. now i cant unsee it. i hope you are very proud of what you have done.