These ads are making me want to escape from this website.
- Thread starter Rabidlamb
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The worst thing is the advertising captchas, what the point of having a anti-bot system when you can write anything and it'll accept it?
Oh, I thought he was complaining about the wrap around the video ads, which are indeed as annoying as hell and I hate it when the Escapist implements those.Hazy992 said:
I don't mind the ads, but man, earlier in the week I was getting really annoyed with that unskippable trailer that played every time I wanted to watch a ZP (and I wanted to watch several to catch up), the one for Space Janitors. It just looks like an incredibly shitty show, I'm not interested, I want to skip this. And the voice of that last guy after the title drop, GAH! He sounds like he's got a clogged nose. I had to turn the sound off on that one. It made my eyes water.
Few things:
I didn't make this post to troll, see profile member since 2009. I just come here for content not the forum.
I realize it's deal with it or don't come here and that's the point. At some point you are driving away more than you are bringing in.
Have fun.
I didn't make this post to troll, see profile member since 2009. I just come here for content not the forum.
I realize it's deal with it or don't come here and that's the point. At some point you are driving away more than you are bringing in.
Have fun.
I think youre making that statement a bit too broad. Going by that we should just accept any monetization producers make. Thats not a very responsible consumer thing to do.Sober Thal said:
So I guess the most common argument being brought up in favor of the ads (besides "I'm in the Pub Club ha ha" and "Why did you make a profile just to complain?") is that the Escapist is having a hard time paying all it's contributors, and they need the money.
Yeah, I'd be a lot more sympathetic if not for three things:
(A) Short version: THEN DON'T HIRE SO MANY GODDAMN CONTRIBUTORS. OBVIOUSLY. Long version: The Escapist seems to have a bad habit of taking on a million new contributors every six months or so, despite a total lack of demand for them: Let's face it, most people on this site are just here for MovieBob, Zero Punctuation, or some LRR stuff. Anyway, these contributors are usually advertised like crazy for a few months, then they drop off the face of the internet. [footnote]It's worth mentioning that this was practiced during the same time period when they were having trouble paying the contributors they already had.[/footnote] Very, VERY few of them actually end up sticking. This leads us directly to...
(B)The Escapist just launched a relatively high-budget new series that currently has more advertising space on the site then actual content. *sigh*
(C)They started advertising porn, after explicitly stating in an article that the wouldn't link to said porn. This isn't really about whether or not the ads are justified, it's more about why I don't feel guilty at all about getting an ALLIGATOR.[footnote]Some terms in this post have been changed to protect the innocent.[/footnote]
Face it, the Escapist only needs the money because they're a badly run company. Why anyone would be proud to be giving these people money is beyond me. Because they way they act, I honestly don't think they've earned my money. Now, I know what you're thinking: "But you must like some stuff on the site, isn't that stuff worth your money?" Honestly, no. If Pub Club was made mandatory to view the content I come here for, I'd stop coming here. Easy choice. Hell, if the ads get much worse, I'll stop coming here anyway.
Yeah, I'd be a lot more sympathetic if not for three things:
(A) Short version: THEN DON'T HIRE SO MANY GODDAMN CONTRIBUTORS. OBVIOUSLY. Long version: The Escapist seems to have a bad habit of taking on a million new contributors every six months or so, despite a total lack of demand for them: Let's face it, most people on this site are just here for MovieBob, Zero Punctuation, or some LRR stuff. Anyway, these contributors are usually advertised like crazy for a few months, then they drop off the face of the internet. [footnote]It's worth mentioning that this was practiced during the same time period when they were having trouble paying the contributors they already had.[/footnote] Very, VERY few of them actually end up sticking. This leads us directly to...
(B)The Escapist just launched a relatively high-budget new series that currently has more advertising space on the site then actual content. *sigh*
(C)They started advertising porn, after explicitly stating in an article that the wouldn't link to said porn. This isn't really about whether or not the ads are justified, it's more about why I don't feel guilty at all about getting an ALLIGATOR.[footnote]Some terms in this post have been changed to protect the innocent.[/footnote]
Face it, the Escapist only needs the money because they're a badly run company. Why anyone would be proud to be giving these people money is beyond me. Because they way they act, I honestly don't think they've earned my money. Now, I know what you're thinking: "But you must like some stuff on the site, isn't that stuff worth your money?" Honestly, no. If Pub Club was made mandatory to view the content I come here for, I'd stop coming here. Easy choice. Hell, if the ads get much worse, I'll stop coming here anyway.
We're attempting to find a balance, and we really are taking all of this feedback into consideration, so thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts on the matter. It is true that we need to run our ads to stay in business, but that doesn't mean we aren't listening to what you have to say.
The hosting has to be paid for somehow. Not to mention enough bandwidth to stream Zero Punctuation to all of Yahtzee's rabid fans.Karutomaru said:
I don't understand why watching hundreds of ads for 'Space Janitors' is making the Escapist money. I mean, I'd probably check it out even if there wasn't a lackluster trailer for it shoved in my face every time I want to watch another video. And Space Janitors banners on the sides. And pop-out Space Janitors banners around each video. And Space Janitors ad banners nestled around the site.Phlakes said:
I find normal adds annoying but bearable. I find the captchas very intrusive. In a few cases I went out of my way to mail the companies in question and tell them that I would avoid their stuff, thats how intrusive they feel. In most cases I have no clue who those companies are and what they sell, so I just 'recaptcha' or type a random vulgar word.
The best advertising for me is based on the subject matter. In a few rare cases those might actually result in me buying something. Most recent adds on Escapist however are completely unrelated to gaming or the culture surrounding gaming. The most they will do is give me a bad impression of the company.
The advertising industry seems to forgot that most of us don't want the adds, we only tolerate them. Thats not exactly the best basis for 'being involved' with a product.
Advertising a game, a controller or a gadget might be worthwile on The Escapist. But most adds are just noise that we try to ignore.
The best advertising for me is based on the subject matter. In a few rare cases those might actually result in me buying something. Most recent adds on Escapist however are completely unrelated to gaming or the culture surrounding gaming. The most they will do is give me a bad impression of the company.
The advertising industry seems to forgot that most of us don't want the adds, we only tolerate them. Thats not exactly the best basis for 'being involved' with a product.
Advertising a game, a controller or a gadget might be worthwile on The Escapist. But most adds are just noise that we try to ignore.
An imageboard. And it's Captcha. I prefer this site's phrase thing a lot more because although you only need one word of Captcha sometimes both are entirely indiscernible, whereas it takes 3 seconds at most to type "grain of salt", or "pumpkin soup".Crono1973 said:
On a related note, I havn't seen anything related to products or merchandise. Is it only on videos, or is it only in America, or what?
Also: The only thing that annoys me (and boy, it sure annoys me) is the HYPERLINKED BACKGROUND. I subconsciously highlight text as I read it, and I click the background equally subconsciously to un-highlight. I also middle-click the background to induce a mouse directed pan. When doing either sends me to an unrelated, entirely pointless, ad-induced page at an infuriatingly regular interval, I start to get a little flustered.