If one looks down the list of recent threads in this part of the forum one will see that a lot of them complains of terrible ad formats and annoying pop-ups. What one should always consider is that negative criticism and a general lack of discipline will only lead to the closure of this forum. What we need is a serious and active discussion on which ad formats would be accepted on the Bit-tech forums. The users and the ads have to coexist and one cannot live without the other. Therefore I propose a brainstorming session wherein we can post which ad formats would work for us individually - and Simon and the ad-team might be able to reach some form of middle ground. Simply complaining about every new ad format will eventually only lead to frustration. Therefore I will put forth a simple list: Positive ad formats: Simple banner adverts w/o audio and video feedback unless clicked Optimized HTML5 or Flash adverts that won't hijack 500mb's of RAM Advertising articles - which are clearly marked as such with the sponsors name In-article links which are CLEARLY marked as an advertising format Ads at the top or bottom of every forum page (as long as they are unintrusive) Negative ad formats: Banner adverts with audio and video feedback that play regardless of cursor position Unoptimized flash videos which slows down the entire site Unrelated adverts - for instance, the bra advert In article ads that are not clearly marked as such This is in no way a complete list but I would like to get the discussion started. What kind of advertising formats could YOU, as a Bit-tech'er, live with?
Ads loading as the last thing on the page rather than the content. and +1 on the optimized Flash ads so they no longer evaporate my battery life.
What could I live with? A non-rogue ad. Keep an active eye on them. I seriously got infected by one on another forum, and nearly killed them.
This is a good initiative and I'm struggling to think of anything really constructive that isn't already covered by Picarro's post. Simple, non-obnoxious banner ads that are relevant to my interests are the best kind of advertising as far as I'm concerned. If they're really relevant they might get clicked and as I've mentioned elsewhere, ads that rely on mindshare instead of deliberate user interaction are the ones to go for if possible. Anything else will likely get blocked; either by NoScript automatically because I refuse to allow cross-site scripting when I don't need to as a matter of browser security, or by Adblock if the ad pisses me off by being laggy, noisy, distracting or otherwise stupid. That means that for me, any obnoxious ads are simply counter-productive from the advertister's perspective, and thus as a source of site revenue.
Indeed, I think some are reacting far too negatively to some of the ads. Ads are here to stay - there is no question about that - and as more people block or ignore ads, they will come up with even more ways to show ads and grab your attention. The only thing I would add to this is video ads regardless of where they're positioned - especially ones that auto-play. If I have more than a few tabs open, it becomes very annoying to try and track down the source of the noise and turn it off. Granted, the full screen eBay ad didn't play audio by default, but it still played automatically.
