Flash adds are so horible to me they get bloked on site.. use tonnes of bandwidth move and use my CPU. Quite often I browse without images or style sheets aswell as sites are so bloated.
I uninstalled the Flash plugin from my main browser, Opera, as well. Now I surf the web without flash by default, and if there's something I want to see, I use a custom-made menu-item to view the current site in Firefox, which does have the flash plugin installed. I have at any one moment about 500 tabs open in Opera so it would kill my system if they all had flash ads. However, advertisement agencies are smart enough to replace the ads with animated GIF's, so I'm not missing out on anything . It's funny how when they're paying big bucks to show something on external sites (ads), they do know how to make the content viewable for users who do not have Flash, but when it comes to full-fledged sites, those very same companies don't care about it...
At least it's tastefully done. I'm not really a far of any advertising, but I understand it's a necessary evil. If this is going to make you a stack of cash (I.e. a LOT more than the 'normal' ad setup) then I guess it's OK.
bit tech front page 50% ad, 50% content. awful fact. but you have to pay the bills so have to put up with it.
I think it looks very professional and it does not interfere with the contents. Actually, I wish more people would do things this way. I would much rather have this type of advertising. Plus it’s still free
hang on a second.... You are saying that the adverts have an equal quality and value as the actual content. That's just silly. If your just talking about the actual physical space reserved for each then fair enough. But that's not an awful fact. More of a fact. Or a vague observation.
Quite clearly not. That's just silly. Well it is my opinion that when a site has to have 50% of its front page space sold to keep it afloat it is an awful state of affairs. are you saying that 50%of the page being used is a fictional estimate? because it looks a pritty factual estimate from where I am sitting.
But im assuming you needed the additional money? why otherwise would you increase the amount of ad space you are selling?
There are lots of business reasons to go with an increase or rearrangement, be it temporary or permanent, in how we display ads. Partially, it's because the industry of advertising changes up how it likes to display things, meaning we have to go along with the trend, as it were. Sometimes, it's because we don't mind a tastefully done but oddly sized ad. Even better still, sometimes it's for a company that supports the modding or gaming community through our site by offering community prizes, etc... none of these things really have a direct correlation to our bankroll and each is still quite a valid reason. I'm sorry if your immediate thought is to how poorly we must be doing if we were to have more or different ad layouts than what you've become accustomed to. However, often times there are a lot more reasons than just the simple "oh noes, it's goin down da tooooobbess!"
It depends on the cost. Nothing in life is free, all payrises that i have recived have come with conditions. such as increased resposiblity. higher targets to achive. and so on. Now that I know that this increase in ad's was not out of nessesity but out of want. I am left asking myself will this trend continue? increasing the ads that the community have to deal with to ensure that you get payrises even if you are perfectly confortable. you may think there is no costs such as the examples i gave above, but you will start to lose favor with the community that is your greatest asset.
Sorry Mattt, I edited my reply as I feared the reply would be taken the wrong way, and it appears it may have been - my bad. I wasn't suggesting that we've sold this space to give staff pay rises - I was attempting to draw a parallel to the situation and why we've chosen to take this advertising on board Brett's (Dego) post is spot on, please read it You don't have to worry that we aren't aware that we tread a very thin line between delivering good advertising and pissing people off. We are constantly approached by people to do x, y and z and we immediately turn down an awful lot of it because we know it won't be appreciated - even by ourselves, the staff. I cannot stress this final point enough - we absolutely bust our balls to bring good, relevant, interesting advertising to the readers and that will never, ever change We've made some bad decisions in the past (I can find threads for you if you like!) where readers have called us out on something - and we've acted by pulling an ad, fixing an ad or whatever was necessary. You're (all) our greatest asset and we fully know and realise that
The Medal of Honor one was much nicer and better executed imo, you kind of loose the front page's structure in this one. Usability is higly deminished. BUT on the flip side, it'll probably only be here for the week or so?
