Fullscreen video commercial

I agree. I only use the forum and rarely read the articles as I visit specialist places for better more detailed reviews of things. I guess I would want my advertising money to go on the forum and not the site as a whole.

 

I really was starting to enjoy the website again, the articles are very interesting (a bit short sometimes, but hey).

But my screen exploding in an Ebay add... no thank you. Addblock, here I come.

(win7, firefox vanilla, only once as yet, but I can't say I was long on the website today)

 

I've just PM'd Simon (Brumgrunt) asking for his opinion and position on this matter. Whilst I think complaining and protesting about this is absolutely the right thing to do - I want to get the guy who's supposed to run Bit-Tech involved as well.

 

I've just seen this advert, not 10 minutes after getting home from work. I did read in another thread that it's only supposed to displayed once per visitor and that there was some kind of problem where people were seeing it repeatedly, so I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt on this one; I'll leave the ad blocker off for now.

That has got to be the most intrusive ad I've ever seen - it's not even as if it's displayed before the article content.

 

I've just failed to read the same article twice in a row because of this ridiculous advert. Thats it. I shall now refuse to read any part of Bit-Tech and shall hence forth restrict my access to the forums, and will use their competitors instead, who advertise in a more appropriate manner. Clearly the 1 time per person doesn't work, and even if it did, 1 time for such a ludicrously intrusive advertising method is 1 time too many. I feel betrayed by the new direction of Bit-Tech for conning us into thinking our views on the site would matter. Well, it won't matter anymore as I shall get my news and comment from elsewhere.

I cancelled a long-held subscription only two months ago in disgust at the way the magazine and website were going. I thought they'd turned a corner, but whats the point in having incisive and excellent material if NO ONE CAN BLOODY READ IT!

I think those supposedly in charge are in disgrace.

 

Page loads, laugh at the over 50 insurance plan advert then bang, this thing folds itself open infront of me, honestly, why?

Are your advertising team so crazy that they think this is going to be a positive way to advertise to us?

Don't want to experience that again so Adblock has to be turned on.

 

Apologies for the delay in replying to this. Conversations have been going on behind the scenes this past week.

I've been in to see Dennis about it. The ad in question was only supposed to run once per user, and no more than that. An error somewhere along the line has resulted in it reappearing time and time again in some cases, and I've been asked to pass on specific apologies for that.

As for the ad itself: the strength of dislike for it has been conveyed back. Although, to be fair, it had been noticed before I mentioned anything.

I will say this: I've found the ad team decent people, personally, and I have regular conversations with them about the kind of ad formats that work for them, and for you (it's not always me going to them, either). This one has stopped people reading articles, and that's clearly a problem, and feelings are now well known about it.

I do appreciate feedback such as that on this thread, and the willingness to support advertising where you can. It really does make a difference.

Simon

 

I don't like my bandwidth being raped by video adverts, simples!

Whats worse is sudden audio from nowhere, and having to scroll to search and destroy a meaningless advert which serves no purpose other than to annoy!

 

Thanks Simon, as I've said before, I am perfectly happy to view the excellent content of Bit-Tech with no adblocker or anything like that, because I am perfectly happy to be promoted to by reasoned and well thought out marketing campaigns. I can also honestly say I will pursue a reasoned and well thought out marketing campaign as well.

What really really astounded me was when it felt like the marketing of third party products (Not even Dennis companies!!!) and services was taking precedence over the content of the site. I found this insulting to me as a reader, and I also felt insulted on behalf of your good self and your writers who clearly deserve a better thought out marketing department.

I do very much appreciate your feedback and we shall wait and see if things do indeed become more sensible.

Cheers,

Den

 

Here's what's happened here, if you think about it.

Bit-Tech is founded by a bunch of amateur hardware enthusiasts.

It becomes popular because it caters to a niche market.

Said popularity causes it to be noticed by a large, evil corporation.

Said large, evil corporation buys Bit-Tech and puts lots of effort into sucking all the life and joy out of it, and turning it into as close an approximation of Imbecilic Console Owner Monthly as possible.

Because of this, it becomes quite a lot less popular.

In a desperate frenzy of last-minute straw-grabbing, EvilCorp attempts to keep things going by firing everyone and plastering the site with ads.

I reckon this place has no more than weeks to live before it turns into one of those "Want to buy this domain name for a billion quid?" ads. What's depressing is that no large evil corporate types will interpret this as what it is, which is something cute being commoditised and commercialised and made bland and inoffensive until it had no discernible personality whatsoever. That's seen as good these days. But that's why it failed.

P

 

Well this is a business so you can't blame the original owner for wanting to make some money, sadly this is the way they all go!

Long live the forums though! With or without the additional content.

 

Agreed.
Felix Dennis is still a f*cktard.

To a more on topic note, I gave the site a week with Adblock disabled and didn't once get this ad. That's just on Chrome and Windows 7 with Adblock disabled.

 

Ok, that's it. I have been a supporter of the ads on BT, but since Dennis took over there have been cockup after cockup.

I'm sorry, but this "test first, ask later"-testing simply isn't acceptable. The ad people claim that it's necessary to have ads to get money in, but if the ads scare people away from using the site it's a bit pointless to be "creative", isn't it?

BT is more or less ruined anyway, so I'll look for a new "home, but until then BT is off my white list for good.

 

THE F*CKING FULL SCREEN ADVERT IS STILL REPEATING ITSELF AND PREVENTING US FROM SEEING YOUR ARTICLES. WHY IS YOUR PARENT COMPANY SO RETARDED AS TO THINK THIS IS GOING TO MAKE US CLICK ON YOUR STUPID ADVERTS?

I thought that after Simon's response of having already spoken with the advertising department who apparently were already aware of the problems, I would be prepared to give Bit-Tech another chance. I appreciate this is a weekend, but if the issue was already known to Dennis and Bit-Tech during the week, I'm sorry but there is no excuse for something which is so ridiculous.

Honestly, that's it - this site and its owners aren't worthy of the loyalty shown to it by its legions of followers over the years. I have nothing but contempt for the useless and inept ad department and their associates, and nothing but pity for the poor b*stards who write content for this site that is increasingly being sidelined by marketing. You're all basically now temps, lads - It'd be great if there were a way to start up your own unmolested Bit-Tech as a phoenix from the flames and enjoy the support of the people here who appreciate your literary and technological input.

I would actually start a new thread promoting the websites of competitors of Bit-tech ON Bit-Tech's forum, to try and motivate some positive change within Bit-Tech, but I no longer believe it would work. It'd likely just get censored.

Instead I'd encourage everyone to Google for alternatives to Bit-Tech - there are many out there with more sensible and professional advertising campaigns.

Goodbye Bit-Tech. It was fantastic at first, but recently has been poisoned by the action of others.



Having a bad day and this issue is one that really frustrates me!

 

Absolutely true- The only way I'm going to click any full screen, flash, audio or popup ad is by missing the little x to close the damn things. Relevant banner ads is all I can tolerate.

Sidenote to Simon: How much do Dennis honestly care about BT? I only say it because if I was an executive reading this thread, only a glance at the average post-count of the members here would make me realise this was a serious problem. Loyal members with thousands of posts are unhappy and they are the community.

 

I read the site every day and i get it every day, some straight away and some later when on the forums.

The worst part is that I cant even see the ad, it just looks all blocky. This is with a fibre connection :/

Using google chrome (now with adlblock )

 

Just got it for the third time when I was idling on the gaming page

 

Thought this had been fixed. I apologise again, and understand the frustration entirely.

Simon

 

I keep getting a giant fullscreen eBay advert, annoying as hell

 

You see where I and a couple of others are coming from, though, Simon? The last two editors said much the same encouraging and helpful words as yourself, and yet nothing changed for the better. It's not that we think you are in any way insincere, but that you obviously hold no power over the format of the website you 'edit' and in the absence of anyone potent we can complain/address issues to, we either a) moan at you via the forums, or b) leave and go elsewhere. Not everyone will partake in a forum discussion - some will see these intrusions and simply use another site instead, especially individuals who have no long backhistory of usage with Bit-tech. I accept that some people will just go 'tsk, what an annoying advert' and just click 'Close', but this place can be so much better, should be so much better, and was so much better. I'd rather go out and buy CustomPC if at all now - at least the adverts in there don't materialise over the print of articles I'm reading...