It's hardly surprising that IE loads faster - you have explorer running 24/7 in your RAM as a core part of windows, and IE is essentially just an extension of Explorer - So you can't really play that card because it's a given that it'll load faster. If you tweak firefox's config settings (a 5min job) then you can get it to be not far off IE's page loading times. I'm fairly glad that Firefox complains at some pages (and i mean some, 99% work) because it's teaching people that you can't get away with sloppy HTML. Java support is another matter and is as such Microsoft's fault for shipping their own crappy version of JVM rolleyes: at MS) Anyway - as a trade off between some minor points with Firefox and the blatant risk of going online armed with IE; Firefox is the best browser to be using at the moment. Edit: got a bit carried away there
Well said that man. I wanted to go off on a "Firefox rules, IE doesn't" rant, but I thought better of it. I'm already advertising it in my sig and my avatar, and on all my websites PS: Adverts suck. Yes, I see the irony.
Hi, first of all, a thanks to the bit-tech staff for even making this thread and the poll. its really fantastic that you care about our input so about the subject now I choose the third option, I understand that there need to be funds to support this wonderfull community, so I can accept the text ads. So I would not mind the text ads in the article on the front page. But I would not want them in the forums, because the author of the message didn't want any kind of advertisment attached to his message. Conclusion: If it is limited to articles, then by all means, go ahead, u can still count on my loyalty ! (this is the only computer related website/forum I visit) L
I chose that they were the greatest thing since sliced bread, because I thought you meant the Google text ads that replace banners. They're brilliant and non-intrusive. The actual ads you're talking about are different. They are terrible. I won't read a page with them on. Sorry about the mis-leading vote, but I hate. them. with. a. passion. _C
I dont mind paying a membership fee or something and then make the articles available for download in PDF format or something as well. But no text ads.
they annoy me so much if im highlighting something to read it if hteres a lot (hurts my eyes) it gets annoying cause it pops up
Nah we're fine It's an option that has been pitched to us and due to the different nature of the text ads, we decided we'd see what you all thought - that's all!
I think id prefer text adds to the current banner bit-tech has running on the top of the forums atm. i dont know if it varys on various pcs, but PC WORLD EDIT: on a side note http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/23/1723216&tid=100&tid=137&tid=1 Google are advertsing with those hughe middle text adds on /.
maybe u guys hsould of a donate button at the bottom of each page like pbnation.com and if u donate more then 12 dollors it says supporting member under ur name look around on pbnation ull seee both things i mentioned
I wouldnt mind text ads, if, and only if, they could be hovered over without popping something up, and I had to click on them for them to open up their link. They would also have to fit into the bit-tech style, but be discernable to anybody having followed one before. I dont see how anyone could have a problem that way. As long as an ad "stays where it is" I dont mind it, and I even follow some out of curiosity. When an ad does get in my way, or play a sound, or jump out at me, I immediately ignore it.
I got used to these type of ads pretty quick. I hide the banner ads from bittech with adblock (note I have the settings changed so the banners are downloaded and you get money but I don't see them). As menitioned if you could not change the color and not do it on the forums I would be pretty happy. I'm sure once these become more popular there will be some sort of zapper bookmarklet for them. Also I dunno about the staying power of the ads becuase what revenue do you get? Who clicks them? Not me. Then again that is for every ad, but it just seems like more often than not people will just see them and not click and I thought that web trends these days were moving towards pay per click, not impression.
Hi Guys, Thanks for all your very valuable feedback. It appears that while some of you aren't that bothered, others have confirmed my personal opinion that many people click on a VM IntelliTXT ad thinking it's an internal link, and NOT an ad. (though I'm sure you'd only ever be "tricked" once) It's an inescapable fact that bit-tech needs advertising to support the work we do - I suspect many of you would be surprised at the ten of thousands of pounds a year it costs to bring you the site as it is. I would like to thank those regular readers who are happy to read our content every day, and yet block the ads which help pay for it... Lots of bit-tech love goes out to the people that recognise that banners are actually *necessary* to pay for things, such as the hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of Gb of bandwidth you guys use each month - not ALL banners are evil you know... I was browsing IMDB the other day - I saw an ad for a double-DVD Special Edition of The Shawshank Redemption. I clicked the banner, read a bit about it, went to Play.com and bought the R2 box (which is THREE DVDs btw). Simple, targetted, relevant advertising. This is the kind of stuff we aim to use - you'll note that we don't advertise "unethical" stuff like Casinos etc And no pop-ups etc So I guess the summary is that banners are here to stay - we need them to fund bit-tech (or we go broke and shut down!) - block them if you HAVE to, but if you can, allow them just for our site, and click on them occasionally, eh?
Banners are ok. Ads in the middle of the content, or links within the content which are ads are not. I do occasionally click on interesting banners. But PCWorld ? Nah ...