OH GOD NO!

typamc95 · Post by **typamc95** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:02 pm

god, Please not these type of ads!

You know the ones, where it highlights a word in blue and had the add when you hover over it.

OH GOD NO!

Post by **bicostp** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:43 pm

Yeah, they make this place look like freakin' Wikipedia, except the link-words are even more random.

I understand ads are necessary to make up the server costs, but you said you'd avoid those "annoying crappy ones" like the "ad post" systems. Honestly, they would be less intrusive. I've left the forums whitelisted for since the server change, but this is the ad format I find the second most annoying, intrusive, and sleazy. (The first are the full-page "click to continue" billboards.) At least this service double-underlines the ads so they can't be mistaken for real links. However, that still doesn't stop you from clicking on one unintentionally (it shows up right next to a real link, for example) and getting whisked away through hundreds of pass-through sites potentially full of adware and other garbage.

tl;dr: Eew, keyword ads.

I hope these at least pay per impression, not just when a user rolls over the link or (shudder) clicks on the ad.

Plus they're not as fun as the automatically generated Google banner ads, which have said "Meet Arab Singles Here!" and "FREE! Dead Cat Ringtone!" before. (Yeah, really!

)

Speaking of which, how have they been working out? (The Google banners, not the Arab singles and dead cats.)

Negative_Creep · Post by **Negative_Creep** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:46 pm

Those ads need to die

Post by **Gamelver** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:54 pm

It's Ben's site, he does what he wants with it

ghosstt · Post by **ghosstt** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:01 pm

I have yet to see them. Just get adblock plus for Firefox. Allow benheck.com, and only that, and you won't see any ads.

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:04 pm

Look, ads are fine, I understand you need to make some money. I get that. But could you at least just shove them on the main page or something? In all honesty it seems a little screwy, punishing the most active community members with the most ads.

We get so many guests here, you should just shove the forums full of ads for guest visitors only. For us, keep the ads just as they were before these in-context ads started showing up.

project_failure · Post by **project_failure** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:33 pm

Yes these ads are annoying but they may pay more. The other ads may not have generated enough revenue.

punishing the most active community members with the most ads.

I kind of agree but we are the ones who use the site.

mothatrucka · Post by **mothatrucka** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:37 pm

Wow, what a load of griping over ads. Come on, guys, they're a different shade of blue than the REAL links, and they're not hurting anything. Bandwidth is not cheap, and it's Ben's site. It's not like ad bars on the side that lead to ridiculous amounts of scrolling. Just grow up and deal with it.

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:42 pm

there are ads here?

mothatrucka · Post by **mothatrucka** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:45 pm

Yeah, they're all screaming and whining about the crayola blue words with double underlining. If it looked like a real link, I might not like that, but it's different enough to not matter.

ShockSlayer · Post by **ShockSlayer** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:56 pm

I noticed. ER, make us a new script! Pwease? Make it make the bad ads and blue texties go away!

Anyways, our posts are filled with this crud too. Ben, do you really need all these ads just to pay for the server?

SS

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:12 pm

mothatrucka wrote:Yeah, they're all screaming and whining about the crayola blue words with double underlining. If it looked like a real link, I might not like that, but it's different enough to not matter.

i don't see those. i guess Adblock plus blocks 'em.

nitro2k01 · Post by **nitro2k01** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:26 pm

This marks the day when I blocked all ads in the BH forums.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:31 pm

Just out of interest, how much revenue gets generated by the ads, and as a breakdown between those you click on and those that generate income by "just being there"? I have often wondered.

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:35 pm

mothatrucka wrote:Wow, what a load of griping over ads. Come on, guys, they're a different shade of blue than the REAL links, and they're not hurting anything. Bandwidth is not cheap, and it's Ben's site. It's not like ad bars on the side that lead to ridiculous amounts of scrolling. Just grow up and deal with it.

The debate isn't over their distinguishability. In all honesty, only a retard would mix up a real link and these ads.

But they're not "click service" ads, but function simply on a scroll-over basis, which is just plain annoying. I know we should support the fundraising effort; as you stated, bandwidth is expensive. But there are other ways of doing it. One of which would be making only guests see it, as we have many. Or perhaps limiting the amount of ads seen based on activity, or even as SmashBoards does it, a small fee for all the ads to vanish altogether.

It's a bit frustrating for me because when Ben originally started putting ads up on the main page, I guess some people complained. Shame on them, because it wasn't bad at all. But to prove a point, Ben published this blog post just to mock scrollover ads and to display how lenient his ad policy really was. A bit contradictory at this point, though.

After all is said and done, though, I don't care, Adblock Plus and Filterset.G did the trick for me.

Perhaps it'll raise enough from nooblets who come here for them to be justified.