Re-introduction of Banner Ads

Dav

First and foremost, no one in here actually wants ads on the site, but as DeVore has often said "I can't pay my rent on the free exchange of ideas" so they're a necessity.

A "remove ads" subscriber option is a really good idea, we're gonna look into that pretty quickly. I might even be able to get it up and running as soon as next week, but that's not a promise!

As for the rest, Penn has pretty much posted what I was going to above. Ads are our main source of revenue, they always have been. That market has changed quite a bit over the last 18 months or so and the rates have dropped which means the same amount of inventory now generates a lot less money. Our more long term plan is to get more businesses signed up to Talk To forums - they're a much better fit for us and are a more steady source of income.

Toto Wolfcastle

I have no real problem with the ads but can I ask (again) why the ones at the bottom of the page on the touch site are so big? It doesn't matter that they're not in the middle of the page. They're still very intrusive.

dr.bollocko

I don't use adblock and one time when I was drunk I clicked on a netflix ad.

You're welcome.

RUCKING FETARD

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

I have no real problem with the ads but can I ask (again) why the ones at the bottom of the page on the touch site are so big? It doesn't matter that they're not in the middle of the page. They're still very intrusive.

How are they bothering you??? What reason have you to go down that far in the page at all???

I only see the top of them, can't understand how they could bother ya.

karma_

I don't mind the banner ads but the last hour I've been assailed by random ads spouting rubbish music and just being completely annoying. A step too far boards, a step too far.

Vexorg

karma_ wrote: »

I don't mind the banner ads but the last hour I've been assailed by random ads spouting rubbish music and just being completely annoying. A step too far boards, a step too far.

This has been covered earlier in the thread by Dav.

Dav wrote: »

First things first, ads with sound are in fact the work of the Devil and Loki and we will have no part of them. Occasionally one will slip through when it's something that's using our "spare" inventory, but our sales team would never willingly take one. Ads that make sound when you do something with them (click/mouse over) are a different matter of course, I'm specifically thinking of the ads that play film trailers and so on. Standard rules of "if you see/hear one with sound, please let us know and we'll nuke it" still apply.

Lapin

1, How much do you charge for an ad ?

2, How much would you charge Politics.ie to place one ?

Morag

28064212

Soooo tempted to edit out the "Deals" in that picture, repost it to After Hours with the announcement that Boards is shutting down, then sit back and watch the fireworks

Penn

Insect Overlord

^
CV&P&L Photoshop Competition 30/9/2012. Make it happen.

Dav

Penn, I cannot tell you how much that made me (and everyone else in the office) laugh, genius sir.

Yes, we're winding up Boards Deals, Commissioner Gordon has made a post about it here.

Micky Dolenz

There are a lot of hotties in that pic.

The girls are all right looking too. :P

Tombi!

RUCKING FETARD wrote: »

How are they bothering you??? What reason have you to go down that far in the page at all???

I only see the top of them, can't understand how they could bother ya.

In fairness, if he's anything like me, the moving ones at the bottom screen would bother the eyes.

expectationlost

you should set it up so that if you click on an ad you never have to see it again, then i could stopping seeing jools with overdone makeup which is disturbing me

Dravokivich

I don't know how to link these, but I've had 2 animated/audio Ads auto triggered on me without mouse overs.

1) Cillit Bang:
After browsing to the bottom of an after hours forum page)
2) daily-spots.com:
After browsing to the bottom of a thread in The Gentlemans Club, my mouse over was on the quick reply box. This appeared to load up as an embedded video. I can pause / rewind it.

super_furry

Having the exact some issue as Drovokivich. Every flash advert of the bottom of each page is auto triggering with the audio blasting out every time I go to a new page. I have to mute each one individually on the advert itself. Really infuriating.

Boards.ie: Nicola

super_furry wrote: »

Having the exact some issue as Drovokivich. Every flash advert of the bottom of each page is auto triggering with the audio blasting out every time I go to a new page. I have to mute each one individually on the advert itself. Really infuriating.

Any chance you have the URL's or what the ads were for?

I've no speakers on my PC here in the office so am less likely to spot these myself, if anyone does please post here or PM me.

Thanks,
Nicola

Dravokivich

Hi Nicola,

Afraid I haven't been able to, because whenever I right click on'em it gives me a default flash menu. Nothing there seems to provide the link, whereas some when you right click on them, give you the menu you'd get when you right click on a link in a website.

I know it's of little use just saying this without the link, but I've also encountered another ad that auto triggered over the weekend. Shortly after muting it, a youtube clip loaded up in that box that also needed to be paused/muted.

super_furry

Yep same thing here - just the flash menu. It's the Cilit Bang and Optrex adverts.

eth0

Well feck it lads and I hate to say it but this could be the beginning of the end, as it often is once a Web 2.0 site starts to put the 'squeeze' on its userbase by increasing the invasiveness of ads.

I don't see them of course and I realise boards now has investors to pay off and its no longer a humble little site run off DeV's home broadband connection and a second hand embedded development board with a CompactFlash card but the grim reality is that this sort of stuff rarely ends well.

GLaDOS

Just thinking about it there, title says 're-introduction', I don't remember ever having them as a logged in user before. Were they around pre- 2006?

seamus

I can't remember the dates, but there was definitely a point where banner ads at the top and bottom were shown for all users regardless.

I think Dav's "re-introduction" refers to the fact that they had to remove the top banner to accomodate the new skin.

Boards.ie: Nicola

Dravokivich wrote: »

Hi Nicola,

Afraid I haven't been able to, because whenever I right click on'em it gives me a default flash menu. Nothing there seems to provide the link, whereas some when you right click on them, give you the menu you'd get when you right click on a link in a website.

I know it's of little use just saying this without the link, but I've also encountered another ad that auto triggered over the weekend. Shortly after muting it, a youtube clip loaded up in that box that also needed to be paused/muted.

super_furry wrote: »

Yep same thing here - just the flash menu. It's the Cilit Bang and Optrex adverts.

I've started browsing with headphones plugged in while in work (in the interests of research of course ) and haven't encountered any thus far but I've mentioned Cilit Bang and Optrex to our ad manager.

Dravokivich

Cheers Nicola,

I had seen one or 2 more last night, and again these were flash based animations so couldn't get links. Is it possible to get a review done on the media type used for the advertisements?

super_furry

Hi, just happened again. Just clicked into this page http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056777797&page=3 and a Vanish Oxi-Action advert started up, again down in the box by the quick reply section. Not sure at this stage if it's some setting unique to my laptop or what.

Dravokivich

Could this be of any use?



Seems to be a similar URL for the flash based ads.

Overheal

quarryman wrote: »

FFS. :mad::mad::mad:

I'll have been a registered user of boards.ie 10 years next year. In that time the site has grown exponentially. However there was always a culture of not ruining what we had by adding advertisements. But they've slowly crept in. It's understandable. With extra page hits, servers need to be upgraded extra.

But these banner ads are in the middle of the thread-list in the forums and in the threads themselves. This is over the top and I think my use of the site may drop as a result.

I could understand it for guests but why are logged in users subjected to it? There are no other forums I use regularly that embed adds in the middle of the page like this. Talk about a kick in the face to the loyal users.

I can think of things worse: news sites regularly play flash ads that hover directly over their articles, and you normally have to sit through them before they will choose to vanish and let you read what you wanted to in the first place.

By comparison banner adds in the thread is only about as annoying as some people's signatures. Tolerable evil.

TheChrisD

Overheal wrote: »

By comparison banner adds in the thread is only about as annoying as some people's signatures. Tolerable evil.

Problem with that comparison is that users can choose to disable all signatures.

Boards.ie: Neil

TheChrisD wrote: »

Problem with that comparison is that users can choose to disable all signatures.

you can also choose to turn off the ads too.