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Advertisement Blocking Banner Discussion and Feedback
MikeB
Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
Hi guys,
In a couple of minutes here we'll be pushing live a banner at the very top of the site that will only show to those who have not whitelisted us in their ad-blocking browser add-ons.
As you may know, our continued existence depends entirely on advertising revenue. Unfortunately, we've found that a significant portion of visitors are using advertisement blocking add-ons that end up blocking ads here on the site. The new banner will be launched alongside an ad policies page that clearly outlines our strict policy towards the types of ads and ad content we allow on the site.
Why are we doing this?
While we do depend on advertisement revenue, we understand (and also hate) disruptive and annoying web advertisements. This is why we've always taken extra care to only allow ads relevant to you while also restricting ourselves from utilizing some of the more annoying types of web ads you may have had the displeasure of experiencing elsewhere. Maintaining that balance between our need for ad revenue and our visitors' desire for a positive user experience is extremely important to us.
With that in mind, the new banner and policy page are being launched to educate adblocking visitors of the efforts we make to maintain this balance and how blocking ads may negatively impact our ability to provide you all with the free service and content you enjoy from us on a daily basis. With this information in hand, we're also asking these visitors to consider adding us to their whitelists.
This thread has been created to allow you the opportunity to discuss the new banner and provide us with constructive feedback. Discussion of this subject outside of this thread will be locked and redirected here.
TL;DR: We're not going to stop you from blocking our ads, but we'd greatly appreciate it if you didn't! Please go over our ad policies and consider putting us on your whitelist. 
Thanks for your understanding!
Comments
I'm sorry, unblocking ads is simply not an option for me. To many issues can arise due to these flash ads. My computers safety is saddly a great deal more important to me.
If it costs me this site, so be it
Same here. If it costs me this site, so be it.
You know if it's just the flash that's causing issues for you guys you can use a flash blocker instead. That's what I usually do and you can whitelist single sites if you want to. I like to support sites I go to but on my lower end machines for example gaggles of flash ads can freeze the whole PCs the regular image ads aren't usually the issue.
There have been some very annoying ads in the past. The specific type of ad I can think of are bright flashing ads that really interfere with me when I'm trying to read something.
I don't block the ads, but I wish certain types of ads would be excluded from your allowable list so that we could read the content here without getting an epileptic seizure.
It does not matter if you click the ads. We sell ads based on impressions, not clicks/results. So even if you don't click the ads you hurt our entire site by running a blocker. Running adblock on a site that supports itself with advertisements is no different than downloading pirated movies, music or video games. You are in a sense stealing our content that we work hard to create and pay to an entire team to create.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
Thanks a ton for whitelisting us and for the kind words! We appreciate it!
I have adblock, however it only blocks the smaller ads. That massive ad you have at the back of each page is still present. So yeah you're still getting your advertising revenue, but you have the gall to plaster this thing at the top of my screen anyways?
Attatched a screenshot to show you what i mean, how is this fair? Seems to me you just want to milk as much as you can at our expense.
Well...I am not a pirate and I don't appreciate being called one by an admin.
I appreciate you guys being upfront about this. To be honest I visit this site fairly regularly and enjoy reading articles from you guys, so I will start making it a habit of clicking ads once in a while. Besides, I don't see any more Roman Orgy ads so I figure I owe you one
This more than security loopholes made me start blocking this site. I'll whitelist the site but any adverts that flash at me I'll be right clicking and blocking on an individual basis.
We cannot support our website on the background skin ad along Gennerall. Some months we only sell this unit to about 15% capacity. The one stable source of revenue has always been banner type advertising which is what most of our sales come from.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
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Before you do this please contact me personally ([email protected]). Part of our policy is that we don't allow excessively flashing/annoying ads. Note that many of the ads on our site come through a network and are not directly sold by us - so we don't know about these annoying ads until we see them just like you. When I sell ads directly to companies I do not allow ads that I feel are over the top annoying. Thank you for your feedback!
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
Will do
This is an option we are considering. If we do this it will only be to disable ads - we won't give any special member benefits like other sites do with special access to beta keys, etc. We really want to keep the site 100% free to all users.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
I will whitelist you, but please be careful about what ads you are placing where.
You currently have a animated advert for SMITE which is like a blinker. Yeah ok its lightning, but that flashing brightly everytime I click or reload a page is very off putting.
I would rather look at 20 static ads on a page with my article, than 2 flashing 'attention grabbers' alongside my text.
Also, thanks guys for the interesting reads.
@Meddyck: We're not trying to annoy you. This site's content, game conference visits, hosting, bandwidth, and so much more all cost money. Lots more than you'd expect. The site simply would not exist, not would any gaming site really, without ad revenue. There IS no other way to support sites of this size. Plus, I mean, it's not like we can charge a subscription. Everyone knows F2P is the new trend.
(This is a joke, btw.)
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Thats all I'm really asking for is an option to remove ads. I enjoy reading the debates and the news features on this site, there are plenty others out there which fullfill my other needs. Keep us updated and thanks for the great work here!
And a site like yours shirivels up and dies if it does not have a committed community. Its very much a two way street.
Might want to think hard about that before throwing around these kinds of accusations.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
This is a tough one. I have a feeling that having others whitelist the site is not exactly going to help. I mean, sure, it will help a little - but there is a general feeling that I have that it goes far beyond that. I never really paid attention to the actual numbers up there:
Members:1,834,180 Online:190
Guests:2,389 Posts:5,143,681
But it feels like there are fewer people. To an extent, I base that off of the almost complete lack of discussion about MoP in comparison to the discussion that took place back with Cata. The site feels very unfriendly to the WoW playerbase, and there isn't the discussion one might expect to be taking place as if they were here.
To an extent, it goes beyond that. While each new game/expansion that came out tended to result in an increased amount of posts regarding that, there's been nothing like what we've seen with the GW2 crowd. In almost any discussion of other games, you can find the GW2 crowd trolling those sections. It's hard to discuss things without somebody coming in and chirping in that the game sucks and would be much better if it were GW2.
So with the mass of constant GW2 threads - which was expected - and the addition of the GW2 trolling invasion of other games - which was not expected... the already trolled into oblivion WoW players....
...well, there's just that feeling that the traffic here is not what it was.
Well, unless you check out Alexa and see that for at least a 3-month period that the site has been in decline...
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