OK, this is going too far (Ad Placement)

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: extro
The first time I saw the ads, I went "whoa, what's different?"

I'm already used to them. And they're obviously working if they've gotten all the cheapskate Linux users pissed off.

Windows XP using IE here. Dunno why you assume its linux people who are concerned. Most websites look the same in most alternative browsers if that's where you are coming from.

 

[Paulson]

So zuni nor anyone important has addressed this issue?

Jeez.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: Devistater

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: maladroit
any way to hack out this nonsense in ie?

Somewhere in preferences you can point it to a user defined stylesheet I believe, save the css I posted and point IE to that file, it probably won't work 100% how it should, but it may be enough to get rid of the ads.

Or you can try out that program called proximatron I think it is.
http://www.proxomitron.org/

It can stop popups and tons more. Basically all html is sent through it first before it hits IE (actually before it hits ANY browser you use). That way it can change HTML as its coming in. You could set it to change the HTML of the ad similar to what they are saying for mozilla.
Its a great little program, give it a try. Some of the cooler features: Makes blinking ads stop blinking (or maybe just blink once). You can tell it to control midi music that gets loaded by html. It can stop webpages from autorefreshing (dang I hate those that do). It can unhide URL's that are blanked by a scrolling thing in the status bar at the bottom of IE. If you are security/privacy concious you can have it change the stuff you send back to sites like what browser you use, what resolution what operating system, etc.

Basically you can have it change or not change any HTML that comes into your computer before it hits your browser.

Better yet its free, no nagware, no timelimited stuff nothing like that.

Checking it out.

Days of :wine: and

 

[GenerationYscorpio]

ya the new ads blows bad

 

[DerwenArtos12]

it is really not that big a deal you guys just need to relax. just ignore them. plus who the hell knows maybe you can find a good deal on there and they can save you some money. just move on and stop your b!tching.

 

[element]

The left is not just gauche, it's downright sinister...

who was it that said that?

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12
it is really not that big a deal you guys just need to relax. just ignore them. plus who the hell knows maybe you can find a good deal on there and they can save you some money. just move on and stop your b!tching.

Thanks for your input, newb.

 

[c]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12
it is really not that big a deal you guys just need to relax. just ignore them. plus who the hell knows maybe you can find a good deal on there and they can save you some money. just move on and stop your b!tching.

Thanks for your input, newb.

Lol ouch.

 

[MedicBob]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12
it is really not that big a deal you guys just need to relax. just ignore them. plus who the hell knows maybe you can find a good deal on there and they can save you some money. just move on and stop your b!tching.

Thanks for your input, newb.

LOL, ouch is right.

Anyway,

Right sided ads would be better if we have to have sidebar ads. Follow my logic here, most people are right handed so they look to the right more frequently, hence the ads would get more exposure there, on the right.

Too bad it has come to this, placing ads in the oddest places. It bothers me and I frequent here less, but not alot less, then before.

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12
it is really not that big a deal you guys just need to relax. just ignore them. plus who the hell knows maybe you can find a good deal on there and they can save you some money. just move on and stop your b!tching.

Thanks for your input, newb.

owie. that hurt me Oldsmaboat. You going for this year's best Red Dawn?

I want something to be said by Anand. I need to know if I am going somewhere else or not. It has been a week. Lets go, come on. If they are gonna stay, fine. let us know so we can make an informed decision on whatever the outcome will be.

 

[Led Zeppelin]

Heh, if they were looking for a way to get rid of me, this is the way to do it. I've noticed since they put the ads on the left hand side, I've stopped here maybe two times, and I'm sure I'm not the only one spending less time here. If they're looking for a way to drive people away, good job, you've succeeded. What kind of retarded web designers do they have working for them anyway?

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: Evadman

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12
it is really not that big a deal you guys just need to relax. just ignore them. plus who the hell knows maybe you can find a good deal on there and they can save you some money. just move on and stop your b!tching.

Thanks for your input, newb.

owie. that hurt me Oldsmaboat. You going for this year's best Red Dawn?

I want something to be said by Anand. I need to know if I am going somewhere else or not. It has been a week. Lets go, come on. If they are gonna stay, fine. let us know so we can make an informed decision on whatever the outcome will be.

Amazingly, RD hasn't posted in this thread. Someone has to pick up the slack.

 

[Krugger]

Originally posted by: ness1469

Originally posted by: c

Originally posted by: Moralpanic If your principles are so high, then PAY and keep this site alive. $2.50 is pocket change for you, but in large enough numbers for them, that's something. Support a site you frequent often.

You just don't get it. Our principles are why we won't pay that $2.50. Not all of us just bend over when faced with an erect p*nis. Meaning I disagree with their tactics and I will not submit to a hind quarters intrusion. I'll not subscribe and just bitch whenever the opportunity arises or the ads will get moved to a different side and that will be the end of that. If I subscribe it will be beacuse members are offered something I find useful or because I want to support the site. This AT strategy is counter productive.

A) You've been here for 57 posts. Shut up. B) "Because you want to support the site" is exactly what ads and subscribing do. If you don't care about the site, then why should we care about your comments? C) Stop acting tough, it's not working out.

sorry, this post just bothered me. yes, these ads suck, and take up maybe a 1/6th of my screen with white space. i've stopped browsing the forums for the most part since.
A) you know, it looks like c's been here twice as long as you, so what if you have 10 times more posts. post count is worthless.
B) he's saying he's not gonna subscribe just b/c they put the ads in a bothersome place, just to get rid of them.
C) from reading this thread you seem to be acting just as tough as this guy.
i know much else has been said before and after, but those comments bothered me. those of us who hate this new arrangement and will not subscribe simply to avoid the issue have a right to be heard. there has been no reasoning for why the ads need to be on the right, rather than up top somehow. i've never seen a forum that has it like this, and has all this wasted space on each side.
also, it's similar to when the forums got really slow, and then the subscribe for faster forums option arose...
-Krugger

 

[Lord Evermore]

Well, you don't really have a right to be heard if the admins don't want you to be. If you don't like it, you don't have to visit the site, and that is entirely the point of ad-supported sites. If the site is important to you, you support it by viewing the ads, or you pay money. You can suggest that the ads are annoying, but the only real way to do anything about it is to show that they're so annoying you won't visit the site anymore. Saying it over and over and over and over and making the same suggestions about how to fix it isn't going to help.

 

[Ness]

Originally posted by: Krugger

sorry, this post just bothered me. yes, these ads suck, and take up maybe a 1/6th of my screen with white space. i've stopped browsing the forums for the most part since.
A) you know, it looks like c's been here twice as long as you, so what if you have 10 times more posts. post count is worthless.
B) he's saying he's not gonna subscribe just b/c they put the ads in a bothersome place, just to get rid of them.
C) from reading this thread you seem to be acting just as tough as this guy.
i know much else has been said before and after, but those comments bothered me. those of us who hate this new arrangement and will not subscribe simply to avoid the issue have a right to be heard. there has been no reasoning for why the ads need to be on the right, rather than up top somehow. i've never seen a forum that has it like this, and has all this wasted space on each side.
also, it's similar to when the forums got really slow, and then the subscribe for faster forums option arose...
-Krugger

And what does that show? For all we know, he could have registered, never come to the place, then stumbled upon it again last week and started posting.

In this particular case, post count shows your level of activity on the boards. If I were an admin, I'd be more likely to give benefits to the people who are more active on my board, rather than the people who seem to drop by once or twice a month. Post counts show people that they have been interacting with others and stimulating the community aspect of the board. Everyone's input is valuable, and doing something other than looking or at least posting a "I disagree" or a "thanks" helps acknowledge that people's voices are being heard. Normally, no, post count is just another number in the world.

I'm not acting tough. I'm presenting evidence of my point of view while C is doing nothing but talking about being anally raped. It's piss poor logic for you believe the two are even comparable.

 

[Aso]

Just add this to your host file and then you dont see the adds but the whitespace is still there
127.0.0.1 pagead.googlesyndication.com

I find the adds annoying and they should be on the right side not the left.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Gee, nobody's suggested THAT one before. And I'm sure the admins don't care about people advocating and explaining how to block ads.

 

[Krugger]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
Well, you don't really have a right to be heard if the admins don't want you to be. If you don't like it, you don't have to visit the site, and that is entirely the point of ad-supported sites. If the site is important to you, you support it by viewing the ads, or you pay money. You can suggest that the ads are annoying, but the only real way to do anything about it is to show that they're so annoying you won't visit the site anymore. Saying it over and over and over and over and making the same suggestions about how to fix it isn't going to help.

that's silly, everyone should be heard, but i think you were joking there a bit. i understand about the ads being important, and i have no problem with ads themselves. my problem is that the actual text of the msgs have been shrunk down to about 50% of the screen, after taking into account the white space on both sides and the box with the avatar/info.
cap
how does one show that they're so annoying as to not visit anymore? basically i only visit now to check this thread/see if anythings been said/done/changed. and, if a large percentage of users continuously complains and suggests the same fix, than maybe it will have an effect.

Originally posted by: ness1469
<FONT size=2>And what does that show? For all we know, he could have registered, never come to the place, then stumbled upon it again last week and started posting.
In this particular case, post count shows your level of activity on the boards. If I were an admin, I'd be more likely to give benefits to the people who are more active on my board, rather than the people who seem to drop by once or twice a month. Post counts show people that they have been interacting with others and stimulating the community aspect of the board. Everyone's input is valuable, and doing something other than looking or at least posting a "I disagree" or a "thanks" helps acknowledge that people's voices are being heard. Normally, no, post count is just another number in the world.
I'm not acting tough. I'm presenting evidence of my point of view while C is doing nothing but talking about being anally raped. It's piss poor logic for you believe the two are even comparable.</FONT>

it was an expression. one in poor taste, but an expression, and when i said you were acting tough i was simply referring to A) where you basically said i have 500 posts you have 50, so shut up and go away. that was all. maybe he just has a busy life/job/family and doesn't feel the need to post much. i agree post count usually means nothing, but still even in this case i don't think NFS4's complaint should mean more than mean even though he has a crapload more posts. thats all.
-Krugger

 

[Chartec]

I can't believe so many people that have been getting something for nothing (This forum for free) can bitch so much when the forum needs to do something support itself and continue to be free. Too many people want everything given to them for nothing these days.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
Gee, nobody's suggested THAT one before. And I'm sure the admins don't care about people advocating and explaining how to block ads.

Blocking ads is just plain wrong.

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: Aso
Just add this to your host file and then you dont see the adds but the whitespace is still there
127.0.0.1 pagead.googlesyndication.com

I find the adds annoying and they should be on the right side not the left.

Thats what proximatron is for (see my earlier posts in the thread on this page or maybe page 8). Take out the whitespace easy

 

[damonpip]

Seriously people, you act as though you own the site. Anand provides us we a great FREE forum, and does his best to get a tiny bit of money from the ads (ads nowadays are SH!T and pay next to nothing, not like 3 years ago when you could make a fortune simply from ads.) And the people with "principles" that instruct them not to pay to use a GREAT site?? WTF is up with that? The internet obviously can't stay free forever, ads are near useless nowadays, and there's really no other way to make money with a site like AT. How about this, lets say there's 10,000 ACTIVE members on AT, and all of them pay $2.50 a month. So the revenue would be 300,000 a year. That's really not a whole lot of money to pay for the AT staff salaries, as well as hosting and servers. I have no idea what the amount the make on the ads is, but I'd guess, that even with all the ads they have, they can hardly pay for their hosting and servers. And to anyone who thinks that the site should be totally free, give some good reasons. There's no reason why you should be able to come here and get free computer help, a free FS/T forums, free discussion forums, free reviews, and everything else. All that's worth A LOT more than the 2.50 a month you can pay to receive it, ad free.

 

[Crimson]

Along the same lines of Anand owns this forum, and he is free to do what he wants with it... People also own their computers and internet connections, and are free to do what THEY want to them as well.. and I think this includes the right to block or prevent ads from appearing if we so choose. Just as people have the right to view free TV, record it on a VCR, and skip the commercials. I think its morally and legally perfectly OK for people to block such ads.

People need to remember that Anandtech has long since moved on from the Geocities free web page that it started on, its a business now. Consumers are under no obligation to insure that Anand continues to make a profit.. Its up to Anand to provide content people are willing to pay for.. People who block ads are unlikely to be buying from these businesses advertising anyway, so really there is no harm done. If Anand feels this is unacceptable, he should be offering up more "Services" in order to entice people to subscribe, or completely remove the free areas if he thinks he can survive doing that. How many subscribers do you think Anandtech would have if there were no free message boards? I don't think very many.. The content provided by people using the service for free probably far outweighs any advertising revenue that Anand makes from the ads.. ie, I would venture to say he has made more money off the content provided here for free by members (Through people subscribing because of that free content) than any Google ads.

Personally, I ignore the ads.. But the left side one IS annoying..

 

[Lord Evermore]

If you're using the service, and disabling the ads, then you're stealing.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
If you're using the service, and disabling the ads, then you're stealing.

So If I use TIVO and eliminate the commercials I am also stealing?