Get rid of "in post" ads?

[fluX]

I'm not even gonna start actually...

You're all being incredibly unreasonable. The ads aren't earning that much but they're essential to make sure this place can carry on running and improve in the future.

If you have any questions in relation to the ads, please feel free to ask.

ok, if they earn you NOT MUCH than why the heck are you using them?

I do not know where this site is hosted (UK?) but IMHO these ads touch the right to freedom of speech, which should be valid in your country as well. Sorry for being so blatant but that's how I see it. You are turing opinions into ads and that without permission of the poster. If that's how you treat 'authors' ....

 

[OCybrManO]

I setup a filter for this website using my proxy, it just cleans out that bit of html in the posts. I wasted 30 minutes of my life getting it to work, that's how annoying those ads are.

Can we pretty pretty please go back to banner ads? Or at the least, can you change the colour/style of the ad links, so it's easy to tell them apart from real links? (in firefox & in IE)

thanks very much

That's a bit extreme considering that you can block them with Firefox and the adblock extension in a matter of seconds...

ok, if they earn you NOT MUCH than why the heck are you using them?

I do not know where this site is hosted (UK?) but IMHO these ads touch the right to freedom of speech, which should be valid in your country as well. Sorry for being so blatant but that's how I see it. You are turing opinions into ads and that without permission of the poster. If that's how you treat 'authors' ....

I thought I should point out that you don't have freedom of speech on a privately owned web forum.

 

[Revenge]

I don't have a problem with advertising with a few exceptions. Pop unders are the worst because they shift your focus to the webpage that spawned them, even if you were messing about in windows explorer or ms paint or whatever, though pop ups are equally annoying.

I don't mind seeing these dynamic links through out various articles on webpages, but when something I write is modified into an advertisment, I can't help but feel a little put off. Atleast I can avoid writing a post in a manner that stops the moderators from having to edit out my rule violations. It's a bit hard to write your post in a way that avoids using any word that has ever been used as a name of a movie or game.

It get's especially annoying when you are asking somebody "How do I spawn headcrabs?" and the link comes up for the spawn movie. It's completely out of context and non-sensical.

 

[fluX]

That's a bit extreme considering that you can block them with Firefox and the adblock extension in a matter of seconds...

I thought I should point out that you don't have freedom of speech on a privately owned web forum.

Right, that was no juridical, but an 'ethical' comment. So no lawsuit around the corner....

 

[fluX]

That's a bit extreme considering that you can block them with Firefox and the adblock extension in a matter of seconds...

Need instructions on this (Firefox advanced ad blocking).

Could you help?

thx...

 

[OCybrManO]

Well, I probably shouldn't be telling people how to disable forum advertisements that help contribute to the cost of running HL2.net. If the mods want the instructions gone they can delete them... but since they didn't say anything when I did it the last time I guess they don't mind too much. Anyway, if you have the adblock extension installed press Ctrl+Shift+P to bring up the preferences... type or copy *vibrantmedia.com* (with the asterisks) into the text entry box... and click the Add button. Voila.

 

[StarMonkey]

My personal opinions are that the banners are fine - most sites these days have banners.

I'm against the links in posts because I feel that it's forcing people to endorse things which they have no control over. It does seem to me to be morally wrong.

 

[fluX]

Well, I probably shouldn't be telling people how to disable forum advertisements that help contribute to the cost of running HL2.net. If the mods want the instructions gone they can delete them... but since they didn't say anything when I did it the last time I guess they don't mind too much. Anyway, if you have the adblock extension installed press Ctrl+Shift+P to bring up the preferences... type or copy *vibrantmedia.com* (with the asterisks) into the text entry box... and click the Add button. Voila.

Thank you!
For those of you who do not have the adblock extension: Navigat to Firefox menu -> Tools -> Extensions -> Get more extensions -> <ALL> -> Adblock.

 

[EVIL]

banners are fine by me (have lived with them for years so why bother) text links, dunno what to think of it.

 

[diluted]

I think having your own words/thoughts/opinions turned into advertisements against your will is offensive, but I took the advice of several forum members here and installed that adblock thing in Mozilla and added vibrantmedia.com to the block list, so I guess I won't be seeing those stupid ads anymore anyway.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

I keep clicking them thinking they are links

 

[Baal]

Please do...they're so retarded.

There's plenty of better ways to generate revenue.

 

[epmode]

the in-post ads are the worst things ever. i spent the last 30 minutes running adware sweeping programs before realizing that it was built into the site itself.

please. for the love of god. get rid of the in-post ads.

 

[smacky]

This is so ****ing stupid, having banners on your site to keep it running is understandable but turning peoples posts into advertisements is just wrong. i have blocked all ads on hl2.net now with firefox because of this rude way of earning money.

 

[Parasite]

They dont care about the community, so long as we pay thier bills. It is absurd for this too last this long in spite of what the community thinks. Despite how any one individual might feel about the ads, the fact that 80 of 100 of us (and imo at least 80% of us on the whole) feel the ads should be removed, should provoke the mods to do the appropriate and responsible thing, and remove the ads.

But I do think it says something of the staff here to insist on using not only the rudest, most intrusive method of advertising, but arguably one that is morally wrong in many peoples eyes. This is the one form of advertising that actually offends the users and forces them to not only be subject to the ads, but do the ****ing advertising themselves against thier will! But then again...what better way to tell your users "**** you, your opinions dont matter"

 

[The Dark Elf]

I don't get it, why are you all still complaining? I haven't seen an in post ad in days now

 

[Adrien C]

Does this have to to with the Virus warning by norton ?

 

[Parasite]

I don't get it, why are you all still complaining? I haven't seen an in post ad in days now

Congrats, you must have ad block. They dont seem to appear in this forum, but then again noone really uses the buzz words here either. They are all over the HL2 forum.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Congrats, you must have ad block. They dont seem to appear in this forum, but then again noone really uses the buzz words here either. They are all over the HL2 forum.

yeah got adblock, blocking the regular ads, didn't realise I'd managed to actually block the in post ads too hehe cool!

I say we have more in post ads and banners then haha

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

They dont care about the community, so long as we pay thier bills. It is absurd for this too last this long in spite of what the community thinks. Despite how any one individual might feel about the ads, the fact that 80 of 100 of us (and imo at least 80% of us on the whole) feel the ads should be removed, should provoke the mods to do the appropriate and responsible thing, and remove the ads.

But I do think it says something of the staff here to insist on using not only the rudest, most intrusive method of advertising, but arguably one that is morally wrong in many peoples eyes. This is the one form of advertising that actually offends the users and forces them to not only be subject to the ads, but do the ****ing advertising themselves against thier will! But then again...what better way to tell your users "**** you, your opinions dont matter"

Tinfoil hats all round, then.

Munro owns the site.

Munro runs the site.

Munro makes decisions regarding advertising.

Lambasting the moderators isn't going to do a damn thing. Nor do we get any revenue from the advertising.

 

[B.Calhoun]

They dont care about the community, so long as we pay thier bills. It is absurd for this too last this long in spite of what the community thinks. Despite how any one individual might feel about the ads, the fact that 80 of 100 of us (and imo at least 80% of us on the whole) feel the ads should be removed, should provoke the mods to do the appropriate and responsible thing, and remove the ads.

But I do think it says something of the staff here to insist on using not only the rudest, most intrusive method of advertising, but arguably one that is morally wrong in many peoples eyes. This is the one form of advertising that actually offends the users and forces them to not only be subject to the ads, but do the ****ing advertising themselves against thier will! But then again...what better way to tell your users "**** you, your opinions dont matter"

Morally wrong? LMFAO! get Ad blocker or use firefox, do soemthing and stfu.

You got an issue? Grab a tissue.

 

[Yuri]

My personal opinions are that the banners are fine - most sites these days have banners.

I'm against the links in posts because I feel that it's forcing people to endorse things which they have no control over. It does seem to me to be morally wrong.

I agree with Starmonkey. I don't care about the banners, how many banners there are, and how annoying they are. I'm used to that. I don't like pop-ups, but I have a pop-up blocker, so they don't matter to me.

But ads in the posts themselves, disguised as links? They are the same font and style as someone posting a link, so I usually end up clicking them, thinking they linked somewhere. Now I've stopped and hover over them, and it is quite annoying...

I really don't understand why HL2.net went from practically ad-less (which I wondered about often), to ad-central, giving people popups, banner ads, raping their posts, and even infecting them with spyware. Was it like "oh shit, we didn't make any money for the last year, better make ALL of it now with intrusive and obnoxious ads!"? It's funny, I used to try to regularly click on the google ads to give HL2.net some more money, now I wouldn't dare.

I'll be happy if you just remove the ads in people's posts, none of the other stuff really bothers me.

 

[Parasite]

Tinfoil hats all round, then.

Munro owns the site.

Munro runs the site.

Munro makes decisions regarding advertising.

Lambasting the moderators isn't going to do a damn thing. Nor do we get any revenue from the advertising.

Blah, blah. A good chunk of the people he expects to make this advertising work are offended by his "descisions regarding advertising" and as a result a good chunk of those people are installing software to effectively cease any form of advertising on this site. So basically becaus esomeone is being so anal about holding onto these absurd ads, you are losing potential revenue.

I'd wager most, if-not-all of the people saying "keep the ads" arent clicking them, the people that dont want them certianly arent clicking them and everyone else is blocking them. So they cant be producing that much revenue. It shouldnt be to hard to recognize that the only effect they are having is a negative one. So if the attitude is "Murno makes the descisions regarding advertising" and that descision is to continue using ads that most users detest and are offended by...its not too far off base to assume that "our opinions dont matter". And scince the only effect the ads are having is a negative and disruptive one...a "**** you" cant be too far behind.

 

[Parasite]

Morally wrong? LMFAO! get Ad blocker or use firefox, do soemthing and stfu.

You got an issue? Grab a tissue.

Yeah go back read through this or one of several other threads on the matter and see how many people find it morally wrong. Quite a few.

I cant imagine the mods actually want us to block ads, when this whole fiasco is about producing revenue for the site.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Blah, blah. A good chunk of the people he expects to make this advertising work are offended by his "descisions regarding advertising" and as a result a good chunk of those people are installing software to effectively cease any form of advertising on this site. So basically becaus esomeone is being so anal about holding onto these absurd ads, you are losing potential revenue.

I'd wager most, if-not-all of the people saying "keep the ads" arent clicking them, the people that dont want them certianly arent clicking them and everyone else is blocking them. So they cant be producing that much revenue. It shouldnt be to hard to recognize that the only effect they are having is a negative one. So if the attitude is "Murno makes the descisions regarding advertising" and that descision is to continue using ads that most users detest and are offended by...its not too far off base to assume that "our opinions dont matter". And scince the only effect the ads are having is a negative and disruptive one...a "**** you" cant be too far behind.

I find it incredibly hard to believe that you actually read my post without apparently understanding any of it. Let me try and phrase it in a more subtle way for you:

THE MODS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ADVERTS

That means that you should take it up with Munro. Bleating on about "the mods this" and "the mods that" won't do a damn thing, because:

THE MODS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ADVERTS

So if the attitude is "Munro makes the descisions regarding advertising"...

That's not an attitude, it's a fact. Munro controls the advertising. Once again:

THE MODS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ADVERTS

I cant imagine the mods actually want us to block ads

The mods don't care because:


THE MODS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ADVERTS

when this whole fiasco is about producing revenue for the site.

The mods don't receive any compensation for working on this site. This is partly related to the fact that


THE MODS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ADVERTS

Are we understanding yet?

 

[CrazyHarij]

So.. do the mods have anything to do with the adverts?

Discussing it with Munro doesn't seem to be possible since you can't take it up without him resorting to the dumb b*tch-mentality and meeting you with nothing but sarcasm and ignorance.

Now, tell me, how do I discuss it with him without making myself look like I hate the universe?

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

PM, IRC, Email

All these options are available to you.

 

[Some_God]

They are annoying. Never thought that HL2.net would stoop down to this level. ;(

Even though the mods have nothing to do w/ it.

 

[Parasite]

I find it incredibly hard to believe that you actually read my post without apparently understanding any of it. Let me try and phrase it in a more subtle way for you:

THE MODS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ADVERTS

Are we understanding yet?

ok I understand now sorry...

Anyway, it would seem that part of your responsability as a moderator on a public form would be to relay this type of information to him, and make him aware of our dissatisfaction. Maybe this site works differently, but arent you guys are basically a liasion between the community and the managment as part of your duties?

 

[Varsity]

If I hadn't idly tried to view the forums from a different computer, I would never have even known the things exsisted! I've got this forum section collapsed and adblock on my own rig.

 

[Vinnie_NL]

When I first saw them I thought WTF, I even thought for a moment it was a caused by a new sort of spyware. I don't like it, but I'm used to it now. And it keeps this site alive.

And this way of adverts is better IMO than the methods other sites use, for example Fileplanet has those fullscreen advertisements which interrupt your websurfing and the Filefront site network uses those and popups. As long as I don't see that stuff here I won't complain

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

ok I understand now sorry...

Anyway, it would seem that part of your responsability as a moderator on a public form would be to relay this type of information to him, and make him aware of our dissatisfaction. Maybe this site works differently, but arent you guys are basically a liasion between the community and the managment as part of your duties?

Haha. You obviously view this site as some sort of well-structured corporate monolith.

Munro knows how the staff feel about the ads.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

In post advertising stole Christmas!

I really couldn't care less about this. (Well, I care enough to post this) It seems some people should put things in perspective perhaps. More "intrusive" advertising exists everywhere in out in the big wide world.

 

[Phisionary]

Yes, and I ban those domains in the 'big wide world'.

I don't particularily want to do that to hl2.net :|

Besides, it's one thing to have to visit a site once or twice and be done with it. I check here a couple times a day. If it had popup ads timed to appear every 10 minutes, I'd stop coming.

 

[Dalamari]

I Love The Ads!!!!

If You Remove Them I Will Kill Myself!

 

[The Dark Elf]

*grins at deleted post*

oh my that was funny..

 

[simmo]

*grins at deleted post*

oh my that was funny..

lmao!!

*simmo dies of laughter

 

[Chris D]

/me recovers from heartattack

 

[The Dark Elf]

/me recovers from heartattack

Bet you never underestimate someone again eh? :E hahaha

 

[MiccyNarc]

*huggles FireFox and Adblock*
Pi Mu Rho:
Sigged :thumbs: