Beta ads?

**riccbhard** · August 3rd, 2006, 11:58 AM

What is it with these ads on the Beta site? I find these are the MOST annoying ads I've ever encountered except for Flash ads.

Edit: Stupid Photobucket resized the screenshot.

If you ask me I think this site was better off the way it used to be.

**nixgeek** · August 3rd, 2006, 12:41 PM

I have to agree. Those links that are inline with text are worse than popups.....heck, they ARE popups. I hope this is not a sign of what's to come in MacOSX.com 2.0.

**riccbhard** · August 3rd, 2006, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by nixgeek

I have to agree. Those links that are inline with text are worse than popups.....heck, they ARE popups. I hope this is not a sign of what's to come in MacOSX.com 2.0.

Me either, if this kind of stuff is going to happen to 2.0 I just might have to leave.

**lurk** · August 3rd, 2006, 01:30 PM

Yep, it has driven me off of one of the mac news sites I used to frequent.

**Mobius Rex** · August 3rd, 2006, 03:45 PM

**ScottW** · August 3rd, 2006, 06:11 PM

Calm down everyone.

It is a trial, beta only. As you will notice, they are not on the No Wonder site, in fact, No Wonder is running Yahoo ads, while our current live site runs Google.

So, because it is all beta... and not the main site, it gives some play room to test things out. The only reason I have it up now is to allow the folks who manage that network to fix some issues related to Safari the slowness.

If the ads to stay... they will only be on certain content pages (not forums, main page or site information, pages) but only on pure content pages. Even that, such links may only show for unregistered users. And of course, the VIP option will always remain for no ads at all, including Google, Yahoo or even ads served up from direct buyers.

I like a good "surf" experience as well... and the slowness of the way they load in Safari is intollerable at best.

Ad revenue helps us fund this site and all that it requires to make it be here. If someone gives you the opportunity to make $2 vs $1 for doing the same thing, then you'd be silly not to at least take a look to see if the overall experience justifies the additional income (if any additional, might be less).

Since it is slow on Safari, I will go ahead and remove the contentlinks on the beta site for all logged in users for the time being.

Patience is a virtue.

**HateEternal** · August 5th, 2006, 12:45 PM

I think you guys are over-reacting just a little bit. They are annoying but Scott has has to pay the bills somehow and we all know bandwidth isn't cheap. They aren't really that intrusive, I mean, just don't hover over them. How hard is that? My only major beef is that they slow things down terribly as Scott had mentioned.

No one likes ads, but threatening to leave because of some new ads just seems kind of childish to me.

**Mikuro** · August 5th, 2006, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by HateEternal

They aren't really that intrusive...
...
No one likes ads, but threatening to leave because of some new ads just seems kind of childish to me.

I disagree. Everything about these ads drives me crazy, whether I hover over them or not.

I've already seen them on MacUpdate and MacObserver. If I couldn't filter them with PithHelmet, I would absolutely stop visiting both those sites. That's not a threat; it's just the truth. I'm not a slave to the web sites I visit.

Of course I appreciate the need to pay the bills, but....this is the most offensive type of ad I've seen online, and I'm sure it would hurt the user base (both current and future), so I really hope it's not necessary. To me, it seems like these ads prey on the less computer-savvy in both content and style, and that's not cool for a tech support site.