Video Ads

[Anonymous]

They pop up and block whatever is in the lower right hand corner of the screen. Safari. Closing them doesn't get rid of them. Will not continue coming back if that continues.

[Anonymous]

I came here to post how Keanu is driving me crazy. Then I saw this thread. It’s big and annoying and I get it was his birthday. Honestly, I never noticed the video ads until this one. Something about the huge happy birthday message everywhere is driving me insane.

But if this is making you money for kids in college, do what you need to do. This site is free and you need revenue.

[Anonymous]

I would prefer that they were at the bottom of the page not in the middle of all the posts. I thought it just be a post about Keanu.

[Anonymous]

I also hate how the ads show up in the bottom corner as you scroll down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They pop up and block whatever is in the lower right hand corner of the screen. Safari. Closing them doesn't get rid of them. Will not continue coming back if that continues.

+1. Pop up ads are very 1999.

Done, bye.

[Anonymous]

If they didn’t move and jump all over the screen (just stay on top or bottom) I’d say they are just fine. But this up, down, middle, up, down… is annoying. I’d give it a 4.5/5.

[Anonymous]

The advertisers have their finger on the pulse of dcum desires with Keanu. I'm on a browser that just shows his picture in the middle, no videos. Maybe try a new browser.

[Anonymous]

I’m not a developer and don’t know if this is possible, but could we watch a short ad before we post or reply? That way people could still be anonymous and you could still get the drop in users. I’m one of your addicts and it wouldn’t affect my scrolling. I could deal with that better.

I’m thinking of Citation Machine that my kids use for school. They put in all their info to get their MLA citations but then to see it they need to watch an ad each time if they are not a paid member.

[Anonymous]

so annoying- this might be what breaks my DCUM habit.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ad between the first few headers in recent and same position in threads would be ok if it remained static. Scrolling up moves the ad out of view. Once out of view it pops down to bottom right. Can everyone confirm this is what they see?

This is the expected behavior.

These were the other two options I posted.
There’s still a lot of white space on left/right sides. Can you fill in that vertical top to bottom? Amazon dictates a maximum # of ads on the vertical sides?

Lastly, have you thought about offering premium pay to opt out of ads? Can we register or subscribe for payment but remain anonymous posters? Can we throw money at the problem to go add free?

When I was testing these ads in our development environment I originally put them on the side as you suggest. However, I learned that Google prohibits this. Google has a lot of surprising rules. Strictly speaking, these ads don't come from Google so I could ignore them. But, so many of the companies that provide the ads use Google and follow their rules. So, we would lose many of the ads we would get otherwise.

Regarding premium services in which users play for ad free environments, it is complicated by the desire for users to remain anonymous. This would require that users register and, currently, our registration system doesn't work all that well. I could have a setting that keeps "anonymous" as the username for logged in users that desire it, but that requires adding a field to the user table in the database to track whether "anonymous" or the regular username is used. Anything that involves changing the database is difficult because it can't be tested in a live environment and involves a certain amount of risk of breaking things. We would also have to have a payment system and a method of tracking who paid and when the period the payment covers expires. All of that is an administrative headache.

12:45 again. I get it. Payment systems have come a long way, but I think our collective minds here can help. The tricky part is anonymity in tandem with tracking payment history.

From the responses here most are ok with a fixed ad plopped wherever. The jumping videos are a beast. Tapping X is a 50/50 trap and I don’t have fat fingers. Ok the vertical space is out. I may have mentioned this in the other beta thread about the bottom scroll. DCUM logo is very prominent at the top. We had fun a while ago playing with a new design and acronym. I suggested DCUP DC Urban Parents, but I digress. Would you consider reducing the logo size and aligning left? Place a video ad that’s static on the right?

In the beta thread, I pointed out that there is quite a bit of usable space. Some of us here with background knowledge could play with a template. It really depends on whether or not you have discretion on the size, shape, and placement of ads. It’d be like Tetris. Are your you soliciting advertisers or are they contacting you directly? With the number of colleges in DC, digital marketing/communications students would jump at a remote fall internship. They’re wizards. Just a thought.

[Anonymous]

Would it be possible to analyze the type of services, brands and products frequently discussed on DCUM and solicit similar businesses for advertising? People might click on a fixed ad if it interested them.

[Anonymous]

I get migraines and can’t handle these video ads. I’m going to take a break from this site site for a week and then come back to see if you have stopped the video ads

[Anonymous]

Long time lurker and occasional poster.

These video ads are horrendous.

I already hated the heavy handed moderating, but these video ads are huge turnoff.

[Anonymous]

If you are trying to drive away viewers, congratulations. Well done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:so annoying- this might be what breaks my DCUM habit.

This. Jeff, it is REALLY bad. Make it stop, please.