New Ad Format Coming to Mac-Forums

ki99 · May 16, 2008

i'm actually perfectly fine with this kind of ad. ads don't get annoying 'till you need to click them to stop them being annoying (especially those ones that open right on the the page [flash ads maybe?] and you can't even read the information) i would say, stay away from sound, and any sort of pop-ups, and i will continue to use, and love this forum.

as for the paid membership, i'm a poor teenager, so i couldn't pay, but if i could, i would. all i can say is if you do decide to do it, please add features to the payers, and not take any features we have now away from non-payers.

Kash · May 16, 2008

If it's that annoying, do what the other members here did. Install adblock on either Safari or Firefox. There's no need to whine about it when there's a perfectly reasonable solution.

dtravis7 · May 16, 2008

I have no problems so far with the ads. Only thing that happened the first day they went up is I thought it was the end of the message!

Once I realized they were the In-Line adds, I just kept scrolling down and all was fine.

CL33Zero · May 17, 2008

If they were just wider, and shorter. And didnt take as much scrolling. Whats so wrong with making them shorter and wider? Like putting the top banner ads there in the place of the new ones. These just seem obnoxious. If the site needs a little money, then fine, but do the dang things need forty thousand inches of margin to top it off? It just looks unprofessional is all. And for whoever starts a thread it just screams I AM THE THREAD POSTER!

schweb · May 17, 2008

CL33Zero said:
If they were just wider, and shorter. And didnt take as much scrolling. Whats so wrong with making them shorter and wider? Like putting the top banner ads there in the place of the new ones.

As I stated a few times already, there was a need for square ads that size as requested by a few advertisers. So another rectangular banner ad doesn't do it. If it did, we would have just used the spots we already had.

baggss · May 17, 2008

Well, just another reason to not spend as much time here.

Tanner31593 · May 17, 2008

So, does this adblock thing really speed up the loading times of the pages?

Kash · May 17, 2008

Like you wouldn't believe

PapaNoHair · May 17, 2008

Yes it speeds it up for me. I love it. I have it on Safari since, for me, Safari runs quicker.

schweb · May 17, 2008

BTW, I've reported the ads loading slowly at times and someone will be looking at it.

Noels · May 17, 2008

If you use Firefox, like I do, instead of Safari, the Adblock is called Adblock Plus and it gets rid of all the graphics on the page. Not only ads, but icons, reputations and all the other neat design features that make Mac-Forums look nice. So I just disabled Adblock Plus and have learned to live with the ads.

Noel

mudpuppy · May 17, 2008

Noels said:
If you use Firefox, like I do, instead of Safari, the Adblock is called Adblock Plus and it gets rid of all the graphics on the page. Not only ads, but icons, reputations and all the other neat design features that make Mac-Forums look nice. So I just disabled Adblock Plus and have learned to live with the ads.

Noel

That"s strange it only removes the adds for me all else is still there.

Noels · May 17, 2008

mudpuppy,

I had to edit my initial post here -

I ended up having a problem with the Firefox version of Adblock... I can't get it to delete/hide any of the ads. Adblock Plus got rid of everything so I disabled it. Now after I installed Adblock in Firefox i can't seem to get it to delete/hide any ads.

Anyone have any advice for me vis-a-vis Adblock?

Noel

mac0s9user · May 18, 2008

Bah! Ad blocker takes care of it, Give it a shot. The revenue will eventually benefit us I am sure

mac57 · May 18, 2008

I will join this fray. I find these new ads atrocious, simply atrocious. Like many posters, I would gladly pay an annual fee for a completely ad free version of Mac Forums. These new ads are an enormous step in the wrong direction.

I make it a point of NEVER, EVER clicking through on any ad that appears on ANY site, and that includes Google searches (unless of course the sponsored link is the ONLY one that looks reasonable, and that rarely happens). I am nearly outraged by the insidious intrusion of advertising into every facet of modern life. I express that outrage by doing my absolute best to ignore it all, and will NEVER reward an advertiser by following their links. Even if I am interested in a product, I will open a fresh Google (or other) page to find the manufacturer's home page and start from there.

I am perhaps bordering on the lunatic fringe in this behavior. In addition to web based ads, I have pretty much ceased to listen to commercial radio and/or watch commercial TV, all for the same reason. In the case of radio and TV, the ads are even once step worse - not only are they intrusive, but they are intellectually offensive as well. They play to the lowest common denominator and treat the audience as if they were idiots. I simply will not stand any longer for this constant assault upon my (limited) intellect, and have taken steps to deliberately tune it out wherever it is encountered.

Ditto for the ads here at M-F (and elsewhere). So far, this new form of ads isn't bad enough to force me away, but it is truly annoying. I will make it a point to never, ever click one of these things. That would be rather like clicking on a link in a spam email - it will only encourage more of the same.

PapaNoHair · May 18, 2008

mac57 said:
I will join this fray. I find these new ads atrocious, simply atrocious. Like many posters, I would gladly pay an annual fee for a completely ad free version of Mac Forums. These new ads are an enormous step in the wrong direction.

I make it a point of NEVER, EVER clicking through on any ad that appears on ANY site, and that includes Google searches (unless of course the sponsored link is the ONLY one that looks reasonable, and that rarely happens). I am nearly outraged by the insidious intrusion of advertising into every facet of modern life. I express that outrage by doing my absolute best to ignore it all, and will NEVER reward an advertiser by following their links. Even if I am interested in a product, I will open a fresh Google (or other) page to find the manufacturer's home page and start from there.

I am perhaps bordering on the lunatic fringe in this behavior. In addition to web based ads, I have pretty much ceased to listen to commercial radio and/or watch commercial TV, all for the same reason. In the case of radio and TV, the ads are even once step worse - not only are they intrusive, but they are intellectually offensive as well. They play to the lowest common denominator and treat the audience as if they were idiots. I simply will not stand any longer for this constant assault upon my (limited) intellect, and have taken steps to deliberately tune it out wherever it is encountered.

Ditto for the ads here at M-F (and elsewhere). So far, this new form of ads isn't bad enough to force me away, but it is truly annoying. I will make it a point to never, ever click one of these things. That would be rather like clicking on a link in a spam email - it will only encourage more of the same.

I get the distinct impression you don't like advertising. ;D

mac57 · May 18, 2008

Nooooo....... what gives you THAT idea???

Actually, inspired by all the other posters, I have just found, downloaded and installed AdBlock 0.3.2 for Safari. So far, so good. No ads at all - I am liking this!

mac57 · May 18, 2008

I should soften my comments ...just a little. Some level of advertising is always appropriate for a place like M-F. These forums provide a service, and the provision of that service costs money. Servers, staff, maintenance... Advertising allows M-F to offset costs. I was actually OK with the ads along the top and sides of the threads. They annoyed me to be sure, but I recognized the unfortunate necessity of them. They did not IMPOSE themselves upon the reader and could be ignored if the reader chose.

To be completely honest, when I wanted additional memory for my new Mac Pro I started with Crucial, directly because of their ads here at M-F. In keeping with the above however, I went directly to Crucial's web site vs. clicking through!

The new intra-thread ads impose themselves. It is nearly impossible to ignore them as they are right there in the middle of the threads you wish to read and participate in. I think that this is why they are provoking such invective.

eliehass · May 18, 2008

mac57 said:
I should soften my comments ...just a little. Some level of advertising is always appropriate for a place like M-F. These forums provide a service, and the provision of that service costs money. Servers, staff, maintenance... Advertising allows M-F to offset costs. I was actually OK with the ads along the top and sides of the threads. They annoyed me to be sure, but I recognized the unfortunate necessity of them. They did not IMPOSE themselves upon the reader and could be ignored if the reader chose.

To be completely honest, when I wanted additional memory for my new Mac Pro I started with Crucial, directly because of their ads here at M-F. In keeping with the above however, I went directly to Crucial's web site vs. clicking through!

The new intra-thread ads impose themselves. It is nearly impossible to ignore them as they are right there in the middle of the threads you wish to read and participate in. I think that this is why they are provoking such invective.

I agree, the regular ads I can deal with, but ads in the MIDDLE of the forum? Thats too much! And like I said before, I very much enjoy this forum and would be willing to donate.

PowerBookG4 · May 18, 2008

I wouldn't mind the ads in the middle of the forum that much, if....

they were not the most random things ever. What if they actually had something to do with the thread, or even something to do with macs.