Huge mobile ads

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My phone is so old that I only get the old ads! Then again I only use it for checking these forums during downtime or listening to podcasts.
 
EviLore said:
This initial test deployment is pretty much following Google's current suggested mobile layout for minimum user experience impact at maximum ad efficiency. The obnoxiously sized rectangle ad is specifically there *only* because it's in the footer out of the way of everything of relevance and therefore not actively contaminating user experience. Looking at the live metrics so far, people only even see fat rectangle ~20% of the time because it's out of the way of the content, yet despite that it vastly outperforms the leaderboard ad that has 100% visibility at the top of the page. Because it's one seriously fat ad, which matters disproportionately more when it is seen. Three of those regular leaderboards -- one in the current spot, one just below the first post, and one after the content -- would most likely turn out worse than the current setup of one leaderboard + the fat footer rectangle, and the leaderboard trio would arguably be more obtrusive overall since you'd always hit the first one still, also always hit the second one below the first post, and hit the third one about as much as the fat-rec.

The current test run is not the only way of setting things up, and further testing and tweaking can be done until solid conclusions are drawn about what the ideal balance is with the available options -- I'm not going to officially deploy an ad layout that I can't live with constant exposure to myself, mind you -- but this Google-suggested setup makes solid sense after you get over the whole "holy shit this rectangle thing is so fat" shock angle (which I experienced too). It's not something you're scrolling past 100 times a session to get to content or to change pages or anything, though. This is the main reason I didn't dismiss it outright as ludicrous and awful. It is legitimately out of the way. Could also potentially add a line break or some such beneath the footer navbar and the fat-rec so that it's less visually disorienting when there's an open-ended visual flow between the rectangle's visuals and the navbar, which has briefly messed with my perception a couple times so far.
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Word, I appreciate the elaboration on the process behind the change. I'm sure I'll get over the shock value of the ads, I've been browsing gaf for a good few years now so I'm sure any change would cause some disdain to myself and many other users. With that being said... The giant rectangle at the bottom is still a bit unsightly, and its in between two useful toolbars. Of course the more useful of the two, the new reply, refresh, and next page buttons are above the ad, which is cool. Still the subscription and scroll to top buttons are below and it's far too easy to hit the ad when I just want to get back to the top of the page. Maybe with time I'll readjust my muscle memory but I still feel like some slight tweaks (such as your linebreak suggestion) would facilitate better browsing while still allowing for more visible ads.
 
MechDX said:
I'm.Getting shirtless men with rock hard abs.

/looks down at my gut

Feels bad man. :(
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lol, was thinking the same thing. Shirtless men and freaking BB Priv on android ads over and over.

Not the end of the world, but you need to always scroll by it to click on the Neogaf icon to get back to the thread lists.
 
One more small gripe. After posting a new reply the page that loads up centers almost directly onto the ad and not your post. Hitting the scroll to bottom button does the same.
 
EviLore said:
The reason is me. ;b

I feel it's unethical to accept straight donations when the site is a business. Research a good charity with high percentages toward meaningful action like UNICEF and donate to them; you'll potentially save someone's life, an infinitely more appropriate donation. Further, I've met many hundreds of NeoGAF members and they're almost universally great people, enthusiastic, loyal, and would support the site in a heartbeat if asked or often if simply just *allowed* to, regardless of what their bank statements look like, and as such I have a personal responsibility to not take advantage of that good will and reciprocate it as best I can, since I'm in an extremely privileged position as founder/owner/operator of NeoGAF by comparison. Gaffers have kept my pint glass full, given me a place to crash, shown me around their city, cooked me dinner, and plenty more. If I'm going to accept any money from a member of my community then they damn well better get something worthwhile in return or it's not happening at all. That's non-negotiable.

As far as the other thing, part of the design philosophy of NeoGAF is to put the community on even ground with each other as much as possible and keep the emphasis on the strength of your argument and the body of your evidence, rather than the number of upvotes or donation stars or VIP emblems or post count or whatever bullshit attached to your account. I'm firmly against that typical forum hierarchy social status crap. Hell, it took years before I relented and felt it necessary to identify the moderation team with red names, even, and more like a decade after the fact before I openly labeled myself as the owner of the site on here. If GAF Gold gets implemented, it'll be such that moderators won't even know if you are or not when they decide whether to ban you. If they're second-guessing when they wouldn't otherwise, that's harming the site. Basically, I'm an absolutely huge pain in the balls.
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got chills reading that, fuuuuu
invoker-gdlk.gif
 
I wouldn't mind the large ads if they weren't pictures of cougars and disease-ridden old people.
 
Neogaf is a free site. It needs to gain revenue somehow and it seems these modernized ads are the way forward. Don't understand why people complain, when it's a free service. They aren't even intrusive.
 
This has really made me fucking angry. At least twice today I clicked on an ad. They take up half the screen now, literally.

Fuck after this post another came up. Make that 60% of the screen.
 
TheWorthyEdge said:
This has really made me fucking angry. At least twice today I clicked on an ad. They take up half the screen now, literally.

Fuck after this post another came up. Make that 60% of the screen.
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It makes you angry that at the bottom of the page, you see a big ad when it's not even in the way of content? Entitled rage.
 
I think the huge ads are hilarious. I wish that annoying as fuck Windows paperclip guy would just be able to follow my cursor around pitching me ideas for Amazon or something too.
 
EviLore said:
I believe you; that sort of thing can often happen in some particular international ad markets where quality control standards can get ignored entirely. If you'd like, PM me your country and any specifics you can about the malicious ads you're getting (screenshot, or destination url in particular is the main way to target them) and I'll try to get it sorted out for you. By all means, though, if we're serving you malicious ads consistently and we're the only site doing it (meaning it's unlikely to be a virus or something), that's not cool for you to endure, not my intent whatsoever with the advertising presence on the site, and I've taken every feasible measure to prevent bad ads from being served on NeoGAF, so seriously just adblock NeoGAF at that point. You're having a very atypical but seriously messed up experience with our ad serving that I don't want you to have to deal with in order to enjoy the site.
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I'm in Australia, but if I ever do encounter one again I will PM you with the details (rather than making a thread). For the record though the audio advert was when I was using desktop gaf at the time. I made a thread at the time I experienced it. Considering it only got a single response it must have been a pretty rare event for what it's worth.
 
I was wondering what that giant space was. I don't actually see any ads. Maybe because all my ads in Japanese, but they don't use any of that size.
 
Fraull said:
It makes you angry that at the bottom of the page, you see a big ad when it's not even in the way of content? Entitled rage.
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The same thing happened to me. The page hadn't completely loaded but naturally the ad had. When thinking I clicked the gaf home button I instead clicked on a 4 row height ad.

Can I live with it? Of course.

Are ads that tall really necessary? Probably not.
 
The header ad is fine, it's a bit bigger but it really doesn't get in the way. The footer ad though is obnoxious.

It is far too easy too easy to accidentally click on.
 
I'm not quite getting over it myself. Kind of too perpetually aware of its flagrant dimensions to ignore it or accept it. Screws with the cohesion of the layout, and I don't want to integrate an ad that enormous into the content area if possible since that'll probably be too actively disruptive. It could hypothetically work between first and second post but that'd add a lot of extra scroll to the beginning of each thread, which I'd rather avoid.

The relevant data from this trial should become accurate enough to be useful by tomorrow, and from there I'll try a different ad layout with just the smaller units integrated in the theme more seamlessly, and compare the numbers and aesthetics to the first attempt and get another round of feedback on user experience, and we'll continue as necessary.
 
liliththepale said:
I'm still getting mini ads on iPhone 5s for some reason.
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It's currently set up as dynamic ad code that displays whatever's appropriate for your device's resolution. Tablets get desktop banners, and the iPhone 5 and 5S don't qualify for the "Modern Smartphone" ad sizes. ;b
 
Looks fine on my tablet. Phone is where it's super ugly and visually offensive.
 
Being on a 5s I got the smaller ads. Although many times the bottom ad is blank and I don't use Adblock since I stuck with ios 7.
 
Like, these are kind of weird. They didn't have to be that large.
Fq3mu2gl.png


But then again, the Windows Phone 8.1 browser doesn't count as "modern", so at least it excludes me from getting the big ads everyone is complaining about. Even though the size of everything else looks the same.
 
EviLore said:
I'm not quite getting over it myself. Kind of too perpetually aware of its flagrant dimensions to ignore it or accept it. Screws with the cohesion of the layout, and I don't want to integrate an ad that enormous into the content area if possible since that'll probably be too actively disruptive. It could hypothetically work between first and second post but that'd add a lot of extra scroll to the beginning of each thread, which I'd rather avoid.

The relevant data from this trial should become accurate enough to be useful by tomorrow, and from there I'll try a different ad layout with just the smaller units integrated in the theme more seamlessly, and compare the numbers and aesthetics to the first attempt and get another round of feedback on user experience, and we'll continue as necessary.
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I'm guessing its not possible to just smack it in the middle? At the bottom is really annoying to me, since I usually just read the latests posts of subscribed topics on the mobile site. If it was in the middle, you could scroll by it, and have it out of view for any topic more than a few posts long.
 
EviLore said:
I'm not quite getting over it myself. Kind of too perpetually aware of its flagrant dimensions to ignore it or accept it. Screws with the cohesion of the layout, and I don't want to integrate an ad that enormous into the content area if possible since that'll probably be too actively disruptive. It could hypothetically work between first and second post but that'd add a lot of extra scroll to the beginning of each thread, which I'd rather avoid.

The relevant data from this trial should become accurate enough to be useful by tomorrow, and from there I'll try a different ad layout with just the smaller units integrated in the theme more seamlessly, and compare the numbers and aesthetics to the first attempt and get another round of feedback on user experience, and we'll continue as necessary.
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Honestly, if the "down" button on the top of a thread on the mobile site auto-scrolled to the last post on the page instead of simply the bottom of the page, I'd be cool with the giant ads. I don't know if I'm making any sense.

I know everyone asks you this in every single one of these threads, but have you considered an ad-free premium membership? I think a surprising number of people would bite for a monthly thing. Of course, the price might not make sense, profit wise. You might be making lots more with just ads than removing them for certain users for a monthly fee.
 
Drkirby said:
I'm guessing its not possible to just smack it in the middle? At the bottom is really annoying to me, since I usually just read the latests posts of subscribed topics on the mobile site. If it was in the middle, you could scroll by it, and have it out of view for any topic more than a few posts long.
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Ads in the middle of threads can fuck right off. As it is the ads are just an eyesore and slight inconvenience. Mid-thread ads actively tamper with the browsing experience.
 
I support it. Make money I use this site for free and it gives me countless hours of enjoyment so use all the adds you want. Just no middle screen ones :)
 
I would be up for a supposed Gaf Gold, but at the same time I would be extremely salty if I got an auto renewal and that same day I got banned because I did something stupid.

Considering the responses I've seen sometimes around here, I could easily see you getting hit with a lawsuit unless you button up the terms of someone donating money up front. You probably would get hit with a lawsuit even then and then all of a sudden you would have to defend a mods discretion.
 
Eh, I don't think lawsuits from salty banned people is a big issue. Paying for GAF Gold wouldn't entitle you to ignore the rules of the site any more than paying for a movie ticket would entitle you to piss all over the seats. This is especially true if the membership was just to turn off ads, something that could remain in place even if your posting privileges were turned off. (In theory, anyway, I'm not sure how that would work with the forums's permissions system on a technical level)
 
I've clicked the huge bottom ads by accident 4 times now. That's 2 more than what I clicked the entire 2015. lol
 
Feedback: No problems on my iPad 2 (iOS 7) so far. The ads are bigger than before, but nothing serious.

It's kinda hilarious that google mostly offer me ads for a Vodafone mobile Internet flatrate, seeing as how I'm currently switching carriers away from them.

Thankfully no videos or Russian wives or any of that stuff, but I've been pretty anal about purging my tracks (private browser windows as default new tab, frequent automated cookie and history wipes, opt-outs etc), so I guess google can only serve me the most basic non-targeted ones. At least that's what I'd like to think. Hope springs eternal etc pp.
 
The only problem I have with them is that they make me feel bad with what I get targeted with.
 
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