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[spatenfloot]

I just had a new problem.

Got served an ad that I am really interested it.
And I can't click on it. It is unresponsive.

Lose-lose situation right here.

Just Google "Russian brides" and you should be able to get there.

 

[EviLore]

So, just a heads-up, can't make any real adjustments until tomorrow because gromph is stuck without proper internet access until then and the mobile layout is extremely esoteric in how it functions (anything desktop-side I can make changes to myself without any issues but need a sysadmin for pushing updates to mobile at the moment), so any wonkiness right now is not functioning as intended, any ad quality problems introduced today are a known issue and will be dealt with ASAP, and all the further testing of different ad placements and sizes that was intended to take place on an ongoing basis this week had to be put on hold until tomorrow too. Sorry for any inconvenience.

 

[Pokemaniac]

Seems my Wii U is getting the same types of ads as my phone now, rather than full desktop banners like it had yesterday. The full desktop banners were definitely preferable,

 

[BumRush]

So, just a heads-up, can't make any real adjustments until tomorrow because gromph is stuck without proper internet access until then and the mobile layout is extremely esoteric in how it functions (anything desktop-side I can make changes to myself without any issues but need a sysadmin for pushing updates to mobile at the moment), so any wonkiness right now is not functioning as intended, any ad quality problems introduced today are a known issue and will be dealt with ASAP, and all the further testing of different ad placements and sizes that was intended to take place on an ongoing basis this week had to be put on hold until tomorrow too. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Thanks for the follow up!

 

[Blastoise]

Please make Gaf Gold a reality.

 

[teh_pwn]

So, just a heads-up, can't make any real adjustments until tomorrow because gromph is stuck without proper internet access until then and the mobile layout is extremely esoteric in how it functions (anything desktop-side I can make changes to myself without any issues but need a sysadmin for pushing updates to mobile at the moment), so any wonkiness right now is not functioning as intended, any ad quality problems introduced today are a known issue and will be dealt with ASAP, and all the further testing of different ad placements and sizes that was intended to take place on an ongoing basis this week had to be put on hold until tomorrow too. Sorry for any inconvenience.

As a developer ops software engineer I totally get it. I've sent similar notifications to my internal clients. Thanks for hosting gaf all these years with minimal ads. Without it we'd probably be left with purely sponsored drivel.

 

[dity]

So, just a heads-up, can't make any real adjustments until tomorrow because gromph is stuck without proper internet access until then and the mobile layout is extremely esoteric in how it functions (anything desktop-side I can make changes to myself without any issues but need a sysadmin for pushing updates to mobile at the moment), so any wonkiness right now is not functioning as intended, any ad quality problems introduced today are a known issue and will be dealt with ASAP, and all the further testing of different ad placements and sizes that was intended to take place on an ongoing basis this week had to be put on hold until tomorrow too. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Thank you!

 

[Parakeetman]

So, just a heads-up, can't make any real adjustments until tomorrow because gromph is stuck without proper internet access until then and the mobile layout is extremely esoteric in how it functions (anything desktop-side I can make changes to myself without any issues but need a sysadmin for pushing updates to mobile at the moment), so any wonkiness right now is not functioning as intended, any ad quality problems introduced today are a known issue and will be dealt with ASAP, and all the further testing of different ad placements and sizes that was intended to take place on an ongoing basis this week had to be put on hold until tomorrow too. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Good to know and much appreciated as for whatever reason now the bottom large banner has turned into doing animated garbage...

Thank you for the constant updates and interaction with us users.

 

[PetriP-TNT]

I laughed at "people not on facebook?"

Okay now I am getting paranoid here it's freaking me out

 

[EviLore]

Pushed the intended adjustments to the fat rectangle. It's now above the bottom navbar instead of awkwardly wedged between there and the footer, and we put in line breaks above and below it so that it's much less ambiguous against the content and better buffered against any accidental clicks and such. And centered again. Looks a lot cleaner to me and less distracting/disorienting, but open to feedback.

 

[Syrus]

Wow wtf

 

[Unspeakable Evil]

Now it looks like the Ads are in the thread or somehow the last poster posted the ad.

 

[Frustrated_me]

Pushed the intended adjustments to the fat rectangle. It's now above the bottom navbar instead of awkwardly wedged between there and the footer, and we put in line breaks above and below it so that it's much less ambiguous against the content and better buffered against any accidental clicks and such. And centered again. Looks a lot cleaner to me and less distracting/disorienting, but open to feedback.

It's incredibly jarring.

I get that this is a business, and you need to pay the bills, but man these new ads are god awful. The ads are going to push people into Adblock.

It's as if someone is posting the ads within the threads.

 

[Pokemaniac]

Pushed the intended adjustments to the fat rectangle. It's now above the bottom navbar instead of awkwardly wedged between there and the footer, and we put in line breaks above and below it so that it's much less ambiguous against the content and better buffered against any accidental clicks and such. And centered again. Looks a lot cleaner to me and less distracting/disorienting, but open to feedback.

Can you make it so that they change based on the screen size again? The normal desktop banner type stuff looked a lot better on my Wii U.

 

[HUELEN10]

Anyone mind screenshot ting the newest mobile ads? I am on iPad with Desktop GAF ATM. Nothing changed on that front at least.

 

[DietRob]

Ads at the top look fine now. It's the ads at the bottom that are 3/4 of the page. Or is that how it's been? Not on mobile much.

 

[HUELEN10]

Was able to get my phone...

Yeah... When you tap the go to bottom button on the top bar and you can't fully see the last post, then that is not ideal.


It just takes up an excessive amount of space on smaller handsets.

 

[dity]

Gonna be honest, there is one thing that kind of bugs me on mobile gaf and I've been trying my best to ignore it but it does bug me a little: When you go to the newest replies, and the page anchors on the latest reply but then gets pushed up by the big bottom advert loading. Or the latest reply is on the bottom of the page and most of the page is the advert (like, the username and the top half of the post are scrolled up off the page). Kind of screwing with my mobile browsing experience. Not sure if anyone else feels similar.

 

[Pokemaniac]

Gonna be honest, there is one thing that kind of bugs me on mobile gaf and I've been trying my best to ignore it but it does bug me a little: When you go to the newest replies, and the page anchors on the latest reply but then gets pushed up by the big bottom advert loading. Or the latest reply is on the bottom of the page and most of the page is the advert (like, the username and the top half of the post are scrolled up off the page). Kind of screwing with my mobile browsing experience. Not sure if anyone else feels similar.

I have noticed that it occasionally doesn't load to the right spot, but that's been happening since well before the ads changed.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

Was able to get my phone...


Yeah... When you tap the go to bottom button on the top bar and you can't fully see the last post, then that is not ideal.


It just takes up an excessive amount of space on smaller handsets.

This is the first time I've ever felt ads on GAF have made my browsing experience a lesser one. It's annoying to touch the button that takes me to the very bottom only to not be able to read the last post because of the huge ad.

The slightly bigger ad on top I don't mind at all though.

 

[HUELEN10]

Prior screen was misleading, it's even worse.

Why? Because unless you scroll manually all the way down, Safari menus appear. In other words, it's essentially a full screen ad on some smaller devices now.

This is the first time I've ever felt ads on GAF have made my browsing experience a lesser one. It's annoying to touch the button that takes me to the very bottom only to not be able to read the last post because of the huge ad.

The slightly bigger ad on top I don't mind at all though.

I have absolutely no beef with the top one. I understand and agree with Evillore on having to beef up mobile ads to still keep the site ad-based, and I am glad they are taking feedback, but the effectively full screen ad on the bottom is excessive IMO.

 

[gcubed]

id rather have ads between posts, or small banners that follow you when you scroll vs that bottom ad

 

[Slayer-33]

Gotta admit Tyler, the bottom ad has taken some getting used to but it's getting there. With that said it is fairly distracting but masterfully placed.

I totally get why these are being placed down there.

id rather have ads between posts, or small banners that follow you when you scroll vs that bottom ad

I think that TOTALLY ruins the gaf experience. That would be horrendous.

 

[HUELEN10]

Gotta admit Tyler, the bottom ad has taken some getting used to but it's getting there. With that said it is fairly distracting but masterfully placed.

I totally get why these are being placed down there.

Is yours effectively full screen?

 

[Slayer-33]

Is yours effectively full screen?

Sorry had to stop using the phone for a bit.

I personally don't mind if I keep seeing cars, I love cars lol..

 

[Radec]

id rather have ads between posts, or small banners that follow you when you scroll vs that bottom ad

That's even worse than what we have now.

 

[Newtype-001]

I wonder how these ads are targeted.
I got a Cbeebies ad telling me to watch Teletubbies.

 

[HolyCheck]

The real agenda here is against the humble blackberry user! Lol

 

[KNT-Zero]

Guys....get the hint.

Click.On.The.Ad.

 

[Sniffynose]

The real agenda here is against the humble blackberry user! Lol

Lewl same! My BlackBerry Passport is crying >_<

 

[Roberto Larcos]

Lewl same! My BlackBerry Passport is crying >_<

Imagine how it would look on a landscape slider!

 

[M3d10n]

I'll admit, the ads are a lot more relevant for me now, even if a bit repetitive. I'm even getting ads for stuff in my city, instead of utterly random crap.

 

[Yagharek]

The real agenda here is against the humble blackberry user! Lol

Haha I thought I was the only one with a blackberry

 

[cws]

Its okay if the ads are high res - but i hate it when they load up some low res ad - just looks like crap compared to the rest of the screen.

 

[HolyCheck]

Lewl same! My BlackBerry Passport is crying >_<

Haha I thought I was the only one with a blackberry

 

[BumRush]

Pushed the intended adjustments to the fat rectangle. It's now above the bottom navbar instead of awkwardly wedged between there and the footer, and we put in line breaks above and below it so that it's much less ambiguous against the content and better buffered against any accidental clicks and such. And centered again. Looks a lot cleaner to me and less distracting/disorienting, but open to feedback.

To be honest, it feels mostly the same as a couple days ago. But I'm already quite used to it and its part of keeping the site free so it's really fine.

 

[Ban Puncher]

Got my first ever pop-up ad and redirect to some shady rewards site whilst browsing NeoGAF on mobile.

 

[Transistor]

So, just a heads-up, can't make any real adjustments until tomorrow because gromph is stuck without proper internet access until then and the mobile layout is extremely esoteric in how it functions (anything desktop-side I can make changes to myself without any issues but need a sysadmin for pushing updates to mobile at the moment), so any wonkiness right now is not functioning as intended, any ad quality problems introduced today are a known issue and will be dealt with ASAP, and all the further testing of different ad placements and sizes that was intended to take place on an ongoing basis this week had to be put on hold until tomorrow too. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Izayoi]

GAF has become almost unusable on mobile for me, these ads are crushing my bandwidth.

 

[Acerac]

GAF has become almost unusable on mobile for me, these ads are crushing my bandwidth.

It's a shame, I have all avatars and gifs turned off for this reason.

If I can't use gaf on mobile any more it is what it is, but paying for a monthly subscription to gaf gold to not get these ads would be cheaper than paying my provider for the sole purpose of loading these ads.

 

[Parakeetman]

Honest opinion is the larger intrusive ads are going to cause more people to just look for adblockers for their mobile devices rather than actually making any sort of use with the ads in general.

Others will have issues similar to what I was getting last night with the larger ad being animated. Even the top one was too, which is not appreciated at all when it comes to data usage. Thankfully today been monitoring it and did not get those back yet.

Totally understand the need for ads which is no problem as mentioned before since the previous sizes were fine, but the odd increase in size do not see that as really being something that is going to help...

Am the same as with others who mention they have avatars / gifs turned off on mobile.

 

[MechDX]

I honestly dont mind the ads because I know they create revenue but this morning I keep getting security warnings on Android from them. Im talking like 2-3 warnings when I load a new page.

 

[StarCreator]

GAF has become almost unusable on mobile for me, these ads are crushing my bandwidth.

Per EviLore they are supposed to be 150KB maximum per ad. Is your mobile data plan such that this is a huge burden? Most avatars take up more bandwidth than that.

As currently implemented, these units should be serving pure first party Google only, nothing funky, and Google's Adwords file size limit is stated as 150KB maximum regardless of the ad unit's dimensions or media type (including if it's html5, it looks like?), as far as I can discern from theirAdwords policy info doc. They have separate policies for ads served on Youtube and so forth, but that shouldn't apply here.

 

[Parakeetman]

Per EviLore they are supposed to be 150KB maximum per ad. Is your mobile data plan such that this is a huge burden? Most avatars take up more bandwidth than that.

So does that include animated ones? Since the stuff I was seeing last night could not have been just 150KB.

Other stuff today yeah. Since most of them look like someone did them up in MS Paint. Turned off targeted advertising with google so imagine that is helping.

 

[HolyCheck]

Per EviLore they are supposed to be 150KB maximum per ad. Is your mobile data plan such that this is a huge burden? Most avatars take up more bandwidth than that.

You can turn off avatars.

 

[NCR Redslayer]

Oh god the ads are starting to play videos.

 

[HUELEN10]

Oh god the ads are starting to play videos.

Yeah noticed this too.

Evillore, I believe in whitelisting to support sites I love, many here do because wa want to see GAF have a long, fruitful life, but video ads are concerning because they do interrupt the user experience and cost bandwidth. Problem with many mobile content blockers is that you can whitelist sites, not blacklist specific ads. I am afraid that ads like these could actually push people to remove GAF off their whitelist entirely.

Again, while I don't like the ad model, I understand that that is how GAF is run, and that's fine. I understand the need for the ads, and the reasons why they needed to be revamped for the modern mobile web. That being said, mobile video ads and effectively full screen ads take away from the user experience, and could drive people to content blockers, actually causing more harm than good.

You Say you are open to feedback, so how about this...

Required login every 48 hours. This gives a chance for 3 of those big from each user every week plus adds a layer of security.

No bottom ad at all.

A yearly paid option not in excess of 12 USD to get rid of login requirement AND gives paid members a 200 posts per page view option. Those who are gonna content block the small ads will do it regardless, but you would get some revenue you otherwise might not. A good example would be 4chan Pass buyers who then choose to block some of the banners.

I say this is a fair compromise, and helps cut down on driving people towards content blockers, while improving the community and user experience.

 

[Parakeetman]

Im still trying to remember what the bottom animated ad was from 2 days ago.

Know the top one was for the smartphone game Final Fantasy Record Keeper. Bottom one must have been another smartphone game. Since those stopped since I turned off the targeted marketing stuff.

 

[Evo X]

I keep getting ads for the dealership where I bought my car last month. Stop targeting me, I already bought from you and don't have plans to buy another one anytime soon. Lol

I'd pay a fee for an ad free browsing experience. Only reason I have a YouTube Red subscription.

 

[EviLore]

Yeah noticed this too.

Evillore, I believe in whitelisting to support sites I love, many here do because wa want to see GAF have a long, fruitful life, but video ads are concerning because they do interrupt the user experience and cost bandwidth. Problem with many mobile content blockers is that you can whitelist sites, not blacklist specific ads. I am afraid that ads like these could actually push people to remove GAF off their whitelist entirely.

Again, while I don't like the ad model, I understand that that is how GAF is run, and that's fine. I understand the need for the ads, and the reasons why they needed to be revamped for the modern mobile web. That being said, mobile video ads and effectively full screen ads take away from the user experience, and could drive people to content blockers, actually causing more harm than good.

You Say you are open to feedback, so how about this...

Required login every 48 hours. This gives a chance for 3 of those big from each user every week plus adds a layer of security.

No bottom ad at all.

A yearly paid option not in excess of 12 USD to get rid of login requirement AND gives paid members a 200 posts per page view option. Those who are gonna content block the small ads will do it regardless, but you would get some revenue you otherwise might not. A good example would be 4chan Pass buyers who then choose to block some of the banners.

I say this is a fair compromise, and helps cut down on driving people towards content blockers, while improving the community and user experience.

HUELEN-chan, I'm a little busy at the moment to hold an international business summit with you over the two IAB-standard, heavily category- and filetype-blocked, basic Google ad banners currently utilized on the website, but I'm sure Siri would be happy to discuss your proposal extremely soothingly.