   Recent adverts on this site....
  OK, I can normally ignore ads on sites, but the ones on gamedev recently are really getting up my nose. I refer to two in particular.The first is a dodgy IQ test with none of the images loading. On dialup this ad also severely increases the loading time of the main site. Plus it just looks TERRIBLE.The second is worse. Much worse. It attempts to install an IE plugin which makes your puter dial a 002 (whatever country that is) number for a direct connection at $1.90 per minute. I assume that from my country (Ireland) that would be about 20 times that price. When you click cancel, another popup tells you you must click YES to access the games...yeesh.... I''m not foolish enough to install IE plugins I dont know, but many people are not that computer savvy and could easily hit "yes" just to get away from the popup. Cue a whopping great phone bill and a connecton to some second rate crap game site.I love this site. I read the forums every single day and have learned an awful lot from it. It saddens me that the site has to resort to such unprofessional measures. If you need cash that badly, why not make some parts of the site subscription only for $1 per month? I would pay - I think most people who are regulars here would pay. Just a suggestion.Anyhow, displeasure registered, moving on...(unfortunately to another site till this one clears up it''s act).RM.   ------------------------------------------------------------Yes. it''''s true, I DO wield the ugly stick. And I see I have beaten you with it before! 
quote:Original post by Ritual MagicIf you need cash that badly, why not make some parts of the site subscription only for $1 per month? I would pay - I think most people who are regulars here would pay. Just a suggestion. They are planning that already.  Although, it really depends on what subscription will get me before I make a decision to subscribe or not ( most likely not ).   -------Andrew PlaneShift - A MMORPG in development.  [edited by - acraig on February 10, 2004 1:06:45 PM];quote:Original post by Ritual Magic  I love this site. I read the forums every single day and have learned an awful lot from it. It saddens me that the site has to resort to such unprofessional measures.I can understand your annoyance, but bear in mind that the staff do not hand-pick the adverts themselves. The ads come via a 3rd party system. The staff here get some control over what is displayed but I don''t believe it''s practical for them to be able to check every advertisement before it appears. [ MSVC Fixes | STL Docs | SDL | Game AI | Sockets | C++ Faq Lite | Boost  Asking Questions | Organising code files | My stuff | Tiny XML | STLPort] ;  I definitely make an effort to remove annoying ads when I see them, and I think I''ve been very responsive in removing annoying ads that people bring to my attention. It''s helpful to me if you can make a note of the clickthru URL for the ad and a detailed description of it. We have 3 different ad networks that we use, so finding the offending ad can be difficult without adequate details.I think that we''ve been pretty reasonable with the number and type of ads that are shown on this site, and we''ve resisted market pressure to use more intrusive forms of advertising. As has been mentioned, we''re actively developing premium memberships and other avenues for us to generate revenue so we can reduce and perhaps eliminate our reliance on bulk ads. 