Full page adverts

[Rys]

Hi all,

Google are asking if Beyond3D would like to run full-page ads, so I'm soliciting feedback from the users before enabling them (or not!).

They cover the entire viewport, are always skippable immediately with no wait period, and preload the page you wanted to see in the background so the content you were looking for is right there as soon as you dismiss it.

The pay off for the site is a higher rate for those ads. The payoff for you is almost non-existent, other than supporting the site.

So, shall I go ahead and turn them on and give them a go? I can always disable them if the feedback is negative, but I don't want to turn people away entirely.

As always, if you don't want to see the ads, feel very free to run an ad blocker here to remove them entirely, and if you're feeling generous there's always the subscription and donations we have, where all subscription plans come with no ads anywhere on the site, even the $5/yr one: https://forum.beyond3d.com/help/subscribe-and-donate/

 

[eastmen]

can you disable the full page for mobile ? I'm fine with ti on the desktop but on mobile it may kill data

 

[AlNom]

hum... maybe.

Can we do a trial run for a couple days?

 

[Grall]

It's too bad that ad pay seems inversely proportional to the amount they annoy viewers. Truly strange, really.

I'd say "no" to full-screen ads because stuff that pop up on top of content is always really irritating, but since it's for a good cause I will agree. You being a reasonable man, I'm sure that if they get too obnoxious we could always turn them off again.

...They better never ever play any sound though. I fucking hate ads that play sound.

 

[I.S.T.]

I already have to put up with that shit from every news site ever, and now it's coming to forums?

Fucking christ.

 

[Kaarlisk]

New I already have to put up with that shit from every news site ever, and now it's coming to forums?

Yes. The difference is, these are from Google. So they may way less obnoxious than the full page ads we have now. And if Google's full page ads do take off, there is hope that they will replace some way more obnoxious ads that are there already on sites that do use full page ads. Or at least that sites that do introduce full page ads introduce Google's well tested ads, and not some homegrown implementation.

 

[AlNom]

DOAX ads, here we go!

 

[PixResearch]

Did the donations and subscriptions not cover the web hosting?

 

[Malo]

I already have to put up with that shit from every news site ever, and now it's coming to forums?

Fucking christ.

Spend $5/year and get no ads at all?

Fucking Christ

 

[Rys]

Did the donations and subscriptions not cover the web hosting?

The recurring monthly payments fall just short, but there are usually a couple of one-offs to make up the difference. So yes, but barely. Not enough that I'd switch ads off, but we're getting there slowly but surely.

 

[Rys]

I already have to put up with that shit from every news site ever, and now it's coming to forums?

Fucking christ.

I still haven't decided what to do, so it's not set in stone that I'll enable them. Could just do it for people who aren't logged in, for example. And honestly, I understand your reaction: web advertising is obnoxious, invasive and a pretty dreadful way to pay for stuff online.

 

[Grall]

web advertising is obnoxious, invasive and a pretty dreadful way to pay for stuff online.

As long as the ads show content relevant to the site; PC hardware, mobile devices, software, games and so on, then it's not so bad. B3D often has super irrelevant ads on my end though, not sure why Google's algorithms can't do a better job... Right now, the bottom banner is for a mobile phone contract for a Samsung Galaxy J5 (no idea what phone this is), so that's alright. It's relevant content.

The top banner is an ad for a Swedish auctioning site similar to ebay, with a generic "meet this 80s pop star celebrity who's still desperately trying to remain a celebrity almost 30 years later" message stamped across it. Not really tech related, so not relevant. Still, it's not HURTING me. It's not affecting my browsing experience, it's not playing noise or popping up random moving graphics across my screen (another thing that's terrible, but fortunately not common on the interwebs anymore to my knowledge at least.)

So it's also okay-ish. It would be better with something tech/gaming related though.

 

[AlNom]

CGIS Valve manufacturing is probably the wrong valve for the site.

 

[orangpelupa]

If the full screen ass does not contain videos or NSFW contents, I'm fine

@Grall you probably has opt out from Google targeted ass.

It's somewhere on the Google account settings.

 

[London Geezer]

Just pay, people!

For me personally, B3D has been the only forum I've used in the last - holy crap it's 14 years??? - and given the amount of time I spend on here, and more importantly the amount and quality of information (which I do my best not to lower too much with random innuendos here and there), it's a complete no brainer.

 

[I.S.T.]

Spend $5/year and get no ads at all?

Fucking Christ

Honestly I don't because I figure over the course of the year my ad views will make the site more money. I could spare the five bucks easily, I just think I'd be cheating the site.

Unless my guess is wrong, in which case I'll sub next month(tl;dr can't this month because of family related fuckery)

 

[Florin]

Those full page ads aren't pretty but I'm not too concerned. If the increase in revenue would be noticeable then sure why not.

 

[AlNom]

Just pay, people!

For me personally, B3D has been the only forum I've used in the last - holy crap it's 14 years??? - and given the amount of time I spend on here, and more importantly the amount and quality of information (which I do my best not to lower too much with random innuendos here and there), it's a complete no brainer.

Beaver dollars are worthless these days.

 

[Rys]

The revenue per person is minuscule. Even $1/regular user/year would be a huge boost over the current ad revenue.

 

[PixResearch]

Honestly I don't because I figure over the course of the year my ad views will make the site more money. I could spare the five bucks easily, I just think I'd be cheating the site.

Unless my guess is wrong, in which case I'll sub next month(tl;dr can't this month because of family related fuckery)

If a website user generated $5/year in ad revenue then I suspect none of us would be working and instead we'd all hosting websites full of click bait!
I'd assume you could visit the site for 10 years before you matched that $5 contrib.