Stupid Noisy Flash Banners???

I was wondering is it necessary to have flash banners that make repeated sounds over and over and over again...

Its starting to turn into one of them sites that force people to hit the button so the damn thing shuts up, or refresh the page and hope that you dont get another stupid noisy flash banner...

I like ATS because it wasnt like the other places and not noisy, but what is going on. Are you guys selling out or something...

If you need money I think you should try setting up a donation box or something of that nature and put it on the site where you have stats and such. I believe with 20,000 Members and 3000 or so regulars, I am sure if everyone pitched $1.50 we can have this site running.

In closing yes I hate spam in every form, I also really hate noisy banners that force you to do things you typically wouldnt.. I would rather pay my 2 bucks and get rid of stupid noisy flash banners.

[edit on 6/19/2005 by ThichHeaded]

Agreed. Its only happened to me once so far on this site, but I've had the dreaded crazy frog tune blasting away here, not a pleasant experience and unfortunately impossible to silence unless you turn your speakers off. Only happened once, but wouldn't want it to become a common occurance. Already stayed away from one site this month for exactly that reason.

I like ATS because it wasnt like the other places and not noisy, but what is going on. Are you guys selling out or something...

The last time I checked ATS was free for all of us to use and be part of.
But servers cost $$$, these servers must be maintained probably on a daily basis Im guessing. Where do you think that money comes from??
the server fairy?? Nope, Im guessing it comes from advertisements on ATS.

There are probably other cost aswell......not sure tho

Later

Edit: I would pay money too for it to go away, especially that stupid little SpongeBob add....that one pisses me off

[edit on 19/6/2005 by SportyMB]

Originally posted by ThichHeaded
I would rather pay my 2 bucks and get rid of stupid noisy flash banners.

[edit on 6/19/2005 by ThichHeaded]

I agree.

Can't they serve that banner as a session so it only happens once. It is very annoying.

I'd pay $4.00 for it to go away.

It's the lasers that get me. I'll be reading an article, minding my own business, listening to some music on my big speakers, and then PYCHU! PYCHU! PYCHU!, like I'm in the theatre watching Star Wars or something.

It's annoying to say the least.

I think the proble is that ATS has little/no control over what specific ads get dropped or picked up. They contracted an internet banner placement marketing agency, and all ATS knows, in all probability, is how many banners are going up, and where.

The specific content is controlled by the placing agency, and rotated according to their needs, not ours.

So it's a problem in my mind, but apparently not such a problem for the admin that they want to change the format.

They need money to operate, and the excess goes to a good cause, so I'm willing to put up with it if there is no other option. I don't know about y'all, but I LOVE ATS more than I LOATHE advertisements.

So in the end, I'd like to see the situation change, but I'm not going to boycott ATS just to prove a point. I just keep my music lower than I ordinarily would, so as not to invite the loud, obnoxious sound explosions when a banner starts acting up.

I have Norton Internet Security 2005 and its ad blocking function prevents my seeing any of the annoyances.

[edit on 05/6/19 by GradyPhilpott]

The starwars tiefighter ad just digs into my brain...I hate having to hit mute just to finish the article , plus im on teamspeak with a bunch of peeps, hate muting the convo just to finish my reading. and when uve got 15 ats windows up plus related links...arrrrgh which one is it...arrrgh...ive recently offered a 25dollar donation just cuz i hang out here enuff its well deserved considering the bandwidth ive sucked up.... but was told no thanx they got it covered. LMFAO upon original post the tiefighter came up on thread refresh...rofl...speak of the devils

I don't know about y'all, but I LOVE ATS more than I LOATHE advertisements.

Your right WyrdeOne, and when ur right ur right. Ill just keep on keepin on.

[edit on 19-6-2005 by S1LV3R4D0]

the first time I heard ot was a few days ago. I was reading Valhalls thread about the guy on ebays supposed 'bigfoot' pics.
I thought it was supposed to be part of that thread adding bigfoot noises
Really weirded me out how much bigfoot sounded like a Star Wars fighter.
Plus the thread said nothing about 'Bigfoot' sounds, so I was only confused a couple minutes

I have learned I just have to refresh a page to make it go away....easy enough IMO.....ATS needs to generate operation cash anyway. Its not like we don't have the ability to MAKE the sound go awayall by our little selves.

AboveTopSecret.com is serviced by a total of 5 ad networks.

One of them is TribalFusion, which actually represents us to ad space buyers as well as providing networked ads. The banner in question, a Star Wars "game" that clicked through to www.internetopiniongroup.com was actually targeted at our site (meaning the company, Internet Opinion Group, specifically requested ATS in their advertising buy).

I've blocked the ad in our management console with Tribal Fusion. The actual block may take some time.


Advertising, in general, is the only efficient way to provide revenue for a site of our size. We currently require three servers, nearly 1.5 terrabytes of bandwidth, and daily administrative attention to keep everything running properly.

Since about 92% of all ads are seen by guests to ATS, we've always said that focusing on quality posts is always the best "donation" to ATS. Too many other sites of our type have encountered problems as two categories of membership develop when donations are accepted/encouraged: Those who give and expect entitlements or special treatment, and those who don't. It's counter productive to building a collaborative community.


We're sorry for the funky noisy ad. The best way to bring our attention to similar ads is to use the Contact Form, or send me a U2U. We've always blocked such ads in the past.


test

[edit on 27-6-2005 by Theyre Here]

Of course you can use the back and forward buttons until a non-noise making ad pops up.

Man i couldnt see the forest cuz the trees were in my way....duhhhh refresh the page...im a net newb apparently thanx for the quick fix

[edit on 19-6-2005 by S1LV3R4D0]

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
the company, Internet Opinion Group, specifically requested ATS in their advertising buy.

That oughta tell ya something about the kind of quality we've got going here in a more sublime way than 1.5TB. (which is quite impessive, I might add)

How much is 1.5 terrabytes of bandwidth?

Can someone break it down baby style for me?
Put it in the simple terms

Im not that savvy with computers, just Email and ATS for me.

Thanks

Originally posted by SportyMB
How much is 1.5 terrabytes of bandwidth?

Can someone break it down baby style for me?
Put it in the simple terms

Ok, see my avatar? That's 22kb, which is short for 22 kilobytes, or 1,024 bytes. A byte is 8 bites, and a bit is either "on" (1) or "off" (0). A byte can express a single number from 0 to 255, a signed number from -128 to 127, or a character (through ASCII).

So, my avatar is 22kilobytes. One Megabyte would be 1,024 of those. One Gigabyte would be 1,024 megabytes. Your average computer nowadays comes with somewhere between 30 and 80 Gigabytes. 1,024 Gigabytes would be 1 Terabyte.

So, 1.5 Terabytes*1024*1024*1024=1,610,612,736KB (1.6 billion kilobytes)
Thats roughly 73,209,670 times my avatar. (Over 73 million times the size of my avatar)

Thats roughly 73,209,670 times my avatar. (Over 73 million times the size of my avatar)

Ohhh yeahhh, I get it now, Thanks for the "barney" style breakdown

It's like a wierd computer lingoed version of the metric system....

Exactly. Computers use binary, so all of these things are expressed in powers of 2. 2^10=1024, which is closest to 1,000. Hence all the prefixes. It's pretty much just glossed over.

Look on the bright side....at least you don't see this...
(not agreeing with the statement, just showing you the effect...)

WARNING: If Pokemon' cartoons make you have seizures, stop reading...

Gazrok that really did mess up my eyes and my head man. My eyelids are twitching now. WTF????

Peace

I don't care much for the sounds that normally accompany any Website. Therefore, I ALWAYS surf with the mute ON. I turn it off only occasionally, certain Emails, video news, etc. Sounds here never bother me. Actually, I hadn't even realized ATS had sound.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

Advertising, in general, is the only efficient way to provide revenue for a site of our size. We currently require three servers, nearly 1.5 terrabytes of bandwidth, and daily administrative attention to keep everything running properly.

Just a question about the bandwidth... I had a relatively short stint with Sprint and as I understood available bandwidth an OC48 (BIG pipe!!!) provides a max (burstable) bandwidth of 2.488 Gbps...

Am I missing something here??? 1.5 terrabytes of bandwidth is something I've never run into before...

That is ONE HUGE PIPE!!!!