Annoying Adverts Costing you Customers

over the last couple of days I have been helping other members set up their avatars/backgrounds. The process of logging off and then logging back in is incredibly annoying. Full page ads cover and "grey out" the ATS content until you close them on that tiny little X. Then you get a few pop up windows.

I must be spoiled with my account.

reply to post by nothingwrong


Why don't you just keep your volume set on "mute" until there is something you want to listen to? That's what I do and no loud ads attacking my ears any more- voila!!!

reply to post by littled16


You see, that's the problem. A lot of us like to multi-task, and let's just pretend I am streaming a YouTube video or playing music, these ads can be quite the "shock".

I am very confident that there are ways to make these ads silent unless you actually hover over them but it appears that ATS has not taken this step yet.

compared to other sites....for me, the ads on ATS are fine...the ones that come up, and you have to do a hard restart of your computer because they will not close, those are the ones that deserve a blood-splattering groin kick.

reply to post by nothingwrong


The whole internet advertising model sucks. The ads bring so much distaste to me that it greatly increases the likliehood that I will never buy that product or order from that site. I have encouraged ATS to go to a pay site in the past. I think that is the future of the internet.

The ads tend not to keep me from staying on the site, I just think it is a buysiness model that is bound to fail. The content is what keeps me away for the most part. It seems that ATS has gone from a site that discourages ingnorance, to a site that is ignorance's greatest supporter. It is really sad. It is the American way however.... sell your soul for personal riches.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


I completely understand, I multi-task as well. When that occurs I normally just close my ATS tab. The OP is definitely right in that the crazy ads run people off. There for a while the stupid Progressive Insurance video ads drove me insane enough to spend my time elsewhere for the most part. When I'm on ATS nowadays I keep my volume on mute because of all the pop up ads. They need to take the provision out of T&Cs that demands we use no adblock here and all would be fixed!

reply to post by littled16

They need to take the provision out of T&Cs that demands we use no adblock here and all would be fixed!

That is a suggestion that I can definitely agree with, regrettably money talks and everything else walks.

I understand the necessity of generating ad revenue to run a website, especially one as large as ATS, but in my opinion there is such a thing as over monetizing your website and this is what we are being subjected to in my opinion. As I previously mentioned, I would expect this from an amateur blogger who's out to make a quick buck, not a respected, high traffic website such as ATS.

At the end of the day we can just never come back but they know a lot of us use this site as an important news source where we can share our ideas with various groups of people who have a lot of knowledge on whichever topic we enjoy so we keep coming back like those lab rats who keep getting shocked going for a piece of cheese.

I thought it was a little dramatic to say ATS should be ashamed of themselves in the beginning of this thread. No disrespect intended but it's a free site and the ads pay people to run it. If one of those is particularly bothersome isn't it more feasible to mention which it is to see if they can help people work through it instead of suggesting they do away with everything - and are purposefully trying to make life miserable?

I don't have problems with these. Sometimes it means waiting for that one ad to stop moving across the screen so I can catch it and X out of it, or clicking a few to see what I want but I get it - it's their income and I certainly wouldn't be able to work for free. It isn't going to impact my life tremendously to make a few adjustments so I can come on and be a part of this site.

Having people pay so they can opt out of ads? How would that work? It's one site. Would that mean they would have an opt out software installed? How would their advertisers feel about that?

If I had to pay I would but being free means anyone can join (no credit card needed). It is rare to find that anywhere on the Internet. It opens up access to a wider audience to come join and be a part of denying ignorance. Isn't that what we need to support critical thinking?

redmage
Ok, you've piqued my curiosity.

"Costing you Customers"?

I know in all my years as a member, and as lurker before joining, I've never had to pay any sort of subscription fee; so... what did you come to ATS to purchase?

edit on 12/30/13 by redmage because: (no reason given)

If a site makes money via advertising, then the people who come to that site are customers.

Without people coming to the site there are no page views. Without page views, there is no advertising money.

More people coming to a site = (theoretically) more money

Annoying the people who come to your site = (theoretically) less people coming to your site

Less people coming to your site = Less money


So theoretically, it is valuable for a site that makes money from ads, to have many members, who visit regularly. For a site like this, where it is more or less 100% user-content driven, that means contributing (e.g. posting) members could be seen as even more valuable, as they create the content that people come to see.

None of our ad suppliers are supposed to run ads that auto-expand without user interaction, or play sound without any user clicks.

In the past, we've identified three regional ISP's injecting their own ads into ad positions on ATS, in all three cases, they were video ads with sound that started automatically -- it's an increasingly common thing, over which we have little control.

If you see an ad that fills the screen without any action from you, or plays sound automatically, you're best bet is to PM me with a screen shot. Both are not supposed to happen.



Also: only non-logged-in-members are supposed to get pop-ups, and then never more than two (usually one) every 24 hours. If you're seeing more than that, then something else is also going on.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I've noticed over the last month that its getting bad with ads that are videos autoplaying. Used to be I could just find the ad in question and mute it now that doesn't work as the ad seems to unmute itself ten mins later.

reply to post by w810i


There are many lower-tier suppliers trying to complete their inventory before the end of the year.

I just ran through all the major ATS pages on a clean Windows Laptop (IE) and Chrome on a Mac, both from IP's I rarely use. Unfortunately, I couldn't replicate any of the issues reported in this thread. Of course, I have a business-class Internet connection, so there'd be no funny-business from the ISP.

Hmmm I have never seen any of these adds. Why do some people have this problem and yet others do not. I hope you all check your PCs for malware etc. All I see are adds on the side that make no noise and do nothing.

I don't get nearly the number of ads you people are complaining about. As I understand it, ads lessen the more experience on ATS you have, i.e.: More points = less ads. And, of course, the ads follow you. I looked up Jeeps yesterday and whaddya know? I see Jeep ads on ATS.

About ATS "losing customers," I doubt it. You are not a customer anyway. You pay nothing to come here. And this idea that your mere presence earns ATS money is faulty. If you click on an ad, they get a small piece. If you don't click on an ad, they don't. The numbers here are so vast that you "leaving in protest" means absolutely nothing to ATS. Your presence will not be missed, will not even be noticed. So by all means leave. Nobody cares.

But statistics can be misleading. For example, almost half the people who sign up for an account NEVER POST ONCE. (160K out of 292K have posted) And of the people who have posted, 100K have posted less than 20 times, meaning their presence here is minimal. They can't even start a thread or use U2Us. So that leaves approximately 20% of ATS subscribers who actually participate in any meaningful way on the site. And if you look at people who have over 500 posts, meaning they are steady contributors, it's about 2% of the membership.

So this idea that ATS loses if you go away is really nonsensical. Statistically speaking, almost half of you will never post at all, and the vast majority of the rest of you will do a drive-by post or two and be gone anyway.

reply to post by schuyler


You clearly do not understand the concept of generating ad revenue so you can just go ahead and throw your "statistics" out the window as they are non applicable.

Regardless if the visitors post or not, they generate impressions and possible clicks...this is what generates ad revenue. Those big things that cover your screen that leave you no choice but click X, that generates revenue. Just visiting a page, that brings revenue as they get paid a certain fee per thousand visitors regardless if they sign in, post or any other activity for that matter.

These methods of payment calculation depend on the ad provider but most sites use various forms of revenue generation such as the ones I just mentioned

Yes posting is necessary to keep the website operational as no one would visit an empty website, but the members who never post, and the lurkers who don't even sign up all make money for websites such as these.

Please do some research next time before speaking of things you simply don't understand.

ETA:

Is it true that we get "less ads with more points"?

That theory doesn't seem to work for me as I am getting more than ever before on various networks and computers, all clean, including the corporate server I am on right now which has top notch protection against all sorts of "bad things" internet related.

The thing is, you folks are saying the "ads are increasing." I see absolutely no evidence of that at all. I'm here every day several separate times, and ads simply are not a bother at all. They don't intrude on my "ATS experience." I see very few of them in the first place, and the ones I do see remain passive for the most part. Once in a great while I roll over something that invokes an ad, but that might be once a week at most.

So the question remains, what are you doing differently, or what am I doing differently that accounts for this result? It's an awfully difficult thing to quantify, and you are not doing a very good job of it other than saying, "Ads are increasing' without any evidence at all. They're not for me. Why is that?

You guys had an add going for the last few weeks that screwed up my laptop so bad I would have to quit my browser and not to to ats ( on my laptop). Fir 3 weeks.

reply to post by nothingwrong


lol what ads? I have no ads.

You dont have to have them. I dont get any of those. Different browsers etc, will. Also, choose AD CHOICES at bottom of ATS to get rid of 85 out of 100 of them. (more or less)