Okay, since I can't keep up with all the threads going on about the Radeon ad, I decided to start this thread. I'm going to close all the others, as well as any new ones that come up. If you asked a question/made a comment in one of the other threads that you would like to have me respond to, please repost here. I will edit this post to add relevant information. For starters, this ad is part of a 2 month long campaign with ATI. It will run through the end of November. Although I'm not at liberty to discuss the details of the campaign, the revenue generated by it will suffice to pay for our hosting and bandwidth for a while - something we desperately needed due to another sponsor backing out after several months into the deal - but that's another story. We are required to deliver a set number of views by the end of November. For this reason, although there are ways for you to circumvent the ad, we would appreciate you not doing so, since it will require us placing the ad on even more pages. We were very reluctant to take on this type of ad, and we informed ATI's advertising agency that some, if not many, of our readers would object to it. But the general feeling among advertisers is that most web users now automatically ignore standard banners, so more extreme measures are required to even be noticed. Will we be taking on more ads like this one in the future? I don't know. Our priority is the continued existence of the site, and if that requires taking on these types of ads, that's what we'll do. However, we are exploring other options. At this time, it looks like the best option for our long-term, continued survival will be adding a paid, premium membership. As I've said before, if we go that route, you will not have to start paying for things you get now for free (with the possible exception of hosting and bandwidth via the GDShowcase). Unfortunately, this is not something that we can implement overnight, and once it is in place, I expect that it'll take a while to get the subscription rate high enough to support the site, so interim solutions, like this ad, are needed. Feel free to post any questions or comments you may have here. Kevin and I will do our best to respond to them as quickly as possible. UPDATE (10/24): Currently, with the addition of the ad to the forum page, we're up to around 10,000 daily impressions, which is still considerably short. Unfortunately, this leaves me with two options: Add the ad to the individual threads (the most highly trafficed page on the site) or ask them to allow us to extend the campaign. They will probably do the latter, since the campaign was supposed to last 3 months, but they were six weeks late delivering the ad. Of the two, the extension seems like the lesser evil. UPDATE (11/8): In response to feedback from all of you, ATI has decided to pull the current ad, and replace it with a more conventional one. Dave "Myopic Rhino" Astle Executive Producer and COO, GameDev.net Game Programmer, Avalanche Software Author, OpenGL Game Programming "Leaking and bleeding... that's what happens when you don't relax"

Let''s just say you made things much clearer than anyone else has..thanks for at least giving a better heads up than anyone else has.

The fact that it will only last until November, and that you at least did appreciate the fact that viewers wouldn''t like this and made that concern clear to them, is good enough for me.

I think we should contact ATI and register our disgust with this ad, not GameDev. I realize it''s for the good of GameDev, but still, it is very annoying, especially when viewed in public.

I''m glad I have Flash disabled and are not running a browser this appears to affect.

Resist everyone

Personally the 10 seconds that it interferes in my life (which is also a good time to get a coffee). It really doesn’t bother me.

The ad itself may be a bit weak. But that is an ATI issue. If it pays for the site then giver.

For those that don’t like it. Maybe they should crack open their wallets and pay you to get it off the site.

it''s a pain but it makes ati look bad not you, so that''s their loss.

i''ll put up with it no worries

Yes, thanks for taking a neutral position and explaining things clearly, without getting into phrases like 'It's necessary, you don't have to pay for our service, so shut up,' or semi-jocular "you let your life get ruined by a 2-second ad" remarks, which basically is just as bad as bluntly yelling 'GDNet are sellouts and don't care about their visitors'.

Anyway, I have a question here: Is clicking the 'X' on the add considered a view, or circumventing it? I'm not annoyed enough with the ad to such an extent that I'd disable flash, but I do get rid of it as fast as I can (basically, because it disables you from further browsing the site).

On the other hand, I would like to see it disappear as fast as possible, i.e. end of november.

"The general feeling among advertisers is that most web users now automatically ignore standard banners, so more extreme measures are required to even be noticed."

Heh. You'd think that, and the fact that banner-ads make less money every day, would give them a hint on how people feel about ads.



[edited by - Bas Paap on October 22, 2002 6:46:30 PM]

I do not mind the banner along the side, but seeing the overlay on every page every time you visit the site is a bit much. I do not mind it as much on the front page now, but I would really like you to consider taking it off of the print article page.

I am glad that you guys are making some money off of it and I hope that the money improves gamedev even more. I will try to get used to it, but my comp isn''t that fast and it takes about a minute for the thing to load. Even though its loading, whenever I click on anything it pops up the radeon site, so there is no "x" button for me. If i''m fast enough I can avoid it, but I don''t think thats the point of an ad. Anyway, Glad its only couple of months (one moderator or something told me taht it was a year long program)

Fuzztrek

¬_¬