The Official Radeon Ad Thread

Dave Astle · 2003-11-28T21:36:49

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"

GDNet Lounge Community

Started by Myopic Rhino October 22, 2002 05:26 PM

553 comments, last by Myopic Rhino 20 years, 4 months ago

23yrold3yrold

941

October 22, 2002 11:41 PM

I don''t even know what you guys are talking about

I don''t know where this ad is supposed to be but I guess Opera kills it dead ....

quote:Recently I''ve been looking into buying a new vcard n this december or whnever the new cards come out by nvidia i was going to buy a gforce2 but after seeing those ads it''s made me reconsider back and forth between the two.

See now, the first thing I would do is post and ask "What''s the best card?"

Ads be damned ....

Chris Barry (crbarry at mts.net)
My Personal Programming Depot

Jesus saves ... the rest of you take 2d4 fire damage.

coderx75

435

October 22, 2002 11:45 PM

I was going to voice my opinion... but then I realized... I don''t have one

- Jay

[ Here, taste this ]

Quit screwin' around! - Brock Samson

jdhardy

469

October 22, 2002 11:56 PM

It could be worse...There could be SOUND in the ad! Nothing annoys me more than having some stupid flash ad pop up with some annoying, ultra-low quality sound effect playing. This is mainly due to the fact that my computer is constantly running winamp and is connected to my stereo system, which occaisionaly finds itself at very high decibel levels

.
As long as GameDev leaves sound out of the ads, I''ll survive.

Xorcist

122

October 23, 2002 12:11 AM

My software firewall (BlackIce) sees that ad as an HTTP attack...

Anonymous

October 23, 2002 12:11 AM

If I were a member of the GDNEt staff I would get back to ATI on the complaints issue about the ad. Since now you have proof of your point on how disliked it is. Maybe they would see things differently then. If not then it is not listening to the flood of complaints given to you. I have full understanding for the need of money for a site like this and I am not asking you to remove the ad, I am asking you to ask ATI to at least change it.

Anonymous

October 23, 2002 04:22 AM

I think Eurogamer are doing this sponsorship thing the right way, basically they re-skin the site every now and then, with their sponsors theme, the design is usually good so it''s not intrusive nor time wasting in the way a layered Flash banner is and their sponsor gets very good exposure.

http://www.eurogamer.net/

owl

376

October 23, 2002 04:45 AM

I think it could be funny to make a Survey in the home page, something like this:

Do you think the Radeon''s ad is annoying?

- Yes it''s a pain in the ass!
- Yes I hate it!
- Yes I had to turn off activex on my browser
- Yes but I use mozilla so I never saw it
- Yes but it pay the bills, or so I was told.
- Yes but I don''t care
- TAKE IT OUT!!!!!

hehe

MADe WITH NO LIMITS IN MIND

[size="2"]I like the Walrus best.

Crazy_Vasey

100

October 23, 2002 04:48 AM

I fear the results if I try to browse GDnet on my laptop with that ad on. I''m guessing it would take at least a minute to render.

iNfuSeD

128

October 23, 2002 05:10 AM

the amount of complaints coming in isn''t even a dent on the hits that come to GDNet probably. Everyone saying this is such a horrible thing is a minority. And why boycott ATI just for taking advantage of one of the newest internet advertising technologys. Commercials are everywhere. If there is a way found to put a commercial somewhere.. its going there. We can''t do anything about it, so accept it. ATI still makes an awesome product (blows the market AWAY) so why boycott it just based on the fact you don''t like to hear about it?

"The human mind is limited only by the bounds which we impose upon ourselves." -iNfuSeD

"The human mind is limited only by the bounds which we impose upon ourselves." -iNfuSeD

granat

122

October 23, 2002 05:19 AM

I can''t wait to pay !!! Damn ads.

I don''t think you have to shut down access for non-members. All you need to do is to put some sort of symbol next to the names of members. This will make them feel ELITE, and they will gladly pay.
I don''t need anything to pay. Just make it VERY easy to pay using my VISA and I will donate something every month (no paypal please).

-------------Ban KalvinB !

The Official Radeon Ad Thread

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The Official Radeon Ad Thread

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