Ads Coming to AtariAge

[+DrVenkman]

Yet another reason to keep my subscription active.

Do what you have to do, Al. You can't let a side-business/hobby bankrupt you, especially when that will destroy a site with as long a history as this one, and with as much collective wisdom (and foolishness) in its archive of posts. It would be a disservice to the entire retro-community worldwide if that were to happen. So if a few unobtrusive ads per page keep that from happening, so be it. 

 

And for all of you guys so worried about cross-site tracking cookies, there's a simple solution: adblock everything but AtariAge, use something like CCleaner or simply clear your cookies after every browsing session, and then you'll get a delightful selection of completely random stuff like an ad for some TV show you don't care about; the latest special toothpaste formulation; and then a jet-sharing service for the high-rolling executive types you despise.

There, problem solved.  

[Albert]

Quote

I am somewhat surprised at the hosting fees, is your data metered at all? So long as the adds aren't too graphics oriented it should be ok, are the ads delivered from their server instead of yours? Some of these ad companies have plugins that use your server to host and serve their ads, they have different names for it but you don't want your bandwidth eaten by such a thing. This was a problem year ago when people paid for a certain amount of bandwidth and got hit with surcharges for going over the limit... this goes both ways not only for the person running the server but also for cellular and packet services these days...

There are incoming and outgoing data caps, but we're not close to hitting those where excess charges would be incurred (the caps are quite high).  Also, Cloudflare helps by caching quite a bit.  There will certainly be graphics in the ads, and they'll be served from their servers, not mine, so the ads will only minimally affect bandwidth. 

 

 ..Al

[+Nathan Strum]

1 hour ago, Albert said:

Someone's definitely clicking on them.  It's rare that I click on ads, but I will if it's something I'm interested in.

If I see an ad I'm interested in, I'll type in the URL for their site directly. If I click on ads, it's by accident or a momentary lapse of reason.

[+Nathan Strum]

43 minutes ago, Albert said:

Yes, I started this thread on Friday, but I wanted it to get more attention, so I added that announcement banner this morning.  And it's worked!!

Cool! So how much revenue has it generated so far? (These ads are a lot less obtrusive than I expected them to be.)

[TPR]

I'm 100% in support of this.

 

As someone who runs a fairly popular website who was originally against ads because, like many people here thought "who actually clicks on those???" it is absolutely STAGGERING the amount of people who do click on them and the money that I was originally leaving on the table 100% pays for all of my hosting costs and the time being put into the site.  It took my focus from going "Is this something I want to keep doing?" to "How can i do more to offer new features to our followers?"

 

Advertising is nothing new, and while there are most certainly different levels of annoyance with it, I have faith that Al will make our experience the best possible balance between helping out AtariAge and not making the ads feel intrusive. 

 

Add +1 for the support wagon. 

[Mr Robot]

I absolutely despise advertising, I quit watching broadcast TV and listening to the radio because of how oppressive it is to be bombarded with advertising all the time. I don't answer the phone if the number isn't in my address book. I politely inform cold callers that I will never use their services because they are spamming my front door. Billboards on the side of the road ruin the look of the environment, I boycott any company that uses them. 

 

I run extremely aggressive adblockers. If a paywall stops me reading any content, I find that content elsewhere. 

 

This is why I appreciate the option to subscribe so that I can pay for the services I want to support.

[Albert]

8 minutes ago, Mr Robot said:

I absolutely despise advertising, I quit watching broadcast TV and listening to the radio because of how oppressive it is to be bombarded with advertising all the time. I don't answer the phone if the number isn't in my address book

I also quit watching broadcast TV and listening to AM/FM radio years ago.  Advertising on those mediums is out of control and extremely annoying.  Yes, I'd like to listen to two songs and then have to endure five minutes of crappy ads.  Or having to watch 15 minutes of ads for a 60 minute television program.  I'm happy to pay for services like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO NOW so I can watch all of that content without having to endure mind-numbing ads. Even in my car I can stream music/podcasts/talk radio from the internet (car has an LTE connection), my phone via Bluetooth or via a USB stick.

 

I don't mind advertisements as much on the web except for sites that have obnoxious ads that completely ruin the experience of visiting those sites.  But on live TV/radio, there's no way to avoid them except to switch the channel or station. 

 

 ..Al

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Al, you do so much for all of us, whatever you feel is needed to allow AA to flourish. Clearly AA has always been a passion and personal work of love but I would never want it to be a burden or turn into something that is a chore let alone becoming a financial money pit. Thanks for everything. ??

[Serguei2]

I hope we won't see this kind of ads on Atariage.

 

 

Waiting until the counter reaches zero to close it is not my stuff. 

[Albert]

Just now, Serguei2 said:

I hope we won't see this kind of ads on Atariage.

 

 

Waiting until the counter reaches zero to close it is not my stuff. 

Absolutely not.

 

 ..Al

[JacobZu7zu7]

2 hours ago, Albert said:

Someone's definitely clicking on them.  It's rare that I click on ads, but I will if it's something I'm interested in.

 

 ..Al

Will this help if the AA new adds are NOT clicked on?

 

I think some "THING" is clicking on 'em, probably not human but yeah I don't think any of us at AA will click adds, but don't quote me on it. ?

 

I know I been in a habit of not clicking things that I didn't surf myself, even if its said to be safe.

 

My opinion? Adds bad, Atari good. ... I'll be staying here, adds or no adds. Its fine as long as the adds behave and aren't disturbing the peace.

[Serguei2]

2 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

It's all fun and game until unmentionable ads and political ads start popping up... I am somewhat surprised at the hosting fees, is your data metered at all? So long as the adds aren't too graphics oriented it should be ok, are the ads delivered from their server instead of yours? Some of these ad companies have plugins that use your server to host and serve their ads, they have different names for it but you don't want your bandwidth eaten by such a thing. This was a problem year ago when people paid for a certain amount of bandwidth and got hit with surcharges for going over the limit... this goes both ways not only for the person running the server but also for cellular and packet services these days...

Politic !!!???

 

It would break atariage rules.

[Keatah]

I'm sure some political ads will creep in. As will stuff for inappropriate products or services. But, it's the internet!

 

[Albert]

3 minutes ago, Keatah said:

I'm sure some political ads will creep in. As will stuff for inappropriate products or services. But, it's the internet!

Yes, that will happen if you look at politically-related sites and/or "inappropriate products or services" and you aren't taking steps to block cookies.

 

 ..Al

[TrekMD]

You do what you need to do, Albert.  The costs for the forum are not insignificant so, if placing ads will help, not reason not to do it. 

[+Andrew Davie]

I will never see them, as I use insane amounts of ad-blocking technologies. I am against ads, but based on the replies... it seems I am an outlier.

I understand the reasons/logic, but this decision makes me kind of sad.

 

[_The Doctor__]

It's your server, doesn't matter much what anybody else thinks really.

 

lmfao, brand new laptop never used for anything before connects up in a public cafe... you wanna guess what kind of stuff pops up?

nice one trying to put in on the user though... it's the users fault those things come up because they must have... really

 

Using ublock origin and adblock plus does nothing to stop the political ads from google. they only seem to stop the worst of the worst.

The third party ad server should allow you, as the provider or outlet for such things to block things that shouldn't be there. Don't blame the ad system though, blame the user. Perhaps the ad system shouldn't put such things in there. As for what you get to see... just like satellite tv provider putting half price off 'toys' on the tv at the same time kids might be watching cartoons... must be the kids fault huh?

 

You can pick and choose ad companies that give you some control and have promises not to serve such things. The only way to avoid such things are to pony up and avoid them because of a pay wall that prevents it... or not use sites that serve such things...

 

amazingly it's like google in that it will steer you to whatever it wants and claim it's based on some algorithm and you past searches, it's been proven not to be the case.

 

In any event, chances are likely that it will be more like whatever the forum as a whole searches with the admins usage weighing heavily as they are the most connected in a context sensitive ad server... unless of course it doesn't serve to any of them and they've protected themselves from it.

 

Not sure how many prophylactics will be needed... as to the main page can't be avoided thing... well there could be a sign in before anything shows or an IP/MAC/GUID tracker to block them until they sign in or are automatically signed in by the system.

 

So the decision has been made, it really matters not for the users... I personally would have ran the subscribe or make donations to avoid ads banner coming to the forums for a decent length of time beforehand...

 

I wouldn't have responded with such a post but I see the it's your fault user thing and it didn't sit right with me. I was much more accepting before that and was considering the subscribe/install/dnsbasedadblocker etc. route....

 

In any event we're told the ads won't be audio or video so that a plus, and limited in size/ real estate so who knows... the only way to find out is to do it...

Edited September 24, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[jrhodes]

I normally run a adblock addon, but seeing as how AA has the most active retro-computer forums i know of (especially TI), i would hate to see it close.

Consider my adblocker turned off on this site from today onwards.

[_The Doctor__]

51 minutes ago, Serguei2 said:

Politic !!!???

 

It would break atariage rules.

then they'd have to ban the ad server!

 

although I'm told there are ad-blockers that make pretend they've seen the ad and respond accordingly so that you don't see it but the advertiser thinks you did...

Edited September 24, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[+splendidnut]

Wait a minute... there are ads on the internet? 

 

I'm a subscriber and I run an ad-blocker (a couple).   I see no issue other than more people should subscribe.   Too many people are freeloaders

 

Thanks for giving us the heads-up on this Al!

[Keatah]

There are many many reasons why people can't subscribe, or are not allowed to subscribe, or whatever. Freeloading is only one of them.

[Albert]

47 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

In any event, chances are it likely be more like whatever the forum as a whole searches with the admins usage weighing heavily as they are the most connected in a context sensitive ad server...

No, that's not how it works.  You're not going to see results based on someone else's browsing history, much less the admin's browsing history.  What's shown if you have cookies disabled and/or have taken other steps to avoid being tracked?   Probably just more general ads that appeal to a wide audience.  They certainly aren't going to throw up porn ads in that case. 

 

Here's a related answer from the ad network's site:

 

 

 ..Al

[Albert]

1 minute ago, Keatah said:

There are many many reasons why people can't subscribe, or are not allowed to subscribe, or whatever. Freeloading is only one of them.

I agree, I certainly do not consider people who don't subscribe to be "freeloaders". 

 

 ..Al

[Keatah]

I currently fall into the "not allowed" camp. Someday it will change perhaps.

[AAA177]

Completely understand and will welcome the ads. I wish I could subscribe, but money is somewhat tight at the moment. (Forgot there was that option.) 

 

What I will do is try to click on ads that interest me (I won't do it haphazardly or just to support, because that can work against the site, I think; as on YouTube with channels I like, I try not to click past the ads to support the creator). In particular, sometimes some ads for Amazon will follow me and I can buy a short story/comic. 

 

Which leads me to a question: do you receive remuneration just for a click, or does a transaction have to take place? Also, from a different angle: Can you receive money just for the impression, or does a click also have to take place? 

 

Someone mentioned selling downloads in the store: not sure if this is possible, but if there were a way to purchase a download such that I could play right from my computer without having to separately download an emulator, that would be great...I just don't like to download too many things from the web, and when I play Atari games I usually go to an in-browser site.