A call for feedback: Google ads

Captain · Post by **Captain** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:51 pm

As you may have noticed, we've added Google ads into the mix. We've put ads on the front page, these forums, and the wiki.

Mr. Mouse and I love doing this site, but running it costs us money. Not that that's a huge problem, but I do think we're providing a unique and pretty awesome place for the modding community, and it should at least break even, or do even better so that we can send some cash to the regular contributors that are part of making this place great. So, we created the XeNTaX foundation, and are now in the process of making some changes. We'd like your input on them.

The biggest change that concerns you is the addition of Google ads. We'd like to know how you feel about them. Do you like them, hate them, not care about them as long as there are not too many? Let us know!

Also, the positioning. As you can see, the ads on this forum are over there -->, and they're probably not entirely relevant to this topic (but Mr. Mouse is working on that). It was my idea to put them on the right, but I'm having second thoughts because they seem out of place. Also, the font and color doesn't match, but that can also be fixed. My current idea is to put one horizontal block of 4 ads under the original post of a topic, and every first post of a thread page. This will require you to scroll a little bit more, but not too much. Also, we're thinking of putting ads on the forum index pages, probably filling some empty space up top.

Please note that this topic isn't meant to encourage you to click the ads. I hate sites that beg for clicks, and it's also against Google's policy. If you see an ad you're genuinely interested in, be my guest, otherwise, just leave them alone.

Post by **Mr.Mouse** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 10:32 pm

Indeed, and let me have my chip-in as well.

We started this game modding place, because we are true gamers ourselves, but also love to code and, speaking of myself, have a serious obsession with figuring out archive formats.

This forum was started to discuss game modding related things on the one hand, but also to cater for the end-users of MultiEx Commander: request new games to be supported! So, basically, we and all the other nice people here spend a lot of time on this topic. And we want to continue doing so!

By starting the Xentax Foundation, not only do we wish to ensure continuity of this game modding place (the Xentax WIKI, The Xentax Forum and MultiEx Commander-related projects), but also to provide a place for other people with brilliant ideas to put up high quality websites for a friend's fee, that doesn't need to be game modding related. Seriously, we can probably provide extremely low-cost high quality hosting if we get enough annual donations. This is one reason why these Google Ads come in, to provide some regular means of funding for the Foundation. We hope you understand the purpose of these ads, and as Captain said, only click on something you are genuinely interested in. I clicked on one the other day, because it was Commodore 64 related, and as you may know, that's the place where it all started for me.

But we do wish to discuss the subject with the regular visitors of this site, as it must come as a change for them. So, give us any feedback on this matter you wish to share.

PXR · Post by **PXR** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 5:22 pm

You're probably going to dislike what I'm about to say, but me, as well as others are blocking these ads completly from showing. Quite easy to fix with some browsers out there (not with IE though I guess

).

Not that I don't want to support xentax, but the ads are often simply annoying - perhaps not as much here as on other websites. But I'm gonna stick with blocking them anyway.

Captain · Post by **Captain** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 5:36 pm

PXR wrote:You're probably going to dislike what I'm about to say, but me, as well as others are blocking these ads completly from showing. Quite easy to fix with some browsers out there (not with IE though I guess ).

Not that I don't want to support xentax, but the ads are often simply annoying - perhaps not as much here as on other websites. But I'm gonna stick with blocking them anyway.

I'm fine with that, as long as you don't post a guide on this forum to educate people how to block ads.

On the other hand, we would like your opinion on what area would be least annoying for us to display them.

Rahly · Post by **Rahly** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 3:20 am

i don't know why you'd wanna block them, google ads are the most unintrusive ads out there: no animation, no popups, and 9/10 the ads relate to something you were doing or searching for. I wish they were ALL like google ads, IMO.

NLA · Post by **NLA** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:13 pm

Assuming that new archive formats are consistently being updated and supported, and there is actually activity in the forums, I don't think I, or many other people, will mind the google ads at all. Just don't sell your souls and spring for popups and flashy "Win A Prize!" ads.

Note the phrase I said though, "and there is actually activity in the forums." I've seen forums die before because there was no activity, and it would be a shame to see this one go the way of many others. I haven't sniffed out many other dedicated archive cracking (correct terminology?) forums.

EDIT: Unless a.) you actually win a prize or b.) the flashy non-popup game is fun and humerous.

Captain · Post by **Captain** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:38 pm

NLA wrote:Assuming that new archive formats are consistently being updated and supported, and there is actually activity in the forums, I don't think I, or many other people, will mind the google ads at all. Just don't sell your souls and spring for popups and flashy "Win A Prize!" ads.

Note the phrase I said though, "and there is actually activity in the forums." I've seen forums die before because there was no activity, and it would be a shame to see this one go the way of many others. I haven't sniffed out many other dedicated archive cracking (correct terminology?) forums.

EDIT: Unless a.) you actually win a prize or b.) the flashy non-popup game is fun and humerous.

Don't worry about pop-ups. I hate them. And the ads will be text-only forever.

Mr. Mouse is pretty committed to keeping stuff current, but he also has his job and his family (and is on vacation right now).

Re. activity: right now, there's the usual summer vacation lull. Anyway, this is pretty much a niche forum, and people come and go. Then there's the regulars and ones who are interested in a particular game. When we do something newsworthy, we notify the scene sites and get more traffic. Other than that, there isn't much we can do, but we're open for suggestions. I don't think we're dying though. Our traffic has consistently been growing every year so far.

Traffic will probably pick up again after Mr. Mouse releases the next version of MultiEx.

Captain · Post by **Captain** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 1:09 pm

Google ads are now below the first post in a thread, and below the 11th. It looks a lot less intrusive to me, but still visible enough. I think I'll go with this scheme.

All it took was one extremely dirty hack in the forum software. Every time I have to go through the phpbb code, I realise more and more how rigid and extension-unfriendly it is. Either that or I'm simply not 'getting' it.

Case in point: the template file for displaying a topic has the repeating 'post' section built straight into it. When rendering, the engine yanks that part out and repeats it for every post. Why not have a separate file for posts? Also, why can't I use any kind of php logic in the templates? I want my display logic in the templates where it belongs. Instead, I'm forced to hack the core to accomplish this simple task. And when I want to upgrade the phpbb version, I'll have to do it again!

I just don't get it. Here you have a powerful scripting engine (php) with many capabilities, and you, the maker, tell your users that "I'm just not comfortable with you guys messing with the templates. However, feel free to hack the core." It boggles the mind.

Rahly · Post by **Rahly** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 4:42 pm

Looks like there are some problems with the HTML, seems like its putting buttons off the screen for the first poster.

Captain · Post by **Captain** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 6:58 pm

Rahly wrote:Looks like there are some problems with the HTML, seems like its putting buttons off the screen for the first poster.

I saw the icq button was off so I fixed that. Are there others I'm not aware of? The HTML change is quite small. Just another row in a table.

Also, which browser, version, OS etc. etc.

Post by **Mr.Mouse** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 7:51 pm

NLA wrote:Assuming that new archive formats are consistently being updated and supported, and there is actually activity in the forums, I don't think I, or many other people, will mind the google ads at all. Just don't sell your souls and spring for popups and flashy "Win A Prize!" ads.

Note the phrase I said though, "and there is actually activity in the forums." I've seen forums die before because there was no activity, and it would be a shame to see this one go the way of many others. I haven't sniffed out many other dedicated archive cracking (correct terminology?) forums.

EDIT: Unless a.) you actually win a prize or b.) the flashy non-popup game is fun and humerous.

This forum has been around since 2003, but MultiEx has been around since 1997. I'd call that pretty dedicated on my part. I still have more and more plans for the site, Game Archive investigation (really, this site is unique in the world, as Captain said, it's a niche site) is still my main concern, I just have lots of features to build in MultiEx Commander that take my mind off the actual archive analysis. Rest assured, I will be back in the archive investigation soon enough.