The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #136808 Message #3126283
Posted By: JohnInKansas
01-Apr-11 - 11:39 AM
Thread Name: Tech: Overrun by ads at Mudcat
Subject: RE: Tech: Overrun by ads at Mudcat
Stilly -
I agree that your first post hit at both problems, but the responses seemed to be taking off on just one of them - and that subject already is being discussed on the other thread.
I don't generally see any noticeable delays in loading here, but maybe I just don't notice because I occasionally visit a couple of sites where it's really a lot worse. As an example, the MSNBC news site has gotten to the point where ads pop up, expand, collapse, and wiggle and flash to the point where it's almost impossible to keep the thing you're trying to read on the screen. If you move your cursor close to one of their "helpful" hotspots you get "popup definitions" to tell you that "dog" means "a canine" and the popup conceals what you're reading until you move the cursor and it times out. And the pages won't scroll because everytime you shift by one line it has to insert three ads that push that line to the other end of the north 40 - somewhere off screen - and by the time you find it what you were reading again, the ad collapses and it goes back somewhere else, or another ad pops up and pushes your text another direction.
Max did mention in another comment thread recently that he might start giving GUESTS all the trash ads, and give members "musical" stuff only. I'm not sure whether he was teasing us, or is actually working on it; but it sounds like a good idea. My only concern is that when we click an ad to make 'em contribute to the cat, the advertiser pays the nickel (or whatever) and that might push our members into making the good ads more expensive for our friends, without proper punishment for the trash sellers. I tend to click the ones that are annoying occasionally just to rip off their ad budget a bit.
John