Friday, June 17, 2016

DeviantArt ads

So DeviantArt recently realized how much money they're losing on the ads people block. When you visit the website now, you're greeted by an absolutely huge orange pop-up that stretches all across the bottom of the page:

I find it too annoying to display full-size.

Whitelist? I don't think so.
Now, it's adorable that they think I simply don't know how to whitelist good old DA. 

I won't claim this is still the case, but some time ago, DA had abnoxious video ads, which, to me, were the signature feature of the site. The kind that had sound, but were muted by default. Now, there was a glitch. The ad could be silent for a couple of cycles, then it would suddenly scream at you. A real treat if you've got multiple tabs open.

Well, they were the reason I got AdBlock and I never looked back. So no, DA. Giving me a giant orange pop-up to close every time I open the page won't melt my horrible cold heart.


The words I want to hear are "We've made our ads less annoying".
If the horrible orange pop-up said that instead, I'd immediately pause AdBlock to see if that was true.
And if they actually went the extra mile and only accepted static banners with mild colours, I'd whitelist the site in a heartbeat and feel some gratitude for the care.


Back to reality - the orange pop-up
"Blocking ads? The joke's on you! You get the biggest and most annoying ad on the site for trying to cheat the system!"
That's the actual message behind it, right? If they honestly want sympathy and understanding, I think they should learn from Explosm. Their "blocking ads?" banners are very humble, but get the message across perfectly. Plus, they show you exactly where the ads would go. I have whitelisted their site.

Reporting ads.
Every site I've whitelisted has this option. Explosm has a "Report Ad" link. Other sites, such as EQD, have little buttons on their ads that let you both report scams and remove things that are irrelevant to you. I don't know about you, but I don't mind seeing adverts for things I'm at least mildly interested in.

And what does DA have? A little red cross at the corner of the ad, which offers an upgrade to premium. I'm not sure if they're still showing "local mom discovers one weird trick" ads, but they did for a good while.

Won't somebody please think of the users...
I feel DA just said "it's your choice - be annoyed by tiny ads, the giant orange one you'll have to close manually, or buy premium". If I felt they've put honest effort into improving the user experience instead of being forceful, I'd at least try to live with the ads.
So far the only good thing about DA banners is that they mostly fail to load in mobile browsers.

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