ID:1187168
 
Keywords: ads
I think the screen where it's displaying ads before launching a BYOND game could be improved a little.

Here's how it currently looks:
http://puu.sh/29X1n

I think two things need to be tweaked:

1) The wording of 'This content will unload in x seconds.' could probably be improved.

2) Make the ad separate from the notification and the close button, perhaps as a different color?
Right now they blend in together and it's not obvious where the Skip button is.
That stuff isn't coming from us; it's part of the ad.
Interesting, then disregard what I said. Sorry Tom!
No need to be sorry. We really do appreciate any feedback. We'll have a new update with some features pretty soon. I also want to ad a bit of integrity checking on ads since there's a recent explosion of "malvertising" and the last thing we need is someone getting infected through BYOND.
I'll leave ads turn on then and report any that I find.
Just take a screenshot of any questionable ads and upload them here?
Well, I doubt (I sincerely hope) none of these networks has let a bad ad through as they get flagged pretty quickly, but obviously if you get any reports from antivirus programs etc. then we'll want to know ASAP. It's my understanding that the major exploit was using java through IE (which we use) so I'm thinking we can filter that out of the content since there's no need for that in any valid ad.
Honestly I find the pre-game ads to be a little obnoxious. I thought the pager ads were bad enough, but these pre-launch ads are just going to give BYOND a bad reputation of being spam/ad central. I understand that you guys still have to make money, but I just don't think this is a very smart way of doing it.
In response to Solomn Architect
I think that if someone has gone to the trouble of downloading BYOND and then connecting to a game, they probably wouldn't stop the process when they get an annoying ad. It's pretty well the norm in the free world, I think.
Either way, I bet the numbers will tell Tom whether it's worth it or not after the pager gets released.
In response to Tom
Tom wrote:
Well, I doubt (I sincerely hope) none of these networks has let a bad ad through as they get flagged pretty quickly, but obviously if you get any reports from antivirus programs etc. then we'll want to know ASAP. It's my understanding that the major exploit was using java through IE (which we use) so I'm thinking we can filter that out of the content since there's no need for that in any valid ad.

On that subject, which version of IE gets used?
In response to Emasym
Emasym wrote:
On that subject, which version of IE gets used?

It technically uses whatever version is on your system, but all versions of IE from 8 onward use IE 7 compatibility mode for the embedded browser. I'm not entirely sure why that is.
In response to Solomn Architect
Solomn Architect wrote:
Honestly I find the pre-game ads to be a little obnoxious. I thought the pager ads were bad enough, but these pre-launch ads are just going to give BYOND a bad reputation of being spam/ad central. I understand that you guys still have to make money, but I just don't think this is a very smart way of doing it.

They have to be obnoxious to some degree to be any incentive for people to buy Membership, because clearly altruism doesn't run rampant in this community. I would love to support BYOND entirely on donations but we would make even less than we are now, which is actually hard to do. I don't see any Members complaining.
In response to Tom
Tom wrote:
They have to be obnoxious to some degree to be any incentive for people to buy Membership, because clearly altruism doesn't run rampant in this community. I would love to support BYOND entirely on donations but we would make even less than we are now, which is actually hard to do. I don't see any Members complaining.

Damnit that's smart... I've been wanting to renew my membership for a while now, but with a family and my commission being as low as it has been, I've been finding it hard to save any money for fun.
As much as I'd also love to see the ads before joining a game not have to be in; I understand why it is, and I have to admit that I think it is working. I have an alt key I use for testing, and after seeing the ad before joining even just once I instantly thought to myself, "I'm gonna need a membership for my secret alt key", and I wouldn't of ever considered a membership for that key before this unless I decided to do it as another way to help BYOND.

If the ads bring in pretty good money, that's awesome, but either way they definitely seem like a consistent incentive to get a membership. It may not be ideal, but BYOND isn't the first site to do things like this; heck I've seen a site with flash games do it. BYOND's actually handling the ads better than them, in my opinion.
In response to Solomn Architect
Solomn Architect wrote:
but with a family and my commission being as low as it has been, I've been finding it hard to save any money for fun.

Done :P with a $6 donation to BYOND .. not going to help much :)

[EDIT] on that note, Tom I have yet to receive an email, I know it should of sent one to Solomn Architect, but where's my thank you :P
Every contribution helps, ATHK! Thank you very much. I'm not sure if it send an email to the gifter, but we'll take a look (it makes sense).
Nice ATHK Yeah I don't receive a thanks for gifting email, if that's implemented I hope Tom does not back log me all the emails I should have received, I would get spammed. Lol :)
In response to Tom
Thank BYONDPanel & it's clients for that one.
In response to A.T.H.K
A.T.H.K wrote:
Done :P with a $6 donation to BYOND .. not going to help much :)

Wow... I wasn't expecting any charity, but thank you. You're a bro and I totally owe you one. Or at least $6.
In response to Solomn Architect
Just thought it was about time I gave Tom some $$$ since I am a pain in the ass!

Don't worry about it.
We all pitch in at least a little pain to Tom's ass every once in a while :)
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