I know this is not strictly related, but boy, are those ATI ads on gamedev.net bugging me.

If gamedev are so desparate for moolah they let ATI do this then I wonder how long they'll be around. I hope flipcode doesn't go the same route...

Brian Azzopardi

Tell me about it... I think those ads may end up giving visitors a negative association to ATI.

The ads are on just the front page but on each and every one of them. :mad:

I know that Nvidia are tough competition and that ATI is doing it's best to beat them: recently Richard Huddy and another guy from Nvidia went over to ATI.
I admire ATI for trying but trying too hard (especially those ads) will just irritate and ultimately backfire.

Brian Azzopardi

Personally, I don't see where the ad gives much return for ATI's $$ -- gamedev.net probably isn't nearly as good a market target for adspace as almost any one of the millions of gamespy network websites (albeit those would be more pricey I'm sure). The ad takes a full 3-4 seconds to even display a product name-- I closed it at least 10 times before I even realized it was a radeon ad. And if you do watch the whole thing, it says NOTHING, except "the next generation in gaming.." or something equally horribly cliche. I mean, if you're going to bother to absorb the entire real-estate of the user's web browser, might as well try to give them a little more info than you would in a banner ad.

But for as annoying as the ATI ad is, a lot of the blame is on gamedev.net for agreeing to a totally unrealistic # of views to complete the deal. I'm sure the ad would have been just as effective (if not moreso) from an ATI standpoint if the # of views was cut to 1/10th and the ad's were more spread out across different portions of the website and/or aired once-per-visit. Although I'm sure ATI's business execs have some $$ == # Visits equation that they just love to adhere to, no matter how inane it might seem in a given situation-- and so gamedev.net probably didn't have a choice given the minimum amount of money they need to fund the site. But as it stands right now, even with the ad being plastered on almost everything except the actual forum messages, they say they're going to fall well short of their required # of views and so they're going to ask for a 1 month extension or something horrible. Either that, or add it to the forum messages too... *sigh* I bet there are some forum trolls who have already seen the ad about 5,000 times a piece already and something tells me giving them another 5,000 views isn't going to sell a single ATI video card ever.

As I see it, the only winner is gamedev.net because they get the $$ and if they happen to lose some users in the short term, it won't really hurt the website any. Losers are ATI and the gamedev.net users, who have nightmares of green goop flowing out of air vents and the back of their monitors.

- Air

Actually...GDNet is a very useful site if you want to advertise to hardcore and otherwise avid gamers.

And it's hardly GDNet's fault if ATI can't put together a useful ad.

It is an annoying ad, though, I agree about that.

Well, you could switch to Mozilla.

Jack

I completely agree... I actually wrote gamedev.net's webmaster about the subject when the ad first started. Not only has this brought down my view of ATI, it has also brought down my view of GameDev.net. Maybe this isn't fair to gamedev, but from the view point of the average impatient, easily annoyed web-user (of which i am guilty): ANY inconvenience deturs customers, plain and simple.

What ads are you guys talking about? I looked all over their site and didn't see anything for ATI. Can someone post a link?

Hanford

Originally posted by hanford_lemoore
What ads are you guys talking about? I looked all over their site and didn't see anything for ATI. Can someone post a link?


Just browse with internet explorer and make sure you have flash installed. If your monitor is on, you will see it. If your screen turns all green, don't blame your monitor.

Originally posted by LordKronos
J make sure you have flash installed.

That may be it. More and more these days, Flash is responsible for annoying ads. Im in the middle of a Flash Backlash.

I de-installed Flash a couple of weeks ago. I came to the conclusion that recently, Flash has given me nothing be grief. I was sick of the Audio/visual ads on Yahoo and a few other sites that I frequent. Yahoo started running streaming-video-and-audio ads in and it was slowing my system down, crashing my browser, and just pissing me off.

The days of "Hey, check out this cool Flash site" have long since disappeared, so it's not like I needed the plug-in on a regular basis or anything. I came to the conclusion that 80 to 90% of the flash content I get these days are ads. The sites that *require* it are, in my experience, never worth it. Macromedia's site works just fine without it. Yahoo is fine too. Ask yourself: what sites do you frequent that *need* flash to work?

So it's been removed from my system for 2, perhaps 3 weeks now. I've never been happier. The only disadvantage has been having to click on "no" when a website that uses flash comes up. But in those cases the important partof the site was never in flash; The Flash content was either an ad or a non-important page element like a logo.

Gone are the annoying"overlay" ads that cover-up content inside the browser window. Gone are the annoying ads that have sound enbedded. And in the short time I've had it removed, I've not once came across a situation where I felt like I just had to absolutely re-install it. *All* the professional sites I've browsed since then worked just fine.

Okay, I'll get off the soapbox now.

Hanford

Originally posted by hanford_lemoore
The days of "Hey, check out this cool Flash site" have long since disappeared, so it's not like I needed the plug-in on a regular basis or anything. I came to the conclusion that 80 to 90% of the flash content I get these days are ads. The sites that *require* it are, in my experience, never worth it. Macromedia's site works just fine without it. Yahoo is fine too. Ask yourself: what sites do you frequent that *need* flash to work?

Very true. Can anyone think of a site with a legit use for flash (and no, an all flash web site isn't what I consider "legit")? I was thinking online games and stuff like that (which I like to play now and then) might use it, but now that I really think about it, I think they all actually use shockwave, not flash.

I guess removing it is one of those things I should do but never get up the "guts" to do it. I think I'm just too anal about making sure I don't "miss out" on something to actually remove it. I think I need to break myself free of habits like that. Maybe removing flash would be a good start :)

Originally posted by LordKronos
Very true. Can anyone think of a site with a legit use for flash (and no, an all flash web site isn't what I consider "legit")?

I have not found any must-read sites that require it, with no alternative. Gamedev.net worked fine without it, and I didn't even get any "Would you like to install flash" dialogs. That is my number-one problem problem now (the dialogs), but I don't mind it yet.

I guess removing it is one of those things I should do but never get up the "guts" to do it. I think I'm just too anal about making sure I don't "miss out" on something to actually remove it.

I felt the same way, but when I took the plunge I did so partly becuase I realized that it's so easy to re-install if I find myself needing it. It's much harder to de-install than it is to install.

Hanford

I'd uninstall flash maybe, except... how would I watch my toons at http://www.homestarrunner.com ? I don't think I could survive not knowing what this weeks new Strong Bad email is. heh.

Without Homestar, I would be a sad, sad man. And I'd be short four very cool t-shirts, my friend.