adverts "weight" and layout - can we pay not have any?

[AJLintern]

I have to agree with the sentiments of others. I don't mind advertising but these huge, surrounding ads with heavy video which cause the content to move around are highly annoying and is detrimental to the quality of the site!

[djfaulkner]

Some of the smaller ad's haven't really bothered me and just got on with them.
But is the full screen ad for sky sports really needed? Even when I clicked the close/collapse option is didn't make much difference.

Personally - One of the good things about PH is the how 'plain' the forums pages look, as a result they don't standout when browsing at work.
They are also quick to load, an added bonus when on the mobile.

I understand the need for advertising to make money, but PH is running the risk of driving users away with the advertising and could up with a site full of adverts but no-one to view them.

Out of interest - how are the stats on number of users been looking since, Haymarket purchased PH and the changes in advertising.

[RacingPete]

illmonkey said:

I'm Not bothered what position he is. Is there no chain of command? Can't he tell his boss if they are not aware of the issue?

Really isn't an excuse!

You make a very weird assumption that the ad policy comes from some random place and not the boss and he would not know?!?

[illmonkey]

RacingPete said:

illmonkey said:

I'm Not bothered what position he is. Is there no chain of command? Can't he tell his boss if they are not aware of the issue?

Really isn't an excuse!

You make a very weird assumption that the ad policy comes from some random place and not the boss and he would not know?!?

Eh? The ad policy comes from someone at PH towers. rscott said that you are not that person. So, I said, why have you not raised the issue with your boss or the relevant person?

If the relevant person IS aware, then why hasn't it been fixed? It should be 1 phone call, or 1 setting change. If you cannot fix the ad sizes, then you drop the ad agency until they can fix sizes or you find someone else.

Your ads are stopping people from entering in their login details, yes it can be minimised, but that's like blocking an entrance to a shop with a massive advert, then asking customers to move it to come into the shop. Most would go else where.

I like PH, I enjoy reading the topics and browsing the classifieds, and I'll probably put up with a fair bit of annoying ads etc because of it. But, I'm probably in a small minority, most people will just close the tab and go to AT or my new site "Gearheads" (No popout ads, people, that's right, we provide a site that you want )

[RizzoTheRat]

It also means that a lot more people install ad blockers to get rid of the stuff, if an ad is blocked do PH still get any revenue from it?

[don logan]

RacingPete said:

illmonkey said:

I'm Not bothered what position he is. Is there no chain of command? Can't he tell his boss if they are not aware of the issue?

Really isn't an excuse!

You make a very weird assumption that the ad policy comes from some random place and not the boss and he would not know?!?

That kind of sounds like - he knows but the revenue from this whopping great ad that is winding everyone up is more important!

You`re not a charity and the revenue makes it possible for you to provide all the things that we do enjoy about PH BUT MY GOD super sized ads are truly the biggest ever wind up, I don`t want to install all kinds of 3rd party software, I also don`t want to click or touch a part of the screen that has actually become something else in the last split second, ignoring the audience / users is a REALLY dangerous game, wind them up too much and you may find yourself pitching lower audience figures to future advertisers and ultimately lower prices due to lower audience figures!

[RacingPete]

illmonkey said:

Eh? The ad policy comes from someone at PH towers. rscott said that you are not that person. So, I said, why have you not raised the issue with your boss or the relevant person?

If the relevant person IS aware, then why hasn't it been fixed? It should be 1 phone call, or 1 setting change. If you cannot fix the ad sizes, then you drop the ad agency until they can fix sizes or you find someone else.

Your ads are stopping people from entering in their login details, yes it can be minimised, but that's like blocking an entrance to a shop with a massive advert, then asking customers to move it to come into the shop. Most would go else where.

I like PH, I enjoy reading the topics and browsing the classifieds, and I'll probably put up with a fair bit of annoying ads etc because of it. But, I'm probably in a small minority, most people will just close the tab and go to AT or my new site "Gearheads" (No popout ads, people, that's right, we provide a site that you want )

So the different size ads in different slots is the policy (we have an MPU on the right of a page and we can have the policy to serve either a normal MPU or a doublesize MPU, which will make the page jump) So it is not that the agency are failing to deliver what we ask for, or there is an issue with how stuff is delivered and served - so there is nothing to fix (apart from maybe the policy).

And certainly there are sites to move to that don't have these massive ads, or any at all, but at some point "Gearheads" will have to find a model to fund it - I think the discussion on whether the current policies are whether the policy in place now is the correct one for the long-term or short-term.

[illmonkey]

RacingPete said:

illmonkey said:

Eh? The ad policy comes from someone at PH towers. rscott said that you are not that person. So, I said, why have you not raised the issue with your boss or the relevant person?

If the relevant person IS aware, then why hasn't it been fixed? It should be 1 phone call, or 1 setting change. If you cannot fix the ad sizes, then you drop the ad agency until they can fix sizes or you find someone else.

Your ads are stopping people from entering in their login details, yes it can be minimised, but that's like blocking an entrance to a shop with a massive advert, then asking customers to move it to come into the shop. Most would go else where.

I like PH, I enjoy reading the topics and browsing the classifieds, and I'll probably put up with a fair bit of annoying ads etc because of it. But, I'm probably in a small minority, most people will just close the tab and go to AT or my new site "Gearheads" (No popout ads, people, that's right, we provide a site that you want )

So the different size ads in different slots is the policy (we have an MPU on the right of a page and we can have the policy to serve either a normal MPU or a doublesize MPU, which will make the page jump) So it is not that the agency are failing to deliver what we ask for, or there is an issue with how stuff is delivered and served - so there is nothing to fix (apart from maybe the policy).

And certainly there are sites to move to that don't have these massive ads, or any at all, but at some point "Gearheads" will have to find a model to fund it - I think the discussion on whether the current policies are whether the policy in place now is the correct one for the long-term or short-term.

So, the problem has been identified, the bosses know the issue, there is a known fix and yet it still remains. Great.

[illmonkey]

I'll just leave this here.



What's that, 80px of actual data I want to see? A wrap around ad and then a tall banner ad? Are you lot taking the piss now? Has it just been applied to me? No way any business would do this seriously.

[cjb1]

gianlu said:

The all new ads malarkey is making browsing a pain in the backside, both on the computer and ipad style thinghy.
I write this as a non it-expert. Issue being a page is loaded, you are ready to click/touch, and all move about because of a new ad loaded. Or the ads around are so big the usable page is scaled down and unreadable.

Please please please, give me the option to pay and get rid of all the c**p. It is too frustrating, to the point I tend to avoid PH, but I cannot live without classifieds. I'm sure i'm not the only one on this and it shouldn;t cost too much to make a pay-per-view only version with not a single ad. Ah, if possible, get rid of the "you might like" because I ususally don;t.

ta

Why should we pay a subscription for the use of the classifieds section? Autotrader, Ebay & Gumtree are all really easy to use and free. They must be making a handsome profit too but they have got their s#*t together! Plus, the advertisers won't use PH if they think that half the 'readers' are not going to be exposed to the ad's, it just wouldn't work. Bring back the old classifieds I say, they worked for me.

[The Moose]

cjb1 said:

gianlu said:

The all new ads malarkey is making browsing a pain in the backside, both on the computer and ipad style thinghy.
I write this as a non it-expert. Issue being a page is loaded, you are ready to click/touch, and all move about because of a new ad loaded. Or the ads around are so big the usable page is scaled down and unreadable.

Please please please, give me the option to pay and get rid of all the c**p. It is too frustrating, to the point I tend to avoid PH, but I cannot live without classifieds. I'm sure i'm not the only one on this and it shouldn;t cost too much to make a pay-per-view only version with not a single ad. Ah, if possible, get rid of the "you might like" because I ususally don;t.

ta

Why should we pay a subscription for the use of the classifieds section? Autotrader, Ebay & Gumtree are all really easy to use and free. They must be making a handsome profit too but they have got their s#*t together! Plus, the advertisers won't use PH if they think that half the 'readers' are not going to be exposed to the ad's, it just wouldn't work. Bring back the old classifieds I say, they worked for me.

To be fair to PH, AT is a total pain in the arse with all sorts of st all over the place. They suffer from a very similar issue. That's why AT is the last place I look for a car/just browsing the classifieds.

PH classifieds is starting to really piss me off - for a time, the classifieds would drop down the page just at the make drop down was finally populated. The drop would mean instead of clicking on the drop down I wanted, I'd click on Motorbike which at the time isn't what I wanted.

Surely the whole point of these adverts isn't to have them to the detriment of the user experience and they should be designed into the site layout as opposed to just fking it up.

[egomeister]

illmonkey said:

I'll just leave this here.



What's that, 80px of actual data I want to see? A wrap around ad and then a tall banner ad? Are you lot taking the piss now? Has it just been applied to me? No way any business would do this seriously.

Wow, if I saw that I can safely say I would rapidly be looking for the close button. 80% of the visible space as ads? It looks like a child has made a collage cutting random bits out of a magazine.

[dudleybloke]

This is what is happening on my android phone.

Edited by dudleybloke on Thursday 21st August 09:05

[illmonkey]

dudleybloke said:

This is what is happening on my android phone.

Edited by dudleybloke on Thursday 21st August 09:05

Sell from £11.99 if you can find your way around all of our ads that make us money as well! Bend over and take it all.

People are aware of this issue, if a fix is not done ASAP they need removing until your monkeys can figure it out. You may even find out the site does better without ads and people come back more and sell cars. Shock.

[rscott]

dudleybloke said:

This is what is happening on my android phone.

Edited by dudleybloke on Thursday 21st August 09:05

Why not use the mobile beta theme ? It looks pretty much the same as your current one on desktop, but way better on a mobile. It also doesnt' have ads on mobiles...

[paulrussell]

illmonkey said:

dudleybloke said:

This is what is happening on my android phone.

Edited by dudleybloke on Thursday 21st August 09:05

Sell from £11.99 if you can find your way around all of our ads that make us money as well! Bend over and take it all.

People are aware of this issue, if a fix is not done ASAP they need removing until your monkeys can figure it out. You may even find out the site does better without ads and people come back more and sell cars. Shock.

Look carefully at Racing Pete's post in which he says it's not broken. The ad policy is dictated by Lee, so it might be best to email him.

[illmonkey]

paulrussell said:

Look carefully at Racing Pete's post in which he says it's not broken. The ad policy is dictated by Lee, so it might be best to email him.

Backup coming in from PH towers.

Broken/incorrect, what ever. It's crap. RP actually said the policy could be changed.

I'm not emailing anyone, it's your issue, I'm just fustrated by it and the lack of consideration from PH.

[rscott]

illmonkey said:

paulrussell said:

Look carefully at Racing Pete's post in which he says it's not broken. The ad policy is dictated by Lee, so it might be best to email him.

Backup coming in from PH towers.

Broken/incorrect, what ever. It's crap. RP actually said the policy could be changed.

I'm not emailing anyone, it's your issue, I'm just fustrated by it and the lack of consideration from PH.

I think you're confused /blinded by overwhelming rage due to (how dare they) a commercial site having adverts..
I believe paulrussell works for Haymarket - he's certainly not tagged as such.

Perhaps if everyone who felt strongly about the ad policy contact Lee (ie the person who sets policy, not the poor messengers stuck in the middle) he might think about changing it. Would probably be far more effective than ranting on a thread he'll probably never see.

[illmonkey]

rscott said:

I think you're confused /blinded by overwhelming rage due to (how dare they) a commercial site having adverts..
I believe paulrussell works for Haymarket - he's certainly not tagged as such.

Perhaps if everyone who felt strongly about the ad policy contact Lee (ie the person who sets policy, not the poor messengers stuck in the middle) he might think about changing it. Would probably be far more effective than ranting on a thread he'll probably never see.

Give over. Have adverts by all means, I do. But adverts that take my entire browser up? Don't even you, a PH employee, think that is too much?

A person who is directly involved with the site/forum doesn't bother to check the "website feedback" section? Or as has been mentioned before, been told by an other member of staff that this is an issue? Are you not allowed to talk to each other?

[paulrussell]

I am not a Haymarket employee and I have no intention to be one. I just frequent this part of the forum. Personally I don't have a problem with the ads as I only look at the forums.