The big advertising thread

supersonic

As we have a lot of threads on adverts, I will start a new one to take over and discuss and report matters relating to advertising on these pages. As stated many times in other threads, all the Admin and Mods can do here is pass on info to the developers/site owners - we cannot remove, edit or alter the adverts. I will link to this thread in our own office section.

If an advert is intrusive, please, if you can, state:

- your platform and operating system
- browser and version
- a screenshot and/or description of the problem.

Many thanks,

Paul.

amaferanga

- Nexus 7 2013
- Chrome browser
- Various adverts along top of screen and down sides. They cause the screen to jump around and take up too much screen space. They're very effective anti-adverts and also hinder the usability of the website.

greg66_tri_v2.0

- Windows 7
- Firefox 25.0.1
- pull up the forum using a bookmark and (sometimes) get an ad that covers the entire browser screen, with a "Close X" top right hand corner. Close the ad. That is irritating, but occasionally once I have clicked on a thread, the ad will re-appear. That is infuriating and I usually storm off in a huff at that point.

veronese68

Windows 7 and IE11 the same ads that Greg mentions above that cover the whole screen are particularly irritating. A couple of times I have gone to click on a thread and the ad jumps in as I click, so I inadvertently click on the ad. This is giving false positives as far as numbers of people clicking on the ads are concerned. I didn't mean to click, and the only outcome to my clicking on it is that I get even more irritated by it.

navrig2

I may have prompted this thread being started after I went off in the huff on Sunday. I asked that my account be closed on account of the adverts.

I mostly use an Android 10" tablet for surfing on here. Running Jellybean.

The issues are similar to the above however with a tablet interface, in my experience, the ads are more intrusive. With a PC and a mouse you can place the pointer over a link and you can see the pointer change just before you click. Typically you probably get fewer advert instigated mis-clicks. With a tablet you dont get that momentary change of pointer and I think you are more likely then to get a misclick. It is particularly annoying with a tablet as it doesn't take much movement on the Forum Index screen to miss the target, especially with fat fingers.

The whole screen adverts (currently Malaysian Airlines) are annoying and I tend to walk away at that point.

I suspect that as superfast broadband becomes more common the impact of the ads will less pronounced because the ads will load at the same speed as the main page meaning you are less likely to get that jolt a few moments after the page has loaded. Meantime the ads will just annoy people with sudden jolt caused by them appearing.

Now I have to decide to I stay here or do I move one to a less add intrusive forum. Bike Radar has great content and very helpful regulars but....

Headhuunter

I use Google Chrome on a PC at work. Hadn't dropped in on this site in a while but literally every click I made brought up a huge ad which covered the screen, or something dropped down from the top of the screen. I know the website has to pay its way but this is a bit ridiculous

nawty

Mac,
Firefox,
And for the first time since I've stopped running Windows, purely as a result of this website, an Ad Blocker. Works wonders.

I think it was the full page (mostly tyre) fly over adverts that drove me to it in the end.

iPad mini - I no longer bother.

roger_merriman

Does apear to have gone in that I haven,t had any over the top adverts on the iPad for a while now , the laptop has anti advert plugin from the last time, once you force people to deal with adverts they probably will not turn the plugins off.

Seems self defeating for a site that uses adverts heavily.

supersonic

The developers are away until the new year, so will be no news for a while I am afraid.

option_click

So the distracting page roadblock ads seemed to have disappeared, but they've been replaced by overlay ads which are even worse.

Other sites are able to feature advertising in a considered way, so sort it out BR - absolutely shocking user experience.

(Mac, Firefox)

mpatts

I have paid for an adblocker. I'd rather have paid for premium membership.

moonshine

Option Click wrote:

So the distracting page roadblock ads seemed to have disappeared, but they've been replaced by overlay ads which are even worse.

Other sites are able to feature advertising in a considered way, so sort it out BR - absolutely shocking user experience.

(Mac, Firefox)

+1 -
on a Mac using Safari a PC Win 7 / IE

The invasive full page "click to close " overlay adds are a disgrace and destroy the user experience - :?
I wont be back till these are sorted out :evil:
Well done BR & its advertisers - drive the customers you want to advertise to away.

very well done :roll: Golf clap. :roll:

craker

Have you tried this site on a Nexus tablet running Chrome? I'm repeating what amaferanga said in the hope that someone listens (tries it). It jumps all over the place. Really unpleasant and something avoided by every other website I visit. Do your homework please website devs.

meanredspider

I ordered (much to my regret) some Nespresso capsules - now I'm plagued with surround ads for forking Nespresso (I bought the bloody capsules, leave me alone FFS!!!)

As pointed out by others, the ads load slowly, resizing the viewing area just as you're about to click on a link. Infuriating!!!! These are worse than "dodgy" sites of old that opened window after window. Please sort it out BR developers - Merry bloody Xmas!

iPad and Safari btw

navt

Mac running on OSX 10.7
Safari 6.1

Landing page advert (Undertone?) is annoying having to wait for it to display before you can close it. As with others, screen jumping around.

navt

meanredspider wrote:

I ordered (much to my regret) some Nespresso capsules - now I'm plagued with surround ads for forking Nespresso (I bought the bloody capsules, leave me alone FFS!!!)

As pointed out by others, the ads load slowly, resizing the viewing area just as you're about to click on a link. Infuriating!!!! These are worse than "dodgy" sites of old that opened window after window. Please sort it out BR developers - Merry bloody Xmas!

iPad and Safari btw

Try clearing cache/cookies. I know, you shouldn't have to but does help with ads following you around.

Brommers76

I have posted on this in the past. I am running a bog standard ipad2 and only visit the site to see if it has been fixed. I don't blame the developers - somebody must own the site and have sign off so the appalling user experience on tablets specifically must have got through testing and they thought it was ok to release.

Have to agree with others in that this really impacts on the reputation of the site and also those advertisers that are accomplices in ruining the site. I would like to know who specced the site's advertising as they really should not have a job.

MattC59

iPad 2 running iOS 7.0.4
Safari

Here's a couple of examples:

This format of the advert in the first pic takes up 33.6% of the available screen. The add scrolls up and down, shifting the BR content and shrinking it to fit the remaining space.
The format of the advert in the second pic takes up considerably more space and opens and closes at random. This makes BR 100% unreadable.
I don't care what the 'advertising gurus' say is an acceptable percentage to be taken up by their ads, they are clearly wrong, or idiots. This format makes the BR content too small and makes the use or the website a very poor experience, to the point where people are moving to other sites as their sources of bike related info. Surely this neither benefits BR, or the adverts.

Wheelspinner

I periodically get the full page ad that blocks the entire BR screen, and also opens a second tab which takes me to Facebook. The stupid thing is the ad is always for Peroni beer.

I don't drink beer. Never googled it, never visited beer-porn sites, nothing. Even if I did drink beer, you can be damned sure I would never go near the product of a company which advertises in this manner. The only outcome of their ad is to ensure I hate their brand.

I don't use Facebook either, never have, never will.

The ads are quite difficult to close down too, have to click exactly on the (small) X to do it, not just the word "CLOSE" next to it. Whoever thought that little link was a smart thing to do is even more of a moron than the creative exec who approved the ad in the first place.

I don't have a problem with the site advertising in general, but that specific one is just dreadful. Please pass on feedback to the ad team.

Windows 7, Chrome browser.

EdW

PC, Windows 8, Firefox

Basically any adverts that move, cause the page to move or require user input to get of, are incredibly irritating & ruin the website.

This type are the worst. They take ages to load & when they do, cause the page to jump, usually just as I'm about to click on a topic, causing me to click the wrong one. If that's not bad enough, they then follow you around as you scroll up & down.

45rpm

I stopped visiting this site due to intrusive advertising about a year ago, popped by to have a look today and wasn't surprised to see that things had got worse!
back to Bike Rumor for me

jonny_trousers

So we're well into the new year now when the developers were meant to be back. Any news on making the ads less invasive?

Right now I'm on my Mac with Safari, but will barely visit the site on this computer now as a result of the ads. I'll only swing by on the iPhone. Like the poster above, I've started visiting other bike related sites as a result.

PS. kind of ironic the amount of car ads on a cycling site.

x

boydster76

It sounds like I am not alone in finding the site fairly painful to navigate around at the moment. The ads that surround the page seem to take an age to load and resize before I can access content. It's become off putting to the point that I can't be bothered to browse around as much and just come in for the specific pages I want to see.

cab3086

windows 7 platform, I find them very annoying especially the background ones, but worse of all the pop up ones!! I have a slow internet connection and find I have to wait so long for the adverts to load in, only for me to just try and close them anyway. If I can`t close them I just make the page size bigger to push them off so I don't see the rest.
I know they pay for the page etc.. but at what cost to the viewer as there are other sites that provide the same information with little adverts...

alomac

Windows 8, Firefox.

I hate, hate, hate those fullscreen ads which are always for Peroni in my case. Making the entire entire disappear into a burst of 'static' and then replacing it with a full-screen ad that demands your interaction so you can get back to what you were doing is rude, invasive and, to my mind, contemptuous of the users. If that wasn't bad enough, on my tablet I have to be very, very precise when touching the tiny 'close' link, as it is very easy to touch the wrong place and be whisked off to a Facebook page. Indeed, I sometimes wonder if this was not done deliberatly to drive up the hit counter. (Again: rude, invasive, contemptuous). It amazes me that someone would actually sign off on this idea.

As it stands, I usually just use the unafflicated mobile version of the website to scrape the most recent news and reviews and leave the rest of Bikeradar untouched.

MattC59

So basically, what everyone is saying in the multiple threads, is that whoever signed off on this appalling foray into advertising has screwed up in quite a major way.

It's no good trying to justify it, your customers hate it and it's turned a good forum into a poor forum to use.

Do the right thing and sort it, remove the ads.

jonny_trousers

Do you think this thread might be the metaphorical bin for us to file our complaints in?

supersonic

Wish I could help more guys, done all I can.

jonny_trousers

supersonic wrote:

Wish I could help more guys, done all I can.

Fair play. There was no way a mod could make a difference, but thanks for trying. It's hard to blame the site owners for wanting to make money and the only way they'll ever stop using these invasive - and no doubt lucrative - ads is if we stop visiting. Is that going to happen? I doubt it.

dragonontheedge

MattC59 wrote:

So basically, what everyone is saying in the multiple threads, is that whoever signed off on this appalling foray into advertising has screwed up in quite a major way.

It's no good trying to justify it, your customers hate it and it's turned a good forum into a poor forum to use.

Do the right thing and sort it, remove the ads.

A huge ding to that.

The site is shite now, no question.

What prompted me to come to this thread was TWICE clicking on the wrong forum because as my finger went down on the correct forum link the page jumped due to an ad loading. This forum is nigh on unworkable because the ads are so intrusive making using it a fustrating PITA.

I don't accept that the moderators are powerless. They are next in the food chain and I am sure can make our feelings known.

POXY SITE !

dragonontheedge

45rpm wrote:

I stopped visiting this site due to intrusive advertising about a year ago, popped by to have a look today and wasn't surprised to see that things had got worse!
back to Bike Rumor for me

Has it got a classified ? I will check it out.

Cheers