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  • Subject: Ads on Bnet?
Subject: Ads on Bnet?
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Destinypedia - The Wiki for Bungie's Destiny
Posted by: DEATHPIMP72
Anyone but Foman. He smells like cheese.

*Warning -- another long Foman post. See Summary at the end if you're too lazy to read all of my reasoning. But I suggest you take 2 minutes and read the whole thing*

Ugh. I'm torn.

This website has been my favorite for a long time. Not-so-coincidentally, it is also the only free website that I visit that has no advertisements. That gives this place much more of a "just us (Bungie) and you (Community)" feel that was free even from the profit-obsessed Microsoft juggernaut (see, for example, the hideous MSN.com, which proves that there's no such thing as "tasteful" advertising). Putting advertisements here would destroy that feeling, instead giving me the impression that I was always being watched and tracked, regardless of whether it was true or not. Furthermore, I love Bungie and I'd feel pressure to "help" you guys out by clicking on the ads from time to time.

On the other hand, I've always been in favor of anything that gets more profits to Bungie. More profits mean better games and better service, which works out better for me. In a way, it's kind of selfish of me to want you to get more money, but I think that it's a symbiotic desire.

Apropos:

This website is great because it has a great community -- not because the site itself is flawless. If the website were run "for-profit," I would expect (not "hope" but rather "expect") big improvements to the site. Perhaps we could finally get some of the features that we ask for, considering that a large chunk of Bungie revenue would now depend on us actually visiting the site.

The broken search feature, the lack of features and visibility for private groups, the horrifyingly spammy forums and lack of moderators for them, the woefully inadequate help pages (that turn this very forum into a tech support forum staffed -- for free -- by benevolent Community members), and the general feeling of being ignored by everybody at Bungie except Achronos and ferrex. These are all things that I would expect to be fixed now that Bungie was getting revenue thanks to me (and everyone else) spending our time here.

I don't mean to sound harsh -- I love you guys and I think the web team does a great job. But if you ask me, and I think that a lot of people would agree, the general feeling around here is that the Community-oriented aspect of the Bnet website is a low priority for Bungie. Thus, the web team gets pulled off of Community-oriented projects in favor of for-the-masses projects (for example, not updating the group features in favor of dealing with the Halo 3 Stats databases). That's understandable at the moment, considering that the website is a calculated cost rather than a revenue-generating asset to Bungie right now. Therefore, right now, the priority is to keep general interest in the website high for the basically disinterested public. In other words, provide a place for the average guy who plays some Halo and wants to check his stats once a week or wants to put up a screenshot every now and then to show his buddies.

Start in with the advertisements, and those priorities shift. Now, your revenue generating base for the website is the various Community members who visit this site daily. You know -- the ones who log into BNet as soon as they wake up to see what happened while they were asleep. The ones who visit BNet every single time that they get downtime at work. The ones who post 500 or more posts per month. The ones who delve into the site beyond the front page, the news, and the Halo 3 Forum. They are the ones who will see all of the various dozens of advertisements on a daily basis, and thus they are the ones who Bungie will need to please in order to keep coming back to the site.

At that point, it will be a severe hit to this place to lose guys like dalmedya, who recently stopped his daily visits to the site because he does not own Halo 3 and realized that, and I quote, he has "nothing to contribute to any forums . . . and I'm fed up with all the [spam] in those forums . . . . So yeah, screw you guys. I'm going to 4chan." I'm willing to bet that nobody from Bungie even noticed dalmy's departure, even though many people in the Community did. But if Bungie were advertising on BNet, the loss of people like him -- a daily visitor and frequent forum poster -- would mean a loss of revenue.

Conclusion and Summary for those of you who always skip to the end of my posts

The end result of all of this is that, if advertisements were begun on the BNet website, I would expect BNet to become a lot more Community friendly thanks to BNet Community now being a revenue generator instead of an annoying group of forum regulars who whine about groups and search features. I would expect the BNet Community's desires to be much better supported by Bungie rather than ignored "cuz we're so busy working on Halo."

It's a quid-pro-quo, Sketch. I love Bungie to death and have no complaints about things as they currently are. But if you want to make money off of my presence here instead of just being my friend, you've got to give something back.

(Edit: apologies for the somewhat double-post -- I was having issues with my internet and ended up accidentally deleting a whole rack of changes to my first post, so I reposted it here with the changes made.)

[Edited on 12.12.2007 8:28 PM PST]

  • 12.12.2007 8:22 PM PDT
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Talk to the Soul | ~B.B. | Know Your Duardo |  | Hero | ISFJ | 77135 | 94371

"It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me."

Perhaps in the future, Bungie can add a 'Gold membership' or something (basically, you'll pay for it). Gold members won't see any ads on the site, but regular members that did not purchase the Gold dmembership will. Win win situation for Bungie and for the people that do not want any ads at all (except the $ part).

  • 12.12.2007 8:41 PM PDT

I'm okay with advertisements if and only if the site switches to PHP.

In reality I'm sure whatever the web team would do is fine (although PHP would be nice, no offense to ASP though, they both have their place, and this site has alot of code). It would be nice though if when you bought Bungie Pro (or some other advanced Bungie account for the next project), the advertisements disappeared. I think it would also be nice if the ad's would just sort of cycle between advertisers and non-profit community sites (such as bungie.org, junk.ws, etc.) in order to keep the ads more looked at and make them integrate better with the forums.

  • 12.12.2007 8:41 PM PDT
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I... find myself actually agreeing with one of Foman's lengthy spiels, for once.

Really, he makes an excellent point! :S

  • 12.12.2007 8:50 PM PDT
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Talk to the Soul | ~B.B. | Know Your Duardo |  | Hero | ISFJ | 77135 | 94371

"It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me."

Very nice Foman. I concur whole heartedly with your post.

  • 12.12.2007 8:59 PM PDT

As I see where non-invasive advertising would be a nice idea for covering costs of Bungie.net I'd question the practicality of it.
For instance Firefox is becoming a prevalant browser lately, and with its use comes many advertisment blocking plugins.
I myself use plugins such as Adblock Plus, filterset for Adblock, and NoScript so as an end result I never receive any online advertisment.
So, to be honest, I wouldn't even notice the introduction of banner ads, so I don't even know why I am making this point?

  • 12.12.2007 9:00 PM PDT
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Within each steel-bound coffin of a cell, / Buried alive;
But rather mourne the apathetic throng / The cowed, and the meek -
Who see the world’s great anguish and its wrong / And dare not speak.

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hmm... that's an interesting post, Foman. I somewhat agree with you; if they start making money off of this site, it would be nice to see some of that money (and attention) sent back this way.

However, I don't think that advertisements would have to ruin the friendly atmosphere around here. You're right that if they turn this place into simply a cash machine, there would be a different feel. However, I don't see it going that way. In my mind, advertisements would be more to simply support the cost of this website. Currently, there is no income from this place, but they spend what is probably a lot of money on people to run it (Achronos, the rest of the web team, people like stosh) and on servers and bandwidth. I don't know... I would imagine that they would hope for a positive gain, but I don't think it would turn from a non-profit to say... myspace.

So, instead of our friend trying to make money off of our presence, I think it would be more like our friend asking us to bring our drinks to the party. Sure, it's not as nice as a completely free party, but I understand when the host wants to cut down on the overhead. And if they manage to have a little bit left over when the night's done, I personally don't see a problem with that.

This isn't exactly related to my previous point, but I wanted to mention that for an example of advertising that is done in a nice, unobtrusive way, you can see [url]www.penny-arcade.com[/url]. Yeah, it's there, but I've never visited them and thought "man, I'm really starting to hate these ads".

  • 12.12.2007 9:00 PM PDT
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Posted by: evilcam
Gz, I'd kill the whole world for you




3-19-07

Nothing the moves or flashes, otherwise, I'm fine.

  • 12.12.2007 9:06 PM PDT

I don't mind the small ads at the top or bottom of pages, something similar to the ''powered by ideal science" at the bottom right of each page wouldn't bother me. It is when there are banner ads that take up the whole top, bottom, or sides of pages, the ones that make noise are the worst. Pop-ups would have to be a big no. I would like to see ads that have something to do with Halo, or at the very least video games, consoles, etc, if we have to see ads.

  • 12.12.2007 9:11 PM PDT
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Posted by: Shishka
Everything will be gone long before me. When the first living thing was born, I was here, waiting. When the last living thing dies, my job is finished. I'll put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave.

I agree with many of the people here that are saying no pop-ups. They are very, very, very annoying. What's also annoying is a banner add that has bright flashing colors, giant, red lettered 40 pt text with 90 million exclamation points behind it. If that happens, I'll never come here again. But, I wouldn't mind a nice banner add here and there, but it would be a lot better if it was related to gaming. It would be wierd going to the Halo 3 forum and seeing an ad for Obama or fat loss.

And, as one person said, no ads in people's private groups. If I was a group admin I'd be kinda pissed if I saw any kind of ad in my group forums or home page.

  • 12.12.2007 9:44 PM PDT
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Trying something once will increace your chances of success, because you tried it. Try someting twice, and your chances increase yet again - seeing as you've done it. Try something a few thousand times, and your chances of success is exponentially increased; this increase would likely provide success every time

I am for it. However, my only suggestion is to have ads like the 'Powered by F5'. It is simple, discrete, and it fits. A simple 'Be sure to check out our sponsors' or 'Visit our sponsors' or whatever, would definitely work; in my opinion.

  • 12.12.2007 9:51 PM PDT
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It does, but it is a convenience for some.

  • 12.12.2007 10:03 PM PDT
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Text and non-flashing ads would be bearable...

  • 12.12.2007 11:39 PM PDT

There are a few ideas I like here. Ads would be okay (read: I'd actually pay attention to them) if I knew that they were Bungie-approved and related to gaming. Also, the ads actually contributing to the site would be a plus as well. One of the reasons this is my favorite site is how clean it looks. I wouldn't want a bunch of ads cluttering the site up. As for paying for an upgraded account, I wouldn't mind, but I can see a lot of people on the site being turned off by the idea. I think we'd lose more than a few valuable community members.

  • 12.12.2007 11:59 PM PDT

-Quaere verum.

Got a report? Use the report tool or send a pm.
Chairleg Productions presents: 'Console Wars' and 'Games as Art?' (also on Halo Waypoint).

I have a few thoughts right now:

* Firstly, you do have that quite sizable Halo 3 logo on the home page... some of it could be used for other things.

* Secondly, small banners or links down the bottom of a page would be just fine.

* Thirdly, please please no stupid flash ads that make me shoot 10 ducks to win a fake prize.

Basically, as long as they're out the way, don't ruin the aesthetics of the site, are relevant, tasteful and don't annoy me/distract me, they’re fine. What?

  • 12.13.2007 2:28 AM PDT
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Definitely nothing that says, "Congratulations, you are the 1,000,000th visitor to this site!!!11one. blah blah blah...' As we ALL know it's not true.
Maybe exchanging 1,000,000 for 777,777,777 would be acceptable. (I'm kidding)

People have suggested the idea of a 'Gold member' addition. I'd put it to all of you guys to suggest what features that should entail. So, I know you want it to include the removal of the adverts. What else?

  • 12.13.2007 3:12 AM PDT

Something like Gmail has would be OK. Non-obtrusive but relevant ads.

[Edited on 12.13.2007 3:16 AM PST]

  • 12.13.2007 3:16 AM PDT
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A massive Girls Gone Wild square banner replacing the current (3) Logo would be AWESOME. Love the idea of GGW specifially, Sketch.

In all seriousness, as mentioned before, relative advertisements that are inconspicuous and not flash-based are fine. Just be sure they're not the Google-ish ones that link to Viagra websites because somebody in a post said "man".

  • 12.13.2007 4:04 AM PDT

I wouldn't mind a banner ad here and there as long as it is integrated correctly and isn't extremely distracting. The way I see it more money for Bungie means better games for us in the future.

  • 12.13.2007 6:36 AM PDT
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Now that you've taken the time to look at my sig, I actually regret not providing you with something more worthwhile.

I want PMs from the Soul detailing why I should purchase various Cortana brand feminine products.

In all seriousness, ads are cool with me, especially if they lead to more love and money for groups. However, if I ever get an add where I click to go to a page, the ad comes up and then I have to click to redirect to go to the page I wanted(check sherdog.com if my explanation wasn't enough for you), I will kill entire families.

  • 12.13.2007 7:57 AM PDT

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We're barely, we're just a collection of cells
Overrating themselves

I would prefer not to have them, but I think I could manage if it helps you crank out more kick ass games.

  • 12.13.2007 8:45 AM PDT
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Posted by: goweb
Something like Gmail has would be OK. Non-obtrusive but relevant ads.


I agree. As long as the ads aren't like the obtrusive Gamespot ads, I won't mind their presence at all. I wouldn't mind being able to click on links to see trailers for new games and movies.

  • 12.13.2007 8:53 AM PDT
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Personally I only really object to ads that negatively affect my experience. Anything animated or worse with sound that cause the page to load slower are unacceptable (I hate sites that automatically load videos), and nothing where I have to download a codec or plugin. Also, I refuse to regularly use sites that have pop-ups that block part of your screen or are difficult or impossible to close. That kind of intrusion would quickly cause me to decline use of Bnet. I also hate redirects (like Gamespot has when you load their site). I also don't like ads that are disguised to look like a regular part of the website.

  • 12.13.2007 8:55 AM PDT

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I'm actually entirely against ads. :(

Maybe if they were at the VERY bottom, and not huge? Any ads running along the top or side will turn me away from this website rather quickly. What I've always loved here is the lack of ad banners.

[See Foman's incredibly long post for my thoughts on the matter as well, he summed it up so beautifully]

[Edited on 12.13.2007 10:20 AM PST]

  • 12.13.2007 10:16 AM PDT
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Banner ads that fit the style of the page and dont break up the current layout = go nuts. It's good for you guys, it's good for us. As long as you shy away from flash, animations, popups and the like, it's all good. The key thing i feel is not breaking up the layout. Though i suppose this kind of makes the forums off-limits, unless you're willing to make yet more design changes.

  • 12.13.2007 10:26 AM PDT