Ads and premium and wtf

tolham wrote 9 years ago: 1

So I noticed that TVMaze is coming out with a premium option. I totally get it - you need to monetize, this is a business, there are bills to pay. However, one of the things I noticed in the blog post:

"Even if you don't want to subscribe to Premium and still choose to use an adblocker on TVmaze, we don't have any plans to restrict your access. However, we do reserve the right to nudge users with an adblocker to try to convince them to switch to Premium instead. As of today, users with an adblocker will start seeing gentle and lightweight banners for Premium instead of the regular ads."

Ok, fair enough, you need ads to support the free version. So I decided to open TVMaze in incognito mode with no extensions enabled. This is what I saw:

http://imgur.com/QmZpajh

Oh look, I have a new message. The font and color of the text are the same as TVMaze. So I click on it, and this happens:

http://imgur.com/PngxoVi

That's a scam. TVMaze is directing people with no adblocker to a scammer.

"we do reserve the right to nudge users with an adblocker to try to convince them to switch to Premium instead"

That sentence now takes on a different tone. If I don't sign up for premium, you're going to annoy me with malicious links? Now, I'm going to give the benefit of a doubt because I don't know how online advertising works, and maybe this scam link was unintentional on the part of TVMaze, but this needs to be addressed before I would feel comfortable even thinking about giving money.

Jan wrote 9 years ago: 1

Hi tolham,

We've blocked the site in question from further advertising on tvmaze since it's indeed a misleading ad. If you find other ads like it, let us know and we'll block them as well immediately.

We use google adsense. They themselves have quite a list of rules and guidelines but ofcourse things like this sometimes pass through.

In regards to users with adblocker turned on. What they will get is TVmaze premium related ads. these are image ads linking to www.tvmaze.com/premium

Thanks again for bringing it to our attention.

gazza911 wrote 9 years ago: 1

Just to let you know, in the right hand corner of actual adverts, there's a green triangle in a grey box; that is the logo for the company AdChoices.

If you see that, you know it's an advert and not connected to the site.

Jan wrote 9 years ago: 1

gazza911 wrote:
Just to let you know, in the right hand corner of actual adverts, there's a green triangle in a grey box; that is the logo for the company AdChoices.

You can also directly report malicious ads to adsense by clicking on the X in the right top corner.

david wrote 9 years ago: 1

Just to clarify; the ad you saw is completely unrelated to the launch of Premium. Today's ads are the same as yesterday's. Unfortunately the online advertisement ecosystem is highly complicated, making it hard to control the quality, even if you exclusively deal with reputable parties like Adsense.

... hence the introduction of Premium! :)

Tonks wrote 9 years ago: 1

Guys, i just clicked on an ad, isn't it supposed to open either a new window or a new tab instead of just making you leave the website ?

Jan wrote 9 years ago: 1

Tonks wrote:
Guys, i just clicked on an ad, isn't it supposed to open either a new window or a new tab instead of just making you leave the website ?

What was the ad about. What was the website you landed on?

Tonks wrote 9 years ago: 1

Some french website to download stuff which i would never use, it looks like a warez site to me.

~~http://promo.jeu-a-telecharger.com/pjat/lp_fkplay/?ext_code=Google-c-c---139628605884-www.tvmaze.com&gclid=CPnkxsP6m88CFRUTGwod3GgCkQ~~

Jan wrote 9 years ago: 1

I've added it to the list of blocked ads. Thanks Tonks.

I've also made some changes to prevent certain types of ads from further appearing. If anyone else notices ads that look suspicious, please report them in a new thread and we'll have a look.

cheers,

Jan

Tonks wrote 9 years ago: 1

But is it supposed to make you leave the website, that was my original question?

Jan wrote 9 years ago: 1

Not without clicking on the ad first at least (as a form of consent). Preferably I'd like it to open in a new tab.

Tonks wrote 9 years ago: 1

Yeah, my point exactly, i clicked on it to give you "some" revenue. I didn't expect to leave the site.

blubbblubb wrote 9 years ago: 1

Im an adblock user myself, however i dont have a problem with whitelisting Sites if they dont use too much or obtrusive ads, in the end everyone has to pay their bills.

I actually whitelisted you guys some time ago, yet i never saw ads, i never really thought much about it until i saw the Premium announcement and this thread.

And it appears that i dont see any ads because of two other addons i use which block tracking and scripts from unsafe or unwanted domains

Now as i said i dont have a problem with ads in general, but what i do have a problem with is tracking through those ads. So as a suggestion maybe you should look into hosting ads that dont track your users (a lot of sites do this and i see their ads after whitelisting them without disabling the other privacy related addons) i think this could ultimately help you generate more ad revenue even though the cpm might be lower, as i think the privacy issue that comes with a lot of ad services is actually the bigger problem than the ads themselves

Now i want to support you guys and i try to contribute edits whenever i see something and if i got the time, and viewing ads would be another ok way for me, but seeing as im not really a power user and only use the basic tracking and calendar functions i dont think spending 3$ a month is worth it for me.

just some thoughts and i hope you guys are not too mad at me for not wanting to turning of the privacy addons ;)

david wrote 9 years ago: 1

I can't be too mad because I definitely understand your perspective. As you might have seen on our Premium page, besides removing the advertisements, our premium plans also disable external services like Google Analytics which ensures there's nothing tracking your visits to TVmaze other than ourselves.

We would love to be able to serve ads from our own servers so they can't hurt your privacy while still keeping the lights on in our server room. But as you may understand, this is far from trivial. For each such advertiser we'd have to negotiate pricing and possibly contracts, manually implement their banners and links, arrange for payments, etc. This means it's only worth it if they have a serious advertising budget to spend. If you know someone, please have them contact us. :)

Jan wrote 9 years ago: 1

We've spent some time trying to find advertisers who might be interested in negotiating a long term deal with us. The logistics from their side are more work than just using the current existing ad providers. Maybe after Premium we'll be able to expand our effort, start working on such a system and have someone dedicated to this type of work.

Like David said above. If you know someone, please have them contact us. :),
We'd be more than happy to strike a deal.

JAGUARDOG wrote 9 years ago: 1

I have a question but it may some dumb/stupid to most but please remember I am a PC & Internet Dummy and did not understand anything above but that's okay. My question is this I have AdBlocker Plus that I use and have used for a few years now and it works great for me. I don't want to have to turn it off while I'm here and then when I toggle to another site to get information have to turn it back on again, then off, then on, then off, etc.

Is there a way for me to avoid having to do this constantly starting on the 26th or am I just SOL?

JuanArango wrote 9 years ago: 1

JAGUARDOG wrote:
I have a question but it may some dumb/stupid to most but please remember I am a PC & Internet Dummy and did not understand anything above but that's okay. My question is this I have AdBlocker Plus that I use and have used for a few years now and it works great for me. I don't want to have to turn it off while I'm here and then when I toggle to another site to get information have to turn it back on again, then off, then on, then off, etc.
Is there a way for me to avoid having to do this constantly starting on the 26th or am I just SOL?

You can just turn off the adblocker for tvmaze and leave it on for all other sites :)

JAGUARDOG wrote 9 years ago: 1

JuanArango wrote:
You can just turn off the adblocker for tvmaze and leave it on for all other sites :)

I didn't know I had that option I will try it, thanks. It took me some time but I have it turned off for tvmaze now. I previously had no letters appearing on my ABP so I did not know what was being said. I however removed it and then reinstalled it and all the letters appeared to me so I could whitelist TVMaze. I learned a new word and what it means thanks to everyone above!

Tonks wrote 9 years ago: 1

Guys, this ad https://www.xero.com/uk/try/online-accounting/?gclid=CL6GhNfZw88CFWYq0wodCxsC7A takes you out of the website. It doesn't open a window or a tab.

Jan wrote 9 years ago: 1

Tonks wrote:
Guys, this ad https://www.xero.com/uk/try/online-accounting/?gclid=CL6GhNfZw88CFWYq0wodCxsC7A takes you out of the website. It doesn't open a window or a tab.

Preferably it would open a new tab on click. But i'm not seeing any issues with the website/product itself for it to be blocked.