Adverts again?

[Zaldir]

If everyone could just spare a few coins for The Nexus, ads would be unnecessary... But I doubt that will ever happen^^

 

It's simply a matter of "Ads, or no Nexus"... Live with it.

[ginnyfizz]

Well, Zaldir, I am a Premium Member because I wish to support the upkeep of the Nexus...hence why I was a bit baffled as to how I got the ads - because Premium Members as I understand are not meant to get them - and why I started the thread. I think the reason people get upset about ads is the fear of them containing something nasty. I can actually see both sides because at one point my own site - which required nothing like the upkeep/bandwidth/costs that Nexus must do - became too expensive for me to finance on my own, and I had to take it down until I had a very generous alternative hosting offer. Nexus is a business and revenue is a necessity. I can appreciate that.

[Herculine]

If advertisements enable all this gaming greatness to remain right here at our fingertips then I'm all for it. Yet I also understand ginnyfizz's original concerns and don't mean to deprecate that. I've only been able to spare the cash to be a Premie once since I first started hanging around here and I would maintain such a membership were it possible. I don't think of the ads as a punishment for my financial state; I think of it more like the difference between watching a movie on cable as opposed to renting the DVD. When I can afford the DVD I prefer to go that route, but when cash is short I'll tolerate the commercials.

[Fatalmasterpiece]

@Dark0ne

that's understandable and of course it would be fairly impossible to convert the old files, but its something to keep in mind for the possible future.

 

@Arthmoor

I'm not sure if you understand how torrenting works completely. You wouldn't have to host your own files constantly. If its a file other people enjoy, other people would host it for you. Torrenting has gotten big this way and its how many people share things, most often without a single seeder having to keep his pc on 24/7.

_____

 

I see a lot of people on here with the common assertion, if this or that happens or if X ad is used I'll share my files somewhere else... As someone who's delt with plenty of customer service knows, that's really not constructive or helpful. When a person says Ill take my business elseware... A lot of times its better they do if they have that attitude. I don't like the new ads or annoying systems either, but its better to come up with constructive comments.

Edited February 6, 2011 by Fatalmasterpiece

[Arthmoor]

@Arthmoor

I'm not sure if you understand how torrenting works completely.

 

I understand it well enough to know that I can't count on everyone else out there keeping stuff I upload alive. So I'd need to seed in those cases. I don't have the capacity to deal with that with my current internet connection and I can't afford to switch to FiOS right now either.

 

Torrenting is not the grand solution to every problem relating to downloading things. Especially in the age of ISPs who have begun throttling torrent traffic due to the overwhelming popularity of the platform to software and music pirates. Such as the aforementioned Verizon, who is known to throttle torrents even on FiOS lines.

 

My own experience with downoading torrent files also tells me that there is no significant improvement in the download speeds vs getting it from a single source. The touted advantages seem like placebo or outright myth.

[Fatalmasterpiece]

@Arthmoor

I'm not sure if you understand how torrenting works completely.

 

I understand it well enough to know that I can't count on everyone else out there keeping stuff I upload alive. So I'd need to seed in those cases. I don't have the capacity to deal with that with my current internet connection and I can't afford to switch to FiOS right now either.

 

Torrenting is not the grand solution to every problem relating to downloading things. Especially in the age of ISPs who have begun throttling torrent traffic due to the overwhelming popularity of the platform to software and music pirates. Such as the aforementioned Verizon, who is known to throttle torrents even on FiOS lines.

 

My own experience with downoading torrent files also tells me that there is no significant improvement in the download speeds vs getting it from a single source. The touted advantages seem like placebo or outright myth.

 

Of course, it's never been claimed to be the grand solution. The point wouldn't be in speed improvements, it would be to decrease server load on Dark0ne so he wouldn't have to have such high hosting costs. Obviously that comes with some big disadvantages, but a great advantage being it's much less expensive. If someone's files aren't popular enough to stay alive well... maybe they need better quality in their files? :whistling:

 

But for any matter, it's all pissin in the rain since it's just going to stay the current route and hopefully find a better balance in revenue vs convenience.

[FlyingHigh10000000]

I totally understand the ads. I don't even have AdBlock, and still have no problems. Anyone crying foul over the ads needs to realize that, unless you contribute money to the site(s), there's nothing you can do about it. Actually, if you hate the ads that much, and end up going somewhere else, that just means less cost for Dark0ne. This is a pretty good way to keep things going, and as long as you have a decent AV, and don't have your browser set to let anything that knocks inside your computer, you should be fine. Whining about it just makes you look like a leecher. Torrenting would be an interesting optional thing, for the larger mods. It's a minor inconvenience for the modder, if they have a decent internet connection. The power costs are actually laughable, if you turn off your monitor.(Hint: It uses the most power out of anything related to your PC.) I used to see the point of anti-ad users, but when your only complaint is along the lines of "This makes it so I can't listen to my epic Dragonforce songs", it's time to think less about yourself, and more about the guy whose bandwidth, and thus money, you're leeching from.

[KEDLogic]

Let me start by saying this:

 

I LOVE THE NEXUS!!!

 

It is the best Oblivion/Fallout/Dragon Age/and more Modding site ever. Bar none.

 

AND.....

 

I understand and appreciate any and all problems, financial and otherwise, that the site has/had/will have and I don't wish to sound ungrateful or anything of the sort.

 

SO....

 

....please take my words for their face value and know this is but a comment of frustration and implies nothing more than that.

 

Here are the problems I've been experiencing on the Nexus as of late:

 

- I can't open download links in a new tab and I can only have one download starting at once. This would not be a problem normally and I understand the need for this, but now there is a ad before ALL downloads(39 sec each). Furthermore most any mod here has multiple required parts for it to work. A small modded Oblivion setup could easily consist of 15-20 files. Most would be small is size(If it doesn't include any texture mods we could be talking about under 10MB even(That's a big maybe, but still) and unless someone has made a pack of them all you would need to download them one at a time. A setup for a female char(just the char stuff, no quests, no combat or magicka or leveling mods, nothing else) using, say, HGEC with Hi-Res Textures, 3-4 sets of armor/clothing, the Race of choice and it's requirements, and maybe a cool weapon: Ive done this as part of my own setup before and that is a lot of files: 5-10 For body and texture if using eve, 1-3 per armor set,1-3 for the race if it comes with all its requirements or many more if not, add a few more for an extra weapon or race specific texture and you'll be navigating the site for hours with only a small portion of that being anything other than waiting.

 

Further more, most of the mods here are not hosted anywhere else. With this site nearly unusable(which is sadly the truth or very close to it) the modding of these great games(TES4 and Fo3 are the biggies for me) has gone from a gamer's dream to such a frustration

that we(or I at least)may as well play them vanilla. I don't know about the rest of you, but to me TES4 and Fo3 are made for mods and are legendary as such; with out the mods however, the games just suck.....

 

...............sigh......

 

I guess all that can be done is being(or has been) done so this is NOT CRITICISM(far from it) .......Still...It is sad how far downhill the nexus has come.....

 

Well good luck to all of you........video games or not .... important or not......the NEXUS is of a fleeting race

 

"community based, community driven, and for the community" is a slogan of the past it seams....It is good to see that It is not completely gone.......

 

To the NEXUS:

 

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

-KEDLogic

[infinnity]

This is obviously a very delicate subject for all involved. I'm going to stand on my soapbox for a minute or two because I have time in between classes and because that time comment plays right into my first point.

 

It's sometimes hard to remember, for us gamers especially, that we have a finite amount of time to invest in any given pursuit. Now, I understand the financial (and logistical) nightmare of trying to stay non-profit while keeping up with the overhead costs, but here's the problem: we have to endure ( I use endure here, because viewing these ads once or twice quickly becomes onerous) these ads, most of which are irrelevant to us, each and every time we have/want to download a mod. Granted, that's one way to ensure that the message gets out there, but that method is not only *not* likely to inspire us to watch (or even pay attention to) the ads, it is also likely to invite the kind of resentment we've already seen from the posters above. Resentment against mods, admins, and Dark0ne, all of whom are simply the most visible targets, but not necessarily the proper ones. The bottom line is that people (ADD gamers especially) don't want to spend the exorbitant amounts of time watching irritating videos about Activia; I understand needing to pay the hosting bills, but does it really help you in the long run when people are disgusted by ads running rampant over a community site?

 

Would it be possible to watch the video(s) only once per day, to fill a quota, rather than having to watch it every time? Or, could the format of the video player at least be changed to where it isn't hijacking our speakers and interrupting our music? If they can't be removed, can they at least be muted? I know Robin needs us to watch (or pretend to watch) the ads, but I've seen that Activia one so many times just today that I'm fairly positive that I can quote the entirety of it verbatim.

 

Also, in response to KEDLogic's comment about having to download stacks of mods for Oblivion, I have this stopgap solution to offer. What I do, to avoid having to download mods over and again, is once I've downloaded them the first time, I stick them in a folder on my desktop, using OBMM to extract and install them from there. In this way, I've ensured that I have access to all of the mods I've been using, in case something goes wrong and I need to re-install Oblivion for the hundredth time. Granted, this isn't the best solution when it comes to the world-changer mods like OOO or MMM; my answer to that is this: because most of those world-changers have a base release candidate, you would have to install that base before adding the patches anyway, and this way you can sort out the updates chronologically, if you so choose. It works for me; hopefully some of you can use that strategy, too.

 

I'll step down from my soapbox now.

[stupid_dage]

I have found that sometimes (about 1 time in 10, give or take) the list of mirrors for the downloads disappears after the advertisement (so nothing can be downloaded). If I'm real careful, and open the advertisement window to full screen everything always seems to work OK.

 

It's interesting. Sometimes it doesn't show me advertisements if the file is under 2MB, sometimes it does (seems about 60 / 40 in favor of letting me go without showing the ads)

 

Sure the advertisements are annoying, but if its the price we pay for keeping things free (or, indeed, even having the service available at all.), keep them coming.

 

I'm using Firefox 3.6.13 with add block and everything else active as well.

 

Please keep the Nexus up, with advertisements if need be!

 

People need to understand that you're doing THEM a favor, and not making any money off this.