Ad reporting functionality

[TVPR]

I get you, I really do. I used to work at a tech/gaming/stuff news site, and as you've probably guessed, the tech/gaming/stuff-news audience are ahead of the curve on pretty much everything. Ad-blocking is no exception.

 

I just got my supporter status, mainly because I bloody love this site, but the thing which triggered it was the auto-redirecting ads. And yeah, it is ENDEMIC. Never reported anything though, "why would I"? Suddenly finding myself on fornicating aliexpress every second visit is not a lot of fun. It even prompted me to reinstall Windows, just to be sure it hadn't infected me with something, as well as install an adblocker plugin for the first time (outside my mobile - it's vital there, but on my PC's I like supporting sites I visit).

 

And yeah, I really do like supporting the pages I visit. Sometimes the ads are even relevant. I actually do turn it off the adblocker for quality sites like this, but the alibaba etc. hustlers make it too risky. Damned if I know what other scrips they might decide to run on my machine, you know?

 

That said, people who refuse to pay will always find a way. My old job tried blocking adblockers, found they switched to adblocker-blocker-blockers, developed new blocks and so on, which only led to phrases like "nice new adblocker-blocker-blocker-blocker-blocker-blocker-blocker-blocker, how long till it's been breached?"

 

I could always find a way to block ads here, and so could anyone else. I finally decided to buy my way to supporter status for now, maybe I'll go premium later. That's because you're good people, giving us a good service. I was an unregistered lurker for ages, and I've been a freeloading registered user for a while. But I would have been happy seeing ads, even if that meant getting lower download speeds and otherwise cruising by. That doesn't work anymore, though. Even if 1/100 are of the non-approved sort you outlined in your post, that disrupts your whole business model, as it incites people to find a way around it.

 

Actually taking a serious stance against redirecting, script-using, aggressive and malicious advertisers, that's prolly the most profitable thing any ad-supported site can do. I hope you mean it when you say you're serious about it.

 

I honestly hope you can get enough users to fork up the dough to keep the place running, growing and improving. The Nexus is, after all, just that – a nexus for us poor, huddled millions of people who routinely fork over hundreds of dollars to AAA developers, only to be disappointed that whatever they made can be made better by a bunch of volunteer modders contributing for free. s#*!, I even hope people end up donating more to the modders; I've only done so once myself. But we need this site. The alternative is some kind of bloody geocities-lookalike hellscape. Nobody wants that.

 

TL;DR: Fork over some money, people, but fear the malicious Chinese.

[536861646f57]

In response to post #35666937. #35669982, #35670817, #35671037 are all replies on the same post.

boduke419 wrote: Over the past few days I have made frequent use of the report button. One ad in particular would play audio easily twice as loud as any other program on my pc with no option to mute (didn't even look like a fun game). It was to the point I couldn't leave mod pages open in 2nd tab without straining my speakers and patience. All of the other ads are mutable and unobtrusive which I don't mind.

That said, I'm glad to see your stance on the matter. I found the post to be very enlightening and well explained,also the transparency is appreciated. The site is awesome! Keep up the good work!

Dark0ne wrote: You're Premium so you shouldn't be seeing ads at all. What's going on there!?

536861646f57 wrote: Seems like your "Ad initiative" isn't working as planned.

Dark0ne wrote: You seem quite hostile. Why so mad?

Alas, one cannot properly convey tone in text, especially on electronic media. I'm not mad or hostile, it's 75% sarcasm and 25% me being tired of my own bullsh*t.

[BullDoser]

I don't think that anyone mentioned this already, but download speeds are still 1024 kb/s for supporters in NMM. If 1.5mb/s does not apply for Nexus Mod Manager, then there is hardly any usage for this boost at all. Either way, 2 euros I paid won't be missed because I enjoy this site a lot.

 

Cheers.

 

Edit: I might have read it wrong, since it says "We’ll likely wait a month or two to release this new Adblocker incentive". But I don't quite understand if You are talking about Ads reporting or "users tiers", so I am not sure if I should expect speed increase now or in two months. :)

Edited March 17, 2016 by BullDoser

[jhelzei]

In response to post #35625192. #35625912, #35625942 are all replies on the same post.

Dark0ne wrote: To help us sort out our ad serving we’ve added a new “report this ad” feature underneath any ad placements on the site. This functionality will quickly let us know about the ad placement you’re reporting which we can then pass on to our ad supplier to help them quickly get to the root of the problem.

A bad ad that we would appreciate you reporting if you see it would be considered as:

Any ads with auto-playing sound. Any ads that look like those crazy epilepsy inducing ads of the early 2000s with flashing colours. Any pop-ups. We do not use pop-up ads. Any ads that “break” the page layout as they’re larger than the space they’re supposed to fill. Any ads that automatically redirect the user away from the page. That’s a massive no-no. Obviously, any malicious ads (e.g. ones that your anti-virus program says are unsafe).

The ad spaces we use: a 728x90 pixel banner below the top navigation and above the site content, a 300x250 box ad either on right navs or next to the file stats on file pages, a 728x90 at the bottom of the page and a 300x250 at the bottom of the page. If you see anything else, it’s wrong, and we want to know about it!

Personally, I’ve been less than impressed with our ad provider of late. I’ve had many reports of issues that have been too numerous to ignore. I have been applying considerable pressure for them to sort out the issue but, without proper reporting, it’s hard to gauge just how endemic the issue is. It’s our hope that this new functionality will show us the extent of the problem so I can make a more informed decision about what to do next, whether it’s applying the right level of pressure backed up with statistics this new functionality will provide us, or looking for a new supplier altogether.

I understand that talking about ads is utterly undesirable. They are an unfortunately necessary scourge of the internet because there’s just no other way of paying for the servers and staff that keep resource intensive sites like this afloat. This year, Nexus Mods is projected to need £550,000 to keep running ($780,000). A figure that’s more than doubled in just under two years as we’ve continued to grow. We just can’t do it without ads on the site.

With this in mind, we have recently finished work on a slightly improved experience for users of this site who do not use Adblock. We are yet to release this functionality as I want to get a grasp of the current ad situation before I implement a system that incentivises turning off adblockers.

Because any talk of ads brings with it recommendations from certain users in the comments that everyone turn on their adblockers (something I find slightly rude, I won’t lie), I feel it necessary to talk about an upcoming feature we’ll be adding to the sites.

I understand and I get Adblock, and I understand and get why people use it. Whether it’s privacy, security, or just removing an annoyance. But unfortunately I have to sit on the other side of the argument simply because, if everyone used Adblock, then this site wouldn’t be able to afford paying the $780,000 bill this year. Indeed, the only reason why Adblock has “worked” up to this point is because there’s still enough users out there not using it to subsidise the people who are. As it stands, roughly 45% of Nexus users, who aren’t Premium or Supporters, use Adblock. That’s quite a high number. If that number gets much higher, we’re going to have serious issues. The same applies to many, many more of your favourite sites online.

There’s been a recent increase in sites not allowing users who use Adblockers on the site being spearheaded largely by the already dying newspaper industry’s websites online. A high-profile example is Forbes.com. I think we’re going to see more of this sort of stuff in the coming years. It’s a big deal on the internet right now as Adblock user numbers increase. However, I do not plan nor want to go that route at all. Instead, I want to thank those users who do not use an Adblocker by giving them a slightly better experience on the sites, without penalising Adblock users at all. Just to confirm, this new system will not change anything, at all for users who keep their adblockers on. For adblockers, the site will remain exactly the same as it is now and you won’t be locked out of anything you’re not already locked out of now (e.g. Supporter Image Share). Guaranteed.

The idea is to have a tiered system of membership with adblock users, non-adblock users, Supporters and Premium Members offering different levels of advantages. What you have right now, as a normal non-Supporter, non-Premium user of the site will be the adblock user level. So if you’re perfectly content right now, nothing is changing for you. Users who do not use adblockers will get a 50% download speed boost on the sites. Rising from 1MB/second to 1.5MB/second. A thank you from us, to you, for not using an adblocker. Supporter perks will remain the same, except for also gaining the 50% download speed boost, and Premium will remain unchanged as they already have uncapped download speeds among other perks.

The idea is not to punish people who use Adblockers. The idea is to incentivise turning off Adblockers and to thank those users who don’t use them on Nexus Mods. It’s an attempt at a positive reaction to Adblockers rather than the largely negative ones we’re seeing elsewhere online. With the raucous amount of abuse thrown out about advertising online, it’s only right that we thank users who willingly browse the sites with the ads turned on for helping to support the upkeep of the sites.

I’d like to remind users that Supporter membership on the site, which costs just £1.29 (roughly $2) and applies to your account forever (e.g. it’s not £1.29 a month, it’s just a one-off £1.29 to permanently be upgraded) removes all ads on the site for you. Similarly, if you become a Premium Member even for a single month (£2.99, roughly $4.25) you will never see ads on the site ever again, even after your Premium Membership expires. The idea being to make it as cheap as possible to remove the ads on the site, and to negate the often seen criticism elsewhere on the web that “there’s no cheap way to remove ads, so I use an adblocker”. I’m sorry, you can’t use that excuse here.

We’ll likely wait a month or two to release this new Adblocker incentive while we analyse the reports we get on our current ad setup with the new ad reporting system this news post was originally all about. I want to ensure the ads we’re serving are as tight and right as possible before suggesting to otherwise skeptical Adblock users that they help us out by turning them off.

InMyBestInterest wrote: Hello,

I would like to point out I have limited bandwidth usage of 10 gigs/month for 2 users and 3 computers so when a site auto plays videos and sound it eats up my allowance in a hurry. This is why I use adbockers including on Nexus. I am a supporter and paid to have the ads removed so does this mean I should turn off adblockers on Nexus for the additional speed boost?

Have a nice day

Dark0ne wrote: If you're a Supporter or Premium Member then you can safely ignore any talk about Adblockers as it doesn't apply to your membership level at all. Thanks for the support!

I became a supporter because I value the services provided by the Nexus. That said, I use an adblocker on the rest of the Internet for two reasons. Number one is malware prevention. If I don't see any ads, I can't be infected or hijacked by any bad actors. Number two is because of the flippin' video ads. They slow my browser to a crawl, or even crash it, and make navigating websites a nightmare (I'm looking at you, Wikia.) If these two problems could be solved somehow, then I'd consider ditching my ad blocker and support websites. I know this is a moot point due to my supporter status, but I present these thoughts to help the managers of the site understand what motivates Adblock users.

[HadToRegister]

In response to post #35643667. #35643992, #35644452, #35646552, #35647597 are all replies on the same post.

sisgolden wrote: Mr. Snowden says we, internet users, must use adblockers to protect themselves.
I never turn off my adblock. It's not about hate nexusmods.com, it's all about security.

In recent days, advertisements network were hacked, and used it as a "malware-distribution platform".
What will you do if we infect a zero-day virus from Advertisement, downloaded while visiting nexusmods.com? Nothing, right?

Setekh79 wrote: Then if you value the site purchase a supporting membership, it's a one off payment. You can't be all 'take take take'

sisgolden wrote: See my reply above. There's not bitcoin payment at this moment.

EmissaryOfInfinity wrote: I guarantee you that numerous companies and people you know nothing about already know quite a bit of your personal information. It happens. It's inevitable. And, really, the idea of anonymous payment online is rather amusing, as somehow, through some channel, you will always have shown your information through such a purchase.
And, honestly, it's less than $2. If you're really going to take this approach over such a paltry amount, it goes to show that you're in this not for the best interest of the site, but the greatest interest of yourself.

1Doom1993 wrote: Seeing as how the NSA can allegedly crack BC wallets and apparently, these "researchers" (https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/researchers-describe-easy-way-crack-bitcoin-wallet-passwords/), I think unmarked bills (hypothetically speaking) are more secure than BC, at least in some aspects. For instance, no one can withdraw funds from your safe from 800 miles away, or install keyloggers, rootkits, or BIOs overwrites that will write new sections on your HDD even if you reinstall your OS, even though the problem can be solved by: A. Going through the hazardous (to your motherboard) steps to wipe your bios, or B. Selling your computer on 'list.

sisgolden
See my reply above. There's not bitcoin payment at this moment.

You're worried about security and you have a bitcoin account?

The irony

[JoRoCo]

1pound 29pence to become a supporter member. How much is a cup of coffee in the UK (I live in Australia)? I became a Premium member when I first started using NEXUS and feel it was well spent. There is no site that can run for nothing and seeing how much it costs you each year I can not see how anyone should balk at paying a little bit to help you.

 

Thanks for the Service that NEXUS supplies to all gamers. :)

[NeoH4x0r]

In response to post #35629412. #35629487, #35629997 are all replies on the same post.

ThoraldGM wrote: When an ad loads in the forum reply text box, preventing me from typing or using the text toolbar, then AdBlock is the only way to participate. Even if it means manually typing BBCode instead of using the toolbar. It's not my choice... that's the way the site has been (not) working.

Dark0ne wrote: We don't have any ads at all on our forums, so unless I misunderstood what you were saying, you've got adware/malware on your PC.

ThoraldGM wrote: I will take another look at my phone and laptop. There's been many times software says I'm clean but the ad hijacking persists. I wouldn't be surprised if people are using ad blockers simply out of frustration that nothing else is working. It would be nice to see video embeds on mod pages and use forum toolbars again.

There are no advertisments for http://forums.nexusmods.com
he said forum reply text box (but I don't know if they actually mean on a forum thread).

[Osidious]

Thank you for noticing this problem with the ads. I have been reporting all the auto-playing ads for three weeks before this post and was using your ad report system. One good thing about the old reporting system before this post was, once you reported an ad a pop-up came up thanking us for the report and the ad box was removed from the page. Now under your new report ad system, When I report an ad I get pop-ups stating: 'Thank you for reporting ad" "Ad already reported (even though it is not the same ad)" " (something along the lines of a server error)". In addition, under the system, the ad box is removed but the ad continues to autoplay, and not only that ad, but another after that, and after that, and so on. Unfortunately, you can not report those ads as that ad box is gone, along with the report link. Just typing this message I am now on ad#5 auto-playing.

 

It seems the ad agency is combating you with more auto-play ads then before I started reporting three weeks ago, there is now an auto-play ad every page click so far (three: one for a hot mod, back to main, then to your latest new page to read up on skywind, back to main, then to here to type this comment.

 

Apparently, it has now stopped auto-playing as I have silence.

 

I understand you need ads for revenue for the site. I understand you have auto-playing ads to annoy me to buy your membership. Trust me it is working (auto-play ad #6 now...), I will buy a premium membership when the Canadian dollar comes back up (auto-play ad #7 and #8) so the exchange doesn't rape my bank account so hard (auto-play ad #9 and #10).

 

But please return to the old reporting system so I can still remove auto-play ads every page, so I can wear my headset to talk to my pals on steam while surfing your fine site.

 

I promise to buy your premium membership once the dollar goes back up! Pretty please bring back the old system (auto play ad #11) I can not even think for anymore words (auto-play #12).

 

Osidious

[Siilk]

Ads? What ads? Haven't seen any. Then again, I don't see a lot of ads in general, all thanks to my adblock. ;)

[Qrygg]

Just wanted to throw out there (I realize there is a dedicated forum for this, but it is kinda on-topic so here goes) that I had to donate 3 times over the course of about 8 months before the site finally recognized that I had done so. Might want to double-check your supporter system; I'd be very surprised if I was the only person who had this experience. Not that I wouldn't have donated 3 times regardless... ;)

 

For people using Adblock on Chrome (not sure about other browsers) you can choose to have Adblock permanently disabled on this site without it being turned off for other sites. I highly recommend this route for active users of Adblock Plus on Chrome.