Blog piece: Ads, Supporters, Endorsements and Bandwidth Throttling

[d181sp1]

I think it's a great idea. You deserve to bolster your income and in the end, it only further benefits us by doing so.

 

Hands down this is the greatest modding site(s) on the net and it's why I've been coming here for so many years. It just gets better and better. It's like the Windows XP of modding sites, the standard by which all others are measured, heh.

 

Keep on doing great things, Dark One. It seems to come naturally to you and I thank you for that.

 

Later

 

[lordquilton]

@SamusKnight2K-

I just try to make it a habit to visit my member area/download history once a month. I went premium recently too, and it was a good feeling to go back over all the mods I've downloaded over the last 18 months and endorse the ones that have passed "the test of time".

[AnkhAscendant]

I'm going to get a Supporter membership now that it's going to be ad-free, mostly because I use an adblocker and feel guilty about it, but not guilty enough to buy something that recurs and premium membership perks mean nothing to me. But anyway.

 

I had a couple questions. The Supporter seems to have been left out of the talk of bandwidth. Does it start at the "not viewing ads" base of .75, or at 1.0? Will the site skin ads still be a factor? Honestly I don't think download speed matters to me, but I'm curious.

 

My other question was what happened to the old idea of offering ad space to members for mods? Not that I'd use that either, but in the forum thread it sounded like a viable idea, and I'd like to see those ads.

[hardkopy]

I think one of the killers of endorsements was the delay between download and permission to endorse. Installing and testing a mod straight away is more likely to get an endorsement than one which has been downloaded and left to a later date. As well, if the % of endorsements were to be calculated upon the ratio of nexus paid members to that of non paying members, the endorsement figures may be much higher. Paid members would be more inclined to playtest, endorse mods as opposed to those unpaid who download and play.

 

The old method of providing a reason why you endorse a file, should, I think, be made mandatory as would not only lessen "false" endorsements but would also provide the author a clear view upon what is though of his/her mod.

 

About ads, I don't mind them at all if I am receiving a good/great experience from a website and would allow them to show even I were in position to be a premium member. I am also guilty of bloating your numbers as I was under the impression that PPC "pay per click" was also part of the ad pay regime, therefore I clicked w/o purchase. I am now aware that PPC is on the receiver and not the viewers end so will cease this annoying activity forthwith along with my most heartfelt apologize.

[APreciousPony]

And sometime just reminding people of the great service you provide will get them to choke up some money.

I would like even more tiers for payment options. Like $1 per year or something like that (I don't have quid on my keyboard).

I don't use adblockers, but I would much rather pay the extremely low amount than have to look at ads.

 

If you do generate a huge influx of money at some point, would you consider weekly or monthly prizes for mod authors?

 

Because let's face it, great mods make the site great.

[vinak]

I am under the rather strict impression that all internet ads are fraudulent and/or exploitative in nature so I indiscriminately block the crap out of all of them.

 

With that said. I still see ads when I browse the nexus ingame via steam.

 

Then there's that.

<-------------------

 

The endorsement system is a step in the right direction I suppose. But I'd like to see it incentivised in a different way. Not sure how at the moment but I don't think everything should be tied down to download speeds. I already try to endorse the files I like. I've even downloaded a few mods I don't necessarily intend to use in game but I can recognize real effort/talent being put into a mod and want to encourage the modder.

 

Perhaps making $1 supporters a yearly thing might be a good idea as well. Or the supporter tag used to indicate you have supported the site in the past while introducing new tags to indicate you have supported the site more recently.

 

Edited February 6, 2013 by vinak

[Stalkholm]

So after readding your recent posts Dark0ne I went through my addons and added exceptions for the Nexus, Ghostery and AdBlock Plus are both disabled here now but.... well, I'm still not seeing the ads. =/ I can't buy a premium membership at the moment, but I DO want to support the site.

 

For those who are in a similar situation, could you maybe make a post of what addons and tweaks interfere with Ads on the Nexus? I want to do my part, but Firefox isn't letting me.

 

By the way, I <3 my Norton 360 so :P

[saintpeter]

These are some really good idea's you have and seems very fair , I would be inclined to Endorse your ideas but you didn't leave us the option lol.... JK . I also like the idea that came from ( rattlemebones ) a couple of comments back about T's and coffee mugs . As always , thank you for keeping your eye on the ball :)

[Lanceor]

1. I don't mind seeing a few ads - webmasters have bills to pay too. While Nexus is responsible in its use of ads, the number of webmasters with no consideration of the user experience is simply astounding. They'll greedily plaster their sites with popups, pop-unders and various nasty DHTML tricks to the point that their site is damn near unusable. Adblocker to the rescue!

 

2. I'm ambivalent about the new endorsement system. I don't see it as bad if the option to abstain is there, but the low endorsement ratio is what prompted me to specialise in quest mods that leave a lasting impression long after the download.

 

3. Is there any way for Premium members and Supporters to turn ads back on? I'm sure there's a few of us who don't mind turning on the ads for a month or two every time you mention paying bills. :)

[ilDuderoni]

Here is my real gripe about ads:

• They are annoying in a method beyond their content. I can deal with ad bars that are conveniently placed in good parts. But I have seen sites that place ads in such horrible places, that their website layout sometimes even gets distorted! At this point, the ad hinders my experience, and I choose to absolutely not suffer it then.
  
• From bad to worse, disabling my ad blockers on some sites somehow enables them to put up native-screen-sized pop-ups again, despite Firefox having a pop-up blocking feature. And 7 times out of 10, the content of the ad was...really not something that interested me and actually annoyed me quite a bit.
  
• You'd think that Greencard firms wouldn't advertise to countries not interested in such a thing. Some websites do have ads tailored to the region, which is nice...except for me. See, Belgium has three native languages, whereof Dutch and French being the two dominant ones. 75% of the time, if an ad is adapted to my country, it's in French. I don't speak French. I actually hate the whole language with a passion.
  
• The Google Malware incident is actually a prime example of how uncontrolled (and therefor, dangerous) the ad market is. Incidents like this SHOULD NOT EVEN HAPPEN. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not pointing my finger to anyone. But the sheer idea that Google has picked up on malware for an ad, despite it handling the incident like an idiot, means that Ads are just still a hostile wilderness.
  

 

So while I understand the necessity of Ads, there needs to be a way to get things straight and get the above gripes in order. Ads are a "free" method to earn money from users and consumers. So in sight of that, Ads should be intelligent and non-intrusive, because you don't want to annoy your userbase. If Ads will stop being an annoyance, then I will start to trust websites again for their proper ad placement.

 

Also, make sure your adblocker-finding script doesn't hinder Premium users.