I've removed all ad network code from my blog • Hacker News Board

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#161

Post by bazillion » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 4:31 PM UTC

nickpsecurity wrote: post #81

bazillion wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built what I believe to be the most sane way to "advertise" something: Let people buy directly from an image. This solves the problem of people not interested in the content, because of its unobtrusive nature -- if they don't hover over an item within the image, it's as if the "advertisement" isn't there. Check out my demo (desktop only) at http://www.worldlifestyle.com/testpost My website which you can sign up for…

After allowing 23 scripts in NoScript, I still don't see anything but a mix of static and animated images. That's not typical in either number of scripts (huge) or brokenness. Attention-grabbing content but execution needs work. The "How It Works" on second link is well-done where I can see exactly what it's supposed to do. The feature itself is nice.

Please try going to https://www.theskinnyconfidential.com/2016/10/28/thehangover... and tell me if that first image shows up with hovers for you.

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#162

Post by bazillion » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 4:34 PM UTC

russell_h wrote: post #156

bazillion wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oops guys! It looks like the publisher temporarily removed the PLEENQ script tag from that page. Go to https://www.theskinnyconfidential.com/2016/10/28/thehangover... for a better example. This is actually a real client's page, and shows how some websites use PLEENQ.

Neat. One suggestion: intuitively I felt like I needed to click on the popovers instead of on the underlying image. Permitting the user to move the mouse over the popover and click that as well might increase effectiveness for those who haven't seen this before.

Great idea! I've been incorporating different styles of UI features that the website owner can enable/disable at will, so I'll add this one to them.

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#163

Post by noobermin » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

bazillion wrote: post #150

bazillion wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built what I believe to be the most sane way to "advertise" something: Let people buy directly from an image. This solves the problem of people not interested in the content, because of its unobtrusive nature -- if they don't hover over an item within the image, it's as if the "advertisement" isn't there. Check out my demo (desktop only) at http://www.worldlifestyle.com/testpost My website which you can sign up for…

Oops guys! It looks like the publisher temporarily removed the PLEENQ script tag from that page. Go to https://www.theskinnyconfidential.com/2016/10/28/thehangover... for a better example. This is actually a real client's page, and shows how some websites use PLEENQ.

Given the approx. 90M people complaining about your original link, can you not edit your OP?

Btw, it looks pretty cool.

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#164

Post by bazillion » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

mandlar wrote: post #137

bazillion wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built what I believe to be the most sane way to "advertise" something: Let people buy directly from an image. This solves the problem of people not interested in the content, because of its unobtrusive nature -- if they don't hover over an item within the image, it's as if the "advertisement" isn't there. Check out my demo (desktop only) at http://www.worldlifestyle.com/testpost My website which you can sign up for…

I don't know what I'm looking for in the demo. I turned off adblock and have hovered over the images but I'm not seeing anything. Maybe I have another plugin interfering. I'm using Chrome. The pleenq website demos the idea well though.

Unfortunately, the publisher disabled the PLEENQ tag on that page (probably because of unknown lot of traffic to a test post!). Here's a better link: https://www.theskinnyconfidential.com/2016/10/28/thehangover...

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#165

Post by bazillion » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 4:36 PM UTC

noobermin wrote: post #163

bazillion wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oops guys! It looks like the publisher temporarily removed the PLEENQ script tag from that page. Go to https://www.theskinnyconfidential.com/2016/10/28/thehangover... for a better example. This is actually a real client's page, and shows how some websites use PLEENQ.

Given the approx. 90M people complaining about your original link, can you not edit your OP? Btw, it looks pretty cool.

It doesn't allow me to edit my original post, unfortunately. I guess too much time has passed since I posted it.

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#166

Post by jff » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 4:38 PM UTC

AndrewStephens wrote: post #84

I went a step further and designed my blog ( https://sheep.horse/ ) not to use any third-party resources at all. This was easy for me because I am never going to make money from my ramblings about Rogue One or the last book I read. I am actually not against advertising in principle, or even tracking if that is what you want, but the current trend to pull in lots of resources (ads, tracking scripts, web fonts, CDN jav…

I have the same philosophy. I have, over the last couple of years, stripped Javascript and other external assets from my site. First I removed Disqus from my blog, because Internet comments are a cesspit anyway. Then I removed Google Analytics because the tracking outweighs the benefits. Then I removed an externally-loaded font. I finally figured out the last thing, a little bit of JS that Cloudflare was injecting to obfuscate my email address. I contemplated just getting rid of Cloudflare because fucking with my webpage content is pretty bad, but instead opted to disable the functionality.

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#167

Post by protomikron » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 4:43 PM UTC

bazillion wrote: post #68

skykooler wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also looks like a lot of extra work per image to set up all the regions.

It's extra work, but is more contextual. You could, for instance, link to wikipedia articles, imdb articles (for actors) etc. and not just link to ad content. Really what it does is help define what is inside an image.

Although I despise ads, I have to admit your tech is nice.

Do you do automatic image segmentation, or are these images "hand-labeled" (I can not imagine that would scale)? If it's automatic - is it calculated server-side or client-side?

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#168

Post by vintageseltzer » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 4:43 PM UTC

fiatjaf wrote: post #4

Ok, you have a sponsorship model that works because you're probably very famous. That doesn't solve anyone's problem, because almost no one is famous. How can we replace ad networks with something better and saner?

May I ask: if one is not "famous" (i.e. popular), why should one expect their site to be profitable from ads alone?

If my limited edition, 250-prints-per-month 'zine isn't making money, is that the advertising industry's fault, or is there an issue with my expectations?

People ask the "how do we fix dwindling ad-based revenue" question all the time. The answer is clear, it's just not what people want to hear: metered paywalls or a subscription model (or, you know, selling an actual product / service).

The inevitable response to that is, 'but I don't make enough money off of that.'

Well, there you go! To me, that's where it should end. You don't have enough of a readership to support your website as-is. That means you can continue doing it as a labor of love, scale it down to something you can manage and that is profitable, or just, well, accept that your site isn't as great as you thought it was, and that you won't be making as much money off of it as you thought.

Isn't this basic market forces at work? I have a suspicion that even if 50% of these sites bloated with ads and deceptive, click-bait content were to die, society as a whole would actually be much better off, and the efforts of people building these kinds of sites and expecting a return would be better directed elsewhere.

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#169

Post by intrasight » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 4:43 PM UTC

One thing I've always admired about Apple is that they use no third-party scripts. And I thus always think "If that works for Apple, which is arguable the most successful company, why don't other companies follow their successful model?" I still have no good answer to that question.

Also, I followed this troyhunt.com post to the "Ad blockers are part of the problem" post - which I found to be an even more interesting read, particularly:

"When ad blockers are stooping to the same low level as advertisers themselves are in order to force their own agendas, something is very, very wrong. Deliberately modifying sites like mine which are making a conscious effort to get us away from the very things about ads that led to ad blockers in the first place makes them part of the problem. Ad blockers like this need to clean up their act."

And because he is "famous", the ad blocker did clean up its act - for his site. Sucks all around in my opinion.

Re: I've removed all ad network code from my blog

#170

Post by pyre » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 4:44 PM UTC

bazillion wrote: post #165

noobermin wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the approx. 90M people complaining about your original link, can you not edit your OP? Btw, it looks pretty cool.

It doesn't allow me to edit my original post, unfortunately. I guess too much time has passed since I posted it.

You can only edit for ~2 hours after you post.