How to White-List Ads on Gaia

[Otuen]

Steel Crimson

....

[Opus Eponymous]

I don't mind leaving adblock off. If it's supporting gaia, I'm all for it, I will however, not disable it for video/sound ads, those really annoy me to no end.

I get more video/sounds ads than anything else, so alas, my adblock will remain on for now. (I buy gaiacash now and again anywho).

[Tenant v3]

i shall never disable an ad again... NEVAW

[Lace_Gaara]

You are sickened by the weakness... Of a heart that's filled with fear.
And if the world won't understand you... You can make it disappear.
Cuz there's a dark secret... You carry with you. You carry with you.

I have ads on my mule, and no ads on my main. Can't say fairer than that; especially as there seems to be ads that attack me while reading mail and cause Firefox to crash. -.- I only ever get Marketplace messages on my mule so while I can avoid mail on that account, I don't want to do this on my main.

[B a k a - c h a n]

I don't have any ad-blockers, so I guess this doesn't really affect me at all, but I also don't mind most of the ads here so I haven't bothered with getting one. The only ones that bother me are the ones that popped up from the Meebo bar and the ones that play the audio automatically, although I guess there isn't anything you guys can do about that.

[Zae]

" A Friendly Request to White-List Ads on Gaia! "
[12:29:31 PM] Zae: lol what a ******** joke
[12:29:50 PM] Zae: gaia has some of the most malicious and obtrusive ads of any site I use, of course I'm going to block them
[12:30:10 PM] Zae: people have been requesting safer ads for YEARS and they just keep sayying the same canned s**t
[12:30:20 PM] Zae: "oh we dont choose teh ads personally, its out of our control~"
[12:30:32 PM] Zae: well YOU SHOULD choose them personally if you dont want people to ******** block them
[12:30:34 PM] Zae: idiots

Edit: Sorry that was a bit of a blunt copy paste. xd
I love Sisky. heart sweatdrop

[KillerSharkz]

Website advertising has may issues. Until you post something that address those issues then your SOL. The issues are as follows:

1) Privacy

The use of online advertising has implications on the privacy and anonymity of users. Hosting the banner images on its servers and using third-party cookies, the advertising company is able to track the browsing of users across these two sites.

2)Malware

There is also a class of advertising methods which are considered unethical and may even be illegal. These include external applications which alter system settings (such as a browser's home page), spawn pop-ups, and insert advertisements into non-affiliated webpages. Such applications are usually labelled as spyware or adware. They may mask their questionable activities by performing a simple service, such as displaying the weather or providing a search bar. These programs are designed to dupe the user, acting effectively as Trojan horses. These applications are commonly designed so as to be difficult to remove or uninstall. The ever-increasing audience of online users, many of whom are not computer-savvy, frequently lack the knowledge and technical ability to protect themselves from these programs.

3) Security Concerns

Information security is important both to companies and consumers that participate in online business. Many consumers are hesitant to purchase items over the Internet because they do not believe that their personal information will remain private. Some companies that purchase customer information offer the option for individuals to have their information removed from their promotional redistribution, also known as opting out. However, many customers are unaware if and when their information is being shared, and are unable to stop the transfer of their information between companies if such activity occurs. Additionally, companies holding private information are vulnerable to data attacks and leaks. Internet browsing privacy is a related consumer concern. Web sites routinely capture browsing and search history which can be used to provide targeted advertising. Privacy policies can provide transparency to these practices.

(Talking points taken from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_advertising#Problems_of_online_advertising)

[kimi_chan84]

I can't turn on the add function I turned off in my gaia settings nor will I change my pop-up settings or any other add blocking settings. The increase of interactive and sound based moving adds are a huge problem for me as they are slowly destroying my Gaia experience. My laptop will heat up due to these adds meaning I will not be able to stay on gaia for more than 1 minute!

Aside from that a lot of these adds are only targeting american users so why should I as a none american user care for them?

[l- Tunmus -l]

..GaiaOnline has been running since 2003 and has more than enough cash now-a-days to run this site with ease without 'white listing' ads and trying to make users accept them more so you at Gaia HQ can have more cash in your wallet.

The site ran very fine back in the day without the mass amount of users, Gaia cash items, update items that can be bought with cash and all the other ways users are invtesting there own money into the site.

STOP trying to earn more money on a site that already has more than enough revenue to support itself as it's run very easyliy in the past with half the income you are currently obtaining from the users of Gaia.

This just highlights how money orintenated this site has become since it's orgianl realise with only MC's up for grabs with your cash. You have no respect for your users you just want our money.

POOR Gaia. Very very poor.

[Xandris Kurai]

siskataya

While I understand that you want us to white-list the ads in order to support Gaia, there is an issue that hasn't been addressed. It is true that people turn on the ad-block because they don't want to see the ads; however, there's another reason why people use ad-block. Some people in Gaia use ad-block in order to avoid glitches such as extreme lagging on Gaia or having their browser/computer crashes on them. I'm one of those who uses it to avoid glitches. So I have a question to ask about this issue.


If I am to whitelist the ads in Gaia, how do I avoid extreme lags and browser crashes?

[THE Santa Claus]

I don't block the ads, but it would be nice if we could "white list" some ads (the smaller ones, the ones that are less intrusive and quiet) while blocking only the big, obnoxious ads. I have several accounts, but only one buys Gaia cash, and that one does block the ads just to avoid those obnoxious ones that block part of the site, making it harder to do some things.

[SourPlacebo]

I don't have any kind of AdBlocker program, so I don't get a choice in whether I see your ads or not. However, I can see why others don't want to white-list you guys.

I've been on here for a few years, on this and an older account, and over the years people have asked and asked and asked for things like zOMG and Guild updates and they never got them.

What they did get was a new Cash shop item, what seems like, every day.
The fact that there are rarely any gold shop/guilds/zOMG updates is sad and makes it look like you really don't listen to your users.

When my friends and I first joined, we thought it was really fun on here and would log on almost daily, but now, none of them log on anymore. Its gotten quite boring over the years and I still question myself as to why I log on here sometimes.

Maybe I'm hoping for something to change or for it to be fun again, but all it seems like now is everyone trying to be the prettiest avatar and you guys trying to leech as much cash out of your users as you can get.

[Arowan]

As much as I love Gaia, and I've been a part of this site for almost eight years, I will not be white-listing the ads for this site.

Ads are a pain in the a**, they're obtrusive, and they're noisy/laggy/icky/etc.

I buy cash now and again, it's not as if I haven't paid for the server space that my individual account has taken up.

So, sorry Gaia, I love you, but not enough to turn adds on.

[allegoriest]

Gaia, you really have some of the worst adverts of the sites I go to. :/ I actually downloaded it BECAUSE of you. And half of them stretch pages, including your yay for donating ones, and I even like having THOSE blocked.

I'd go to a page, and an advert would swallow that page up. I'd try to change clothes and another one would devour the page with talking and music. I'd go to my gaia and there would be multiple adverts there, playing different sounds. I'd go to the forums and hear emoticons making stupid noises at me if I made eye contact. Some pages I swear had hidden adverts, playing music where I couldn't even SEE one. They were making my computer literally sick.

Combined with the new thread loading page thing, which doesn't even work half the time and I have to load pages in new tabs so they appear, I don't think anything would work anymore if I didn't block them.

Honestly, for a long time, I didn't want to install anything else, and I was lazy. But you pushed me. And pushed me. And after so many god forsaken smilies yelling at me, I broke. I needed that adblock. I regret nothing. I still remember the day I installed, the happiness it brought me. I feel it every day.

[Allrose]

Most of the time, the ads have never bugged me enough to want to remove them from my sight.

Only those times when I wasnt in the mood in general, and even sometimes when the ads get in the way during your events, by blocking the short links you provide for "Easy Access". Not so easy of access when you hover your mouse over the "My Gaia, Shop, Forum, World, or Games" links when its the only way the ad disappears, and when you try to ZOOM your mouse back to the link as fast as possible WHILE clicking that link at the same time, it risks actually clicking the ad when it immediately reappears after removing the mouse from the hovered options.

Honestly, I think you outta take that into consideration just as well. Why put them up there when the precious ads like to cover the links you put into the event, huh? mrgreen