How to White-List Ads on Gaia

[Panda Go Moo]

you're turning more and more into a corporation gaia.

i leave the ads turned on, because even though all you can think about is ways to squeeze as much money as you can out of people, i understand you have a business to run.

although, last time i clicked on an ad, a gaia moderator sent me a message saying i tried doing illicit gold trading through an offline site.

as if i would try to give my gold away for another item through a different site? all i did was click on one ad. and that's what followed. a warning that was i going to get perma banned. needless to say i have never clicked on an ad after this incident.

again, it's sad how many ads you have incorporated into the site ever since you opened it for everyone to enjoy.

oh well, money is money i suppose.

[xXFoxfaceToastXx]

Oh gaia, we know you don't really care about what we say or how we feel about the ads. Not too long ago you asked how we felt about the ads in the new daily chance and then lo and behold you actually said something along the lines of despite how you felt about this we're still putting it up.

[mama_bearr]

I believe you are on to something there. Great idea. I would go along with the game aspect.

Existential Existence

You're doing it wrong. From what I've seen, people download adblock because they want to block ads from view.

What you need to do is provide people with incentives for keeping adblock off. The random item ad that gave away a unique item for having ads on (if you caught the ad) was a good stab at providing an incentive but you went about that the wrong way too.

You need to give people the opportunity to collect points to build up to something so that they keep their viewing of ads constant and feel that there is a game-like aspect to it that isn't hopelessly based on chance (to get a good item).

Maybe asking people to disable adblock for Gaia will help boost your ad revenue for a short while but people will go back to using adblock if the message isn't shoved in their face every couple of days.

in sum my advice is to give ad viewing more of a game like aspect - give it a scavenger hunt element that builds up to a reward every X number of retrieved Ys or something.

a stick needs a carrot in order to get the donkey to move

[LilPinkCandy]

Oh, oh, how can you be good enough?

The advertisements are intrusive and not well placed. This the the site I specifically block ads for, honestly. They talk, produce sound and music and they are just just utterly too annoying for that. Imo, if you want people to view your ads then you shouldn't make them produce sound or cause intense lag.

How can you measure up?

[Lolliepawp]

i keep ads on, i dont mind them :]

[aaawhyme]

the only adds that bug me are the ones that start up when you hover over them for too long (especially when I'm changing my avatar)

[The Autumn Wind]

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Ｈｅ ｇｒｏｗｌｓ ａｓ ｈｅ ｓｔｏｒｍｓ ｔｈｅ ｃｏｕｎｔｒｙ, ↙
Ａ ｖｉｌｌａｉｎ ｂｉｇ ａｎｄ ｂｏｌｄ, ↩
Ａｎｄ ｔｈｅ ｔｒｅｅｓ ａｌｌ ｓｈａｋｅ ａｎｄ ｑｕｉｖｅｒ ａｎｄ ｑｕａｋｅ, ↩
Ａｓ ｈｅ ｒｏｂｓ ｔｈｅｍ ｏｆ ｔｈｅｉｒ ｇｏｌｄ, ↩

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I don't have adblock.

That being said, I don't mind ads at all.

Out of my love for the site and community, it'll stay that way.

Just stay classy, aye Gaia?

It's not all about the money.

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Ｔｈｅ Ａｕｔｕｍｎ Ｗｉｎｄ ｉｓ ａ Ｒａｉｄｅｒ, ↘
Ｐｉｌｌａｇｉｎｇ ｊｕｓｔ ｆｏｒ ｆｕｎ, ↪
Ｈｅ’ｌｌ ｋｎｏｃｋ ｙｏｕ ’ｒｏｕｎｄ ａｎｄ ｕｐｓｉｄｅ ｄｏｗｎ, ↪
Ａｎｄ ｌａｕｇｈ ｗｈｅｎ ｈｅ’ｓ ｃｏｎｑｕｅｒｅｄ ａｎｄ ｗｏｎ. ↪
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[Illucio]

I thought Gaia made mostly all of their money from the cash shop, I'll be frank. I've been extremely displeased with Gaia's cash shop focus for many years now, I don't see any reason to turn my adblock off Gaia when your squeezing everything into the Cash Shop.
While I understand the fact that people can still buy Cash Shop goods in the marketplace that isn't the point, the point I'm trying to get across is that every week you see Cash Shop updates. It becomes very sickening for a while.

The day you stop squeezing everything you do into the Cash shop is the day I show support again in buying Gaia cash and viewing their ads.

[Aeronn]

I like having ads as a free way to support the site. It just gets annoying if the ads overlay parts of the site, like the one in the trade window that covers up the avatar, or have loud noises.

It would be nice if there was a kind of "skip" option if we don't want to see a specific ad, that would move on to the next one.

[Serpent Empath]

I'll try it. Don't want you to pull a Tinier Me, City of Heroes, Facebook Apps and etc. move and shut down Gaia for lack of revenue.. But maybe you'll make more money if you make more LESS EXPENSIVE ITEMS available in the cash shop.. that way those of us who can't afford the items may be able to at least spend a LITTLE instead of nothing. Edit: And I'm not necessarily asking you to turn down the prices of the items you already have available. I'm just asking you all to ADD items that are less expensive. The 99 cent items are great. The 50 cent ones also. More 25 cent ones and youre set. The Phin Phang needs an overhaul. No one will buy from it a background for 3 dollars when it only costs 50 gold on the marketplace and they could get it there instead.

[Lord Lapin]

I respect Gaia, but I'm sorry, I will not allow potentially dangerous ads to send trackers my way. If my information is going to be marketed by third parties, it's going to be the information I allow to be released in public venues, like my profile information or the words I post in forums. Adblock, Ghostery, TrackMeNot, Foxyproxy, and Noscript for life. :V

[Ezuka]

I'm certain I've spent enough on Gaia to remove ads for every month I've been on Gaia, so I don't feel as bad for using adblock; however, any guilt I feel is relieved when I'm bombarded with cash shop announcements.

[Robotic Jeana]

I'm confused. what does "white-listing" mean?

[Rhacodactylus]

unfortunately, i was much more inclined to not care what gaia did years ago, now theres sponsored things everywhere, and many new cash shop items every month, and eveb though people can get free gaia cash, the ads are still paying gaia.
i dont personally block ads, but i get why people do, and why people get upset, especially at times where you change daily chance to skittles or put ad banners in the middle of the forums.

[Can I Get a HotTub]

Robotic Jeana

I'm confused. what does "white-listing" mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitelist