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Inkling
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Re: Video ads on TR

Tue May 26, 2015 2:13 pm

Thanks again to those who have given useful feedback about problems observed with video ads. Both the agency and we have made several tweaks to try to improve the code. We've narrowly targeted and capped them tightly to ensure we're not serving any more than necessary.

A new version of the script was implemented today which is supposed to use less memory when serving these video ads and block location requests that some of the videos try to make. Much of the issues are with Flash in general, not these ads specifically, and the the agency is running several ads from multiple sources that get targeted to readers based on content on the surrounding page, location of the reader, and prior browsing history. So if you observe problems PLEASE give us the details of WHICH AD you're seeing, along with your browser/OS configuration.
Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations-these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. -C.S. Lewis
 
druidcent
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Re: Video ads on TR

Thu May 28, 2015 5:59 pm

Hi,

Windows 8.1 with Firefox (whatever the current version is today), and I got a new issue :)

I wasn't able to get a screen shot, but when the ad about e-cigs being as bad as cigarettes started it playing, the focus of jumped to the ad, and I couldn't scroll the page down until it finished. I kept getting rubberbanded back so the ad was at the top of the page.

Edit: ok. so it isn't completely new.. but it just happened, and scrolled me down to the ad.. will try and get a screen shot with the last frame or so showing so that you know the creator.. (this is more of a PSA, but it's still sketchy coding, and definitely a problem with Flash allowing stupid things)
 
Philldoe
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Re: Video ads on TR

Fri May 29, 2015 10:10 pm

druidcent wrote:
...the ad about e-cigs being as bad as cigarettes ...


Hahaha! that was a good laugh. And now back to your regularly scheduled postings...
Fastfreak39: I feel like they should change the phrase "jumping on the band wagon" to "sailing on the pirate ship"
 
druidcent
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Re: Video ads on TR

Sat May 30, 2015 11:30 am

here is the ad:

Image
 
paulWTAMU
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Re: Video ads on TR

Sat May 30, 2015 11:58 am

sorry but the video ads made turn on adblock for this site. The autoplay with full audio in particular. If thye could at least not make so much damn noise!
Ugly people have sex all the time. We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion humans if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
 
Inkling
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Re: Video ads on TR

Mon Jun 01, 2015 12:26 am

paulWTAMU wrote:
sorry but the video ads made turn on adblock for this site. The autoplay with full audio in particular. If thye could at least not make so much damn noise!


If you're really sorry, then help us and help the community by identifying the offending ads. None should be playing sound without clicking them. If you will show me which ones are doing it, I'll remove them. Or, just block everything and hurt everyone.
Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations-these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. -C.S. Lewis
 
tanker27
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Re: Video ads on TR

Mon Jun 01, 2015 11:47 am

Inkling, I though all video ads were supposed to show 'below the fold'?
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Inkling
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Re: Video ads on TR

Mon Jun 01, 2015 12:09 pm

"...mostly below the fold"

Some will occasionally appear above the fold, but well over 80% are serving at the bottom.
Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations-these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. -C.S. Lewis
 
homerdog
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Re: Video ads on TR

Mon Jun 01, 2015 2:04 pm

This will be a neverending battle until the video ads are removed. Some damn "Sekindo" (I think) video+audio ad just started playing, scared the hell out of me. Before it crashed Shockwave again across all tabs... Can't believe TR has fallen to such lows. I literally can't leave TR open and leave my PC any more. It will crash Shockwave 100% of the time. No other website I visit does this.
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tanker27
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Re: Video ads on TR

Mon Jun 01, 2015 2:10 pm

Lets not bring out the pitchforks. Just help Inkling and staff identify culprits with bug reports. I am sure they are doing everything under the sun they can to minimize the offending ads.
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Re: Video ads on TR

Mon Jun 01, 2015 2:13 pm

Seems to me the fact that very few sites HAVEN'T started running video ads is an indication that they really don't have much of a choice on today's web. It could still be a LOT worse, e.g. those annoying mouse-over keyword popup ads, or ads that take over the entire front page until you dismiss them.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
The Egg
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Re: Video ads on TR

Mon Jun 01, 2015 2:53 pm

paulWTAMU wrote:
sorry but the video ads made turn on adblock for this site. The autoplay with full audio in particular. If thye could at least not make so much damn noise!

I don't necessarily disagree with your actions, but if you've enjoyed TR enough to make over 5700 posts (and are blocking their other source of revenue), you should strongly consider becoming a subscriber.
 
localhostrulez
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Re: Video ads on TR

Mon Jun 01, 2015 3:04 pm

homerdog wrote:
This will be a neverending battle until the video ads are removed. Some damn "Sekindo" (I think) video+audio ad just started playing, scared the hell out of me. Before it crashed Shockwave again across all tabs... Can't believe TR has fallen to such lows. I literally can't leave TR open and leave my PC any more. It will crash Shockwave 100% of the time. No other website I visit does this.

You don't literally mean Shockwave, do you? I haven't had that installed in years, nor do I put it in the images I build (even Java gets included, for the sake of making things easier on users). Only ever used it for some online games as it was.

I will say that I don't block TR's ads and things are totally fine here, BUT I block 3rd party cookies and Flash is click-to-play. Too many sites that use Flash to annoy me, too few that use it for anything else. (Unfortunately, those automatic video non-ad players are slowly migrating to html5 video, and I haven't found a way to block that yet.) If it weren't for the occasional site that needs it, I would disable Flash entirely (I already uninstalled it for Firefox). The ads that don't use Flash (which are welcome on my machine - a lot of them on TR are this way actually) generally aren't a problem. Sooner or later I may subscribe though.
 
homerdog
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Re: Video ads on TR

Mon Jun 01, 2015 3:50 pm

localhostrulez wrote:
homerdog wrote:
This will be a neverending battle until the video ads are removed. Some damn "Sekindo" (I think) video+audio ad just started playing, scared the hell out of me. Before it crashed Shockwave again across all tabs... Can't believe TR has fallen to such lows. I literally can't leave TR open and leave my PC any more. It will crash Shockwave 100% of the time. No other website I visit does this.

You don't literally mean Shockwave, do you? I haven't had that installed in years, nor do I put it in the images I build (even Java gets included, for the sake of making things easier on users). Only ever used it for some online games as it was.

I will say that I don't block TR's ads and things are totally fine here, BUT I block 3rd party cookies and Flash is click-to-play. Too many sites that use Flash to annoy me, too few that use it for anything else. (Unfortunately, those automatic video non-ad players are slowly migrating to html5 video, and I haven't found a way to block that yet.) If it weren't for the occasional site that needs it, I would disable Flash entirely (I already uninstalled it for Firefox). The ads that don't use Flash (which are welcome on my machine - a lot of them on TR are this way actually) generally aren't a problem. Sooner or later I may subscribe though.

It says under the bookmarks bar "Shockwave has stopped working" or something along those lines. This is bog standard Chrome with literally no extensions or anything. I thought Shockwave had something to do with Flash. I know that when this happens, all Flash stuff ceases to function until I refresh the relevant tab.
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Re: Video ads on TR

Mon Jun 01, 2015 4:16 pm

Shockwave Flash is a historical name for Adobe Flash. Chrome still refers to its Flash plugin by that name for some reason.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
tanker27
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Re: Video ads on TR

Mon Jun 01, 2015 4:21 pm

just had the scroll issue: Page loaded then zoomed to the bottom for a Kaiser Permanente ad. Could scroll up had to reload.

Google Chrome 43.0.2357.81
Win 8.1 64bit
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localhostrulez
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Re: Video ads on TR

Mon Jun 01, 2015 5:21 pm

Well, sorta. See chrome://plugins/ For example, I see: (PPAPI out of process)
Adobe Flash Player - Version: 17.0.0.188
Shockwave Flash 17.0 r0

tanker27 wrote:
just had the scroll issue: Page loaded then zoomed to the bottom for a Kaiser Permanente ad. Could scroll up had to reload.

Google Chrome 43.0.2357.81
Win 8.1 64bit

I swear, these kinds of ads... do they want me to consider switching my health care provider or something? (I currently have Kaiser, so that would not be to their advantage...) Seems like annoying ads like those make me want to take my business elsewhere if anything.
 
druidcent
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Re: Video ads on TR

Wed Jul 15, 2015 12:50 am

I've got to say.. since Firefox started blocking Flash, my experience has gotten way better :)
 
I.S.T.
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Re: Video ads on TR

Wed Jul 15, 2015 1:34 am

Update the plugin, they ain't blocking it when you do. PS: It gives TR ad moneyz.
 
steelcity_ballin
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Re: Video ads on TR

Wed Jul 15, 2015 6:43 am

I'm wondering why the folks that rent your ad-space aren't using HTML5 for their ads. Flash is bloated, often un-optimized, and a security risk. Html5 is a standard in every modern browser (though specific features lack full support - I doubt it's an issue) and it's a breeze to use and develop with, as well as being a native platform with no need for plug-ins or special permissions.
 
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Re: Video ads on TR

Wed Jul 15, 2015 8:22 am

Probably due to a lack of developers who understand HTML5.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
morphine
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Re: Video ads on TR

Wed Jul 15, 2015 8:34 am

steelcity_balin, let's just say that technical acumen in the advertising world is... not a priority.
There is a fixed amount of intelligence on the planet, and the population keeps growing :(
 
Glorious
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Re: Video ads on TR

Wed Jul 15, 2015 8:35 am

morphine wrote:
steelcity_balin, let's just say that technical acumen in the advertising world is... not a priority.


Heh.

Marketing is bad when it runs engineering, so when marketing runs marketing...

:D
 
homerdog
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Re: Video ads on TR

Wed Jul 15, 2015 9:38 am

I now run a plugin in Chrome called Flashcontrol which has solved all my TR problems and made my browsing much faster to boot. I think TR still gets more money from me than they every did from ads via subscription.
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localhostrulez
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Re: Video ads on TR

Wed Jul 15, 2015 2:11 pm

homerdog wrote:
I now run a plugin in Chrome called Flashcontrol which has solved all my TR problems and made my browsing much faster to boot. I think TR still gets more money from me than they every did from ads via subscription.

You know you can do that with Chrome itself, right? Click to play plugins. Personally I have uBlock disabled for this site, Flash enabled but click to play, and I find that TR usually doesn't try to load Flash ads anyway. Other sites I've whitelisted, not so much. What I really want is a way to make sites think Flash isn't installed (so I get static ads), unless I whitelist it for them. And then there's the way I configured Firefox on my machines, ie. I didn't install Flash at all. Much easier that way, and rarely an issue. (Oh, advertisers can't use it to be unnecessarily annoying? Boo hoo.)
 
druidcent
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Re: Video ads on TR

Wed Jul 15, 2015 3:14 pm

I.S.T. wrote:
Update the plugin, they ain't blocking it when you do. PS: It gives TR ad moneyz.

:) I know.. I haven't had a chance to update yet. I was just making an observation..
 
Redocbew
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Re: Video ads on TR

Wed Jul 15, 2015 3:25 pm

Glorious wrote:
Marketing is bad when it runs engineering, so when marketing runs marketing...
:D


Tracking Pixels... I hope very much in my next job that I'm never asked to implement another tracking pixel ever again. I never would have thought something so ridiculously simple could be such a pain in the ass.
Do not meddle in the affairs of archers, for they are subtle and you won't hear them coming.
 
deruberhanyok
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Re: Video ads on TR

Mon Jul 20, 2015 11:09 am

Just got one, Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit, running Firefox. It was a sekindo ad for something about the new york times, I think? I didn't get any audio starting but the video auto-played and lagged the whole browser. :/ And of course, I clicked away from it to post here and then realized I didn't do a screen grab, and it isn't coming up now.

Most of my systems don't have flash installed, but this one does. So I don't see them very often.
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