Just a heads up, we're about to start re-testing some ad placements

[EarlG]

This discussion thread was locked by EarlG (a host of the Announcements group).

Obviously this is something that doesn't affect Star Members, so if you're a Star Member already, please feel free to stop reading

For those of you who are not Star Members, you're probably aware that over the weekend a ton of ads showed up in places where they weren't appearing before. Too many ads, in fact, to the point where we had to turn them off again because they were annoying people.

We've spent some time today re-working the setup and we're about to test it again.

Some things to expect:

• Ads should now appear mostly in places where you're already used to seeing them. Over the weekend they were showing up in all kinds of places that made some pages difficult to read. We have dialed all that back pretty significantly. So for example, while we still have the usual ads at the top of the page, inside the OP, and in the sidebar, ads should no longer appear anywhere inside replies, or even between replies.


• You may see some additional ads that weren't there before on the Latest and Greatest pages, in the thread listings. Again, we've dialed this back so you shouldn't see them too often, but they are there.


• We got rid of the sticky ads on desktop and tablet -- they were just taking up too much space on larger screens. (We're keeping the one on mobile though -- we've had that one there for quite some time.)


• People noticed over the weekend that some ads were showing spinning circles for a second or two before loading. This is normal -- it's to let you know that an ad is supposed to be in that position and just hasn't loaded in yet (as opposed to popping in out of nowhere). But if spinning circles are showing up and not going away, then something went wrong. If this happens to you a lot, please let me know (because it shouldn't be happening).


• All ads should now have an "x" on them, so you can click to hide individual ads.

We know that ads can be annoying, but they are unfortunately necessary to keep DU up and running. We're taking our time on this so that we can strike the right balance and make sure that they don't interfere with your ability to enjoy the site, so thank for your continued patience while we continue to test the new software.

If you're finding the ads to be too much, don't forget that a Star Membership removes all advertising from DU, and can be purchased for as little as $1 for an entire year -- although we do accept larger amounts

Thanks again,

-- The DU Administrators