Big square adverts on forums

[kalniel]

What's with the big square adverts towards (but not totally) at the bottom of forum pages?

It looks a bit poo and seems to interrupt the flow of the page. If you've got to put adverts at top and bottom of pages can you at least make them banners and not break up the flow of the page as much?

[Tobeman]

Yeah I was going to make a comment about it, doesn't bother me, just if anything looks out of place.

[father smurf]

probably designed so you spott them as they stand out

[MD]

Its a campaign we have chosen to run - standard banners (468 x 60) no longer hold as much appeal to advertisers in the current market. We have to run what we need to run to pay for all the editorial and services we deliver, and investment in our site will only aid its growth further.

We try and make the adverts blend in as much as possible and we will be looking at ways to better integrate these in future as the markets shift to different advert sizes, but for the time being it is what it is.

Matt.

[Tobeman]

Makes sense, I guess frequent website browsers like ourselves have grown to (at least I have) block out the normal positioning and size of adverts on webpages as if they don't exist anymore, going against the point of advertising

[UltraMagnus]

hmm, i diddent notice anything differnt...... odd......hmm.......

oh, hang on, i think thats one of my firefox extensions....

[dave87]

I must admit running my monitor at 1680x1050 it didn't really bother me (seemed only small) but if your running at 1024x768 it could be a bit of a pain.

Looks fine to me though

[DR]

It's fine on my 30"... No in all seriousness Matt is right - it's key that we run this campaign

[chuckskull]

Yeah they do interrupt the flow of the page, but at least it's not between posts etc. like some places.

The ad is a in heavily viewed part of the screen (just think how much time you spend typing in this box compared to how much you see the top banner). More views = more money, simple as. At least it's a pretty simple ad, no noise/seizure inducing colours.

[vrykyl]

adverts? I cant see any advert on this forum...? Is this like the hexus articles with keyword links...as my mate has them when he reads hexus, but on my pc your articles are just plain text...no hyperlinks.

[MD]

that means you are blocking the ads - something that is already a big problem for communities and sites such as HEXUS that reply on the advertising to exist....

Matt

[DR]

We are doing our best guys to keep the balance between too many adverts and retaining revenue. Remember - HEXUS is a commercial organisation which provides income to 12 households. Please remember the speed of the site, the hosting infrastructure and innovation costs significant investment of time and money too.

Thats not to mention the event coverage, and other superb activities which we do, to bring new things to the page for you.

We may well look in to other methods if people continue to block or avoid advertising.

We aim to keep advertising to a minimum and relevant to you, the readers.

Cheers

[kalniel]

Oh I totally understand the need - I'm just giving my feedback as a Hexus user regarding what I think makes the site good and what doesn't. It's up to Hexus to decide where the balance goes and without that feedback they'd just get one side of the story

[MD]

I think I have come up with a solution to this - check it out in the next 10 or so mins then come back in here and gimme feedback

[MD]

For example, in this forum the alternative should now be in place

[dave87]

Pretty Clever indeed

Anyway to make the Reply box Variable width?

Dave