Pop-up video ads need to go

I want to support the site by disabling my ad blocker, but it is simply not an option with pop-up video ads that load on refresh. Yes, I am aware that donating removes all adds, and that is great! For people that want to donate... Right now it is not viable to support this site by disabling your ad blocker. Which is a shame, I imagine there are many like me who want to support in a small way by allowing ads through. But static banner ads, not the cancer that is auto-play videos.

You can donate 10 dollars, and ads are hidden forever - this is really not a big ask considering that most websites will try and

Charge you a recurring subscription for the same privilege. By giving people this option, I am cutting back significantly on revenue earned, because those returning visitors that make up 50% of the site's routine traffic never earn me a dime again.

Furthermore, you will note that the site avoids serving fullscreen/overlay/'vignette' style ads, ads that cover or interfere with the flow of the page, and really any ads that interrupt your experience. The video float is small, out of the way of any important content, and is dismissable. I have worked hard to devise a balanced system that pays the hosting bills and doesn't interfere with user experience.

The site even attempts to serve 'reasonable/acceptable' static banner ads to some adblocker users, in agreement with the adblocker developers, so that people like me who work their asses off providing services like this aren't completely gutted by adblockers such as yourself. This makes me a pittance of around 1 dollar a day, if at all. Of all of the most obnoxious advertising methods available, I have chosen the least intrusive possible.

It really irks me to be honest that you felt so strongly about the video player ad that you came forums to complain about it. I ask so very little from people here in exchange for my continued maintenance and responsibility for keeping the site going. If you want to continue adblocking, like most people do, then go ahead - I have come to accept that not everyone wants to give back; those that do I appreciate even more.

There is a lot of anger and Malice towards me from your reply to a post that literally starts with "I want to support the site by disabling my ad blocker..." And I tried really REALLY hard to make my post clear that the donate feature is awesome and this post is NOT about that. Yet you still started your response by talking about it. If you are ok losing ad revenue from people like me that would otherwise support you if there weren't video ads, then that's all that needs to be said. I was trying to help the site by suggesting that removing these ads might make you more money, in fact. But clearly you thought this was a rage post and not a discussion. I am sorry to hear that because I really love the site and want it to succeed.

One more thing, I think you need to reread my post if you think this statement applies: "It really irks me to be honest that you felt so strongly about the video player ad that you came forums to complain about it." What about my post is complaining? I am honestly pretty bummed to read your response. I don't understand what prompted the anger in it towards me specifically.

Edit: I will add that my title is not great. Maybe that is what made you so upset. I do apologize for the title.

@jellyToast08 I think it wasn't Malice, just frustration. I get that video ads can be obtrusive, but imagine you spend a lot of time on working on something, you get nothing in return and on top of that you hear that your only revenue stream is a cancer. I can kind of see both sides pov here, but I also understand why those ads have to be here. I make software myself, I kind of know how it is, it's not like you have a choice sometimes

louner wrote: 2 years ago

@jellyToast08 I think it wasn't Malice, just frustration. I get that video ads can be obtrusive, but imagine you spend a lot of time on working on something, you get nothing in return and on top of that you hear that your only revenue stream is a cancer. I can kind of see both sides pov here, but I also understand why those ads have to be here

I definitely undertand the frustration, I am just sad he somehow felt the need to call me out like I am some ad blocking hater of the site. I've been using this site for 2 weeks without an ad blocker and was considering donating to get rid of the stupid video ads. But just today I decided to put the ad blocker on and see if maybe I could get some info on if removing the video ads is an option that other people desired. Maybe even a nice post from the dev about how we could in the future/cant due to costs. But instead I got that response... so yeah. Probably still will end up donating, just hope Teebling was having a one-off bad day. Or got mad at my stupid title

jellyToast08 wrote: 2 years ago

I am sorry to hear that because I really love the site and want it to succeed.

There are three ways you can help the site if you want it to succeed:

• Become active and involved enough in the community here to earn Contributor status, at which point all ads are hidden as a reward
• Make a small one-time donation the price of a McDonalds take-out and never see ads again, get a purple username etc.
• Disable adblocker at the very bare minimum, so that paid impressions for your visits to the site count towards revenue

There's also this topic you can read which shows how you can help the site succeed if none of the 3 options above is to your liking.

Please don't be surprised by my anger - you are an adblocker. Opening up with 'I want to disable my adblocker BUT...' isn't really going to put you in my good books for starters, because you're an adblocker. Then for seconds, you are asking me in this feedback forum to spend development time removing an important part of the ad stack, and your reasoning/justification for this is because you think it is cancerous and it needs to go.

Are the other options for supporting the site besides enduring the annoying video player really so bad? Bad enough for you to decide to make this negative post in the feedback forum? If you're blocking ads in the first place, it is hurting the site, but I accept that as just something that can't be changed. Removing the video player would hurt it even more - I'd have to downscale to a smaller server to justify that cut.

Sorry if I made you feel bad dude, but I'm just speaking straight from the heart here - I don't mind people who take and leave without giving back, but when those same people want me to make a change that will further worsen a problem that they are already mostly responsible for (loss of revenue through adblocking) then you can't expect me to be happy go lucky about it.

jellyToast08 wrote: 2 years ago

I was trying to help the site by suggesting that removing these ads might make you more money, in fact.

This actually does create more revenue on certain ad platforms. Ezoic for example have automation/machine learning that would pick up on your behaviour as a user - for example it would detect you clicking the close button, realise that you don't like the video player, and then change what ad formats are shown to you. Pretty smart stuff, but I'm not with them, and that means that removing the video player for 70k users, which is what you asked me, doesn't make any sense at all (and is rich coming from an adblocker).

jellyToast08 wrote: 2 years ago

But clearly you thought this was a rage post and not a discussion.

Did I actually say I thought it was a rage post, or is that just you saying I thought that? You've made your request to remove the video ad, complaining that it was awful; I've said no to that request and given my reasoning which I think is fair. This feels like a discussion to me.

jellyToast08 wrote: 2 years ago

What about my post is complaining?

Do I really have point it out to you that you were complaining about the video player ad in your original post?

jellyToast08 wrote: 2 years ago

Maybe even a nice post from the dev about how we could in the future/cant due to costs.

I did explain this in my response.

Maybe it's my bad for making a villain out of you for adblocking, which is something that everyone does these days pretty standardly. I get the meaning of your original post, you just wanted to ask and see if it was possible/if other people agreed.

I didn't mean to come down on you like a tonne of bricks so sorry for that - just you have to appreciate that this site takes up a significant amount of my time in this world, and I already struggle to justify that time with the compensation I get for the duty.

Teebling wrote: 2 years ago

Maybe it's my bad for making a villain out of you for adblocking, which is something that everyone does these days pretty standardly. I get the meaning of your original post, you just wanted to ask and see if it was possible/if other people agreed.

I didn't mean to come down on you like a tonne of bricks so sorry for that - just you have to appreciate that this site takes up a significant amount of my time in this world, and I already struggle to justify that time with the compensation I get for the duty.

Thank you

I have the video ads playing in the lower bottom right hand side with no issues so far. Well, one very minor issue. Every great blue moon a sound clip will start to play from one but it turns off as soon as I start to hear it. Its not a problem now that I know that's where the random noise comes from. Honestly I kind of prefer this style set up over other sites I visit like YouTube for just to name one.

Is it a speed issue your facing with the video player? I'm using Microsoft Edge.

I love the design of this site and how small things are done amazingly well. I also love that it's one person with a team of contributors crowd sourcing the data and feature requests.

My biggest problems with auto-play ads in general:
1) sound is enabled by default (thankfully not here)
2) the ad gets in the way of the content (thankfully, also not a big problem here)
3) they make sites feel sluggish if you open many tabs/windows (this is a problem here)

I did some testing in a private Firefox window so it's a guest account and not a "donator". I'm using Firefox 101.0.1 on a macbook pro 32 GB.

Each background tab for this site according to firefox's task manager is using:
* 75-150 MB
* medium "energy impact" (5.15-20)

Another d2 site that also uses autoplay ads is using the following for each background tab:
* 10-15 MB
* (low to nothing) 0-5 "energy impact".

I can walk away and come back later and these background tabs here are still consuming CPU and significant Memory. For comparison, the tab I'm writing this on with my "donator" login is consuming 10-15 MB and barely any cpu usage.

If you want me to do more testing on other browsers or to gather other information, let me know.

Thanks Silent, my providers Nitropay are aware of the Memory leak on current AnyClip player - they are actually phasing this implementation out in 7 days time (30th June is the changeover date) and are introducing their own proprietary player which I'm told won't have these same issues. Thanks for the details in your post and hopefully you won't have this problem come the 30th

i recently added adblock to firefox again after few years not using it simply because of youtube getting insane! with adds not skippable and longer, but i like this site so i disabled it here, but im am closing the adds manually after opening a page.

but it also depend on how intruding the adds are.

I am glad that Memory leak is being fixed. It got to the point where I have to keep my diablo2.io tab open on a completely different computer to prevent my system from running out of Memory and causing diablo 2 to lag pretty badly

Teebling wrote: 2 years ago

Thanks Silent, my providers Nitropay are aware of the Memory leak on current AnyClip player - they are actually phasing this implementation out in 7 days time (30th June is the changeover date) and are introducing their own proprietary player which I'm told won't have these same issues. Thanks for the details in your post and hopefully you won't have this problem come the 30th

Awesome. I will certainly test it out when I can and update this thread on the results. Making the site more performant will likely improve people's opinion on the "slowness" of the site even if it's not this site that was the problem.

SilentStorm125 wrote: 2 years ago

Teebling wrote: 2 years ago

Thanks Silent, my providers Nitropay are aware of the Memory leak on current AnyClip player - they are actually phasing this implementation out in 7 days time (30th June is the changeover date) and are introducing their own proprietary player which I'm told won't have these same issues. Thanks for the details in your post and hopefully you won't have this problem come the 30th

Awesome. I will certainly test it out when I can and update this thread on the results. Making the site more performant will likely improve people's opinion on the "slowness" of the site even if it's not this site that was the problem.

I tested it again and as of July 6th, it looks like AnyClip is still in use: Memory and CPU usage is still a problem though. Hopefully, they'll get their act together and fix the broken AnyClip player soon. Performance on this site suffers if you've got more than a few tabs/windows open.