Penny auction advertising on MacRumors

[s15119]

I don't see why an ad would bother people more than another. unless there is offensive content on the ad whats the difference? Dont like the product or company in the ad then dont click on it. Even the most reputable companies scam and screw consumers over in one form or another trust me.

Personally, I dislike helping people make money off of scams.

MacRumors says it's not responsible - a third party does the ads - I call ******** - MacRumors owns the site and choose to allow a third party that allows scammers to advertise. Bad form, in my opinion.

 

[Alaerian]

You have no idea how an ad aggregator works, do you? MR doesn't select the ads - they simply select the service. If ads appear that are not wanted, it's up to MR to report them to have them removed.

 

[Doctor Q]

Personally, I dislike helping people make money off of scams.

MacRumors says it's not responsible - a third party does the ads - I call ******** - MacRumors owns the site and choose to allow a third party that allows scammers to advertise. Bad form, in my opinion.

These ads are bad for our users and bad for us. I recommend that users not patronize these advertisers. We've been arguing with the ad agency about them but the process is so automated that solving the problem in an all-encompasing way, rather than one ad at a time, hasn't yet been worked out. We're not in favor of having these ads on our site and are continuing to work on the problem.

 

[bushbeat]

Penny auction ads, and the auction princip behind, are really crossing the border. I've never seen these ads before reading this thread - long time user of ads blocking plugins. I do prefer a minimalistic layout without disturbing advertising, and MR looks great without.
I vote for an option to donate to completely disable ads.

 

[OllyW]

I vote for an option to donate to completely disable ads.

There already is.

 

[bushbeat]

There already is.

Thanks. I did not know that a contribution would remove ads.

 

[FloatingBones]

Penny auction ads, and the auction princip behind, are really crossing the border. I've never seen these ads before reading this thread - long time user of ads blocking plugins.

The simplest Mac-oriented criticism I've heard of these penny auctions: only a very small percentage of the bidders on a penny auction for an iPad (or MBA) will ever win that product. All the rest will do is waste their money on bids.

I do prefer a minimalistic layout without disturbing advertising, and MR looks great without.

One of the most interesting things about the HTML coding on the MR site: the content is usually requested and displayed first; advertisements are usually displayed last.

Many sites do exactly the opposite: the ads are downloaded and displayed before the content. I have long thought that was a terrible thing to do to your advertisers: I'm frustrated when the content's delivery is delayed by putting up the ads up first. I am not left with a positive feeling about those advertisers; I'm left with a negative feeling.

My compliments to the MR staff that engineered their content to be served up in such a mindful fashion.

 

[FloatingBones]

We've been arguing with the ad agency about them but the process is so automated that solving the problem in an all-encompasing way, rather than one ad at a time, hasn't yet been worked out. We're not in favor of having these ads on our site and are continuing to work on the problem.

Q, if you guys could figure out how to get some major media coverage on this topic, it could go a long way to greasing the wheels with your agency.

Imagine if the WSJ had an article about macrumors and its efforts to exclude certain ads: macrumors on one side, the whack-a-mole vermin on the other side, and the ad agency in the middle. The critical question: does the ad agency work for MR, or do they work for the whack-a-mole vermin?

 

[FloatingBones]

We're not in favor of having these ads on our site and are continuing to work on the problem.

For what it's worth, I haven't seen a penny auction ad for weeks. Good job, guys!

 

[FloatingBones]

dealfun.com

Guess I shouldn't have said anything...

 

[winston1236]

poor advertisers, at this point i dont even notice ads

 

[Shrink]

As mentioned, there are two ways to eliminate ads.

The VERY BEST, really perfect, good for everybody, you should really only consider this one method, is to contribute to the site. You get a nifty title, access to a private forum (?? maybe good dirty stuff, I don't know ) and NO MORE ADS.

The second is... Oh, no! I'm not going to get edited again for mentioning a different, and terrible solution. Forget I even mentioned it. Don't do it!

 

[FloatingBones]

As mentioned, there are two ways to eliminate ads.

The issue in this thread has never been the categorical elimination of ads from the MR site. The issue has been the elimination of the penny auction advertisements.

The way to eliminate those ads is to post the ad image and URL to this thread. The MR staff and volunteers work with the advertiser middlemen to ban those ads from the site. Simple.

 

[FloatingBones]

Another dealfun.com

 

[FloatingBones]

dealfun.com hat trick



WTF does "overstock" mean? Is dealfun.com saying they are somehow overstocked on iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touch devices? How would that happen?

 

[FloatingBones]

bidz.com

AFAICT, these guys don't even sell/auction any Apple products.

 

[FloatingBones]

ArrowOutlet.com

 

[FloatingBones]

dealfun.com

 

[FloatingBones]

dealun.com

 

[FloatingBones]

dealfun.com

 

[wordoflife]

Is it worth going after all these sites? They're just going to keep coming back.
I understand you're trying to keep MR clean, but I don't really think you can get rid of this issue. I still get these ads all the time.

 

[Doctor Q]

I'm hoping that ad agencies will get tired of individual complaints and start eliminating unacceptable ads systematically.

 

[Theclamshell]

There is an easy way to alleviate ads and it only cost a little less than that $32 iPad

 

[FloatingBones]

There is an easy way to alleviate ads and it only cost a little less than that $32 iPad

$25 per year. Besides, I'm feeling lucky: I think I can get one of those factory-overstock clearance early-bird-sale iPads for $19.98. Maybe even $19.96.

The ads are sometimes educational and sometimes entertaining. I learned about kno.com and inkling.com from ads here. I was discussing why the iPad will always be Flash-free; Adobe is now trying to sell me Creative Suite. So far, no sale.

 

[FloatingBones]

This is not a penny auction site, but the claimed bargains -- $43.20 for an iPad 2 -- are definitely too good to be true. And the claims of "overstock" on those Apple products are pretty clearly nonsense.

Arm quantum photon torpedos, Dr. Q!