Shocker! Ads on GB are still shady.

Being the lazy idiot that I am, I neglected to update my GB subscription with my new debit card info, and was therefore treated to a surprise day of ads on this site. Spoilers... they're still terrible.

To make it totally clear, this isn't a thread about whining or blame. I love this site and from reading/watching/listening to all of them for years, I trust the integrity of everyone who works here. And I understand that they suffer from having to do the same shitty shit other shitty sites do to survive, and that they are probably at least as bummed out by creepy ads as we are, if not even more, because they're practically helpless to change them.

So this is mainly just to talk about how weird this shit is.

I was shocked that there were lots of these things pretending to be something you intended to download.

Not the wildest thing out there for sure. But you'd expect those fake-out malware download banners when you're downloading Japanese egg-laying monster porn cheat engine codes for Euro truck driving games, not on our own beloved site!

And of course, there were tons of ads for games. Appropriate ad content, really. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Until this one popped up.

If you're not familiar, Dark Matter is a Metroid-like side scrolling shooter... that was released for purchase in an ashamedly unfinished state. Its mere continued existence is a slap in the face to really, gamers everywhere. So to see it advertised here, and therefore sort of promoted by this site, is a bit disappointing.

Again, not trying to say, "Ahhhhhhh!!!!!1 they Suck!!! take this shit downn!!!!". Just, I guess, that these kind of ads suck everywhere.

I hope the internet figures some new shit out, soon.

Moving this to bug reporting for more exposure.

dopple clicken the button for mehr geld

Let's hope they never get that "fake play button on videos" iLivid ad that I often see when watching totally legitimate public domain video content.

I zapped the monkey and never got my free Playstation. This is some bullshit.

Ya they are getting great again:

@dfl017: All the "You are going to die" ones with pictures of old men are equal parts terrible and amazing.

There's better quality ads on Pirate Bay. Not that I go there. I've said too much.

"Zum Download" ?!

Yeah, seriously- this is one of the reasons I subscribed. And I keep Adblock running, because some of these "ads" on other sites downright kill computer performance and/or make the website load about a minute or something.

I'm a member of this site for the PowerBombCast and downloading videos. Although I enjoy most of the premium content, blocking the ad's is a job for AdBlock and it works a treat.

I'm holding out for those super gross "MALE GAMERS ONLY" ones.

@korwin: god those ones are disgusting.

I saw a couple of those on Giantbomb a few days ago when my yearly membership ended. Had to do with some pirate game. Then I repurchased my yearly membership...

"They're settling into the new office."

Hm? Jeff has said numerous times that CBSi has their own people working with ads for the their sites, including GB. They have never had any control over what goes up on the site in terms of ads, and probably never will, but can get ads pulled if they think they're especially bad (like these DOWNLOAD HERE!!!! ads). So the best course of action would probably be to send a PM to Jeff/Rorie, hit Jeff up on Twitter/Tumblr or whatever.

"Yes."

I haven't seen ads on GB in over a year. Thank You Based Premium Subscription!!

"?"

One would think this community is intelligent enough to avoid such obvious malw-- ooh, system care!

WAKE

UP

SHEEPLE

I did ask for the download manager one to be removed, but I'll ping again.

I just picked up a premium membership, but I'm still seeing ads? Is there a delay until the ads get nixed?

technically monthly members are still supposed to see ads. For some reason I dont see ads, and I dont have adblock installed. Ive heard other people say the same thing.

Yeah for some weird reason the guys who pay more have to endure these horrendous ads too.

@alexw00d said:

@naru_joe93 said:

@stingo said:

I just picked up a premium membership, but I'm still seeing ads? Is there a delay until the ads get nixed?

technically monthly members are still supposed to see ads. For some reason I dont see ads, and I dont have adblock installed. Ive heard other people say the same thing.

Yeah for some weird reason the guys who pay more have to endure these horrendous ads too.

There's no guarentee that we're paying more though. Some people could sub 1 month out of the year, amounting to 5 bucks given to GB. Yearly memberships are guarenteeing them 50 dollars a year.

@alexw00d said:

@naru_joe93 said:

@stingo said:

I just picked up a premium membership, but I'm still seeing ads? Is there a delay until the ads get nixed?

technically monthly members are still supposed to see ads. For some reason I dont see ads, and I dont have adblock installed. Ive heard other people say the same thing.

Yeah for some weird reason the guys who pay more have to endure these horrendous ads too.

As a free member I can say that the picture above is inaccurate.

Thanks for the responses. I missed the yearly membership bit. I'll wait til the month is up and see if I want to pony up for a year.

@naru_joe93: In which case why not have them not see ads for the month they're paying and then if they do cancel they'll see ads again anyway. There are a lot of monthly members who subscribe monthly but have done so constantly for years now. But yeah, not that it matters.

@laserbolts Sure, but I got it from the upgrade membership page.

A bad game being advertised? Jesus Christ, you guys are way too picky and sensitive when it comes to ads. They aren't there for your enjoyment.

Oh man, I've been missing out on CBS's horrible ad department.

They should just post video ads of Jeff selling us crap. Host reads!

Dark Matter was SO much more (less?) than a bad game. It's not the end of the world, as I said, but advertising shit like this just makes the site look bad.

@laserbolts said:

@alexw00d said:

@naru_joe93 said:

@stingo said:

I just picked up a premium membership, but I'm still seeing ads? Is there a delay until the ads get nixed?

technically monthly members are still supposed to see ads. For some reason I dont see ads, and I dont have adblock installed. Ive heard other people say the same thing.

Yeah for some weird reason the guys who pay more have to endure these horrendous ads too.

As a free member I can say that the picture above is inaccurate.

???? I have been seeing stuff like that since the change to CBSi.

"Noob is a compliment, right?"

Oh god, what marketers think will appeal to gamers...

@darthorange: Dear me those are atrocious. Why bother having an entire team of designers and programmers build you a new website when you just plaster it with ugly fucking skins like that?

Yeah, Im not going to complain since I actually dont see ads. Its a known bug that theyve never fixed; where monthly members dont see ads. It's definitely isnt adblock, since when I log out ads start to show (and I have GB white listed).

Dave posted this on twitter couple weeks ago. It's amazing.

The expanding Xbox One ad is really annoying.

@kung_fu_viking: Expanding ads in general are the worst.

I actually enabled adblock a few times on this site. Once was because there was this bright pink ad that was on the sides of the site and it destroyed my eyes, and then a second time when video ads started playing without my input. It's very annoying. I don't mind static image ads, but when these ads become detrimental to my enjoyment of the site, I turn that crap off.

@laserbolts said:

@alexw00d said:

@naru_joe93 said:

@stingo said:

I just picked up a premium membership, but I'm still seeing ads? Is there a delay until the ads get nixed?

technically monthly members are still supposed to see ads. For some reason I dont see ads, and I dont have adblock installed. Ive heard other people say the same thing.

Yeah for some weird reason the guys who pay more have to endure these horrendous ads too.

As a free member I can say that the picture above is inaccurate.

I mainly hate that the website defaults to the ugly white design now so I constantly have to switch to the dark theme every time I log in on a different computer...which happens a lot because I'm on campus all day working on stuff.

Also, people who rail against AdBlock clearly don't visit very many news/media sites that are practically unusable and impossible to navigate because of all the bullcrap everywhere. Were ads less intrusive and more tasteful, I'd never use it. (I'm looking at you, IGN!)

I've been a subscriber since they have had subscriptions and it's scary how bad some of those ads are. It doesn't even look like the same website I see. I'd definitely use Adblock if I wasn't a subscriber.

Yeah, the ads are pretty terrible.

Yeah, nothing against the site or anyone who works at CBSi, and I usually keep my monthly/ if not yearly sub up, but this is the only site, in which I use on a regular basis, that I still use AdBlock on, simply because of shady ads. I've had waaaay too many encounters with malware injectors, resulting in having to format my entire hard drives because of mismanagement with advertising partners. I remember back during the first year of this site going live, one popped up and Google listed this place as an attack site for months.