Journal What's the Story With These Ads on Slashdot? 46
Since 1997, Slashdot has been slinging News for Nerds, and Stuff That Matters (and most importantly hosting discussion for that news and those nerds). Since 1998, we've been able to that because of paid advertising from the companies whose ads you see on our page.
There's a new variety of advertising we're introducing, which you'll notice on our front page soon. These advertisements are labeled, and presented with a different color than are Slashdot stories; they're just sharing the same text-scrolling area. This new form is an evolution of the kind of display space for which advertisers can pay. The advertisers who make the site possible would certainly like you to be intrigued by their ads enough to read them, and then to order their products in triplicate, forever. You're free to skim over the ads, read them deeply, or just ignore them.
Note: it's very important to us that it's always clear whether an item you see on our page is an advertisement, whatever spot it appears in. (Please let us know if you find a particular advertisement to be other than clearly labeled, so we can fix it.)
Can advertisers just buy stories on Slashdot?
No; that's precisely why you'll see these advertisements distinguished from Slashdot stories by color and text. The reader-contributed / editor-selected story process isn't affected by this; the stories that the editors have selected from reader submissions or found around the Web aren't changing. The difference is that advertisers can now buy display space on our page for these text-based ads. (If you are interested in buying such a space, the editorial team is gratified but uninvolved; please instead contact the advertising department.)
But why?
We like putting stories on Slashdot, and reading the resulting conversations; advertising makes that possible. We hope this style of ad presentation will help us rely less on other, more obtrusive forms of advertising, and keep the page streamlined, too: these ads won't blare sound, pop-up a dialog box, or make the page move while you're reading something, and they're simple: Yes, the advertisers want to persuade you to investigate further, or persuade you to somehow change your mind, and that's why any advertiser purchases ad space, but we like that they're using the written word to attempt that persuasion. The kind of ads that show up this way are likely to have actually interesting content, too, because they'll likely be from companies with technology you use or might later consider.
Questions? Leave 'em below, or send us email!
There's a new variety of advertising we're introducing, which you'll notice on our front page soon. These advertisements are labeled, and presented with a different color than are Slashdot stories; they're just sharing the same text-scrolling area. This new form is an evolution of the kind of display space for which advertisers can pay. The advertisers who make the site possible would certainly like you to be intrigued by their ads enough to read them, and then to order their products in triplicate, forever. You're free to skim over the ads, read them deeply, or just ignore them.
Note: it's very important to us that it's always clear whether an item you see on our page is an advertisement, whatever spot it appears in. (Please let us know if you find a particular advertisement to be other than clearly labeled, so we can fix it.)
Can advertisers just buy stories on Slashdot?
No; that's precisely why you'll see these advertisements distinguished from Slashdot stories by color and text. The reader-contributed / editor-selected story process isn't affected by this; the stories that the editors have selected from reader submissions or found around the Web aren't changing. The difference is that advertisers can now buy display space on our page for these text-based ads. (If you are interested in buying such a space, the editorial team is gratified but uninvolved; please instead contact the advertising department.)
But why?
We like putting stories on Slashdot, and reading the resulting conversations; advertising makes that possible. We hope this style of ad presentation will help us rely less on other, more obtrusive forms of advertising, and keep the page streamlined, too: these ads won't blare sound, pop-up a dialog box, or make the page move while you're reading something, and they're simple: Yes, the advertisers want to persuade you to investigate further, or persuade you to somehow change your mind, and that's why any advertiser purchases ad space, but we like that they're using the written word to attempt that persuasion. The kind of ads that show up this way are likely to have actually interesting content, too, because they'll likely be from companies with technology you use or might later consider.
Questions? Leave 'em below, or send us email!
paying subscribers (Score:2)
Will these ads be shown to paying subscribers, either on the front page or in their personal RSS feeds?
Q: (Score:2)
When are you guys being sold again? I just opened a copy of Wired, and it had a Dice marketing guy contorted and mostly-naked in a corner ad, with some verbiage about the importance of branding.
Dice is creepy. Malda should have never sold out under the guise of needing management; he should've just hired a manager.
Re: (Score:2)
There are ads on Slashdot?
I never knew that.
I use Ublock to block ALL 3rd-party ads.
ALL.
Re: (Score:2)
Does it have a "Bennet" mode? XD
Re: (Score:2)
An APK mode would be a great addition.
Mobile Ads (Score:5, Informative)
It's so bad I rarely read on mobile anymore even though I want to (I've read
These aren't good for your consumers or for the people advertising as they're paying for an accidental click. Does a paid account eliminate this?
Re: (Score:1)
The Adblock Browser on IOS makes Slashdot readable on iPhones (and I assume Android).
They just released it last week. I stopped reading on mobile for the same reason. Now I can do it again.
Be sure to search for "Adblock Browser" in Apple's horrendous search for their app store.
We Will Survive (Score:1)
We Survived Cmd Taco leaving, and some shuffling of proprietors, we can do this. /. has always maintained a consistent mission and feel, even when the layout freaked us out a bit. But unlike other sites of equal age, it is still a touchstone, basically unchanged.
One complaint, I recall a time when I would use /. as a bellwether of page load. It was alway the first page I pulled up to check speed, but that was 10 years ago almost. Might want to work on that again guys.
Re: (Score:2)
For small values of "survived," anyway.
Taboola? C'mon, Slashdot, you used to be cool (Score:3, Insightful)
The Taboola adblock that I see on every site has the same clickbaity junk in it that has absolutely no bearing on the content I'm reading. "Warren Buffett has a grave message for investors", "6 unique questions that will reveal your wine profile instantly!", "How this razor is disrupting a $13 billion dollar industry". Etc, etc. Even if I wasn't using ad-blocking software, I would never intentionally click on such obvious ridiculous dreck.
Re: (Score:2)
Ahh, I wasn't sure what taboola did or why it was trying to run scripts. "Mark taboola as untrusted"... done!
Glad you're doing it right! (Score:2)
Advertising is the only way the free internet remains free.
Re: (Score:1)
Advertising is the only way the free internet remains free.
False.
There are plenty of websites out there that are free and don't have any advertising. Some are hobbyist websites or vanity projects with no real substance, sure, but among those, even, there are sites have interesting, thoughtful, useful content. Certainly more useful than a lot of sites on the ad-supported web. There are also sites that make money to cover costs via donations, subscriptions [slashdot.org], or by offering other plums. If the content is good enough, then people will pay for it.
The problem with the ad-
Re: (Score:2)
I think that presenting ads mixed in with the main content of Slashdot, albeit in a different color is BS. It's just an extension of "video bytes"
Re: (Score:2)
Advertising is the only way the free internet remains free.
Advertising is how non-free internet can afford to flap in our faces. Free internet already doesn't have ads, and is already free. It is all chicken, no egg.
Am I entitled to disable them? (Score:3)
I used to be able to disable ads because of my "karma." Can I disable these new ones, or not?
Ads aren't bad until they get pushy (Score:2)
Ads are fine. We get it, you have to pay the bills. But there is a line you shouldn't cross.
When it's hard to find the real content because of the crowd of ads, you've gone too far.
When it's hard to tell the difference between an ad and the real content, you've gone too far.
When the ads crawl over the front of the page for a while before you can see the page, you've gone too far.
When the ads blink or wiggle incessantly, you've gone too far.
When video ads start playing automatically, especially with audio,
thanks (Score:1)
Vimax Asli Canada 081377114242 Di Medan (Score:1)
Mastichats (Score:1)
What's the Story With These Ads on Slashdot? (Score:1)