mrstickball said: I think there are a lot of people on this thread that have no idea about advertising, or have ever tried to make a website profitable. I wonder (for those here that are complaining): If your boss asked you to work the same, but cut your salary by 40% just because clients didn't feel like paying, you would be upset in the least? I mean, Brett could always go back to working on VGC part time, and find a job. The site could go back to sales being updated about 4 weeks too late. I'm sure the readership would love that

If i hand out flyers with anthrax on them, am i right in being upset that you dont want to accept it?

Its not a matter of "didnt feel like paying". Never mind though, its not like a internet discussion is going to change someones mind.

You're abroad on some european vacation. You walk down the party district. Some guy walks up to you and gives you a flyer and says that if you show this to the bartender, they'll give you a free shot of vodka. They give you the drink with the intentions of you sticking around to buy another round of drinks for you and your friends.

VGC walks up to you with a flyer and says we should take their flyer (ads) and we'll get in for free to check out their place ( the website). We enter and see some wierd looking fellow behind the bar scratching his ass one second, and handing you a glass of beer the next and says "10 bucks! (nasty ads). You obviously get disgusted and tell the bartender that you'll pass (adblock), u'd rather just bust some moves on the dancefloor (contribute in the forums). The bartender gets mad and says that if you dont buy the beer he'll make sure you get a beat down out back (kick you from the site).

You buy the beer (removes adblock), you party all night and the next morning you fly home. Back home (offline computer) you suddenly get very sick and the doctor tells you that you've got Hepatitis C (viruses).

:D

Lol that's a great analogy, it has some flaws and isn't exactly on point but as far as analogies in this thread it is the best so far.

pure genious lol :)

I guess the internet really is serious business. I'm not going to sit here and go back and forth like others because in this case only my opinion matters. Plus all the crazy analogies need to stop except the last one about the bar was pretty funny. Anyway I'm just in awe though. I find this to be complete foolishness. People are actually trying to make a case for me not viewing ads as being similar to stealing. This article did nothing to inform me of anything important. All I see is I want money. It's your responsibility to earn me money for coming to a free website I started but are having difficulty sustaining.

Now me i'm definitely one of the people you don't want here because I block ads because of loading or I just don't want to see them. I'm just a lowly Game Database volunteer. I make nothing and never expected to. I originally came to this site looking to see how much a video game sold like everyone else but what I really liked was the Database. Not so long ago I was asked if I wanted to volunteer and I said, sure. I remember ioi saying something about ads before that annoyed me but I gave it a try, But I try to navigate the site and I can't load two pages without everything going incredibly slow or freezing. And when i'm updating I usually have several pages open. Then there are like 4 ads on one page, always. So it's kind of funny because the only reason I even searched for an Ad-Blocker is because of this site and it helped me do my volunteer work a lot faster. Now I don't block ads everywhere I go but I want have someone telling me I have to look at them either. Nor will I listen to an argument that in any way tries to make it seem like i'm responsible for the finances of a free site I visit. What's next? A Ads or Die campaign?

Personally I just don't like this bold in your face you MUST allow ads policy. I can't say I care about everything on the site but I do like the Database which is apart of the site so I will help VGC out and take my leave. Now I could sit here and act like some desperate guy and go 'I'm not leaving until they force me to' but I wont do that. I do so because while I don't respect this policy, at all, I do believe that if someone says, 'Don't come to my home, I don't want you here unless you're doing something for me' then, well, you shouldn't come to their home. This is one of the instances where 'if you don't like it then leave' applies for me. This goes without saying but please delete my account. Now I'll just do like conan and play a little Free Bird while I delete some things from my Page and leave with this. I sincerely hope VGC finds the Ad loving users or even paid subscribers it wants. I'm just one person. I don't do much here and I doubt anyone but two people know my name here so i'm sure my absence will not make even the slightest difference which is actually a good thing. Here's hoping that more ad-blockers leave and VGC makes a lot of money and keeps on growing. Farewell, GOD Bless and I mean that.

Okay, I don't know what point the conversation is at, but here's a good example of what I was talking about previously.  I was just on the main page and clicked on the 'Forum' page and was redirected to this:

Seemingly a pretty standard ad page at first.  But if you notice, there's multiple annoying things here.  One, this is a redirect ad that basically made me wait to look at this ad or click the 'skip it' button.  Two, it did this while I had clicked on the forum page, essentially forcing me back to the main page again after I choose to 'skip' the ad (this usually happens when you go to the main page).  Finally, not only am I getting a redirect ad, but I'm getting a pop up banner ad at the bottom, once again forcing me to close it.

This is what I meant when I said the ads have become progressively more annoying and controlling over time on this site.  I've put up with it because I like the content and forum on the site.  But really now...I'd like to voice out and say this is getting pretty ridiculous.

HAHAHAHA.

If you're getting viruses from ads, it's time to stop looking at porn in IE6 with McAfee or whatever shitty anti-virus is shovelled on your comp when you bought it.

Anyhow, agreed 100% with the article in the OP.

wow talk about an ignorant post. I use google chrome with Windows 7 and AVG anti-virus, everything updated fully and total system scans run weekly.

By trying to act like a smart ass you make yourself look foolish in the process. Read the thread and you will see how stupid your generalization is. Also why should someone have to change their browser because one website constantly attacks them with malware from sketchy ads?

Maybe its time for you to get out of your moms basement and see that the world doesn't revolve around your leet PC skillz or how hard you can pwn noobs in WoW. Hey guess I can come up with stupid one dimensional stereotypes too, who would have thought.

I agree with the original post.

I would never use an ad blocker on a site I want to support. Anyone who understands what it takes to keep a site like this running would do the same.

Oh and AVG is a horrible anti-virus.