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[Friedman]

Thank you for the info! I've also noticed that Firefox users get more aggressive popunders. I'll see what I can do.

Yes. This. I like seeing places like this stick around, so I generally allow ads, but I've had multiple "OMG you haz virusez, download this now!!!!" "ads" - one of which actually did manage to upload a payload to my tablet (though it did not, fortunately, manage to execute that payload). At this point, I'm in self-defense mode where CHYOA is concerned - if you can assure me that the malware is gone, I'll change things, but until then, adglare.net, exosrv.com, and 03330.com are blocked and will stay that way.

Last week I began testing a new advertising network that seems be the cause for these aggressive popunders. I did not get such aggressive ads, otherwise I wouldn't even have tried it, but I have received your feedback.

We're using the previous advertising network again. Let me know if you still see such ads.

 

[Friedman]

I'm wondering where the responsibility was for keeping the Patreon milestone up to date. Only AFTER the previous milestone was reached did a new, higher pledge requirement come out. And with it came new and invasive ads, as an added incentive to keep people running on the donation treadmill. This is much like someone standing outside with a sign that reads "$600/mo for an ad independent CHYOA!" And once they receive that much, they quickly paint over the $600 to write $750 beside it. And then start start tripping people as they walk by, but promise to stop if the goal is reached.

Thank you for the feedback! I take full responsibility.

I guess there are always at least two angles to every story: I did not increase the goal on Patreon before to avoid exactly this situation or impression. And I thought I did not have to do it because the difference came in via the popunders. The costs have increased a few months ago, as CHYOA requires, among other things, more server resources (I told that gene.sis back then if you want to check this).

I regularly test new ad networks, as I did last week (on Thursday). On Friday I received the first negative feedback from gunde, on Saturday from xgkf and so on. Some users have even told me that they are considering not using the site anymore. At that point, I decided to focus on the user experience and move away from the popunders. And also at this time I decided to write the message on the front page. Furthermore, I have now disabled the popunders in Google Chrome and switched back to the previous ad network. Unfortunately, it happened like that.

 

[gene.sis]

Only AFTER the previous milestone was reached did a new, higher pledge requirement come out.

Well, the previous milestone was already reached in November 2017 as stated in this merkros profile post.
Since then, it oscillated around the first milestone and I think that more donators joined while some of the 18$ and 24$ level donators lowered their pledge.

And with it came new and invasive ads, as an added incentive to keep people running on the donation treadmill.

Malicious ads were always an issue from time to time. (There are a few posts about that on the forum)
These are probably more common on adult ad networks, though CHYOA seems to have no other choice as it hosts adult content.

(I told that gene.sis back then if you want to check this)

That was around the 18th March as I noticed long loading times and even timeouts.
At that time, CHYOA reached about rank 26,000 on Alexa's traffic rank. When Patreon started just a half year before, the rank was about 33,000.

I think, CHYOA started with ads in January 2016. Before that, Friedman paid for the costs of the server himself, only getting some donations from a few users.

 

[BloodyPinkPanties]

Is there no other way to go than patreon?
I was supporting chyoa a few month back, but droped it when patreon started acting like dicks.
I would like to support the site again, but not on patreon, they don't deserve the money, they only deserve to die.

 

[Friedman]

Is there no other way to go than patreon?
I was supporting chyoa a few month back, but droped it when patreon started acting like dicks.
I would like to support the site again, but not on patreon, they don't deserve the money, they only deserve to die.

Thank you! However, I’m not aware of similar sites that accept adult content. This seems to be one of the main issues when it comes to these things. Stripe, Amazon, Ko-Fi, etc. all do not allow adult sites.

 

[dingsdongs]

What about the porn-video-ads which fill nearly half the page on mobile devices (android + chrome)?
Often they block even the input field for the login data, when the on screen keyboard takes up half the space, and the video ads adjust to take the remaining half of the screen...
As far as i can tell these videos started to appear at the same time as these "popunders".

 

[Friedman]

What about the porn-video-ads which fill nearly half the page on mobile devices (android + chrome)?
Often they block even the input field for the login data, when the on screen keyboard takes up half the space, and the video ads adjust to take the remaining half of the screen...
As far as i can tell these videos started to appear at the same time as these "popunders".

Hi dingsdongs,

They appeared about a week earlier. I can't remove them at the moment due to contractual obligation (if you ask that). But I can make suggestions to the advertiser. Would half the size on mobile devices work?

I've noticed that they appear on up to three subsequent page views even if you click on the close button. That's already a suggestion I've made to the advertiser – if you click on the close button the ad should stay closed.

 

[Nemo of Utopia]

Friedman, may I suggest that you put a new top-tier goal for patreon at say 2000$: "We'll be able to ditch advertising completely, our Patreon users generosity means the site is once more 100% add free!"

 

[Friedman]

Friedman, may I suggest that you put a new top-tier goal for patreon at say 2000$: "We'll be able to ditch advertising completely, our Patreon users generosity means the site is once more 100% add free!"

Thank you! I plan to restructure the goals and maybe the rewards in the future. Away from the one-time goals, such as the new front page algorithm, towards ongoing ones. I'll think about your suggestion. But this would also remove the incentive for the 6 USD tier.

 

[Nemo of Utopia]

Sort of, all the 6$ people would still get the generous award, and be acknowledged as making an add free site possible for everyone else, which is nothing to sneeze at...

You could initiate a thing where "generous" users must be shown deference by non-supporting members, thus making there be a 'cultural' incentive to support the site...

 

[Blackhand]

Those little video ads are cancer. They don't go away, and are ugly to look at. They make browsing on my phone a much greater hassle. Of late, I've been avoiding the cite just so those stupid little video bubbles will leave me alone.

 

[Friedman]

Hi dingsdongs,

They appeared about a week earlier. I can't remove them at the moment due to contractual obligation (if you ask that). But I can make suggestions to the advertiser. Would half the size on mobile devices work?

I've noticed that they appear on up to three subsequent page views even if you click on the close button. That's already a suggestion I've made to the advertiser – if you click on the close button the ad should stay closed.

Those little video ads are cancer. They don't go away, and are ugly to look at. They make browsing on my phone a much greater hassle. Of late, I've been avoiding the cite just so those stupid little video bubbles will leave me alone.

Good news! They have updated their script so that the ad is at its smallest size and shown only once.

 

[dingsdongs]

Thanks for listening to feedback and being open about the issue. As far as i can tell the situation for the normal user has already improved again.

I personally wouldn't want to run a website like chyoa at a deficit for long, so as far as i am concerned you deserve all the money in the world. Not only to cover your costs, but if at some point you get a bit of profit for once, why not?
So i can understand that you explore every avenue to create additional income, such as trying out different advertisements.
(As long as it's not these redirects to scam websites, which are not really trying to sell you anything. Their only purpose appears to be in the best case to cheat the visitors out of their money, and in the worst case to install malware on the users devices.)

I don't know how much money total you're making with these intrusive ads compared to the ones we had the previous years. Unless its a huge monetary gain, you should also consider that these ads probably also lower the likelihood of visitors staying on or returning to the website.

 

[gene.sis]

I don't know how much money total you're making with these intrusive ads compared to the ones we had the previous years.

traditional banner ads [...] the CPM is between 0.006 and 0.009 USD [...]
[...] popunders. The CPM here is about 0.6 USD.

So 100 banners are about one popunder.

 

[Friedman]

Thanks for listening to feedback and being open about the issue. As far as i can tell the situation for the normal user has already improved again.

I personally wouldn't want to run a website like chyoa at a deficit for long, so as far as i am concerned you deserve all the money in the world. Not only to cover your costs, but if at some point you get a bit of profit for once, why not?
So i can understand that you explore every avenue to create additional income, such as trying out different advertisements.
(As long as it's not these redirects to scam websites, which are not really trying to sell you anything. Their only purpose appears to be in the best case to cheat the visitors out of their money, and in the worst case to install malware on the users devices.)

I don't know how much money total you're making with these intrusive ads compared to the ones we had the previous years. Unless its a huge monetary gain, you should also consider that these ads probably also lower the likelihood of visitors staying on or returning to the website.

Thank you, dingsdongs! It's a trade-off and I'm trying to find the right balance for a good user experience.

In the end it depends on the performance of the ads. An advertiser will stop running ads on the site if the return is negative (conversions). The impressions for the video ad are more or less the same as the users minus the users who use ad blockers.

I should also point out that a smaller ad will probably mean less clicks which will probably lower the CPM. But I don't know that yet. I also don't know how long the advertiser wants to run the video ad. This is an exclusive deal for CHYOA and could be gone in a few months if it's not profitable.

 

[Solddate]

Apologies if I'm posting this issue in the wrong place.

I've recently published the beginning 6 chapters of a story that a friend and I effectively oversee (he as the original writer, and myself as the contributor who won't let it die), however, the story is quite long so we posted many more chapters as drafts with the intention of publishing after going through the chapters with a fine tooth comb to remove errors.

Right now the story stats say it's only 5 chapters deep, but the new chapter links continue on. So, get to that last published chapter and you can keep selecting the next, which are still meant to be awaiting approval from myself or the other main writer (all have been uploaded by us or a third friend etc). The bug is primarily with the stat claiming the following chapters aren't, and there's no longer an option to 'publish' them officially. The other concern is that the upload process is meant to be moderated so I'm just concerned that status might have been lost.

Story is called 'Harley's Heroine Heist'

Apologies again for the bother
~solddate

 

[gene.sis]

The bug is primarily with the stat claiming the following chapters aren't, and there's no longer an option to 'publish' them officially.

All (28) chapters are published and accessible.

The chapter count stat shows a wrong number. This is a known issue.
@Friedman can fix the number.

The other concern is that the upload process is meant to be moderated so I'm just concerned that status might have been lost.

The story is moderated and all following contributions from users who don't have a story role assigned must be approved by the story owner or an editor.

When you publish a story, all existing chapters will be published at once. There is a suggestion to be able to change that behavior: Story: Decide if publishing introduction only or all chapters (You can vote on chapters to make it more likely that they become implemented.)

 

[Solddate]

All (28) chapters are published and accessible.

The chapter count stat shows a wrong number. This is a known issue.
@Friedman can fix the number.


The story is moderated and all following contributions from users who don't have a story role assigned must be approved by the story owner or an editor.

When you publish a story, all existing chapters will be published at once. There is a suggestion to be able to change that behavior: Story: Decide if publishing introduction only or all chapters (You can vote on chapters to make it more likely that they become implemented.)

Thanks for the quick reply.

That all sounds fine then. ^^ Only real fix warranted is the chapter number etc, just wasn't the 'plan' to upload all of those at once, but it's not a problem. Editing is easy enough after upload.

 

[Friedman]

Thanks for the quick reply.

That all sounds fine then. ^^ Only real fix warranted is the chapter number etc, just wasn't the 'plan' to upload all of those at once, but it's not a problem. Editing is easy enough after upload.

Hi, I've fixed the stats. Let me know if you need anything else. Happy writing!

 

[obieblu_tumblr]

I can't seem to get tags to work when posting a chapter on mobile. Is there a trick to it?

I'm on Chrome for Android, if that matters.