Video Background Ad

AirlineCritic · Wed Mar 23, 2016 7:25 pm

What's with the video background add that now shows up behind every thread I open on a.net?
A low quality video, running behind the text box... what's the point? This is very annoying, plus in some cases it somehow gets accidentally enabled, taking me to the top of the thread.

I realise a.net must get some advertising money... but come on, this is ridiculous and disturbing.

AndersNilsson · Fri Mar 25, 2016 1:14 am

I agree! This is ridiculous and disturbing! I'm thinking of deleating my few photos from airliners.net. Greed will probably get worse.

flyingturtle · Fri Mar 25, 2016 1:24 pm

Quoting AndersNilsson (Reply 1):
I agree! This is ridiculous and disturbing! I'm thinking of deleating my few photos from airliners.net. Greed will probably get worse.

I put my better photos on Wikipedia Commons, and I slap a Creative Commons licence on it. That way, your picture is more likely to end up used in a book, in a newspaper or another resource. And it's independent of the a.nut managers. Everybody can "back up" my pictures in case Creative Commons would go the way of the dodo one day.

David

tan1mill · Fri Mar 25, 2016 4:24 pm

I'm almost at the point where I'm going to ask mine to be deleted too. This site is old, plagued with ads and unattractive to first time visitors coming to view our work. Not to mention that Demand Media doesn't care about this site. The final straw for me was deciding not to bring back MyAviation.net. I've now lost hundreds of photos, and Demand Media couldn't give a damn about it.

moriarty · Fri Mar 25, 2016 9:30 pm

That's it. I have found less and less reason to visit this site. The video ad in the background just made it beyond what I can stand. Not only is it a joke when it comes to UI design (hey! moving background when you're trying to read text or watch detailed images...!) but it's an insult to any aviation enthusiast.

Goodbye Airliners. Guess this is it, on my behalft anyway. Good luck in the future. I really do wish you guys that. Thanks.

KLRU · Fri Mar 25, 2016 9:58 pm

I agree with the previous posts. The site is impossible to read with the moving background and all of a sudden a new commercial pops up all over the screen. It must be one of the worst examples of pop up ads.

Finn350 · Sat Mar 26, 2016 8:43 am

Video ads are extremely annoying, especially as they move the content window down to give the ad full screen. It is beyoud belief that somebody apparently thinks that this kind of disturbing advertising could force someone actually to buy the advertised product.

Scorpio · Sat Mar 26, 2016 8:43 am

These ads are indeed completely ridiculous. Never witnessed this on any other site. And it's behind EVERY page you open!

And the most telling thing: this thread has been here for two and a half days, and not a single reaction from anyone in charge.

It shows beautifully how much Demand Media cares about the users of its site: not a single fuck is given. Not one. The only thing they care about is squeezing every last penny out of the site. You could do that by making the site more attractive and better, thus attracting more customers and revenue. Instead, they chose to do so by squeezing ever more, and ever more intrusive ads in, thereby chasing away more and more users. This then means they need even more ads to keep revenue up, and the pattern repeats itself.

It's a vicious circle, and will end with the demise of the site. And they'll blame it on a lack of traffic. Which they caused.

AirlineCritic · Sun Mar 27, 2016 9:08 am

Yeah, it is sad.

Another example is the lack of updates. How hard can it be to support "https" in links, in addition to "http".

Time for a revolution. FWIW, I believe in a.net and us the users should have a say in how it evolves.

Ytraveller · Mon Mar 28, 2016 4:21 pm

I use Adblock so I don't have any of these problems, but such obstructive ads shouldn't be on this site in the first place.

We just have to wait for the site upgrade, but there isn't much news on that...

I have already noticed a decline in certain parts of this forum: Travel Polls/Prefs, Trip Reports, Aviation Hobby. It's really sad to scroll through these parts and see tons of threads with zero or single digit replies. Especially Trip Reports where people spend lots of time writing reports - this section has declined a lot since I joined just ~3 years ago.

I've been looking at FlyerTalk and am amazed by the ease of posting reports and the involvement of the site administration.

Quoting Tan1mill (Reply 3):
The final straw for me was deciding not to bring back MyAviation.net.

I never used this site but it was really shocking to see DM's reply on this: It's not being brought back, that's it, no reasons or apologies provided.

WearyDrover · Tue Mar 29, 2016 2:08 am

Quoting Tan1mill (Reply 3):
The final straw for me was deciding not to bring back MyAviation.net. I've now lost hundreds of photos, and Demand Media couldn't give a damn about it.

A good reason to never, ever rely on the "cloud" for back-up of important files. If they're important, back them up to somewhere that you have control over. That way you won't lose them or not be able to access them if there is an outage. By all means keep copies on third party servers if you need access on the go, but don't rely on them.

Quoting ytraveller (Reply 9):
I use Adblock so I don't have any of these problems, but such obstructive ads shouldn't be on this site in the first place.

Many adplacers are finding ways around adblockers and even adblockers have paid "whitelists" for what they like to call "responsible advertising", though you can turn that feature off in AdBlock.

I did read in one of the previous threads that part of the site refresh a new subscription system would be introduced. No specifics were given so I am wondering whether the one-off subscription will continued or scrapped and replaced by an annual subscription.

Scorpio · Tue Apr 05, 2016 10:58 am

Almost two weeks, and no reply from anyone at a.net. Not even an acknowledgement that this thread exists. Nothing.

They don't give a damn.

ArmitageShanks · Tue Apr 05, 2016 9:10 pm

Quoting Scorpio (Reply 11):
They don't give a damn.

Look at the stock price. Its been in the toilet forever. Airliners.net doesn't fit their current MO of pumping out total crap social media, SEO garbage and ad revenue.

Too busy rearranging the deckchairs and getting those LinkedIn pages updated.
A Message From Courtney Montpas Of Demand Media (by Moderators Feb 5 2009 in Aviation Photography)

Remember this thread? It was 7 years go. Nothing was changed and Courtney, Ming and Jon have long since left the company. No news or updates of anything in years about the site. It just doesn't fit what they are trying to do. Just look at their portfolio...we are pretty out there when you compare it to Cracked and Ehow.

[Edited 2016-04-05 14:26:41]

Thu Apr 14, 2016 5:40 pm

Saying nothing has changed is wrong. While things may not appear that different on the outside a lot of things has been done on the backend that was written by a few enthusiasts, and not professional web developers. A lot of time has been spent on bugs, building maintenance tools, screening tools, moderator tools, editor tools, search functionality and what not. All those things are being rebuilt from scratch and is one of the reasons we are careful with going live with the new site.

And we do give a damn Scorpio, a pretty big damn too, but answering the same thing over and over in thread after thread about ads doesn't help anything. We and you all know that the ads on here are crappy right now, no need to start thread after thread about it. Common forum sence actually.

Scorpio · Thu Apr 14, 2016 7:29 pm

Quoting JohnKrist (Reply 13):
no need to start thread after thread about it. Common forum sence actually.

Absolute nonsense. This thread was started because of a completely new kind of ad appearing, more intrusive than anything we had seen before. A new level of annoying. If that isn't enough reason to warrant a thread, and isn't worthy of your reply, then that is indeed quite telling.

ArmitageShanks · Thu Apr 14, 2016 8:10 pm

Quoting JohnKrist (Reply 13):
backend that was written by a few enthusiasts, and not professional web developers

This is going to be great.

Quoting JohnKrist (Reply 13):
We and you all know that the ads on here are crappy right now, no need to start thread after thread about it

This is exactly why nobody takes you seriously or believes anything you all say. "Yeah, its shit and we know it and don't care so stop making us look bad."

mmo · Thu Apr 14, 2016 9:22 pm

Quoting JohnKrist (Reply 13):
And we do give a damn Scorpio, a pretty big damn too, but answering the same thing over and over in thread after thread about ads doesn't help anything. We and you all know that the ads on here are crappy right now, no need to start thread after thread about it. Common forum sence actually.

As a semi-interested onlooker, I really find it difficult to read all of this garbage. It does help things! First of all, it gives members, yes the people who pay to run the site, a voice to spread their dissatisfaction. Secondly, it is a way of holding the owner's "feet to the fire" and ensure the changes will be made.

John, you sound like a used car salesman in your replies. We know it's a crappy car but it's got potential.......

People on this forum are really tired of the lack of interest from DM about the problems. You write about all these wonderful things coming, and you talk about the back end being written about a few enthusiasts. Maybe DM should get all those enthusiasts back, they did a better job. They seemed more responsive and more willing to make the site better. DM is only interested in maximizing shareholder return. If they can spend $1 less and still get a crappy site running they will do that. Demand media is incorporated in Delaware and as such, the board has a mandate to maximize shareholder return. DM will do anything to do accomplish that task.

John you write as if you are trying to not only convince us but yourself. You talk about all the time spend on things but you fail to address or share what is being done about the problems people raise. You sound just like the Internal Revenue Service.....trust me, I'm here to help!!!!

Fri Apr 15, 2016 10:08 am

Quoting mmo (Reply 16):
get all those enthusiasts back, they did a better job.

Well, I seem to remember loads of topics on bugs and how things "Needed to be fixed ASAP" kind of posts from the users already back then, so no I wouldn't say they did a better job.

Regarding paying members, almost all who had First Class are not paying anything anymore, all Premium members have paid to be able to post in our forum, and there has been no limitation to that. To view photos is the same for non members and Premium members. First Class members paid to not see ads, and watermarks, so they also got what they paid for.

BUT, viewing photos should not be obstructed by ads, or have noisy video ads.

An ad is an ad, that's why I mean that there is no need to start topic after topic about it, users can voice their oppinion in existing threads. Threads where we have already replied.

*Runs off to sell used cars*

Scorpio · Fri Apr 15, 2016 1:17 pm

Quoting JohnKrist (Reply 17):
Well, I seem to remember loads of topics on bugs and how things "Needed to be fixed ASAP" kind of posts from the users already back then, so no I wouldn't say they did a better job.

Regarding paying members, almost all who had First Class are not paying anything anymore, all Premium members have paid to be able to post in our forum, and there has been no limitation to that. To view photos is the same for non members and Premium members. First Class members paid to not see ads, and watermarks, so they also got what they paid for.

BUT, viewing photos should not be obstructed by ads, or have noisy video ads.

An ad is an ad, that's why I mean that there is no need to start topic after topic about it, users can voice their oppinion in existing threads. Threads where we have already replied.

Customer service isn't exactly your forte, is it? I'm getting a very strong vibe from this post that to you, the users are mainly just an annoyance: how dare we ask that things are fixed, how dare we complain about new, ever more intrusive ads. An attitude of 'yeah yeah, we know it sucks, but quit your bitching and leave us alone'. That is NOT the message you want to be sending to your users, yet it's exactly what you are doing.

teahan · Fri Apr 15, 2016 1:29 pm

Quoting JohnKrist (Reply 17):
Regarding paying members, almost all who had First Class are not paying anything anymore, all Premium members have paid to be able to post in our forum, and there has been no limitation to that.

Is it still possible for new members to sign up and participate in discussions outside the photography?

Fri Apr 15, 2016 4:30 pm

Scorpio, I think customer service is my forte, as you put it. People are free to whine, and I reply best I can, but posting angry messages about us not replying in threads that has been discussed over and over is also pretty rude towards the entire crew.

Teahan, yes, but they are not charged, we upgrade them for free.

[Edited 2016-04-15 09:31:10]

Scorpio · Fri Apr 15, 2016 8:24 pm

Quoting JohnKrist (Reply 20):
Scorpio, I think customer service is my forte, as you put it. People are free to whine, and I reply best I can, but posting angry messages about us not replying in threads that has been discussed over and over is also pretty rude towards the entire crew.

I rest my case.

Fri Apr 15, 2016 8:45 pm

Read the following rules:
1.a
1.b
1.c
1.f
1.j i ii iii

You can find them here: https://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/rules.main?confirm=no

Forte or not, those are the rules

diverted · Fri Apr 15, 2016 8:59 pm

Quoting JohnKrist (Reply 20):
Scorpio, I think customer service is my forte, as you put it. People are free to whine, and I reply best I can, but posting angry messages about us not replying in threads that has been discussed over and over is also pretty rude towards the entire crew.

Teahan, yes, but they are not charged, we upgrade them for free.

John
I respect that you're taking the time to post here. It's far more than anyone from DM has bothered to do.

Firstly, I'm not attempting to incite hostility, but I think at this point people are, well, frustrated. We've heard how great this site's supposed to be ad nauseum, and we've seen the timeframe slip, and slip again.

I think we're all trying to figure out how the higher ups, both at the forum level and DM corporate find this acceptable.

Is it so hard to give us a screenshot of the new homepage? The forum layout? We're not asking for coding secrets, but many successful companies solicit feedback from their customers, as well as giving them previews of what's to come. The response we've gotten time and time again here is essentially

That attitude works when you're a race car driver, not a website with a diminishing user base.

We're all here for the same reasons. We all have the same passion for aviation, and we all want to see this place improve. Don't take our criticisms personally. I don't know whether or not you're on the DM payroll. (From the sounds of it most folks here are volunteers-which by the way, should demand pay, lest DM's ad revenue here disappear entirely when everyone leaves) Whether you are or not, you seem to be the only point of contact between us and DM, and you're caught in the middle.

Websites are re-launched all the time, and most sites it's not a huge, drawn out endeavour with NO updates. That for me is the biggest thing. Having issues with coding? No problem, let us know. Don't just give us the company line of "quit your bickering we know best"

Anyways, I still have my fingers crossed this site has a chance....

mmo · Fri Apr 15, 2016 9:12 pm

Quoting JohnKrist (Reply 17):
Well, I seem to remember loads of topics on bugs and how things "Needed to be fixed ASAP" kind of posts from the users already back then, so no I wouldn't say they did a better job.

But does the existing regime do a better job? I don't think so. Look as the stats for traffic on the forum and It's down to record lows now. I think that says a lot.

Quoting JohnKrist (Reply 17):
Regarding paying members, almost all who had First Class are not paying anything anymore, all Premium members have paid to be able to post in our forum, and there has been no limitation to that

That is a recent change due to the "new and improved" forum coming who knows when.

AirlineCritic · Fri Apr 22, 2016 8:57 am

JohnKrist, thank you for your responses.

I'm happy that you agree the video ads are a problem.

I'm happy that you tell us work is going on in the background.

Please let us voice our concerns however, about the slowly visible progress, and about the increasing bugs/problems/ads that we're seeing. We love this site and would like it to thrive, attract more users, and improve. We're concerned, perhaps wrongly, perhaps rightly, but we are concerned.

Also, a site like this is not rocket science. I'm not a web developer but I am a programmer, and I don't feel redoing the whole thing from scratch, importing old material, putting it on a different DB, parametrisizing the UI code, and deploying on a new CDN would be a monumental task. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'd have a working system that is better than what we currently have. Maybe not in a week, but surely in a month.

LHRlocal · Sat Apr 23, 2016 8:35 am

I agree, these adds are truly awful, i don't seem to recollect coming across this type of thing anywhere else. I love airliners.net but this is really taking the shine off of it for me.
LHRlocal

Sat Apr 23, 2016 9:42 pm

AirlineCritic, if you really are that good I would steal you to our company in an instant. The scripts just to migrate the image database to the new environment is already well over 10K lines of code, writing them in a month may work, but the layout of the old database is messy, and we can't just create the same table layout that was created 20 years ago. This is done to make sure we can maintain the database and keep it's integrity for the next 20 years. And it's not just the db, everything on airliners is related to it, so we have to rewrite everything, and I really mean everything. I doubt you can build a site like airliners from the ground up in a month, with all planning,mpreparations, surveying current state, tools, automation, security, redundance, scripts, stored procedures, graphic design, acceptance tests, cases, etc etc. Not even if the site was made inhouse, and particulary not with an inherited code base.

DesertFlyer · Fri Apr 29, 2016 3:07 am

In the mean time, traffic continues to decline at a quick rate:

Couldn't the ad load at least be reduced while you are working on migrating? Before you bleed the community to the point of no return? Surely there weren't this many ads when DM took a.net over.

[Edited 2016-04-28 20:12:12]

Kaphias · Fri Apr 29, 2016 8:41 pm

Quoting DesertFlyer (Reply 28):
In the mean time, traffic continues to decline at a quick rate:

Not necessarily. The graph ranks a site based on a combination of page views and number of visitors as compared to other sites. Therefore, it's possible that traffic to airliners.net could be increasing, but most other sites on the web are increasing at a faster rate. Not at all likely, but one cannot draw the conclusion that "traffic is declining" from this graph.

flyingturtle · Sat Apr 30, 2016 12:40 pm

Quoting Kaphias (Reply 29):
Not at all likely, but one cannot draw the conclusion that "traffic is declining" from this graph.

Regarding that you can access all websites at basically no cost, the competition between websites is fierce. I don't think the interest in aviation or aviation-related websites has waned, and so I think the much, lower rank of a.nut is a damning indication - because we're still one the foremost aviation-related website there is!

You simply go to other websites if they become a hassle.

David

moriarty · Wed May 25, 2016 5:27 pm

Seriously? I left a.net in March (as in did not log in again, as I use to on daily basis) due to the moving background ads. Just out of curiousity I revisited today, thinking that maybe Demand media had taken some well needed actions to restore fatih in the site.

Pics show how I was greeted. It is sad to see this site go this way.

B747forever · Wed May 25, 2016 9:51 pm

Quoting moriarty (Reply 31):

Why dont you just use AdBlock? You will never have to see such ads anymore.

diverted · Fri May 27, 2016 1:43 pm

Quoting B747forever (Reply 32):
Why dont you just use AdBlock? You will never have to see such ads anymore.

Great solution, and most of us already use it I'm sure, but can you imagine visiting this site as a first time viewer and getting spammed with that kinda crap on every page? I bet you wouldn't sign up...

B747forever · Sun May 29, 2016 11:51 am

Quoting diverted (Reply 33):
Great solution, and most of us already use it I'm sure, but can you imagine visiting this site as a first time viewer and getting spammed with that kinda crap on every page? I bet you wouldn't sign up...

I get your point. Ads like this one have no place on A.net if DM wants this website to be among the top of aviation.

ArmitageShanks · Sun May 29, 2016 2:54 pm

Quoting B747forever (Reply 34):
Ads like this one have no place on A.net if DM wants this website to be among the top of aviation.

That's clearly not the goal DM wants. The goal is increasing ad revenue. There has been no improvement or change of the site in the last decade despite constant promises of things coming "soon." That's what happens when a larger, totally unrelated company buys a small company like this. They are buying the revenue source, not the passion and interest in aviation.

Mon May 30, 2016 7:17 am

Quoting ArmitageShanks (Reply 35):

We have done a lot in the last decade, even though it's not that visible since we have kept the overall looks.

We are getting closer to a launch of the new site, just want to make sure that we can use all Crew tools.

JBo · Mon May 30, 2016 2:36 pm

Quoting flyingturtle (Reply 2):
I put my better photos on Wikipedia Commons, and I slap a Creative Commons licence on it. That way, your picture is more likely to end up used in a book, in a newspaper or another resource. And it's independent of the a.nut managers. Everybody can "back up" my pictures in case Creative Commons would go the way of the dodo one day.

I would also encourage you to use Flickr, as you can post your photos with a CC license there as well, and your work may get some more exposure.

Quoting B747forever (Reply 32):

Why dont you just use AdBlock? You will never have to see such ads anymore.

^^^^^ This. I've been using Adblock for probably ten years now. It's the best thing to ever happen to the Internet. No ads on A.net, no commercials on YouTube, no popups, it's fantastic.

---

Also, I'm in the camp of people who think that obtrusive, full-screen ads are unacceptably intrusive, full stop. Don't get me wrong, I know that this website needs ads to help support it, but I can't help but think that they could be more selective about the quality of the ads appearing on the site. Quality is better than quantity, but also at the end of the day, what brings in the $ is ultimately what matters, unfortunately.

[Edited 2016-05-30 07:48:42]

ArmitageShanks · Mon May 30, 2016 3:49 pm

Quoting JohnKrist (Reply 36):
We are getting closer to a launch of the new site

You've been saying this for years. Can you narrow it down and say if it will happen for sure in 2016?

Quoting JohnKrist (Reply 36):
We have done a lot in the last decade, even though it's not that visible since we have kept the overall looks.

So pretty much the only visible thing is the increased ads everywhere. Awesome. This new redesign is going to make it so much easier for the paid and sponsored content creators to do their job!

Tue May 31, 2016 7:11 am

Quoting ArmitageShanks (Reply 38):

We are in final beta right now, most functionality has been implemented, and some will be added after launch. Next test iteration will start in a few days.

Only more ads? A rebuilt photo search, better plugging for photos, like the top 5, photographers choice, news banner, top uploaders/hits etc etc. One chooses to see what he likes.

zkeye · Tue May 31, 2016 7:44 am

Sorry John,

You are doing your best and protecting the absolute fiasco that A.net has become but you really are defending the indefensible here.

You are a volunteer though (at least as I understand it) so don't deserve to have shit thrown at you all the time but as no-one from Demand Media ever has the courage or respect to front the members here I guess it will fall on you.

Of course any new design will draw criticism and I honestly hope that there is a real desire from DM to make a go of this site. Looking back at the link to A Message From Courtney Montpas Of Demand Media (by Moderators Feb 5 2009 in Aviation Photography) from several years ago does not fill me with confidence though. Add to that the dreadful ad farming makes me doubt the future of this site.

We will see but based on past performance I am pretty pessimistic. Sadly.

Tue May 31, 2016 8:40 am

Quoting zkeye (Reply 40):

I hope you will be less pessimistic in a near future

Difference now is that we have great resources now, being it developers, tools, management and what not. So DM is really dedicated to the future of Airliners.net. Let me say that I am positive, that I like what I see in the new site, and there is still more to come in the next round of testing.

zkeye · Tue May 31, 2016 9:15 am

John - I would be absolutely delighted to be proven wrong and hope I am.

jmw99ttu · Mon Jun 13, 2016 7:26 pm

Just wanted to add that I can no longer access the site on my tablet due to these video ads. That means that other than logging into my PC to post this, I won't be accessing the site anymore until these are gone.

Mon Jun 13, 2016 8:15 pm

Quoting jmw99ttu (Reply 43):

Come back tomorrow and see the new site

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