The MSFN café - A Penny for Your Thoughts

[mina7601]

3 hours ago, XPerceniol said:

I also noticed that and I've never seen this banner on this site either. Wonder if we'll get an answer. Strange!

I noticed it too. And it's taking like around 1/3 of MSFN's space.

Edited December 22, 2023 by mina7601

[D.Draker]

4 hours ago, mina7601 said:

I noticed it too. And it's taking like around 1/3 of MSFN's space.

My guess would be, it's nothing out of the ordinary, the site is just trying to survive due to the fact of zero donations. It's just an ad.

[D.Draker]

6 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

Stylus style sheets are your friend.

I kinda liked it, it's brutal and straight to the point, no chewing on snort.

[D.Draker]

I mean I liked the advertisement.

[UCyborg]

5 hours ago, XPerceniol said:

Hi @UCyborg dare I ask; how are you managing overall?

Pretty much as usual, so nothing shocking, maybe even slightly better than usual.

6 hours ago, XPerceniol said:

Sounds like you're going through a lot of crap.

It's just, the things we have to do to get by, it gets old. A hamster can just sleep in the morning.

[XPerceniol]

1 hour ago, UCyborg said:

...maybe even slightly better than usual.

That's great to hear ... take what we can get even if only "slightly better".

Edited December 22, 2023 by XPerceniol

[XPerceniol]

Well ... if we need to have the advertisement there to keep our forum up and running, than its for the best as we don't wan to lose our connection(s) and the wealth of information on here. If there aren't any donations (or little donations) we can't expect a 'free lunch'; so to speak, but regrettably even though I visited the site and clicked on the link, I can not afford to purchase anything atm due to being on a fixed income and I've had to learn to "pinch" 20 bucks for spending money. 

Edited December 22, 2023 by XPerceniol

[XPerceniol]

[NotHereToPlayGames]

4 hours ago, mina7601 said:

I noticed it too. And it's taking like around 1/3 of MSFN's space.

 

3 hours ago, D.Draker said:

My guess would be, it's nothing out of the ordinary, the site is just trying to survive due to the fact of zero donations. It's just an ad.

 

To me, it's not about "liking" the ad or not.  It's also not about the "real estate" it consumes.

I have to block (visually) the ads here at MSFN if I want to visit while at work - because advertisements for women's lingerie have been known to be among them and I have no interest in explaining why they are on my screen if a colleague walks into the office.

This current ad is taking OVER EIGHT SECONDS to download - not exactly a pleasant viewing experience to watch an ad that is 5 inches tall and it rolls in 1/4" at at time, time delays, rolls in another 1/4", time delays, rolls in another 1/4"...

 

The cool part about using a simple Stylus sheet to HIDE THE AD FROM VIEW is that MSFN still gets the "revenue" for 'serving me' the ad, I just don't have to LOOK AT IT for that to happen.  

I can also do tricks such as set up Proxomitron to allow the "connection" to be made but then "disconnect" after a few tiny bytes are transferred and not even download the entire banner.

Because "like or not", this particular ad is GIGANTIC.

 

I fully support the owners seeking any ad revenue they can!  I don't think any of us are discrediting that.  "Just talking out loud", lol.

 

 

 

[NotHereToPlayGames]

The size of that blobfish  

[D.Draker]

4 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

This current ad is taking OVER EIGHT SECONDS to download - not exactly a pleasant viewing experience to watch an ad that is 5 inches tall and it rolls in 1/4" at at time, time delays, rolls in another 1/4", time delays, rolls in another 1/4"...

 

That banner is 1.1mb, it's not normal it takes 8 seconds, must be your slow internet downlink. On the other hand, sucks for mobile users with 3G (2G?) in under/developing countries.

Edited December 23, 2023 by D.Draker
2G

[D.Draker]

3 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

I have to block (visually) the ads here at MSFN if I want to visit while at work - because advertisements for women's lingerie have been known to be among them and I have no interest in explaining why they are on my screen if a colleague walks into the office.

Why would you have to explain to anyone that you look at women's lingerie? I must've missed something, is it because they now assume you're a non-traditionalist as the default option?

[D.Draker]

3 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

 

We need to be grateful they serve us PNG, and not the infamous infected WebP.

[D.Draker]

5 hours ago, XPerceniol said:

Well ... if we need to have the advertisement there to keep our forum up and running, than its for the best as we don't wan to lose our connection(s) and the wealth of information on here. If there aren't any donations (or little donations) we can't expect a 'free lunch'; so to speak, but regrettably even though I visited the site and clicked on the link, I can not afford to purchase anything atm due to being on a fixed income and I've had to learn to "pinch" 20 bucks for spending money. 

We also clearly need more interesting content posters. I can't work alone for all of you.

[j7n]

The banner looks this big on some pages. It has a blank alpha channel, and the PNG format can't deal with it. Without the alpha, the image compressed to 525 kB.

https://i.imgur.com/T6wJlOg.png

It's not that there is a banner that shocks me. Many sites are now adding internally hosted image, which can't be blocked, but also load faster. But the cheap design of it, which puts the legitimacy of the target site in question. After all its easy to sell thin air with software licenses. I don't know if they even come in a physical box these days. Look how they squeezed down the banner to 728x90 with everything squished.