Pepijn
Jetra
I don't often have problems with ads, they don't bother me and so I keep ad-block off on sites I like and visit often.
But accepting money to make the new blogging contest theme about Lego minecraft... seriously? Contests are a big part of the site and even though blogging ones are probably the smallest, there's still a lot of people who like them a lot and yet you decide to let the theme get ruined by making it into a giant advertisement.
It's not even that this is the only thing now. Randomly the PMC logo gets changed at certain moments, when you are offline LiveTV suddenly turns into LegoTV and now the forums also have a permanent sponsored image from Lego Minecraft at the top.
I get that running this site costs money and that we can't expect the site to stay up when it's not making that money back, but please don't let ads interfere with the site and its content.
But accepting money to make the new blogging contest theme about Lego minecraft... seriously? Contests are a big part of the site and even though blogging ones are probably the smallest, there's still a lot of people who like them a lot and yet you decide to let the theme get ruined by making it into a giant advertisement.
It's not even that this is the only thing now. Randomly the PMC logo gets changed at certain moments, when you are offline LiveTV suddenly turns into LegoTV and now the forums also have a permanent sponsored image from Lego Minecraft at the top.
I get that running this site costs money and that we can't expect the site to stay up when it's not making that money back, but please don't let ads interfere with the site and its content.
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Honestly, I think it would have been better as a project contest since you can do a bit more with it. Besides, who doesn't like lego apart from parents stepping on them?
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Originally it was, I think. I don't know why it was changed, it made more sense to me, lol.
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Probably because writing is technically the "easier" and more accessible thing for a lot of people who aren't that great with building.
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Pepijn- I'm not going into the ad-block discussion. I don't see what ad-block has to do with a contest theme being sponsored anyway, which is the main reason I made this post.
- I don't think this is a super huge deal atm (although I still think it's a crappy theme), but I want to get my opinion of these sort of sponsor ships out there before it become worse or something regular (which as Paril stated, is not going to happen. Or at least I think he meant this).
At least it's a cool company and not something totally lame like Disney. If it had to be anything, I'm glad it's Lego.
The contest rules could definitely be better though... I don't know whose idea it was to cap contest submissions at 250 words, but I think that's going to be a contributing factor to a lot of unnecessary DQs of otherwise quality submissions and lots of spammy entries.
At the same time, I totally get the rather small imposed word limit. The last blog contest didn't have one and as a result it took a really long time to judge it because a lot of people's entries were really long.
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To be clear (for people who seemed to miss my point or decided they could guess my intentions):
- I'm not talking about pop-up ads, those ads should just be reported (Feel free to use this post to mention them though, I just want to make clear that this is not the main topic of this thread)
- I'm not going into the ad-block discussion. I don't see what ad-block has to do with a contest theme being sponsored anyway, which is the main reason I made this post.
- I don't think this is a super huge deal atm (although I still think it's a crappy theme), but I want to get my opinion of these sort of sponsor ships out there before it become worse or something regular (which as Paril stated, is not going to happen. Or at least I think he meant this).
- Please stay nice and respectful, I don't tell you what you should find annoying so you shouldn't tell me what I should find annoying.
- I'm not talking about pop-up ads, those ads should just be reported (Feel free to use this post to mention them though, I just want to make clear that this is not the main topic of this thread)
- I'm not going into the ad-block discussion. I don't see what ad-block has to do with a contest theme being sponsored anyway, which is the main reason I made this post.
- I don't think this is a super huge deal atm (although I still think it's a crappy theme), but I want to get my opinion of these sort of sponsor ships out there before it become worse or something regular (which as Paril stated, is not going to happen. Or at least I think he meant this).
- Please stay nice and respectful, I don't tell you what you should find annoying so you shouldn't tell me what I should find annoying.
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How often per day?
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maybe like, 7 or 6 times a day
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Oh yeah not app store pop ups just Disney XD and Monster high and all that stuff
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No ads. No Pmc
Just Install Adblocker+ after when paril is done with the questions
Just Install Adblocker+ after when paril is done with the questions
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I don't like the pop up ads lol
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How often do you see them?
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more often on mobile than on PC.
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I mean like more than once per day? Mobile ads have a different serving process, so they might not be the same set of ads. Are they Disney Infinity/XD/Monster High ads or app store popups?
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Are you seriously complaining about Planet MINECRAFT helping to advertise something Minecraft-related in exchange for money that keeps the site up and running?
Yeah, ok ... So ONE blogging contest is themed for it. Big deal. Even the people who like the blogging contests aren't going to pitch a fit about it, because it really doesn't matter. There can be more than one contest going at a time. Even if there WERE only one at a time, there will be other contests that aren't lego-related and, in the meantime, they can blog about anything they choose to.
As far as the ads go - what the hell? It's a free site. Get over it.
Yeah, ok ... So ONE blogging contest is themed for it. Big deal. Even the people who like the blogging contests aren't going to pitch a fit about it, because it really doesn't matter. There can be more than one contest going at a time. Even if there WERE only one at a time, there will be other contests that aren't lego-related and, in the meantime, they can blog about anything they choose to.
As far as the ads go - what the hell? It's a free site. Get over it.
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None of it is permanent, it's only for the duration of the contest. The Lego-related subforum will be archived after it as well.
It's a sponsored contest in the case of LEGO, and it's just what the terms of the contest were from LEGO's side. We are very careful not to interfere with the site's content, and we'd never do anything that would push actual content aside; a sponsored contest doesn't interfere, especially not when it's about Minecraft like this one is.
We'll have more regular blog contests after this one as well.
I don't know about the popup ones though, I will have to pass them forward to see if those were allowed or not. Generally we don't allow modal ones unless they have very specific limitations (like once per day appearances).
It's a sponsored contest in the case of LEGO, and it's just what the terms of the contest were from LEGO's side. We are very careful not to interfere with the site's content, and we'd never do anything that would push actual content aside; a sponsored contest doesn't interfere, especially not when it's about Minecraft like this one is.
We'll have more regular blog contests after this one as well.
I don't know about the popup ones though, I will have to pass them forward to see if those were allowed or not. Generally we don't allow modal ones unless they have very specific limitations (like once per day appearances).
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Don't even get me started on the popup ads
I'm not a fan of how the site is trying to monetize itself lately. I can barely view the site on mobile (where I have no adblock whatsoever).
Now, I'm not sure whether or not this lego stuff is a partnership or affiliate link type deal. The lego banner here in the forum doesn't appear to be an affiliate link... only time will tell.
I'm not a fan of how the site is trying to monetize itself lately. I can barely view the site on mobile (where I have no adblock whatsoever).
Now, I'm not sure whether or not this lego stuff is a partnership or affiliate link type deal. The lego banner here in the forum doesn't appear to be an affiliate link... only time will tell.
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I'm just blocking it with AdBlock's selective blocker.
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I agree. I only just noticed it, but its even bypassing my adblock. So PMC is now going down the drain fast. I would have preferred if they started up a Patreon.
I'm going to take a look at its duration, and possibly boycot PMC during that time. Because This sort of thing is not what I'm using PMC for.
I'm going to take a look at its duration, and possibly boycot PMC during that time. Because This sort of thing is not what I'm using PMC for.
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Patreon would be the equivalent of us accepting donations. We are a company, it wouldn't be right of us to do that. As much as it sucks, ads are still the best way to make money because that's what all of the big companies do and how they provide opportunities to people. Sponsorships are the second method of doing that, but we wouldn't have these if we weren't as big as we are - it's lucky that we do get sponsorships.
Also I like the logic of "adblock doesn't block it, so it must be here to stay"; adblock only blocks very specific domains, it doesn't have some magical "this is an ad" detector. The images are hosted on our domain (we weren't given a place for the image to be served).
Also I like the logic of "adblock doesn't block it, so it must be here to stay"; adblock only blocks very specific domains, it doesn't have some magical "this is an ad" detector. The images are hosted on our domain (we weren't given a place for the image to be served).
