Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Sandwich on May 10, 2006, 04:50:16 pm

Title: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 10, 2006, 04:50:16 pm
I've done some work on a basic HLP theme and reset everyone to use it by default. You can still select another theme in your personal profile if you'd like to. However, everyone should take note - it's not perfect. It still shows the SMF logo, the nav is still blue, etc. Some of that will change soon, some won't - there's a limit to how much I'm willing to modify beforeSMF version 1.1 is finalized (we're running Release Candidate 2 currently). So please don't go around reporting rough edges and stuff quite yet. ;)

Also, you may notice the new advertising banner, via some ad company called Clicksor. Google banned us from their ad program due to what they called "invalid clicks" - generally taken to be when someone from the same IP clicks on ads "too much". That's water under the bridge now, but I mention it because I'd rather not see a repeat of that again. So, don't just go clicking away because you want to "help the site" - it hurts, not helps. If an ad interests you, find out more. If not, don't. Simple as that.

Thanks.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: neoterran on May 10, 2006, 04:52:33 pm
Thank god the colors are back, the default was way too bright...
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: SadisticSid on May 10, 2006, 04:58:59 pm
Please tell me the annoying middle of the page ad-keyword popups are a mistake. :(
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Jetmech Jr. on May 10, 2006, 05:02:45 pm
Please tell me the annoying middle of the page ad-keyword popups are a mistake. :(

Seconded.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 10, 2006, 05:11:57 pm
Eh? Where? What thread triggers them??
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: S-99 on May 10, 2006, 05:18:32 pm
sweet, the colors are back, this is very good, it made things way too bright for looking at screenshots and stuff :nod:
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Nuclear1 on May 10, 2006, 05:25:26 pm
This feels like HLP 2.0.

Which is terrific. Great work guys. :yes:
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Cobra on May 10, 2006, 05:30:59 pm
HALLELUJAH! no more nekkid forums!!

the default theme was starting to grow on me. :shaking:
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: SadisticSid on May 10, 2006, 05:33:59 pm
Eh? Where? What thread triggers them??

Not a thread for me, just the root page of the board.



[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: redsniper on May 10, 2006, 05:46:45 pm
yeah, I've been seeing them too. They make me sad. :(
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 10, 2006, 05:53:12 pm
I think I accidentally let that option slip through in one of the testings. Please force-refresh your cache and let me know if those continue to show up.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: NGTM-1R on May 10, 2006, 09:31:55 pm
They remain in several of the forum descriptors.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Jetmech Jr. on May 10, 2006, 09:43:31 pm
Is it just me, or are they getting worse? Like, 5 of them on a page at any given time...

And the new image ads were a bit of a surprise.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Taristin on May 11, 2006, 12:28:52 am
Thats part of the ad service. Happy happy joy joy.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Fury on May 11, 2006, 12:53:41 am
I don't enjoy it either, but since we can't use Google AdSense anymore and it does not look like we'll ever will, so we have to look out for poorer quality adservices, like this Clicksor which I have never even heard of. Sandwich still has to pay for the server every month and by now he has already lost quite a bit of ads revenue to pay for it, so he's paying for it from his own pockets. And because Clicksor apparently cannot even show content relevant ads, I doubt income from it will ever be high enough. So enter the donations, except that nobody wants to donate even a small sum every bloody month. This situation could be solved by adopting an ads service that is at least close to AdSense in terms of service quality and especially has content relevant ads, so that someone would actually click the damn ads, I don't know any, do you?
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Goober5000 on May 11, 2006, 02:03:43 am
Yahoo ads?
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Fury on May 11, 2006, 02:16:38 am
Can't be worse than clicksor, I hope.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 11, 2006, 02:37:57 am
Yeah, I'm getting those inline ads now, too. *grrr* Ok, screw Clicksor. Over the weekend I'll look into what kind of ad system places like Gamespot run, see if we can get some game-related ads or something.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Col. Fishguts on May 11, 2006, 05:01:38 am
Is it just me, or does the "back" button now work on a random basis in Firefox ?
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Nuke on May 11, 2006, 05:03:40 am
nice and all but my back button doesnt work anymore unless i click it a bunch of times really fast and even then its iffy.

*edit
seems im not the only one with this problem
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 11, 2006, 05:21:05 am
:wtf:
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Prophet on May 11, 2006, 05:47:34 am
Im not a web wizard, but web pages shouldn't effect the function of the backbutton. Right? :nervous:
Opera seems to work fine. And explorer (yes I have to use explorer at work).
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 11, 2006, 06:49:49 am
Huh. Lookie here: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hostsfaq.htm#Button
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Fury on May 11, 2006, 06:52:23 am
Yeah, Firefox has adblock addon and this may happen when adblock blocks an ad.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Rictor on May 11, 2006, 07:48:29 am
I like the blue buttons. They add colour to an otherwise pretty monotonous site. Could you maybe consider keeping them? Or at least take all the images and desaturate them so they look silver.

Anyway, the theme looks nice. I looks more modern thank what we had before.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Fury on May 11, 2006, 07:51:40 am
It has been suggested that we'd have more than one HLP theme available, at least a darker (this) and a brighter more colourful version.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 11, 2006, 08:26:57 am
Suggested, I should note, by people who are not Sandwich. ;)
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Cobra on May 11, 2006, 12:33:52 pm
Is it just me, or are they getting worse? Like, 5 of them on a page at any given time...

And the new image ads were a bit of a surprise.

I think it's just you, I only see one ad, and it's at the very top of every page on this forum.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: achtung on May 11, 2006, 01:13:17 pm
Sandwich, The little pop-up things are still appearing.  They seem to appear whenever you hover the mouse over the ads. 
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Shade on May 11, 2006, 01:26:32 pm
Adblock kills them. Annoyed me all of 10 seconds before I un-whitelisted HLP :D (which I'll re-whitelist once the ads are sufficiently non-intrusive)
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 11, 2006, 06:37:31 pm
Ok, here's the deal. Minimum payout level is $20 for PayPal (vs. check). Unless I've figured out how to tell Clicksor not to do those crap inline text ads, once we hit $20, Clicksor's outta here.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Fury on May 13, 2006, 01:50:58 am
And here I was wondering why HLP is slower and slower to load pages each day, it's the bloody clicksor ads. When the ads are blocked, pages are loaded in a heartbeat.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Bobboau on May 13, 2006, 03:40:29 am
the only thing that bugs me is that the back button doesn't seem to work anymore
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Fury on May 13, 2006, 03:44:09 am
Seen this yet?
Huh. Lookie here: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hostsfaq.htm#Button
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 13, 2006, 05:20:00 am
Ooh. So tempting to click. Ooh.

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Bobboau on May 13, 2006, 04:24:11 pm
well, what does the cash flow situation look like
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 14, 2006, 04:19:46 am
$6.38. :-/
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Bobboau on May 14, 2006, 11:41:52 am
from one day?
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 14, 2006, 06:04:25 pm
Since the beginning of these ads.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: BlackDove on May 14, 2006, 06:22:28 pm
Things aren't looking good for you.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Turey on May 14, 2006, 06:35:19 pm
Unless I've figured out how to tell Clicksor not to do those crap inline text ads.

Quote from: Page Source
<script type='text/javascript'>
<!--



//default banner house ad url
clicksor_default_url = '';

clicksor_layer_border_color = '#990000';
clicksor_layer_ad_bg = '#202020';
clicksor_layer_ad_link_color = '#FF0000';
clicksor_layer_ad_text_color = '#FFFFFF';
clicksor_text_link_bg = '';
clicksor_text_link_color = '#000FFF';

clicksor_enable_text_link = true;



clicksor_banner_image_banner = true;
clicksor_banner_border = '#990000';
clicksor_banner_ad_bg = '#202020';
clicksor_banner_link_color = '#FF0000';
clicksor_banner_text_color = '#FFFFFF';
//-->
</script>
<script type='text/javascript' src='http://ads.clicksor.com/showAd.php?pid=52747&sid=71325&adtype=1'></script>               

<noscript><a href='http://www.clicksor.com'>Internet advertising[/url]</noscript>

might changing that line to false solve your problem?
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 15, 2006, 03:12:56 am
Quite possibly, but that would be altering the source, probably a breach of some agreement, etc. Besides, these ads are so crap that I don't want to stay with them anyway, so it doesn't matter.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: achtung on May 15, 2006, 03:07:29 pm
How's money looking now?
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: S-99 on May 15, 2006, 05:28:13 pm
Just be glad there's no ad penalties that deduct money if like it figured out you were trying to remove it. But then again it doesn't have a mind of it's own :lol:
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 16, 2006, 05:18:25 pm
Halfway there! :p
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: achtung on May 16, 2006, 08:42:52 pm
Good, these in-line text ads are really getting on my nerves, and I don't feel like installing adblock.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Mongoose on May 16, 2006, 09:36:40 pm
Good, these in-line text ads are really getting on my nerves, and I don't feel like installing adblock.
You should; I haven't seen a single one of these annoying ads everyone is complaining about, in-line or otherwise. :p
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Grey Wolf on May 16, 2006, 09:57:42 pm
Though if you think about it, blocking ads on a site you visit often is self-defeating. By blocking the ads you're depriving the site of income, which may cause it to eventually close down.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Fury on May 16, 2006, 11:09:16 pm
Yeah.  Grey Wolf has a point. Which is why I don't really use any adblockers or go through the trouble of whitelisting the sites I want to support since in the end, every site I visit somehow deserves the little support I give them via ad impressions. Sure ads can be annoying and waste of bandwidth, but ads can be the only source of income for some websites in which case blocking their ads does more harm than good.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: achtung on May 16, 2006, 11:14:45 pm
Though if you think about it, blocking ads on a site you visit often is self-defeating. By blocking the ads you're depriving the site of income, which may cause it to eventually close down.

Well that's one of my major reasons.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Fury on May 18, 2006, 03:02:55 am
Only less than $9 to go and clicksor is outta here (according to Sandwich), so we're over halfway done. We are not quite sure yet what will replace Clicksor, but at least we try to replace it with something less annoying but yet with something that will provide enough income.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Styxx on May 18, 2006, 11:20:36 am
Well, I just found clicksor ads on the inside of the posts, on specific words, having nothing at all to do with the post's content. Awesome.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Fenrir on May 18, 2006, 05:01:59 pm
Somehow, I have the feeling I should be incorperating in Delaware...
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/6223/untitled3qj.jpg
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 18, 2006, 05:06:21 pm
My gawd, they're horrid. Golly gee-whiz, I wish we were at $20 already. Then we'd be able to get rid of Clicksor. Wouldn't that be nice? Yes, it would.... *ahem*
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Kosh on May 18, 2006, 05:49:08 pm
So what will you replace them with?
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 18, 2006, 05:54:06 pm
Not sure yet.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: achtung on May 19, 2006, 04:28:48 pm
Yahoo?  MSN is supposed to be coming out with some ad service aren't they?
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: S-99 on May 21, 2006, 04:34:15 am
Lol :lol:
That's nice, incorporating in delaware :lol: That one kicks the ****. For me it's been an advertisement at the top of the page that's black and in big white letters says default, and nothing else. And not it's shifted to stop spam (stoptheft.com you might be interested) OR Botox dermatologists (botoxcosmetic.com i know you guys don't like those forhead wrinkles). Don't forget premier AD.com affiliate marketing. I'm not joking, these advertisements are loading for me on every single page of the forums. And i'm not joking, these advertisements keep reloading with new ones every 40 seconds on every singe page of the forums. Makes using the forward and back browser buttons a *****. They ****ing reload the advertisement bars with a new one every 40 seconds :lol:
These things are retarded :lol:
I know it's at like 9$ or so right now, but i can't wait to have all that speed back, so it doesn't take a minute or two on dsl to load a one post thread :lol:
Liking fs2 this much...it's like now we're forsaken :lol:
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 21, 2006, 05:51:03 pm
Actually, we're at $15 now! Soon, my pretties.... soooon.....
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: achtung on May 21, 2006, 11:22:00 pm
Why is it that we have to get to twenty dollars again?
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Taristin on May 21, 2006, 11:51:11 pm
Because thats a good portion of the monthly cost?
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 22, 2006, 02:26:29 am
Because that's the minimum amount before they pay up.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Sandwich on May 30, 2006, 05:24:34 pm
Alrighty, so, in case you haven't noticed, we're running ThinkGeek banners! I like them already - they don't seem to slow the forum down like Clicksor did. Anyway, from what I understand, these aren't PPC (pay-per-click) or PPV (pay-per-view) banners, but a commission-based system. So when you visit ThinkGeek through clicking on the banner and actually buy a product, we get a percentage. So, that's the story for now. We'll see how it goes - I truly have no idea how much income this is going to bring in, but I like ThinkGeek so much anyway, I'd run their ads for free (Shhhh!! Don't tell them I said that!). :p
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Flipside on May 30, 2006, 05:35:51 pm
I'm tempted by that USB Lava-lamp, that's just so 70's :D
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: achtung on May 30, 2006, 07:38:03 pm
Oh, that universal on-off t.v. remote looks like loads of fun.  :drevil:


Hmmmm.  I like this one.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/61b7/
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Ferret on May 30, 2006, 09:25:48 pm
I'ld buy from ThinkGeek if thier postage wasn't at WTF prices.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Kosh on May 30, 2006, 11:16:55 pm
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/blankets/574a/

ASCII FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: S-99 on May 31, 2006, 01:18:42 am
I'll go binary
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/blankets/574a/action/21087fd/ (http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/blankets/574a/action/21087fd/)
Next thing we know, there's a dildo that comes with the chick that makes her scream in ascii or binary, depending on what you have the switch set at before she uses.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Kie99 on June 14, 2006, 04:11:22 pm
I see you got rid of the blue banner things, much nicer.
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Fineus on June 15, 2006, 05:12:00 am
Thanks :)

On that note (that note being "someone noticed"..) I'm playing around with the forum graphics a bit myself. Nothing drastic as I don't really know what goes where yet. But if anyone has any suggestions I'd quite like to hear them... they should however be reasonable and in keeping with the HLP site theme. I'm not changing everything pink because you say so and such suggestions may/will be ignored ;)
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Mars on June 15, 2006, 05:21:04 am
Yeah, the blue just didn't go with the maroon it clashed like my teacher's plads. I think this was mentioned somwhere, but I can't find it now: are the links to the HLP homepage and Wiki ever going to return to the forums?
Title: Re: HLP Theme and Ads
Post by: Mars on June 18, 2006, 01:00:38 pm
:bump:
Sorry if I shouldn't have been a gravedigger

Thanks to whoever added the links back again, no more people asking where the wiki is (I hope).