Adverts on comp.tf

[corbt]

• (To my knowledge) There has been no initial explanation from comp.tf for the new advertisements
  
• If for some reason it is being considered, please do not feature this on backcap

Hi, I’m ‘Garlic’ on comp.tf and the wiki’s 5th top contributor. Over the past 10 days comp.tf was locked for edits as it was “transferring server”, but when I logged on today the first thing I noticed were 3 new AdSense advertisements: http://imgur.com/3LXF19G.jpg

The first ad replaces the old EVL Gaming advert on the left sidebar, however the 2 new adverts are placed at the tops and bottoms of each and every comp.tf page.

The main problem with these ads is their placement on the page; specifically the topmost advertisement at the top of every page hovering directly below the page title (example: http://imgur.com/gH1zj6R.jpg). Having “Dating Women from China: MAKE YOUR EASTERN DREAMS COME TRUE” or alternatively a picture of one of the MyLittlePony characters giving birth to a miniature version of itself as the first thing a user reads, aside from it being obnoxious and obstructive, I feel as though really detracts from the professionalism of the site and personally for me it is rather disappointing (and yes those are real examples: http://i.imgur.com/4JREJpT.png and http://i.imgur.com/U7O6T6E.png). A comparable example to having an advertisement as the first thing readable object on a webpage would be this ([4][i.imgur.com]) block of text at the top of every page on Wikipedia.org.

I understand if these additional advertisements are needed to uphold the costs of servers, the problem is not the addition of adverts but their placement and to a degree the content of the advert. I am more than willing to co-operate with Kaneco (founder of comp.tf) to make sure these ads better complement the website either by moving them to different areas or by other means. I also understand that this is Kaneco’s website and he is free to add as many advertisements in whichever places he wants, but I am saying this not for a ‘personal disapproval/annoyance’ of the changes but rather for the betterment of comp.tf so it can avoid the problems outlined above and retain its professionalism as one of the most important websites for the Competitive TF2 Community.

Though the inclusion of 3 advertisements can seem very minuscule and unimportant, I hope you can understand for yourself how much these advertisements, through their obstructive placement and irrelevant content, are impacting the image of comp.tf. My goal is obviously to change how these advertisements are being implemented to comp.tf for the good of the site, if you share this opinion please be vocal by replying or upvoting; thank you. In some cases I hope I have gone over the top and this is something like a trial period and the ads are not permanent, but the last thing I want to see is these advertisements discouraging someone from contributing to the comp.tf wikipedia.

Edit: Fixing links

[(Voice) ffc]

Hi Garlic,

The adverts are an attempt to gain revenue to sustain the wiki along with its brand. As you may know, a couple of months before i55, Hypernia(?) dropped sponsorship for comp.tf. EVL Gaming agreed to sponsor comp.tf over the period but dropped their sponsorship at the beginning of this month.

As for ad placement, I believe that it was somewhat influenced by other eSport wiki's, such as Liquipedia's[wiki.teamliquid.net] and esportpedia's[lol.esportspedia.com].

Regarding the content of the adverts, I agree that the content of those adverts are definetly not appropriate and I believe there may be something that may be done about it, but I don't want to be talking out of my ass here.

Kaneco will soon be posting in the teamfortress.tv thread that you created, so hopefully he will be able to fill in on more details there.

Kaneco's response[www.teamfortress.tv]

[corbt]

Oprindeligt skrevet af ffc:

-

Thanks for the reply Efefknee

After reading all the stuff on the TFTV thread and all the changes over the last 1/2 days I have 2 thoughts left:

• Perhaps add some top padding to the bottommost ad to separate it from the text a bit?
  
  
• With Kaneco's post talking about all the stuff he's got going on and the fact that 5 out of 7 admins/mods seem to be inactive, I think getting more people to help would fulfill a lot more of the potential the wiki has.

As Kaneco said, you truly are the heart and soul of the wiki; thank you

[(Voice) ffc]

No problem!

The padding is definitely something that we should consider doing, or maybe moving it into the grey areas.
As for the admin/mods, I can't talk for Kaneco but I'd like to see some more when needed, such as an increase of editors, which is already in progress and we hope that train won't stop!!

Thank you for your kind words <: See you around the wiki!