- (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:
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: [1]). 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: [2] and [3]). A comparable example to having an advertisement as the first thing readable object on a webpage would be this ([4]) 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