New commercials... - CoasterBuzz

I just saw two of the new commercials today.

And I saw two problems.

Problem #1:
It's the same crap ads as usual. Either no indication whatsoever what the product is, or it's a product I have absolutely no interest in. Besides, it's an ad I've seen 4,000 times already. There is absolutely no reason for me to even consider clicking on that ad.

Problem #2:
A Fitt's Law problem: The link to "proceed to the forum" needs to be larger. Changing to a larger font for that link would do the trick.

Suggestion #1:
(perhaps it is already...)
Clicking on the commercial should open the payoff page in a new window if it doesn't already. Otherwise it has the same problem as the banners and skyscrapers in that it takes the user away from the content page and leaves no way to go back.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(who doesn't much care for the new spots, but honestly prefers them to browser-crashing pop-ups...could this be the end of the pop-up as we know it?)
*** This post was edited by RideMan 7/18/2003 9:52:43 AM ***

What exactly are these new ads? I don't believe I've seen them...

------------------
Track Record (probably incomplete)

You will, eventually... :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(Hey! I just saw an ad that might actually apply to me!)

I have zero control over the way those work. Sorry. All I can suggest is to quickly tag the "skip" link in the upper right. You'll only ever see on per 30 minutes.

Or, of course, you can shell out a twenty. :)

------------------
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Luau II Cam 7/19
DELETED! What time does the water show start?

Uh-oh...
Something in the ad code screwed up. The SKIP link and the "you will be directed to..." link (I actually didn't see the SKIP link until today...) both ended up at a 404. I didn't wait it out (obviously) to see if the redirect worked.

It seems that the redirect link is going to "/forum.aspx" instead of to "www.coasterbuzz.com/forum.aspx" with the result that the browser is going to "media.fastclick.net/forum.aspx" which is a 404.
(Safari 1.0)

Better use absolute links for those ads...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Update: This time I let it time out (the clock is kind of nice...).

404 Not Found.

Time to re-write the code...!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Not sure this has ANYTHING to do with what you're talking about, but since we're discussing screwy ads I might add that the banner ad at the top of the page tells me I'm not authorized to view it. What? Now I'm not even good enough to view a pesky ad? :(

------------------
Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean I

Nope, no trouble with the banners I've seen, except that I notice that Safari doesn't honor frame rates on some of them...that annoying YOU'RE A WINNER IF THIS BANNER IS FLASHING!!! banner is flashing at about 40 Hz. Also the top banners have grown, but the size tag is apparently not set, as everything on the page shifts as the banner loads.

Believe me, when you see a commercial, you'll know it! :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Ads? What ads? ;)

------------------
Tommy Penner
"The plural of 'chassis' is 'chassis' ;)" - Den

I can't reproduce the problem, Dave. I can't change the code either because I didn't write it and I don't have access to it. Sounds like yet another Safari issue.

------------------
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Luau II Cam 7/19
DELETED! What time does the water show start?

Interesting. I figured perhaps you changed it sometime on Friday. I'll take a look at it with Opera on Monday...it worked fine with Opera before. I did notice that the text of the "you will be taken to..." string was different. The first time I saw it with Opera it gave an absolute link; when I saw it with Safari it gave a relative link.

Tonight it did something even stranger. I glanced at the news, then clicked on "Forums", which is usually when it comes up, and got *immediately* redirected to "media.fastclick.net/forums.aspx" (not to an ad page!) which is, of course, a 404. Clicking "<-" took me to "www.coasterbuzz.com/forums.aspx" which is where I really wanted to go in the first place. :)

I figure that forums.aspx has to be doing the redirect to fastclick.net, and if that's where fastclick is getting its redirect (the url was something like "media.fastclick.net/path/uniqueID?link=/forums.aspx" where I suspect it should have been "media.fastclick.net/path/uniqueID?link=www.coasterbuzz.com/forums.aspx".

I'll look at it when I get to work. I'm sure it will come up again... :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Who thinks while these things are annoying, done right they could be promising...

Following up again...
Looking at it with Safari it is totally different. At the top of the page it says

Please take a moment to visit our sponsor. You will be redirected to http://www.coasterbuzz.com/forum.aspx in a few seconds.

...whereas with Safari it said...

Please take a moment to visit our sponsor. You will be redirected to /forum.aspx in n seconds.

...where n was a running count-down.

The URL is different, too, as the url today ends with "...&url=http3A//www.coasterbuzz.com/forum.aspx" while last night (using Safari) it ended with "&url=/forum.aspx"

I'm guessing something changed in the last nine hours, but I won't know until I go home (there are no OS-X machines at work :()

--Dave Althoff, Jr.