new toolbar is up!

[Morningstar]

OK, they are definitely targetting us according to age groups--I just got a Hooked on Phonics ad in the top tool bar--"Is your child a confident reader? yadda, yadda, yadda" Obviously, they assume that, because of my age, I have a child. Grrr! Did I already say that I hate this toolbar--if not, let me say it again.

[rageaholic]

OK, they are definitely targetting us according to age groups--I just got a Hooked on Phonics ad in the top tool bar--"Is your child a confident reader? yadda, yadda, yadda" Obviously, they assume that, because of my age, I have a child. Grrr! Did I already say that I hate this toolbar--if not, let me say it again.

I don't think that's the case, I get hooked on phonics ads and, while i am over 18, i don't think i'd be in the 'must have a kid' demographic.

Anyway, I liked the toolbar when I was testing it and I still like it. I honestly don't even notice the ads unless I'm looking at them for one reason or another.

[Cyb]

They know that mostly kids play the site, and should have parental supervision, so the parents can see the ad over the kid's shoulder.

[vinylraven]

ebay sells pornography. this is giving children a link to porn-related products. its a bit of a stretch possibly, but you really can look at it that way. i mean, obviously they cant buy it or anything, but i really think it's inappropriate to allow that ad.

Last edited by vinylraven on Fri Oct 22, 2004 4:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

[neodalion]

It's really big and really distracting. I hate it. Alot. >.<

[raudf]

OK, they are definitely targetting us according to age groups--I just got a Hooked on Phonics ad in the top tool bar--"Is your child a confident reader? yadda, yadda, yadda" Obviously, they assume that, because of my age, I have a child. Grrr! Did I already say that I hate this toolbar--if not, let me say it again.

I haven't gotten that one yet.. just the Ebay and the Snapfish. And we could chant this until the end of time, but they want the ads on top of the games that they are already using to push products on kids/parents/whoever.
Yes, Ebay does sell adult material and is inappropriate for children. Yes people get frozen for saying Ebay on the neoboards (I hate the neoboards right now). Does this matter to them? No. They are fond of making a profit and are possibly seeing the passing of a bill that reduces the amount of immersive advertisement on websites, so they are finding other ways to keep/increase their profit.
No, I am not saying they are rich, because I know most of the staff's not. I am saying the COMPANY making a profit. Now, if I thought this was a fair profit, I wouldn't complain, but that bulky ad at the top is just a biiiiittt to much after the sponsor games have increased dramatically.
Do I think the ad is going to go away because I hate it? No. That's a hopeless and pointless waste of time and energy that I could be using in real life for things that really matter.

[bgryph]

Yuck, yuck, yuck. Besides making everything load slower, the flash animations on the top of each page are even more annoying and distracting than I thought they'd be.

Anyone have suggestions of browsers or ad-blocking software that can get rid of these things?

[rageaholic]

Yuck, yuck, yuck. Besides making everything load slower, the flash animations on the top of each page are even more annoying and distracting than I thought they'd be.

Anyone have suggestions of browsers or ad-blocking software that can get rid of these things?

Download Firefox and then get the extension adblock. Then it'll give to the option to block certain ads from ever showing. This is good for blocking certain ads, I'm not sure what you'd want for blocking all of them unless you take the time to block each one as you see it.

Last edited by rageaholic on Fri Oct 22, 2004 4:38 am, edited 3 times in total.

[everconfused]

OK, I've been, I've seen, I've redone the sidebar (not perfectly - but I'll need to do a couple to get this down pat), moved the banner (it's a big banner - went from being 5 from the top to 80!) and the pic on my lookup. Now, does everyone who already entered the Spotlight of the Week have to re-enter?

I can now say that I do truly have a problem with this new topbanner. It's actually bigger than I thought it would be. I've now got a huge splitting headache, my eyes are feeling strained and I mainly came here because I needed to get away from it - I AM quite dizzy. This is going to be a problem for me physically - and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Oh yeah, and it does take longer for pages to load ... not a good thing on dial up.

Was on the boards very briefly - people seem to be (from what I saw) at least 70% hating the topbanner, to the point of saying if it stays they're not. Whether people actually leave over this is another story. We all know how addicted we are

Last edited by everconfused on Fri Oct 22, 2004 4:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Ledi]

OK, I've been, I've seen, I've redone the sidebar (not perfectly - but I'll need to do a couple to get this down pat), moved the banner (it's a big banner - went from being 5 from the top to 80!) and the pic on my lookup. Now, does everyone who already entered the Spotlight of the Week have to re-enter?

I can now say that I do truly have a problem with this new topbanner. It's actually bigger than I thought it would be. I've now got a huge splitting headache, my eyes are feeling strained and I mainly came here because I needed to get away from it - I AM quite dizzy. This is going to be a problem for me physically - and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Oh yeah, and it does take longer for pages to load ... not a good thing on dial up.

Not alone! Not alone! The grundo rocker one in particular is giving me weird flashes of pain when I see it, and I'm glad I sit on my bed to type, because it means I can lie down quite easily.

And although we've mentioned this in ALL the new toolbar topics, it's been ignored in each one.

[everconfused]

Ledi, are you in the US? Even with all the ADA laws - they have no effect re: the internet that I know of. And we are not considered 9 times out of 10 in any decision-making. From the government level down.

I'll just have to really limit my time - feed, lab, get interest, maybe post on my guild board and then leave. I was starting to train a pet, wanted to learn about the Battledome and I wanted to work on my gallery - which for me means games (cannot rs for anything) ... but I just don't know if I'll be able to stay on long enough to actually do anything.

[Ledi]

Ledi, are you in the US? Even with all the ADA laws - they have no effect re: the internet that I know of. And we are not considered 9 times out of 10 in any decision-making. From the government level down.

I'll just have to really limit my time - feed, lab, get interest, maybe post on my guild board and then leave. I was starting to train a pet, wanted to learn about the Battledome and I wanted to work on my gallery - which for me means games (cannot rs for anything) ... but I just don't know if I'll be able to stay on long enough to actually do anything.

No, I'm Australian.

I wonder how many of the non-serious users might quit over this... at least it might thin out the New Member crowd.

[Vicky]

well, so far I have only seen neopets-related avs in the big banner. Although it does take a while to load the entire thing, I'm excited about the themes idea, hopefully they will be applicable to lookups. I really dont know how we are going to get them, but if new sidebar themes, means me enduring a big ad banner, then I have no problem!

[Sapphire Faerie]

Maybe the reason the top banner doesn't bother me is because of the way I view pages. When I click a link to go to a new page, I automatically start scrolling my mouse wheel, so that the page I'm going to scrolls down as soon as it loads. I do this everywhere (Neopets, PPT, LiveJournal) because I like to have whatever I'm looking at right in the middle of the page. There's also the fact that I'm on 800 x 600, and I like having toolbars, so I'm used to scrolling down anyway.
Almost every page I visit daily has some sort of top bar (PPT has the Arrow logo and the menu, LJ has it's logo and buttons, and even when I view my journal and my friends page, I have a bar at the top with my icon and links, my e-mail has a menu bar on the top). So I guess I'm just used to scrolling. But when I do what I always do (click the link, and directly start scrolling) I barely have to look at the top banner on Neopets at all.

[rageaholic]

Maybe the reason the top banner doesn't bother me is because of the way I view pages. When I click a link to go to a new page, I automatically start scrolling my mouse wheel, so that the page I'm going to scrolls down as soon as it loads. I do this everywhere (Neopets, PPT, LiveJournal) because I like to have whatever I'm looking at right in the middle of the page. There's also the fact that I'm on 800 x 600, and I like having toolbars, so I'm used to scrolling down anyway.
Almost every page I visit daily has some sort of top bar (PPT has the Arrow logo and the menu, LJ has it's logo and buttons, and even when I view my journal and my friends page, I have a bar at the top with my icon and links, my e-mail has a menu bar on the top). So I guess I'm just used to scrolling. But when I do what I always do (click the link, and directly start scrolling) I barely have to look at the top banner on Neopets at all.

Maybe that is why I am not bothered by the ads, because I do the same thing. It's like, I know where I'm going. I don't have to sit and wait for the page to load to start moving.