You know what ad is an absolute disgrace? The ad for Sporcle Orange

10 Comments

• SirDigbyCaesar (10 months ago)
  Utterly disgusting bringing up a full page ad asking you to pay for sporcle orange EVERY SINGLE TIME you navigate to another page. Are you actually serious? That's me done with this website. Can't believe you have the nerve to be so pushy.
  2 points

• gabs289 (6 months ago)
  Agreed. Chance I will pay because of this popping up every time? 0%. Chance I will leave it because of this popping up every time? Well likely
  8 points

• darrin (5 months ago) - [Sporcle Admin]
  @SirDigbyCaesar @gabs289 It's likely popping up every time because you are using an ad-blocker. Since you're not willing to support the site by having ads on the page, we ask that you consider getting Orange more frequently.
  -1 points

• durhamfan (5 months ago)
  The problem @gabs289 is if you have ad block and don’t have orange then sporcle has no reason to want you to not leave. You're costing them bandwidth without paying for it so you leaving is as much a win for them as you paying.
  I don't like hostile design but ultimately it won’t change because people being driven away by ads they only see with an ad-blocker is not something that bothers them.
  4 points

• mrtuxxrulx (4 months ago)
  @darrin and others, I don’t think the problem is the ads, we all realize that ads are a part of any website, the main beef is the ads that block part of quiz playing and the load many times when you try to go to another page.
  for example, image 1, these load every time you go to a new page and block part of the quiz

  3 points

• donstamos (4 months ago)
  I've been very pessimistic about ads in the past - a few years ago there was a point where the ads overloaded every computer I used and caused crashes, freezes and a generally unplayable experience. Things got better for a while, and now the time of computer-killing ad loads are pretty close. I refuse to pay for Orange because I find the sheer intrusiveness of the ads to be highly insulting, so I've closed out what I could and let the rest play so Sporcle could get the money they need to run the site. Today, I've had several different freezes waiting for ads to load, whole page ads popping up mid-quiz for a stupid mobile game that require a refresh that wipes out all the quiz progress, and just a minute ago, while looking at the "Bona" post just to see what "Bona" was, the site's ads crashed the tab. Plenty of other sites I frequent have ads, sometimes more than I’d care for, but they aren’t anywhere near as intrusive. I just can’t fathom why ads need to be constantly loading at random times, covering content, forcing quiz restarts, freezing tabs and all the way up to crashing a computer.
  7 points

• MagneticNorth (4 months ago)
  As much as I've enjoyed Sporcle since 2010, it really feels like the ads are now overtaking the content of Sporcle itself. Do I want to quit playing Sporcle? I do not, but it has been on my mind more and more frequently. Somewhere out there is a tipping point that will drive me stop daily visits or worse, just quit. Every few months it seems another ad type sneaks in. It covers up yet another part of the screen, blocks part of the quiz you are actively playing, makes you force-watch before you can close, takes over the entire screen, blah blah blah. I get that ads generate your revenue, but the ads are evolving to be more and more INTRUSIVE, and as @donstamos said, highly insulting. Should there be ads if people don’t want to pay? Yes, I get it. But using ads to punish into submission shouldn’t be the norm for those who choose, for whatever reason, not to pay.
  5 points

• MagneticNorth (2 months ago)
  And that tipping point I mentioned just got a little closer. Ads now trick you into clicking them because I scroll to the top of the page to click the Sporcle logo, and just like that, another ad suddenly pops up just as I click the logo, so I get taken to some random site.
  You are not helping yourself with these ads, Sporcle. Punishment into submission should NOT be the norm.
  3 points

• ExhaustedMama18 (2 months ago)
  The ones that cover gameplay and prevent me from seeing the actual quizzes are my favorite. Especially when they are double-layered so you have to close two of them to see the game. Of course those are on top of other ads too.
  2 points