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A number of complaints are flowing into TTAG central about the ad at the bottom of the page. We know it’s annoying. We also know it’s a plenty profitable proposition. So . . . we’re going to add what should have been there in the first place: a little X to kill the ad. The question will then become: is that still too annoying for our readers? Or is it like the same deal inside YouTube—a fact of life as we know it? Your input would be much appreciated. For those of you dead set against any assault ads, rest assured that this is a test. This is only a test of a revenue generating procedure. If you could, please grin and bear it for a bit. We will see what’s what money and agro-wise and keep you in the loop. We now return you to your regularly scheduled gun blog. As always we thank you for your time, patience and patronage.

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117 COMMENTS

  1. I find the bottom ad incredibly obtrusive, and significantly detracts from my enjoyment of this blog. That’s why it pays, of course.

    • I agree and I spend a signifigantly less time on this site because of those bars, which still do not have a way of closeing them. It’s a disgusting abuse of loyal users who made this site a sucess
      Thankfully there are many other sites of equal quality to view

  2. The banner is not inherently intolerable. However, the way my browser (Safari/OSX) has begun jumping to the bottom of the page is. While correlation is not proof of causation, it is worth investigating.

  3. “Assault” ads? Better ban them. If it saves just one click….

    Seriously, it’s your site. Get your money on.

  5. It is your site to do as you wish, however if these ads continue, I along with many others will say adios to ya! Rather a sharp stick in the eye than these ads.

  6. The ad is annoying but if you can close it with the little x it’s a lot better.

    The thing I really really REALLY hate are ads that make noise automatically. There was a glock ad that did that a little while ago.

  7. I’ll treat it with the same consideration I give to similar ads on Townhall, Daily Caller, and Yahoo! If I can ‘x’ it out then great. If not I’m able to ignore it after years of practice.

  8. I’m fine with it so long as you can X it out. Anything that helps pay the bills is OK with me because I love this site.

  9. Too many people who make use of the Internet/World Wide Web feel that whatever they pay for their Internet access is more than enough and that all of the content they choose to consume should be free. Unfortunately for them, in order to provide quality content most web sites choose to pay their contributors, and that of course costs money. If the consumer is not willing to pay for that quality content, then those monies must come from somewhere else, usually either through sponsorships or advertising.

    Personally, I don’t care for pop-up/-under/-over ads, but I am more than willing to put up with and even support static ads on the web sites I frequent in order to pay for the content on those sites.

    If you are totally against ads of any type, then you have no room to whine and complain when your favorite sites either post substandard content or choose to go away completely due to lack of revenue.

    • No, there are plenty of ads on the side of the page and have been as long as I’ve come here – the only ones people have complained about are the ones that blow up and take over your entire screen. There is a difference between ads on the side that do not prevent you from viewing the content and ads that block the content you came to view.

  10. As a writer, I put a lot of effort into providing content – several hours a week. I hope the articles I and my colleagues provide are worth the annoyance.

    • It was annoying trying to find the “x” spot at first, after that…not so much. If it pays the bills, I can live with a little annoyance, which is small payment for the information and pleasure I get turning to these pages numerous times a day. The frequent updates are worth more than the annoyance costs me. Thanks guys.

    • Yes your efforts are worth the annoyance. The question is, when you put your heart and soul into the content, to what degree to you want your readers to be distracted from your hard efforts? You can rely on established reader who know the quality of the site to just ignore the ads but new visitors might be put off a little.

  11. I’m a capitalist, and fully support your desire to make some coin off this website. That said, this is still a sort of free country, so I’ll continue to use AdBlock to get rid of all the ads on this website and everywhere else. I don’t even see ads in youtube videos…. 🙂

  12. I don’t see a problem. It funds the site and does not interfere with the view since scrolling is not inhibited. Do I wish it was not needed, sure. It is however your choice since you run the show. I would rather have an ad that stays to the side rather than having ads woven into the body of the text area like some other sites.

  13. It annoying as all get out, but I get access to a site free of charge that is very informational. So if I have to be a little annoyed its the price of playing. After all some people may find other’s comments annoying and we find a way to deal with them. Additionally, not only are those that bring us the site entitled to offset the cost of presenting the site, if they can make a few bucks to assist them in their hobby and bring more reviews I am for it.

  15. I don’t really like the bottom ad that much. An idea maybe put ads in between the stories instead. We can scroll past them you get to have more ads and the ugly one at the bottom is gone.

    However this is your site do as you see fit. It will not stop me from visiting, what can I say I’m addicted!

  17. I read TTAG almost exclusively on my droid, in mobile mode. Today the page never finishes loading and my phone is heating up. Seems there’s some kind of problem/incompatibility. You’re site, you’re rules and I hope you’re making some money, because of the hard work you’re putting in, but I could do without assault ads. My 2¢

  18. I am NOT fine with it. It is an assault to my senses alright. Going commercial (more) is one thing, these totally affect the ability to “x” it out; many ads do not allow it. I click on the “x” and nothing happens OR they become a bigger ad. try the Royal Scotsman ad and you will see what I mean.

    • The X isn’t operational yet. Dan is dialing for dollars. I mean, chasing up the company to add the x or, if they can’t, kill it.

  19. The X is a good option, as long as the ad doesn’t muck up the code and slow scrolling down.

    ‘Course, I usually use mobile Safari, so I’m not seeing it right now.

    Edit: Looking at other comments, apparently there is some code-mucking up going on. Webmonkeys, I summon thee!

  21. It’s a pain, but it’s your business. If the visits drop off sharply, have to make a cost/benefit decision.

  22. Ads are a necessary evil. I will never begrudge anyone who is working to make a living. Lord knows enough people begrudge me; despite my one hundred-plus hour, no vacation work schedule. At the same time, this bottom ad is equivalent to Ricky Bobby putting the “Wonder Bread” ad across his windshield. It definitely diminishes the content and the brand…get rid of it….fast;)

    Love me some TTAG. Keep up the great work.

  23. It is fairly unobtrusive. However, should it make noise or play video without my prompting it to, it becomes a really big problem.

  24. Whine whine whine.

    Its great, i have the newegg banner so i can troll PC part deals while i troll the blog.

    And you might make some moola

    Win win.

  25. More ads are fine by me, but personally I’d prefer ads that are on the sides of the page. The bottom ad seems to be really distracting compared to the others you have posted. Also the content is not as gun friendly as the side panels. It’s up to you guys but I would axe it and add more user friendly ads on the sides of the page. A good example would be http://www.survivalblog.com

    • +1 for side ads

      Screens are wider than they are tall, and especially since the page scrolls bottom to top, the ad really narrows the view. There’s plenty of room on the sides. Even those slightly more annoying (revenue generating) ones that never scroll by, but move along with the page, would be preferable to the bottom ad.

      I don’t like the idea of ad-blockers. The quantity and quality of content from TTAG far exceeds that of any other site I’ve found, and I’ve stopped reading gun magazines because it’s all old news and hyped up reviews compared to TTAG. The comments usually add even more useful content and is not something anyone can get from any magazine. All this at no cost, so a few ads here and there is a small price to pay. That being said, if I can’t get used to the bottom ad, I might resort to using an ad-blocker.

  26. What pop up ad? Between my pop-up blocker and my ad blocker, I have yet to see it. And that’s the way, uh huh, uh huh, I like it.

  27. Its your site, do what you want with it. I personally find it very annoying and the X to close the ad isn’t showing up. I’ve never clicked on an ad from a web site and probably never will. I’ll just spend my time on a different gun blog if it annoys me…which it does, especially when i see O’s face down there.

  28. I gotta say the ad is pretty obtrusive. I visit this site 99% of the time on my tablet (ipad mini) and it takes up quite a bit of screen real estate. If there is no way to disable the ad I will probably just start visiting here once a day on my PC that is running an ad-blocker, instead of multiple times a day on my tablet.

  29. I cannot get to older articles from the home page. The ad does not show up properly on my work computer. It is just a blank white rectangle and there is no “x” to click on (I tried clicking where it would be, no go). When I scroll down as far as I can on the page it is not enough for the ad to not cover the links for older entries, so the ghost white rectangle is covering that link. Can you add some extra blank space to the bottom of the page so you can scroll down a little more to reveal that link from behind the ad?

  30. Robert, it costs money and time to run a website. Everyone needs to respect the fact that they are not paying you with their money to pay for the operating costs of enjoying TTAG. An X to close the ad is fine with me. I would also like the pop-up ad to be slightly smaller or lower in profile. BTW, while we are on the subject I really dislike any videos (news or advertising) that launch and play automatically.

  31. Make sure the X is easy hit on a touch screen. About 85% of my time spent reading is on an iPad or iPhone. There’s nothing worst than chasing those microscopic X’s with my big ole fingers. Most of the time I miss and get redirected to BFE. (first world problems)

  32. RF, you’re spending a lot of your own money on this site…

    Time to get some back!

    I can put up with this little bit of “annoyance”!

  34. I gotta say this ad is INCREDIBLY annoying. Like annoying enough for me to install AdBlock or whip up a greasemonkey filter to remove it. I browse the Web in a small-ish window (1024×768 secondary monitor used only for surfing) and it takes up a LOT of screen real estate.

    What I would not mind- have a ‘hide this ad’ button as well as a ‘hide this ad for good’ button. You can try a beg-out (this ad provides us with significant revenue which helps us run the site. are you sure?) but there should be a way to permanently get rid of it for those who find it obtrusive.

    I would also tolerate a ‘show me this ad once per day’ option, as long as the second page I read or reload the first page and it goes away.

    • When I click the x I’m still left with the box blocking the bottom of the screen and it will still go to the next ad when I go to the next topic.

  36. I can’t stand it. I immediately noticed it and found it obtrusive. I recognize that this website’s content is free to me and that ad revenue effectively you to provide that content, but I do not traffic websites who’s advertising is too “in your face.” I do not, however, mind the more subtle advertising that has always been shown in the sidebar of the page.

  38. I don’t mind the ad per se, but it would be nice if there was a page break or some kind of frame between it and the text we are reading. It also made the pages render strangely on my iPad.

  41. It screws up my mobile browsers and I get this black box that jumps around and never actually see the add. When I am on a PC I have no issue. I ignore those ads anyway so they don’t bother me.

  42. The bottom ad slot is profitable in part because so many people click on it accidentally. That said, I had to turn off my adblocker to see any of them, and wow, the ads have about doubled since the last time I looked. One thing that’s sorta funny is the first few times I refreshed the page after turning my blocker off, two or more of the ads were identical. First I had two Chili’s ads, on the next refresh I had two “37 things you must hoard now” and two identical AT&T ads on the same page.

    If I didn’t have my adblocker and I was a regular visitor, I have to say that I’d be kinda irritated that the “Recent Comments” block is so far down the page. It’s below four ads and the “so-and-so reads TTAG” block. But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, and I have AdMuncher.

  46. Oh, and FYI, I’m seeing two ads. One is locked to the bottom of the screen, and one is tied to the bottom of the page itself and scrolls with the page. So right now (scrolled all the way to the bottom) I’m seeing a full-sized TransUnion ad (screen locked) overlaid about 90% on top of a State Farm ad that I can only see the top 1/4″ of. I only know it’s State Farm because it has a tiny SF symbol in that top 1/4″.

  47. Ads on the side are ok – I even sometimes click on them. Does the one on the bottom pay that much more? It’s pretty annoying. And no ‘x’ as of yet.
    For the record, I’m all for you guys making a little coin in return for doing a great job.

  48. First obama is going to take my gun & now he’s selling car insurance,lol. If you can make some money have at it, Robert, Randy

  49. I hate it. I turn my speakers off because of the autoplay ads in your side bar, why cant this go over there to be ignored. Eventually I’ll stop reading anyting other than the first post because the ad doesnt pop up until I scroll.

  50. Ads in the right margin — no problem. They don’t interfer with reading posts, and I can click on them if they interest me.
    Adding the X is a good move. A better move would be to eliminate your new addition.

  52. I’m actually fine with it, it’s out of the way enough for me. Though the one thing I can’t tolerate, are ads that make noise, especially when they start playing after some delay and I have to hunt down which tab contains the offending material. I will never ever patronize a company from one of those ads, and I also avoid webpages that play those ads.

    • ABC news is really, really bad about the auto-play videos with sound. They’re not the main video for the story, they’re always either in the right column or embedded in the text, and they’re always at least one full screen scroll below the top of the page. So it opens, you start reading, and 5 seconds later someone starts talking at you out of nowhere.

  54. I run Firefox with adblock, so I don’t see hardly any ads anywhere. I have done this because of obtrusive ads, which I would say this would fall into that category. I don’t mind ads on the side or on the top, but I don’t like ads getting in the way of reading articles.

  55. I support these annoying ads, anything that pays your bills and keeps you in the black is OK by me, so long as they don’t make noise without interaction.

    An X would be great, but I know you guys need the revenue.

  56. The ad sucks. Why not just have adds follow you down on the sides? or just more side ads?

    Anyways, ads that block reading material suck, and it’s making TTAG feel sucky and cheap.

  57. ads pay the bills.
    i don’t like them, i’d like to be able to make them go away, but i can’t.
    oh well.
    actually, that “captcha” thing is way more annoying.

    • Unless you are in the habit of regularly deleting the cookies from your browser, you should only see the CAPTCHA once per computer.

      On that note, I learned on my phone that I had to leave one comment on the Desktop (normal) version of the site and do the CAPTCHA before it would let my Mobile version comments go through.

  58. The ad implementation is clunky in my chrome browser. I don’t mind it as I have google ads tailored to what I like. I’ve actually found some neat stuff from them. An x would be nice so I can read the entire screen.

  59. I am okay with the ads. A website like this not only costs money to produce, but also the hard earned time of all the columnists. TTAG is a free website, and I get most of my firearms news and info from it.

  61. I didn’t even notice the ads until you mentioned them, RF. They are not obtrusive on my computer, although I have no idea about how they display on portable devices. Interesting that the little princesses who are complaining about them bring nothing to TTAG and never will.

  62. Please get the X up there so we can close out of them. I don’t mind them being there as long as we can CHOOSE to get rid of them. I don’t like things bing forced down my throat. Much like Obummer is trying to cram gun control down Americas throat.

  63. i see plenty of room right here ———————->

    for ads. the more comments, the more the ads.

  64. There are ads at the bottom of the page?

    There are a host of extensions / plugins for Firefox and Chrome that do an effective job of disabling or blockin ads – Adblock and Adblock Plus being the most popular.

  65. I always thought ar15.com had a pretty smart scheme going with subscriptions combined with ads… errr “industry partners”.

    Gun owners are pretty good about supporting entities they like. Maybe an email address and an ad-free experience for $20/year? Give em a gold star next to their name or something. Members are also eligible for exclusive TTAG giveaways or whatever other perks you can come up with. I think you’d get a ton of support. Paying members would be happy to support the site and it takes nothing away from the browsing experience.

  67. Mine has changed since yesterday. Yesterday it blocked the bottom portion of the screen, rather than being at the bottom of the page. VERY NG. Today there is an ad at the bottom of the page that is no more intrusive than the ones on the side. If it stays there, that is fine with me.

  68. I would agree that if the ads would appear in the righthand column, no problem whatsoever. After being called a princess, however, maybe there are better places to stick em.

    look, some of us are stuck viewing the site the ugly microsoft way tahnks to our jobs. That means we get to enjoy the popups unlike Firefox viewers. As I said, nothing wrong with them in the right side , just really messes up the quality of the site when they pull a YouTube on us.

    As I first tated, it is your site to do as you damn well please. I would much rather be a subscriber than to hassle with these. but hey, what would a princess know?

  70. I dislike the AD but would also be willing to pay for an AD free experience but I think I’m a minority

  71. It’s semi-annoying. I guess it depends on how much $$$$ it’s making y’all. If you’re making a mint, go for it.

  72. If you are running OSX and using Safari I recommend installing the extension AdBlock. This is by far the best ad blocker I have ever used Windows or Mac. It’s not intrusive and it will not block pictures and other stuff you want to see. I never knew there was an ad at the bottom of the page until I saw this post.

  73. I don’t mind at all, provided that the “Close” or “X” is easy to click and in the RIGHT, TOP CORNER (i.e. I don’t have to search around the ad for it).

    Those who complain about ads on FREE media are victims of our public education system over the past few decades that fails to teach basic economics.

    THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH. If you don’t want ads, be prepared to pay for a subscription. If you don’t want to pay for a subscription, shut up and deal with ads.

  74. I’m fine with supporting TTAG by submitting to ads. The real problem I have with them is they sit in the middle of my smart phones screen. That is too intrusive. Closing them on a phone screen is hard enough but it frequently misreads my tap and loads another ads website. Most of the views I generate are from my phone so this is a significant problem for me. The device I use is a Samsung Galaxy SII.

  75. I don’t mind it to badly. I was thinking maybe it would be good to have vertical ads on the side. Less intrusive.
    Now if it is something like double click they should also be able to do cookie searches to bring up relevant ads like on facebook.. I hate all those Viagra ads though 😉

  76. I’m good with you funding your work. Way too many think everything on-line should be free. I’d urge them to create a web site, keep it updated even weekly, deal with the spammers, and then decide if free works.

  78. You’ve got to do what you think is best for your business. That said, I think it feels cheap. I wouldnt mind it once or twice a day, but by about the fourth time it gets annoying. I hate to say it, but I don’t think I’ll use this site if it annoys me.

  79. This is absolutely your site and you can do what you choose to with it. If the ad revenue is what you want, by all means get it. I understand why you have them and respect the choice. Little banishment X or no, I find that the ads significantly reduce my enjoyment of this site. I will spend less time here because of them.

  80. can you guys set up a nominal payment plan, where if we pay, say 5 bucks a month you turn off the ads when we are logged in? I’m sorry if someone already suggested this, it’s been a long day and I haven’t read all the above comments yet

  81. As counter-intuitive as this may seem, it might seem a little less intrusive if there was a solid line between the ad-bar and the main content and if the empty space on the sides wasn’t the same background color as the main content page. Right now it appears to “pop over” the main content, which is distracting.

  83. I don’t mind ads. It’s a good way to pay for stuff that looks free to me, but this is annoying as hell. find a better way. Please and thank you

  85. I am not a fan of it.

    I am also not a fan of the ads that pop up and fill my screen simply because I moved my mouse over them.

  86. I don’t mind it, especially now it has the little x button. If you could, however, add just small buffer separating the top of the ad from the middle section of the page that would help my eyes drastically. It looks like the page gets scrolled into or away from the ad. Very annoying and just creating a little separation would do the trick.

  87. First I was like WTF is this thing on the bottom of the page that doesn’t stop moving.
    Then I was like Hey these guys do a great work day after day with awesome articles, I’ll start clicking on these ads to reward them for their work.

  88. Don’t like the bottom-of-page ad, and will stop coming here if it stays.

    I’m running AdBlockPlus, and I’m still seeing it, with no option tab to block it.

    I also see you have recently enabled automatic page reloading; I’m not a fan of that, either. Few things worse than being in the middle of reading an article and the page disappears and reloads, interrupting the flow of the article and my related thoughts. At least FireFox gives me the option to disable the auto-page-reload.

  89. Meh.

    I’m so used to adds at the edges of the screen that I didn’t even notice it until I read this post.

    Either way; “Seriously, it’s your site. Get your money on.” – Chris. This.

  90. I opened TTAG this morning on my new tablet computer and immediately started chasing this goddam ad. After some frustration, I put away the tablet and got on the home Mac so I could comment.

    Simple answer: years ago, I decided life is too short to spend a single moment of it on a website with annoying ads.

  92. I’m amused at all these names I’ve never seen before saying “Get rid of it or I’ll never come back.”

    My response is twofold: First, with as much time as I spend here, and if I don’t recognize your name, clearly you contribute a lot to the conversation. Second, I estimate about 75% of the “never return” people are 100% full of shit. This site puts out quality stuff, and loads of it, and that’s why, even though you threaten the “nuclear option” of never returning, most of you will be back, and probably were within two hours of making your threat.

  93. would rather there be no ads whatsoever, but I understand bills have to be paid. Just as long as it isn’t annoying like those John Deere ads that as soon as you moused over it, it decided it was time to take over the screen and interfere with what I was trying to read.

  94. I can live with killing the ad on the first page, but really hate having to do it every time I click around to other TTAG pages. Can you fix it so we only have to kill it once?

  95. Annoying, and distracting.

    AND,

    Somehow, the pop-up advertisement is reading my browsing history, as the ads are almost always for items I have recently viewed, far, far away from TTAG.

    I do not like my browsing history being tracked by TTAG or TTAG advertising.

    I do not like them one bit!

  98. OK, I found the little -> in the top right of the ad box, went through all the hoops to opt out, rebooted my machine, and the damn ads are still using my browsing history and really annoying the hell out of me now.

    I will be far less likely to open TTAG in my browser now….

    The POP-Up ads must go: PLEASE post when they are gone so I can start reading TTAG regularly again.

  100. Hunted this post down to comment and say that the ad down there is about ten fold more annoying than any of the other banner ads on the website.

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