Site Update On An Auto-Playing Ads Issue

Published: January 26, 2016 3:00 PM /

By:


trethics 1

Hello TechRaptor Readers, I just have a quick update in regards to the ads on our site.

To start off, we'd like to apologize to anyone who had any auto-playing ads (edit: video + sound ads) on our site—for any annoyance or issues this may have caused. We don't allow overly annoying/NSFW video ads, or any ads that automatically play sound, because it interrupts the reading experience. We tell our ad vendors that, both via e-mail and in the settings, and expect that to be followed.

Sadly, one of our ad networks seem to have enabled them without our permission (this isn't the first time), causing some users to experience auto-play video ads with sound. We work to ensure that our ads are non-intrusive, and repeated infractions of our explicit requests/settings aren't tolerated.

Because of this they are being dropped as an ad server for TechRaptor, immediately. That advertising slot has been removed from the website, and we'll be assessing if another will replace it.

I hope that if you turned on AdBlock, you'll be willing to whitelist us again. We make a conscious effort to ensure that all of the ad slots on TechRaptor are carefully chosen and monitored for any issues, so that people can feel comfortable knowing they can whitelist us without having to worry about ads bothering them or infecting their machines.

Thank you for being a loyal TechRaptor reader and a member of our Pack! We truly value each of our readers and want to make their experience on our website one that they'll enjoy each and every time.

Stay tuned here for more excited news in the near future—we have a lot of great things in the works that we can't wait to share with you. Between increasing the number of articles we post, and adding new features to the site, we hope you'll visit often!


Update: A reader reported seeing some silent video ads running, and I wanted to share the comment I responded with:

That would be AdSense serving those ads, and we don't block video ads on AdSense completely, just ones that force either auto-play with sound, or pull your cursor over to them. So long as they don't do anything other than act as an "Animated ad" - we don't see much issue with them being there, since we allow animated ads to run too.

We could, in theory, block all ads that ran video - but animated ads would still run in their place. Animated ads are basically silenced video ads anyway, and should be no more or less annoying than the animated ones - while still generating better ad revenue for the site. Cutting video off completely really hurts our revenue stream, especially when we're already blocking enough categories that, based on AdSense's projections, keep us from making about 50% more than we could be.


Rutledge Daugette, Founder & CEO

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Rutledge Daugette
| CEO and Founder

Rutledge Daugette is the Guides Editor & Founder of TechRaptor. Rutledge's degree in Game Programming ultimately led him to found the site in 2013, with… More about Rutledge