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Site/Ad Performance Updates
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Messaggio di
Sas148
Over the past several months ZAM has been implementing various safeguards on Wowhead to prevent bad advertisements from having any substantial impact to our users. These safeguards are in place to reduce the instances of popups, redirects, and auto-playing videos with sound. As the ads on Wowhead are provided by 3rd-party advertising companies, the Wowhead staff does not choose which ads are served but we felt it important that we attempt to mitigate their impact. This isn't to suggest these ads have malware or viruses, but we'd like to reduce their entirely unwanted, nuisance behavior as they violate our
terms
.
Recently, one or more ads have created conflicts with our tech, which would result in thousands of errors and requests to occur in a short period of time, as well as heavy loading. It would start to hinder the page performance and potentially your entire browser. Needless to say, this was not intended behavior and after a lot of testing, we have taken steps to reduce the impact of this issue. Please let us know if you previously experienced lag on Wowhead but have noticed improvements since this posting.
We'd like to apologize to the community as a whole for the recent stability issues. Moving forward, we'll be working to gather more data and test various adjustments to hopefully improve the situation. We'll provide updates here, in the Feedback forum, as appropriate. If you have any specific and tangible negatively impactful experiences with the site, I encourage you to reach out via so we can work together one-on-one to try and figure out the underlying problem. It might be an ad, or an add-on/extension or some particular browser setting. There’s a lot of variables involved so we ask for the opportunity to troubleshoot with you.
We also try to reach out to the community outside of our site, as appropriate, on
Reddit
or the
Official WoW forums
. However, the best and fastest communication channels are by emailing , talking with us here or in our
Discord
server.
We'd like to thank all of you for your continued support. If you've been negatively impacted recently, reach out via , I'm happy to talk with any of you about it.
TL;DR
: We wanted to provide an update on a situation some users were experiencing where Wowhead was slow to load/function. We think we've found a interim solution, please let us know if things have improved or otherwise.
Edit:
(03/03/2017) - Updated: (04/05/17):
So since it's been some time since we made the first post, here's what we are currently working on:
Disabling Flash at the Ad-Network level, this requires our 3rd-party ad providers to do some work and it's taking a bit of time. But we are in discussions about it.
We have looked into, and continue to actively look into, alternate advertising providers. While some providers did not meet our requirements, we are continuing to pursue new leads - this is also a long process, as there are many factors, but we are evaluating.
Setting up various ad screening capabilities, as an additional 3rd party. We have narrowed this down to two potential companies and will reach out to one mid-March.
Implementing Amazon Affiliates in the next few weeks - we'd like to see if these promotional deals on the front page can generate a sizable amount of revenue, which can alleviate some of the need for more randomized ads.
Disabled ad refreshes after an hour. Ad refreshes are not bad ads or malware, but after enough refreshes on one page, you might have a higher likelihood of hitting an annoying ad. So we have stopped the refreshes so you don't get startled by ad noise in the middle of a marathon playsession. (Note: the maximum refresh may not work if you are blocking 3rd party cookies or using an incognito window. We have amended this statement on 3/12 after investigating messages that the refreshes were persisting.)
Staff members are continuing to use Wowhead without an adblocker and file reports to our ad providers. This isn't new, we just wanted to post a reminder because while we do ask users to help report bad ads, we are regularly filing reports. We have identified one annoying flash ad on March 2nd that we're actively trying to get removed now.
(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##Sas148##DELIM##
Messaggio di
Sas148
I wanted to take a moment to say that we're aware of a new flash based ad that is making its way around the site, it almost immediately slows the site down and we're working to have it removed. If you're noticing something similar please do click 'Report Ad' below it and then 'Feedback' and 'Bad Advertisement' to send in ad data for us to narrow it down. Thank you for your continued patience. I've attached a screenshot of the one I've been experiencing myself for reference.
Edit: This particular ad seems to have been removed from rotation. I'm leaving the post up for future reference.(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##Sas148##DELIM##
Messaggio di
Sas148
We deployed a technical code change that we believe may improve performance across the site. We'll be acquiring data now that this change is live to determine if that's true or not over the next few days. If you notice an improvement, or otherwise, feel free to reach out via with your observations. (Edit: from personal testing and analyzing feedback reports, this appears to have led to a performance increase, but we are still working on other improvements discussed in the thread.)
Thank you everyone.
Edit: Also have been noticing some auto-play video ads popping up today. One from Disneyland in particular, probably local to Southern California actually. Looking to have it fixed/removed.
Edit 2: Some confusion from my Edit above, apologies for that. Let me clarify: we're having some reports and personal experiences finding video ads with
automatically playing audio
. All video ads on Wowhead should be
muted
unless you hover over them or interact with them in some way. The video
may
play automatically, but they
shouldn't
be scaring the crap out of you with sound. This is an example of a bad ad which we're always trying to find and stop before more people experience them. Apologies to anyone who comes across this but appreciate any Bad Ad reports you can submit via feedback if you encounter any. Thank you!(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##perculia##DELIM##
Messaggio di
Sas148
We are aware of certain circumstances where the page
appears
to be constantly loading even though the page
has
fully loaded. This doesn't seem to be impacting browser performance negatively, in my experience, but it's annoying to see the favicon (rocket logo) constantly spinning seemingly for no reason. In my tests it seems to have to do with various ad trackers of some sort that are failing to properly load:
Example: /redir/client/VPixel.swf
I've omitted part of the URL since clicking it just downloads the .swf file to your computer. It's not harmful but I'd prefer to avoid that concern. We're looking into it to see if there's something we can do on our end. Please note, as I said, this doesn't appear to actually be impacting your experience on the site. It's seemingly just a perception issue right now. If we can figure out a way, while working with our ad networks, to fix or remove it we'll be looking to do so.
Have also received reports from Twitter iOS users who open a Wowhead link within their Twitter app that they're seeing redirects happening. Not sure why but this seems isolated to the Twitter app, loading the pages via another browser, like Chrome, seems to resolve the issue. Nonetheless we've made our ad team aware so they can figure out what might be causing an issue specifically on that app.
Thank you everyone!(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##Sas148##DELIM##
Messaggio di
Sas148
The below ad today was causing noticeable lag issues and has since been removed:
Even though it has been removed I still wanted to remind everyone that we are proactively watching the ones we can. We're also getting closer towards QA testing with various third party screening services to hopefully increase our reach to more areas, and therefore, more ads.
The site does seem to be noticeably improving for a great number of users who previously experienced issues. I appreciate everyone's continued patience, especially if you're still experiencing trouble. Thank you.
Edit: (03/31/17)
- Seems this ad may have returned. Squashed.
Edit: (04/11/17)
- This ad is a persistent one, we're seeing it again. Not sure if the ad has been fixed or not though so we'll be looking into that. Thank you!(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##Sas148##DELIM##
Messaggio di
Sas148
Update
:
We've removed StanzaCal from the footer of our website. If you wish to continue using this great tool you can do so here:
http://www.wowhead.com/calendar
. Our hope is this will further reduce the necessary browser resources we use to display the site on your computer.
A brief
announcement of this change was posted here
.
Thank you!(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##Sas148##DELIM##
Messaggio di
Sas148
Update:
We're aware of an increase in the number of disruptive video advertisements being served, some of which automatically play sound (which isn't permitted and I apologize for that). Our ad person is investigating the issue with the ad broker and associated ad networks to try and isolate and improve the issue.
These updates are meant to add transparency for our users so they know we're aware and working to improve these type of ads as they're discovered. I thank each of you for your continued patience and efforts in reporting these ads as you encounter them. Thank you!
Messaggio di
KodiackOfThrall
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/04/report-google-will-add-an-ad-blocker-to-all-versions-of-chrome-web-browser/
Looks like Google may start blocking all ads on websites that serve any bad ads. Probably a good time to get things sorted. ;)
Honestly, this is a good move by Google. Bad advertisements give the entire industry a bad reputation, and as a result, even Google's (generally) benign, non-intrusive model takes a hit. This move by Google would make for some solid PR, making people more open to letting good ads be displayed.
Google wants people to interact with their advertisements, but when pretty much everyone is installing heavy-handed ad blockers, they get minimal coverage. Browsers that block bad ads right out of the box will be the first step to repairing the advertising industry's muddied name.
Curious to see whether Wowhead will be showing ads to much of anyone at all if this change actually goes through. :P
Messaggio di
Sas148
If what they're allegedly doing results in what we describe as
bad ads
being blocked, we're all for it! I'm sorry if our disdain for bad ads hasn't been made clearer in this post but let me say it bluntly:
We hate bad advertisements.
However, this was not confirmed by Google... which described the sited articles as speculative.
I will point out though that like Google we do support the ideals of the Coalition for Better Ads. Our site does not deliberately expose users to any of the most disdained ad types mentioned: Pop-up Ads, Auto-playing Video ads with Sound, Prestitial Ads with Countdown or Large Sticky Ads. We do have sticky ads but they do not cover more than 30% of the browsing experience and they don't obstruct content (i.e. block the lower third (+) of the page). We do occasionally have ads that violate our standards, like sound ads, which we exert a great deal of effort to try and remove as soon we see it or are made aware of it.
Bottom line: try not to assume every ad you see, at least not on Wowhead, is deliberately sent to you by our staff. We do not control the extreme majority of ads on this site. We do what we can with the tools available and are looking, if not already working, on various tools to try and further combat the ad problems we're experiencing. We do not want anyone to have bad experiences on our site. We just want everyone to see good/acceptable ads while utilizing our free services or to take advantage of our Premium subscription to remove ads entirely if that's the browsing experience they prefer; blocking
all
ads is detrimental to a free service. We'll continue working to improve the experience every chance we get. Thank you!
Messaggio di
Sas148
Update:
As we've been saying for awhile now, we've been pursuing/testing various ad screening companies to add an additional layer to our attempts to reduce/prevent the frequency of disruptive/bad ads on Wowhead. That day has finally arrived. We now have a third party ad screening service monitoring our ads and generating reports about potentially disruptive ones so that we can remove them more quickly.
Further, these new kind of reports will go to a
new
staffer who's primary purpose will be reviewing and addressing these reports. This individual will also help our other ad team member with reports submitted via Feedback -> Bad Advertisement and the 'Report Ad' buttons.
We're hoping to see some tangible improvements with this added layer of QA screening in the very near future. Thank you all again for your patience with us while we work towards a more stable ad-friendly website.
Messaggio di
Sas148
Update:
Earlier this week we removed our own sandboxing rules on our ads because after testing we determined there was a modest performance increase from doing so. It's certainly not where we want it yet but an improvement is still worth the change. In addition we've been doing some A/B testing on Wowhead, as well as on our smaller sites, that are further attempting to find ways to reduce the impact the ads have on some browsers, especially Chrome.
Additionally we've reduced our emphasis on Deals of the Day in an announcement banner and will now be highlighting our Premium subscription and the ability to gift it to others. In our recent site survey it became apparent many users weren't aware the price was so low even though they may be willing to contribute at that level. This is our attempt to "spread the word" about one of the options available to support the site without the need for advertising.
Our Premium subscription
, which does not need to be recurring, is $1 or less per month and eliminates ads entirely from the site.
I'd like to strongly remind everyone though that we're still taking the ad situation very seriously and will continue to do so indefinitely. As much as you, and we, would love for it to be a simple fix it's an incredibly complicated process that will require extensive efforts on our end and, we hope, continued patience on yours. Thank you to everyone for continuing to bear with us. Any and all bad ad reports are appreciated should you encounter them. Please
see our Ad FAQ thread
for more details.
Messaggio di
perculia
I've added a new A/B section to the sticked Advertising FAQ, reposting it here for visibility:
A/B testing has been taking place on several ZAM sites over summer 2017 with the goal of site performance in mind (eg fewer crashes).
After several rounds of smaller tests including testing varying ad networks, in September 2017 we have made several larger changes. These changes were made after finding a setup that led to less regular crashes/RAM memory hogs, less chance of perpetually-loading pages, as well as more cosmetic benefits such as fewer reported blocked elements in Ad Blockers. Multiple staff members would keep pages open on different A and B setups, and regularly track changes (Activity Monitor, timing performance crashes with a stopwatch), as well as setting up site performance software that generated charts putting the various setups in perspective.
Currently one of our alternate networks, which displayed improved site performance, did not come with the "Report Ad" option at the bottom right of each ad. While reporting ads can still be done via Feedback > Bad Ad at the top right of the page, we realized our users find the option to report offending ads right by the ad convenient, so we tried to create our own "Report Ad" setup. The method of reporting the ad is slightly different because the current system is Wowhead-created, vs the old system which was created by the ad provider, but the end result is the same.
We are hesitant to say a permanent solution has been found, as A/B testing continues for the indefinite future and we hope further optimizations can be set up. We are also closely monitoring feedback, as we have many different browser setups among our users, and while staffers have noticed improved performance, we want to make sure people across all setups are experiencing this.
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