Hey folks, it’s been a while since we have let our readers know what’s been going on with the site, and to reveal some of our plans for the future. Now, we’re going to do just that.
First off, let’s start with the obvious, we’ve been working with a new advertising company these last few weeks to optimize placements of our ads, we’ve been steadily changing the layout and type of ads that we serve, while also keeping user experience, security and privacy paramount. The tests on new ad placements and types are still ongoing, and it’s not certain if we will stick with the new ad setup once the tests are completed, but we will be sure to let you know if anything changes.
Speaking of changes, we’ve had a few people express interest in writing content for us, which is great, and we’ve love to have more contributors. Go check out our “Writers Wanted” page for more details on how you can make money writing about games and technology here at ISKMogul.
Now to talk about some bad news, or maybe good news depending on your perspective. Some of you may have been aware of this, but Disqus made a major policy change this week. This new system forced anyone who wasn’t paying that company money to use their comments system as an administrator to display more obtrusive ads at the top of the comments. Previously, ISKMogul attempted to limit the amount of obtrusion by only allowing basic ads below the comments. The plan had been going into this change to simply allow Disqus to continue displaying those basic ads at the top of the comments.
However, Disqus had other plans. The backend has now locked me out from automatically selecting ad types and forced me to display ads above the comments. And a simple test revealed really obnoxious ads, like video ads, in a place I can’t stand. Not only is it irritating and slowing down load times, but it also clutters the post-content section of a post. I cannot in good conscious continue to use Disqus because of this change.
And if the company think this will convince me to pay them $10 a month for the service, they’re wrong.
So in short, I’ve disabled Disqus on the site and don’t plan to bring it back. I’m searching for an alternative, as it sucks to lose the comment moderation and control functions that Disqus allowed, but the hit in usability isn’t worth what Disqus is forcing on users.
So to my users, sorry if you enjoyed using Disqus, if you have suggestions for a new solution, please let me know. To Disqus, so long, not sorry to see you go if this is the direction you’re taking.
