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Post by skalpadda on Sept 17, 2021 11:59:02 GMT
How has the supporter program been? It was something I debated doing, but felt like it came a bit late in the day for me.
It's been going since... 2010 or something? I think they've just always been terrible at telling people it exists. You get rid of ads and there are some short articles that don't go out on the main site, a short additional podcast, and there's a "Letter from the editor" now with some updates about the site. Honestly probably not worth it if you view it purely as purchasing more content, and should be treated more as a way to support the site and avoiding ads with a clean concience. There are some things I don't like about it though. It used to be that all supporter articles went out to the main site after a while (this was asked and voted for by the original supporters way back), but that is apparently not the case anymore. They also jacked up the price massively this year which makes me hesitant to sign on again when my current sub runs out. |
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Post by dfunked on Sept 17, 2021 11:59:23 GMT
I use Diversion on my router and uBlock Origin in my browsers. Bollocks to turning either of them off for anything!
Most websites look a bit crap with massive borders either side, but it's a small price to pay...
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Post by dfunked on Sept 17, 2021 12:00:26 GMT
and there's a "Letter from the editor" now with some updates about the site Bet they didn't mention closing the forum... |
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Post by britesparc on Sept 17, 2021 12:07:20 GMT
The state of that page just makes me worry about the future of journalism, really, because it feels like nobody is making any money anywhere if your pages are that heavily commercialised. It's awful to look at.
Bit like EG resorting to auto-play videos. I don't like that at all, but at least they were honest about where their money's coming from. A site like that, though, I'd be willing to pay for, as I go on EG most days (used to be every day but something happened this month that's stopped me popping by as often, can't think what it was...)
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Post by skalpadda on Sept 17, 2021 12:09:21 GMT
and there's a "Letter from the editor" now with some updates about the site Bet they didn't mention closing the forum... Nope, honestly the thing that hurt most about that was getting a similar post that the EG forum got out of the blue with no interaction from anyone on the site. Being told by someone you've never seen before that you're a bunch of dinosaurs and should get on Discord and Twitch with the cool kids isn't a great feeling. Ex-editor-in-chief Graham popped in to basically veryfy that Craigy was attached to the site via Reedpop and said he'd answer questions but then hasn't turned up to reply in over two weeks. |
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Sept 17, 2021 12:25:39 GMT
Im no forensic accountant but I suspect there is probably some level of correlation between people saying 'I refuse to turn off adblock' and the fact that we are posting that here rather than on EG/RPS's now defunct forums.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Sept 17, 2021 12:42:30 GMT
I leave ads on. And if a place I like has reasonable subscription options, that's even better.
I don't really like ads. But people are doing a job, and it's harder for them to get paid for it if the platform they're on isn't making any money.
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Solid-SCB-
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Cyberpunk 2077 #1 Fan
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Post by Solid-SCB- on Sept 17, 2021 12:56:36 GMT
Yeah I've never really felt a need to block them. But then again I actively avoid places like the one in the OP, so it's hard to say if I'd say fuck it and chuck one on if there was anything worth seeing on the sites that are the worst affected.
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minimatt
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hyper mediocrity
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Post by minimatt on Sept 17, 2021 13:32:34 GMT
state of that  like skalpadda i've been on their supporter program (in addition to ublock origin & privacy badger, belt & braces) for a while and hadn't seen how bad it's got I'll defend their supporter program as the home of some really good writing, and the sort of stuff which should really be on their front page. I won't be renewing since their forumcide, mind ps. rockpapershotgun/latest gets you close to the old blog format |
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Vandelay
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Post by Vandelay on Sept 17, 2021 13:41:26 GMT
How has the supporter program been? It was something I debated doing, but felt like it came a bit late in the day for me.
It's been going since... 2010 or something? I think they've just always been terrible at telling people it exists. You get rid of ads and there are some short articles that don't go out on the main site, a short additional podcast, and there's a "Letter from the editor" now with some updates about the site. Honestly probably not worth it if you view it purely as purchasing more content, and should be treated more as a way to support the site and avoiding ads with a clean concience. There are some things I don't like about it though. It used to be that all supporter articles went out to the main site after a while (this was asked and voted for by the original supporters way back), but that is apparently not the case anymore. They also jacked up the price massively this year which makes me hesitant to sign on again when my current sub runs out. One extra benefit is that you get a TF2 Horace hat, which you can normally get about £10+ for from the Steam market. You can basically knock that off the price of the sub. There are also a couple of free games, although chance are you would have already got those from bundle somewhere or aren't something you would particularly want. I'm subbed at the moment, but that's only because I came second in our Annual Advent Calendar Guessing game and that was the prize. I don't think it is especially worth the £60 a year (I'm sure I remember the Horace hat almost covering the cost before the price increase). Edit: and minimatt is right about the Latest page. It is identical to the old style and it is the one I stick with. Much easier to see what is actually a new post. |
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Post by spacein_vader on Sept 17, 2021 13:45:23 GMT
I can recommend a Pi hole, which uses a raspberry pi as your DNS server to block ads at the network level, so your smart TVs, consoles etc don't get them either.
It also doesn't tend to get spotted as an ad blocker due to how it works.
As a massive nerd I also put some. VPN software on the Pi and when I'm out and about my phone connects to the Internet via that VPN so I don't get ads that way either.
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gray
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Post by gray on Sept 17, 2021 14:07:31 GMT
The downside to Pihole is most routers don't allow you to configure your DNS (this is fine if you just configure it on every device manually) and a lot of ads now are served from the same domain as the content. I've had one plugged in for years and noticed its slow decline.
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Post by spacein_vader on Sept 17, 2021 14:20:32 GMT
The downside to Pihole is most routers don't allow you to configure your DNS (this is fine if you just configure it on every device manually) and a lot of ads now are served from the same domain as the content. I've had one plugged in for years and noticed its slow decline. Don't they? Granted my router is a few years old but has DNS functionality really been removed/restricted on newer models? I'll grant you the same domain stuff, YouTube in particular does that but I've found it deals with 90% of the most obnoxious stuff. |
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robthehermit
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Post by robthehermit on Sept 17, 2021 14:41:07 GMT
Im no forensic accountant but I suspect there is probably some level of correlation between people saying 'I refuse to turn off adblock' and the fact that we are posting that here rather than on EG/RPS's now defunct forums. Not if Craigy is to be believed, us forumites were so few in number that we didn't even register as traffic on the site as opposed to the billions of views every press release they get hold of 24 hours after every other site on the internet has published it gets. |
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Post by oldschoolsavant on Sept 17, 2021 14:43:56 GMT
I can recommend a Pi hole... Pee hole or Pie hole ? Asking the important questions. Dumped Chrome, YT etc about 2 years back for Opera, Newpipe and others on work phone/personal tablet. Haven't seen an ad since, bar the most annoying 6sec ones on the PS4 app, and the odd pop-up on download sites. |
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zagibu
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Post by zagibu on Sept 17, 2021 15:01:00 GMT
I use ad blockers all the time, but if the site is worthwhile, i'll unblock it.
But on the first sight of an animated ad or even worse, and ad with sound, i'll reblock it.
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Post by Warrender on Sept 17, 2021 16:15:12 GMT
Pausing my adblocker on the RPS site still triggers the adblocker warning so I have had to do what I've done with the sites that do this - remove RPS from my Feedly list. While I obviously would rather continue visiting the site to read articles of interest, I am not going to uninstall my adblocker to do so. A shame, really, but it is what it is.
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Post by 😎 on Sept 17, 2021 17:57:13 GMT
Ever since they lost most of the good staff you can probably drop the “advertising” from the thread title if I’m being honest.
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Sept 17, 2021 18:24:32 GMT
Im no forensic accountant but I suspect there is probably some level of correlation between people saying 'I refuse to turn off adblock' and the fact that we are posting that here rather than on EG/RPS's now defunct forums. Not if Craigy is to be believed, us forumites were so few in number that we didn't even register as traffic on the site as opposed to the billions of views every press release they get hold of 24 hours after every other site on the internet has published it gets. Zing. Quite. |
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Sept 17, 2021 18:28:34 GMT
Ever since they lost most of the good staff you can probably drop the “advertising” from the thread title if I’m being honest. Bit harsh - some of the newer crop are good and some of the olds still crop up. The RPS founders were PC Gamer veterans when they started so had a huge headstart coupled with a shared vision. It's become diluted through the years though, I agree, and Roger Reedpop is obviously gradually stripping away any remaining defining character. It feels a bit like an imitation of the old RPS. |
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Post by spacein_vader on Sept 17, 2021 18:36:31 GMT
Ever since they lost most of the good staff you can probably drop the “advertising” from the thread title if I’m being honest. Bit harsh - some of the newer crop are good and some of the olds still crop up. The RPS founders were PC Gamer veterans when they started so had a huge headstart coupled with a shared vision. It's become diluted through the years though, I agree, and Roger Reedpop is obviously gradually stripping away any remaining defining character. It feels a bit like an imitation of the old RPS. This. Its not obnoxious but I worry they'll lose all the remaining flavour in a year or two. That said they seem to realise the error they made getting rid of Sin so hopefully they'll start to try to keep those more RPS voices in future. |
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Graxlar
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Post by Graxlar on Sept 17, 2021 18:37:57 GMT
Ever since they lost most of the good staff you can probably drop the “advertising” from the thread title if I’m being honest. Can’t be anyone as bad as our Edwin |
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Cappy
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Post by Cappy on Sept 18, 2021 12:36:33 GMT
Never forget, the websites struck the first blow.
I would never have needed to install ad-blocking plugins if they hadn't started causing me problems that I then had to seek a solution for. In a reasonable World I could have lived with the level of advertising intrusion up to about 2005 levels, but they just wouldn't be reasonable. Runtime and RAM stealing flash ads, banners popping over content, auto playing and other attention grabbing shitheelery.
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gray
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Post by gray on Sept 18, 2021 12:51:46 GMT
Aye people often forget the internet was built by hobbyists for hobbyists. Ads/banners/popups have _always_ been a thing, but when it was paying to keep the fansite lights on, you really didn't mind.
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Post by grizzly on Sept 18, 2021 12:58:53 GMT
Bit harsh - some of the newer crop are good and some of the olds still crop up. The RPS founders were PC Gamer veterans when they started so had a huge headstart coupled with a shared vision. It's become diluted through the years though, I agree, and Roger Reedpop is obviously gradually stripping away any remaining defining character. It feels a bit like an imitation of the old RPS. This. Its not obnoxious but I worry they'll lose all the remaining flavour in a year or two. That said they seem to realise the error they made getting rid of Sin so hopefully they'll start to try to keep those more RPS voices in future. Admittedly I also think part of the problem is that we have a tendency to cling to certain authors and then pine when they are suddenly leaving, but the process of acquiring new favourite authors takes a long while. Nate Crowley (who still writes for RPS whilst not actually working there anymore???) took me a bit of time to actually start reading consistently and once I picked up on his articles being consistently hilarious I wondered why I hadn't read them before. The complaint that RPS is losing its style is as old as the site itself, and part of me wonders if that is in no small part becuase new authors just need time to find their voice, and then people associate that voice with RPS's style, and then pine that it's going away when that author goes away becuase a newer batch of writers hasn't found their own voice yet.
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Post by skalpadda on Sept 18, 2021 13:32:45 GMT
grizzly: Remember the Pea Soup Debacle? I think Cara is one of the most fondly remembered writers these days, but back then it was apparently some sort of horrendous betrayal that she'd turn up and write stuff that wasn't Serious Games Journalism (as if that was ever what RPS was about).
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Post by spacein_vader on Sept 18, 2021 14:22:57 GMT
This. Its not obnoxious but I worry they'll lose all the remaining flavour in a year or two. That said they seem to realise the error they made getting rid of Sin so hopefully they'll start to try to keep those more RPS voices in future. Admittedly I also think part of the problem is that we have a tendency to cling to certain authors and then pine when they are suddenly leaving, but the process of acquiring new favourite authors takes a long while. Nate Crowley (who still writes for RPS whilst not actually working there anymore???) took me a bit of time to actually start reading consistently and once I picked up on his articles being consistently hilarious I wondered why I hadn't read them before. The complaint that RPS is losing its style is as old as the site itself, and part of me wonders if that is in no small part becuase new authors just need time to find their voice, and then people associate that voice with RPS's style, and then pine that it's going away when that author goes away becuase a newer batch of writers hasn't found their own voice yet.
I agree to some degree, but there are a few who never seem to find that voice and seem either generic or copy/pasting content. For example Alice O's news items have a bit of flavour to them, Imogens are just a bit voiceless. Equally an Olly guide tends to have more character in it that a Rebecca one (though I think she's new?) |
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Post by grizzly on Sept 18, 2021 14:36:20 GMT
grizzly : Remember the Pea Soup Debacle? I think Cara is one of the most fondly remembered writers these days, but back then it was apparently some sort of horrendous betrayal that she'd turn up and write stuff that wasn't Serious Games Journalism (as if that was ever what RPS was about).
Note the first comment too
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LTK
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Post by LTK on Sept 18, 2021 15:02:46 GMT
How has the supporter program been? It was something I debated doing, but felt like it came a bit late in the day for me. I haven't been a supporter for a long time, but I recently had the displeasure to notice that articles on games I hadn't heard about before were gated as supporter posts. Examples one, two, three. Well, 'RPS Premium subscription' instead of supporter posts, which is something different, maybe? I dunno. But with a title like "You should all play the Strange Horticulture demo and wishlist it immediately," it seems... counterproductive to only allow subscribers to read that. Don't you want to, you know, give underappreciated games publicity as a games journalist? I absolutely understand making posts like this exclusive to supporters, but come on, if you want to tell me about a game, let me read about it! |
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Post by skalpadda on Sept 18, 2021 15:55:50 GMT
How has the supporter program been? It was something I debated doing, but felt like it came a bit late in the day for me. I haven't been a supporter for a long time, but I recently had the displeasure to notice that articles on games I hadn't heard about before were gated as supporter posts. Examples one, two, three. Well, 'RPS Premium subscription' instead of supporter posts, which is something different, maybe? I dunno. But with a title like "You should all play the Strange Horticulture demo and wishlist it immediately," it seems... counterproductive to only allow subscribers to read that. Don't you want to, you know, give underappreciated games publicity as a games journalist? I absolutely understand making posts like this exclusive to supporters, but come on, if you want to tell me about a game, let me read about it! Yeah this is why I'm a bit annoyed they're not being released to the wild after a while anymore. Doesn't matter so much for stuff like the newsletter and the extra podcast as those are good subscriber-only perks, but things like columns and articles about indie games really deserve to be read by the wider audience, both because they are good trad RPS things and because I feel like the writers deserve to be read. I've never seen any subscriber voice that they want exclusive stuff forever (quite the contrary) and they're terrible at actually telling people the supporter program exists, so I really don't see the point of locking it away. |
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