# WotC Ads



## Yair (Jul 16, 2007)

Couldn't help but notice the WotC ads for their miniatures in this site (guess they're doing their job then - well, at least drawing attention to themselves, which is a start). I'm wondering if this is a new development - did WotC had commercials over at ENWorld previously? If not, is this part of their efforts to increase their online presence? I hardly think they really need to raise people's awareness of their miniatures line around here; is this an attempt to build up good will? To help ENWorld?


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## Aus_Snow (Jul 16, 2007)

Seriously, what ads? 

me : user of firefox w/ full complement of add-ons.


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## Morrus (Jul 16, 2007)

I'll move this to Meta.

Yeah, WotC ads are a new development.  People claiming publically that they aren't needed is probably... unhelpful to the long term financial stability of this site! 

For myself, I'd like to make it clear that I had no idea who this "WotC" company was, did not know they produced "miniatures", and am very grateful for the ad which recently informed me of such.


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## Plane Sailing (Jul 16, 2007)

Huzzah for advertisers! Sterling folk, all of them!



			
				Yair said:
			
		

> did WotC had commercials over at ENWorld previously?




Yep! Do you remember the dragon-themed banners from last year (or was it the year before?)

Cheers


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## Yair (Jul 16, 2007)

Morrus said:
			
		

> For myself, I'd like to make it clear that I had no idea who this "WotC" company was, did not know they produced "miniatures", and am very grateful for the ad which recently informed me of such.



Uhm yes, of course. Me Too 

Plane Sailing: No, I don't remember, but there are very honorable and worthy things on the list of things I don't remember. It's rather long.


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## Scott_Rouse (Jul 16, 2007)

Get used to them, they are not going away   

On this site these are more like reminders that ads since everyone on here can probably recite the D&D product release schedule through the next 12 months.

Besides product ads, there will be some event based ads in the future to drive attendance to WWDDGD and D&D Experience.


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## Thornir Alekeg (Jul 16, 2007)

Scott_Rouse said:
			
		

> Get used to them, they are not going away



 Fine by me as long as they don't keep messing up the formatting of the page.



> On this site these are more like reminders that ads since everyone on here can probably recite the D&D product release schedule through the next 12 months.



 Not me.  Until a product starts generating a significant amount of buzz on these boards, I'm usually oblivious.



> Besides product ads, there will be some event based ads in the future to drive attendance to WWDDGD and D&D Experience.



 [Oliver Stone] It looks like a conspiracy by WotC to take over EN World, covertly making it part of their DI most likely in a subversive effort to squash any negative comments about WotC and its products. [/Oliver Stone]


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## JoeBlank (Jul 16, 2007)

Morrus said:
			
		

> For myself, I'd like to make it clear that I had no idea who this "WotC" company was, did not know they produced "miniatures", and am very grateful for the ad which recently informed me of such.




I order another box of minis every time I see that ad. Just doing my part.


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## Olaf the Stout (Jul 17, 2007)

I'd never even heard of D&D before these ads started showing up.  I had always wondered what people were talking about on the messageboards but was too embarrassed to ask.

Olaf the Stout


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## Desdichado (Jul 17, 2007)

I couldn't help but notice that the WotC are really wide and make me need to side scroll.  That really, really blows, by the way.


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## Mark CMG (Jul 17, 2007)

Does the EN World header logo need to be 300 wide?  If you could knock 50 or 100 pixels off of that, the problem would be solved for my screen resolution.


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## Bront (Jul 17, 2007)

Mark CMG said:
			
		

> Does the EN World header logo need to be 300 wide?  If you could knock 50 or 100 pixels off of that, the problem would be solved for my screen resolution.



It's flash, so it can form to window size... sometimes.

It's not set right in some sections, like the forum browser.


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## Mark CMG (Jul 18, 2007)

Bront said:
			
		

> It's flash, so it can form to window size... sometimes.
> 
> It's not set right in some sections, like the forum browser.





I may have explained that poorly.  Allow me a second chance.  This -

http://www.enworld.org/images/anniversary/misc/banner/default.gif

- is 300 pixels wide and the WotC header banner (flash or not, which is butting up against the EN logo gif) is 728 x 90.

300 + 728 - 1028

- which is a bit wider than my 1024 browser setting causing my need to scroll left and right.  My suggestion is that this -

http://www.enworld.org/images/anniversary/misc/banner/default.gif

- really doesn't seem to need to be 300 wide and if reduced to 250 would not actually cut into the logo, proper, but just the (transparent) background.

No?


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## jmucchiello (Jul 18, 2007)

Mark CMG said:
			
		

> Does the EN World header logo need to be 300 wide?  If you could knock 50 or 100 pixels off of that, the problem would be solved for my screen resolution.



I second this. I don't mind the ad. I mind that the minimum screen width is so wide.


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## Nonlethal Force (Jul 19, 2007)

Might I third this suggestion of reducing the width by just a smidge?  Subconsciously, I've found that those threads that make me scroll left and right are annoying enough that I click off of them and do not read them thoroughly.  The downside is that what I actually end up doing is clicking off all the threads where the D&D ad comes up.

And, that is kind of sad, because I really like the ad.  Although I'm not a particular fan of the tearing friends to shreds bit ... I think the colors selected, timing, flash, etc is really well conceived and to be quite honest I look forward to more ads of this quality.  I think it enhances the site.  If only the size issue could be fixed.

Someone yell at me if it already has been fixed, please.


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## Mark CMG (Jul 19, 2007)

Beyond thread participation not being as high as it could be, another result of this situation is clicking/refreshing until a normal-sized banner is shown, which further leads to banner impressions being wasted very quickly.  I cannot imagine that going over very well with advertisers.


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## Umbran (Jul 19, 2007)

Mark CMG said:
			
		

> Beyond thread participation not being as high as it could be, another result of this situation is clicking/refreshing until a normal-sized banner is shown, which further leads to banner impressions being wasted very quickly.  I cannot imagine that going over very well with advertisers.




It ads to banner impressions, but I am not sure if they are wasted.  In doing the refresh, the user is moving away from a WotC ad they dislike, to some other ad that they will like more, which probably at least gets glanced at to make sure it isn't the WotC ad.  This may lead to a larger number of effective impressions, rather than waste.

WotC itself, however, should be chomping at the bit to get this fixed.  Anything that makes folks click away from their ad is wasting their impressions, certainly.


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## Nonlethal Force (Jul 19, 2007)

Umbran said:
			
		

> WotC itself, however, should be chomping at the bit to get this fixed.  Anything that makes folks click away from their ad is wasting their impressions, certainly.




Is it a fix that WotC has to do, or is it an in-house fix?  I'm just curious, not knowing much about stuff like programming and the like.


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## Mark CMG (Jul 19, 2007)

Highlight the top of the page and you can see how much room of the logo banner the logo actually needs.


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## Michael Morris (Jul 20, 2007)

I've trimmed the gap space out of the image. The largest WotC banner should fit on 1024 screens now - but it still won't fit on 800x600 screen.


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## Mark CMG (Jul 20, 2007)

Umbran said:
			
		

> It ads to banner impressions, but I am not sure if they are wasted.  In doing the refresh, the user is moving away from a WotC ad they dislike, to some other ad that they will like more, which probably at least gets glanced at to make sure it isn't the WotC ad.  This may lead to a larger number of effective impressions, rather than waste.
> 
> WotC itself, however, should be chomping at the bit to get this fixed.  Anything that makes folks click away from their ad is wasting their impressions, certainly.





Adding obtuseness to your usual contrarian mode might be ladelling it on a bit thick but if anyone can make it work, I'd bank on it being you.  It certainly increases the number of stances, real or imagined, with which you can disagree.




			
				Michael Morris said:
			
		

> I've trimmed the gap space out of the image. The largest WotC banner should fit on 1024 screens now - but it still won't fit on 800x600 screen.





Short of turning down oversized banners or removing the EN World logo, it is about all you can do.


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## Desdichado (Jul 20, 2007)

Urm.. actually I have mine set at 1024 and absolutely nothing's changed.  At this very moment the thread has a side-scrolling bar on it.  What'm I missing here?


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## Desdichado (Jul 20, 2007)

Umbran said:
			
		

> It ads to banner impressions, but I am not sure if they are wasted.  In doing the refresh, the user is moving away from a WotC ad they dislike, to some other ad that they will like more, which probably at least gets glanced at to make sure it isn't the WotC ad.  This may lead to a larger number of effective impressions, rather than waste.



Not for me.  I don't look at the top, I look at the bottom to see if there's a side-scolling bar or not.


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## Nonlethal Force (Jul 20, 2007)

Wow, that's weird.  I've gotten rid of the scoll bar (thank you!).  But now the ENWorld logo is on the left where it should be but the add is all the way over on the right, as if it is right justified.

Granted, absolutely not a problem at all.  But it looks a bit odd.  The ad still works and everything, it just appears to be right justified.

Either way, thanks for getting rid of the scrollbar for us 1024 users!


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## Umbran (Jul 20, 2007)

Hobo said:
			
		

> Urm.. actually I have mine set at 1024 and absolutely nothing's changed.  At this very moment the thread has a side-scrolling bar on it.  What'm I missing here?




Same problem here.  let me see if clearing my browser cache helps...

Update: Yep.  Clearing my browser cache fixed it for me, so you may want to try it for yourself.


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## Umbran (Jul 20, 2007)

Hobo said:
			
		

> Not for me.  I don't look at the top, I look at the bottom to see if there's a side-scolling bar or not.




Well, folks who aren't looking at the ads are wastes of impressions, whether or not there's a side-scroll bar.


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## Umbran (Jul 20, 2007)

Mark CMG said:
			
		

> Adding obtuseness to your usual contrarian mode might be ladelling it on a bit thick but if anyone can make it work, I'd bank on it being you.  It certainly increases the number of stances, real or imagined, with which you can disagree.




I don't see what is obtuse about it.  

I'm looking at a page with a WotC ad.  It gives me a scroll bar I don't like.  So, I click refresh until I get some other ad that doesn't give me the scroll bar - that ad is non-WotC.  End result is users with eyes preferentially on non-WotC ads.  I would think the advertisers other than WotC would tend to like this.  

And please, if you don't like my mode of discussion, please just skip over the post rather than getting personal and insulting about it, thank you.


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## Mark CMG (Jul 20, 2007)

Umbran said:
			
		

> And please, if you don't like my mode of discussion, (. . .)





Oh, but I find it charming.


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## Dextra (Jul 24, 2007)

*My 2 cents*

Honestly, I had no idea there was a new line of minis out from WotC.  I live an hour's drive away from any gaming store, and tend to only visit once/season.  So having the Wizards ads will actually reach me as a consumer, and I'm thankful for 'em.

Oh yeah- and if the money they contribute towards the site means less fundraising and worrying about server costs, I'll be perfectly happy to side scroll, thank you!


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## Desdichado (Jul 24, 2007)

I dunno; all those refreshes consume bandwidth.  I can't imagine that that helps with fundraising and server cost issues.  BTW, cleared my cache; no change.


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