The Official NBA Thread: NBA Draft Tonight | Giannis to the Miami Heat

[antidope]

I use this site too much to deal with that. Worth the money 1000%

 

[thekillerj23]

Cavs from 3

 

[antidope]

Whoever wins the bracket challenge will win a year of supporter as well

 

[JD617]

.

 

[finessence]

Cavs bombing 61% from 3

 

[Methodical Management]

Methodical Management
This is crazy

Here's the problem we have to solve: on top of all the labor required to moderate the site, NikeTalk costs thousands of dollars per month to maintain. We're not Facebook, so we're not assembling psychographic profiles of members. We're not reddit, so we're not licensing your content for use in AI training. We're not Discord, so we aren't charging $6/month for an animated avatar border or requiring you to take a 3d scan of your face for age verification. We're not a blog, so we don't put anything exclusively behind a paywall and sell sponsored content/advertorials. We still cover our costs the old fashioned way: by running ads.

After being embarrassed by screen shots of big brand ads next to Nazi Twitter posts and toxic subreddits, some advertisers want nothing to do with user generated content, and forum sites can be categorically excluded from certain demand sources. If you think our moderation is strict, bear in mind that we've had advertising networks refuse to work with us due to content they've claimed wasn't "brand safe."

Right now, sites like ours struggle to get a return with anything to the left of the decimal point for every thousand impressions.

One of the most important performance metrics, from an advertiser standpoint, is viewability. Nobody wants to buy an ad that people won't even see. The persistent footer ad is needed for that reason. That's been in place since like 2017.

There are also other ads on each screen, so I am fully aware, as someone who's used the ad supported version of the site from the very beginning, that it is possible to scroll a page so that one of these ads will be centered in view right above the footer ad.
If you're browsing with an iPod Touch, that leaves precious few pixels available for anything else. Although this is not an uncommon issue with ad supported services (ads can take up to 100% of your screen when you're watching YouTube, an IG reel, or even the NBA playoffs while already paying for a Max or League Pass subscription), I agree that some of the footer ads shown in these screen shots exceed our expected/allowable sizes and I'll report them to our current ad partner and request that they perform a layout review for low resolution devices.


Over the past few months, we've received complaints from users who've experienced their tabs crashing or restarting while scrolling through pages. One possible cause for this was advertising, so we organized a test with an entirely new ad partner for this month. When you scrap all existing ad code and spin up a new partner, you're basically starting from scratch and have to reestablish your value. It's not a decision to be made lightly and incurs a fairly steep opportunity cost by moving from a relatively optimized configuration to an unoptimized one.

So far, page performance has improved - but revenue performance is lagging. That's been made worse by all the tariff-induced market instability. NikeTalk will probably operate at a loss in April. The new ad partner is working to correct this, and counteracting ad blockers is part of that effort. A lot of what people are complaining about right now is not new - it's just an ad layout they'd been blocking to this point.


Anyone who wants to support the community and opt out of the ads has that option. I know some people who spend $200+ for a pair of shoes they may wear once, if at all, absolutely despise the idea of compensating anyone associated with this site for their labor, and those people may be pleased to know that, because ads are generally still sufficient to pay the bills, we donate everything we receive from subscription fees.

NikeTalk is not Starbucks. It's far more like a small, local coffee shop trying to stay afloat amid rising costs. While we will always remain grateful for the continued support of our fellow community members, the attitude some people have is akin to a person who sits in the corner of a coffee shop all day, plugs all their devices into the outlets, is very demanding about the temperature and music, orders cup after cup of water with crushed ice, expects it to all be free forever and then claims, in a pique of arrogance, "this place would be nothing without me."

We'll continue to work with our partners to fix any problems with the ads as they appear. If your problem IS the ads, we have an ad free subscription at a low annual cost. If you believe that someone else should foot the bill for your ad free usage, gift options are also available if anyone is so inclined.


We're in the middle of the NBA Playoffs, so I think most of us should agree that further comments about the ads belong in the Site Feedback or Bug Reports sections as appropriate.
You can @ me there or send a PM.

 

[thekillerj23]

 

[tay1]

I must have a different NT. I don’t have these ad issues.

 

[B Sox]

Gogo Bidatze looks like he’s wearing a disguise.

 

[rolaholic]

 

[antidope]

Ohhh wow. Thats crazy

 

[finessence]

Definitely unintentional

 

[B Sox]

Goddamn man just get out of this series with these dudes.

 

[elpablo21]

I think i greatly overestimated Jaylen's health

 

[you go boy]

just wrong spot at the wrong time... didnt look flagrant at all compared to ron artest and james harden

 

[rolaholic]

The warriors and nuggets are ONE NATION

Y’all will see it, soon enough. Go Duggets

 

[nikekid6]

Zingus Rodman

 

[antidope]

This isnt a flagrant.

 

[B Sox]

They can’t wash yos head

 

[you go boy]

that rocky reference

 

[ALNotSure]

Here's the problem we have to solve: on top of all the labor required to moderate the site, NikeTalk costs thousands of dollars per month to maintain. We're not Facebook, so we're not assembling psychographic profiles of members. We're not reddit, so we're not licensing your content for use in AI training. We're not Discord, so we aren't charging $6/month for an animated avatar border or requiring you to take a 3d scan of your face for age verification. We're not a blog, so we don't put anything exclusively behind a paywall and sell sponsored content/advertorials. We still cover our costs the old fashioned way: by running ads.

After being embarrassed by screen shots of big brand ads next to Nazi Twitter posts and toxic subreddits, some advertisers want nothing to do with user generated content, and forum sites can be categorically excluded from certain demand sources. If you think our moderation is strict, bear in mind that we've had advertising networks refuse to work with us due to content they've claimed wasn't "brand safe."

Right now, sites like ours struggle to get a return with anything to the left of the decimal point for every thousand impressions.

One of the most important performance metrics, from an advertiser standpoint, is viewability. Nobody wants to buy an ad that people won't even see. The persistent footer ad is needed for that reason. That's been in place since like 2017.

There are also other ads on each screen, so I am fully aware, as someone who's used the ad supported version of the site from the very beginning, that it is possible to scroll a page so that one of these ads will be centered in view right above the footer ad.
If you're browsing with an iPod Touch, that leaves precious few pixels available for anything else. Although this is not an uncommon issue with ad supported services (ads can take up to 100% of your screen when you're watching YouTube, an IG reel, or even the NBA playoffs while already paying for a Max or League Pass subscription), I agree that some of the footer ads shown in these screen shots exceed our expected/allowable sizes and I'll report them to our current ad partner and request that they perform a layout review for low resolution devices.


Over the past few months, we've received complaints from users who've experienced their tabs crashing or restarting while scrolling through pages. One possible cause for this was advertising, so we organized a test with an entirely new ad partner for this month. When you scrap all existing ad code and spin up a new partner, you're basically starting from scratch and have to reestablish your value. It's not a decision to be made lightly and incurs a fairly steep opportunity cost by moving from a relatively optimized configuration to an unoptimized one.

So far, page performance has improved - but revenue performance is lagging. That's been made worse by all the tariff-induced market instability. NikeTalk will probably operate at a loss in April. The new ad partner is working to correct this, and counteracting ad blockers is part of that effort. A lot of what people are complaining about right now is not new - it's just an ad layout they'd been blocking to this point.


Anyone who wants to support the community and opt out of the ads has that option. I know some people who spend $200+ for a pair of shoes they may wear once, if at all, absolutely despise the idea of compensating anyone associated with this site for their labor, and those people may be pleased to know that, because ads are generally still sufficient to pay the bills, we donate everything we receive from subscription fees.

NikeTalk is not Starbucks. It's far more like a small, local coffee shop trying to stay afloat amid rising costs. While we will always remain grateful for the continued support of our fellow community members, the attitude some people have is akin to a person who sits in the corner of a coffee shop all day, plugs all their devices into the outlets, is very demanding about the temperature and music, orders cup after cup of water with crushed ice, expects it to all be free forever and then claims, in a pique of arrogance, "this place would be nothing without me."

We'll continue to work with our partners to fix any problems with the ads as they appear. If your problem IS the ads, we have an ad free subscription at a low annual cost. If you believe that someone else should foot the bill for your ad free usage, gift options are also available if anyone is so inclined.


We're in the middle of the NBA Playoffs, so I think most of us should agree that further comments about the ads belong in the Site Feedback or Bug Reports sections as appropriate.
You can @ me there or send a PM.

Thank you for the great explanation. The supporter donation is beyond reasonable.

Maybe we could start a member drive for more memberships.

 

[antidope]

Anyone who wants to support the community and opt out of the ads has that option. I know some people who spend $200+ for a pair of shoes they may wear once, if at all, absolutely despise the idea of compensating anyone associated with this site for their labor,

 

[thekillerj23]

Baby KG!!

 

[raider5]

JK finally gonna get some burn or nah? Whatever he ate was definitely meant for Steph

 

[pums]

KCP is ***

Banchero isn’t quite a winning basketball player