Widgets And Themes And Things

Posted on April 22, 2010 by Scott Jennings| 45 Comments

I’ve added some tchotchkes to the blog, feel free to hammer and bitch:

* Yes, ads. I’m fairly aggressively experimenting with them (especially in RSS feeds, where most of you read this site from) because the site is beginning to overflow its traffic (admittedly, this month only to the tune of $2 or so on a $20 hosting plan) and it should probably have plans in place to pay for itself. And no, I don’t really care if Chinese WoW gold ads show up. I assume you’re smart enough to, you know, not click on them, and the thought of them paying me money is rather ironic.

* WYSWYG comment editor, comment quoting (which kind of breaks the WYSWYG comment editor, but oh well), and – I *think* since I can’t test it – comment editing (for the first hour after you post).

* A privacy policy. Some ad networks require certain legalese, and it merely restates that yes, the web server uses cookies like 99% of the web and no, I’m not going to sell your email addresses to Chinese gold farmers.

* Spiffy new formatting if you view the site on your iPhone. Check it out if you’re iEnlightnened, it’s very iShiny.

* Facebook Like button, inspired by seeing Raph Koster tweet about adding it to his site and thinking “Oh, cool.” Note to Raph: please don’t tweet about jumping off cliffs.

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  • Freakazoid

    I don’t like how blockquote doesn’t work anymore. plz fix kthx

  • Stormwaltz

    Lum sold out! My guild is quitting this blog. See you in Shadowbane, n00bs!
    And bring back precasting!

  • http://www.stormhammer.org Naladini

    Gold ads are much better than the 1 Rule to a flat stomach ads.

  • http://percentsign20.com/ Cal

    Naladini: Gold ads are much better than the 1 Rule to a flat stomach ads.

    That and the blatant irony make gold seller ads here okay in my book.

  • ethereal.wolf

    just none of those annoying mortgage ads pls.

  • http://www.scottswezey.com/ Scott Swezey

    Lum, you get my support.
    Just a note tho, I didn’t see any ads in my google reader… so if I was meant to, then something didn’t work right.
    Also, the power leveling video was hilarious.

  • http://beafraid.com hellfire

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
    RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!

  • VorpalK

    Stormwaltz: Lum sold out! My guild is quitting this blog. See you in Shadowbane, n00bs! And bring back precasting!

     

    I believe that’s “bring back precasting, beeyotch”

  • Aufero

    I don’t see any ads, but then I’m using Easylist’s Adblock filterset and a couple of specialized Greasemonkey scripts.
    Long live the techno-utopian revolution!

  • Mandella

    Yep… Looking at a gold farmer ad over on the left side right now.
    Support your local gold farmer,  support Lum!!!

  • Innoe

    ouch, some of the stuff thats been posted lately I thought was sorta dumb, now this. Think ill take a break from the ol blog for a while.

  • Walt Y

    Stormwaltz: Lum sold out! My guild is quitting this blog. See you in Shadowbane, n00bs! And bring back precasting!

     

    Can we have your stuff? Send account info,

    kk, thksinfo, la~

  • Dave G.

    Hey Lum, I’ve enjoyed your writing so much over the years that I come by regularly even though I haven’t played MMOs in forever. Just wanted to say that I understand about the ads and I’m going to whitelist you in adblock plus. As long as nobody asks me to spank a monkey I’ll be happy.

  • dartwick

    Ads? What ads?

  • http://www.onlinegamers.org Rasputin

    You’re whitelisted big daddy

  • http://systemicbabble.com Andrew

    I <3 AdBlock.  It even kills RSS ads.

  • Vetarnias

    Mandella: Yep… Looking at a gold farmer ad over on the left side right now. Support your local gold farmer,  support Lum!!!

     

    I think Lum could do well to add “Support Your Local Gold Farmer” right on top of the ad spaces.

  • http://startingarea.wordpress.com Eric Hedlund

    Angry! Nah, do what you need to do. Though that IMVU ad with Pandora people on the cusp of a knee-trembler was a bit disquieting.

  • http://trollshaman.blogspot.com Klepsacovic

    I am outraged that you would take any measures to offset the costs of providing us with free content.

  • Bhagpuss

    Didn’t see any ads at all, but I run with just about everything off by default. Nothing runs unless I give it permission.

    Just curious to know if the advertisers/distributors can tell what percentage of their ads are being inhibited. Page view info can;t be very meaningful if you don’t know whether ot not your ad is displayed on the page.

  • Andy O.

    Andrew: I <3 AdBlock. It even kills RSS ads.

    Oh yeah, a blogger who asks for nothing save a couple views of viagra ads and you can’t even disable AdBlock for his domain. You heartless bastard.

  • http://geldonsgaming.blogspot.com geldonyetich

    Good to hear you’re still attracting a fair amount of traffic.  Apparently you’ve still got it, Lum.
    Interesting topical shift you can see here in the comments.  The thing is, it’s not that I choose to run Adaware and NoScript to shaft you of just compensation for your content.
    Rather, I’ve encountered enough advertisers that abuse the system by putting in disruptive content (annoying flash animations, popup ads, page hijacks, ect) that I do this for my own protection.

  • joker

    I remember back in 99,  lumthemad was a much better game. I’ll be opening a pre-ad lumthemad shard for anyone interested in relieving the good old days and hosting it on my kick-ass cable connection.  Donates get to be gms and build their homes in green acres.

  • Scott Jennings

    Oh hi, right when I install the Facebook stuff Facebook rolls over and dies.

    Scott Jennings dislikes this.

  • jhb

    k, so I sent you the money. Where will you meet me in-game with my gold?
    Also, will you be driving your taxi?

  • Stormwaltz

    What is this “Facebook” of which you speak?
    Ah yes, one of those “social networking” things I have no use for. I will proudly continue to be the internet equivalent of the guy who pays cash, thanks.

  • Grimfire

    I do view your site on my iPhone and the new formatting is definitely spiffy.

  • sinij

    Facebook stuff is very annoying.

  • Mandella

    What is up with the smug attitude of everybody using Adblock? I use Noscript, which allows me to surf the web in (relative) safety, blocks the ill behaved ads, but leaves the well behaved banners there to see.
    Now,  if you want me to *click* on something,  show me something in those banners I’d like to have! Anybody else remember when banner ads were links to products one of us might actually want? I remember first going to crucial memory from a banner ad, and even newegg. I will not “Spank the Monkey,” or buy a mortgage from a spastically dancing sprite, and I hope that most readers that visit this site wouldn’t either.

  • Boanerges

    If you’re going to run RMT ads, at least put up a ticker showing the exchange rates.
    “Oh hi, right when I install the Facebook stuff Facebook rolls over and dies. Scott Jennings dislikes this.”
    Facebook nerfs Scott Jennings for RMT ads? I’m struggling to figure out if this is more ironic than Derek Smart or not.

  • Wanderer

    Hey, Scott, how the heck do I report NCsoft-targeted phishing emails for games I don’t play, apparently using addresses jacked from forums I haven’t used in years, without setting up an NCsoft account so I can use that form? (seeing as you wrote that nice security page and all…)

  • Scott Jennings

    @Wanderer

    Forward it to phishing-at-ncsoft-com

  • Wanderer

    Sent.
    A smarter phisher (in addition to not using Babel Fish to translate his text into English) would have targeted a game I actually play. Not that it would work any better, but at least I wouldn’t be laughing at him quite so hard.
    Is it just me, or does anyone else think the average person is roughly on an intellectual par with a mandrake root, stumbling through their life believing that Nigerian ex-politicians are going to give them money, mysterious pills can make them thinner in some ways and thicker than others, and there is such a thing as a free lunch?

  • Wanderer

    *thicker IN others

  • Tremayne

    Wanderer:
    Sent.
    A smarter phisher (in addition to not using Babel Fish to translate his text into English) would have targeted a game I actually play. Not that it would work any better, but at least I wouldn’t be laughing at him quite so hard.
    Is it just me, or does anyone else think the average person is roughly on an intellectual par with a mandrake root, stumbling through their life believing that Nigerian ex-politicians are going to give them money, mysterious pills can make them thinner in some ways and thicker than others, and there is such a thing as a free lunch?

     

    The good news is that the AVERAGE person is NOT (quite) that retarded.
    Unfortunately, a small percentage are that stupid, and many of them have internet access, so if you send your phishing/advance-fee fraud emails out to thousands of people they will hit a few gullible morons. Email is free (or at least extremely cheap), so you can afford to have 99.9% of your emails ignored by the vast majority who can count above ten with their socks on.

  • Stormwaltz

    Wanderer, I got two of those this week myself. While I do have an NCSoft account, I’ve never played Aion – the game their email claimed my account had been suspended in.
    After getting no response from me to their email in English (other than my forwarding it to NC), they sent me the same email again… in German.

  • http://geldonsgaming.blogspot.com geldonyetich

    I’ve received Phishing mails for Wells Fargo, First Independent, and Facebook without having an account with any of these.
    So I’m pretty sure they just spam all the emails they can get their hands on, hoping that some of them will actually have an account for the what they’re trying to get login information for.

  • Vetarnias

    And PayPal — especially PayPal.  Sometimes twenty a month.

  • http://systemicbabble.com Andrew

    Andy O.: Oh yeah, a blogger who asks for nothing save a couple views of viagra ads and you can’t even disable AdBlock for his domain. You heartless bastard.

     

    You bet. Banner ads pollute the Internet, and I’m exercising my rights as a consumer to not view them to send a (probably insignificant) message.

    If Lum’s in need of cash for hosting I’d rather see a “donate” link, or Amazon recommendations (that when clicked give him some credit) than ads all over the place.

  • Jeff

    Your blog, do what you want. BUT for me, your Google ad at the top of the page is blocking the title and first couple of lines of your latest posts. Probably not what you had in mind, and currently a waste of a visit for me. I hope that you see fit to fix it. Cheers.

  • http://www.facebook.com/sjennings Scott Jennings

    Facebook login test.

  • http://twitter.com/Lum_ Scott Jennings

    Twitter login test.

  • http://virtualgunmen.com Noel

    Oooh, neat. What plugins are you using for those?

  • Scott Jennings

    Simple Facebook Connect and Simple Twitter Connect.

  • http://twitter.com/Scahrossar Belsameth

    Ooohhh… Fancy :D