Z's got an opinion about the ads and he's voicing them.  If you had taken the time to read what he wrote, you'd see that he said, "I don't mind ads on the sides, as that is the layout of the site, but please: enough with the flashy ads in distracting places."  As in, doesn't mind the ads.  As in, doesn't like the site layout.  As in, has nothing to do with AN going bye-bye.

It's plain to anybody paying attention that AN will soon offer a subscription package for those who don't care to see the ads, just like DailyKos.  While I don't blame Blez for making money off a venture he's worked hard to create, the site users have every right to bitch and moan about changes.  Why?  Because Blez isn't the only thing that keeps people coming back to AN.  Many of AN's unique features are brainchildren of the users who spend their time here: monkeyball's poetry, grover's trade diaries, everybody's link dump, Alameda Greg's Rules 101, saint's enthusiasm.  

Blez has worked hard to build this site and I am appreciative of that fact.  He can do what he wants with the layout.  But the reason that stuff like this prompts strong reaction is because the site users feel like this site partially belongs to them.  They are justified in feeling that because they helped build this community.  Comments like yours are plain old lame.

if he can figure out how from this site -- while keeping content free and open -- the new ad placement is just realy akward. It screws up the layout of the pages and just leaves a big block of nothing but ad-ness between the articles and the comments.

It would be much better if it were moved up or the comments were moved up and text was wrapped around it so it looks like a normal ad in a newspaper or something.

and won't go away unless you find a tiny little "close" button, which they may or may not even have?  Yeah, those suck.

I hate those as much as the next guy.  Remember, I'm a blog user too and I want them to unobtrusive as possible.  But this has also become a business.  I would hope people would be more understanding.

I'm not trying to complain, just trying to give you some user perspective.

It's no surprise to me that they love the placement of the diary ads so much.  They get seen very easily; your eye thinks it's part of the content of the diary.

But if you are going to put an ad there, you should make it a banner ad, not a huge box.

A slim banner ad that centers itself and doesn't distort the page, under the post.

And please, in those slots, do not do moving or flashy ads. They are especially distracting when right where you usually read.

..I'm not seeing any of the new ads. I see blank space, but no ad.

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we'll have more consistent ads at the top rather than the rotating ones.

charging admission is idiotic and one of the huge problems that I currently have with ESPN.com and don't visit that site anymore except to bogart their stats.

and under Contents check both of the boxes for Load Images (ie. restrict images to those from the originating site only).

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