Hah yeah those were wicked eh? I like the funnier ones... we've been pushing to get more of that kind of a thing going.
We've been experimenting a ton with the way the ads are displaying, trying to come up with the perfect method. We actually can cap it so that you don't see any ads infront of smaller videos. I think we'll go back to that. What we were trying (and seems as though it failed lol) was to make it so taht you saw ads infront of every type of video, but you only ever saw one ad per 5 minutes.
The key is a balance between a good user experience and actually serving enough ads that we'll make decent money on it. We're getting there...
I'll re-enable the no ads before short vids. Give us 'till tomorrow. Sorry about that!
As always... keep the feedback coming. We want you guys to absolutely love this thing.
Also - note that Youtube, Vimeo, and all your favorite video sites are going to hammer you with ads one day. Right now they're all running on massive amounts of Venture capital, and don't make money worth shit. When reality starts to hit with the burst of the Dot Com bubble 2.0 - you're goign to be hit with ads.
We here at newschoolers.com like to run a reasonable business. So we get the ads going AS we hook people. That way we're an effective business model and dont' need massive quantities of Venture Capital just to survive. Plus we can work on a proper user experience that includes advertising.
So yeah - don't hesitate to bitch about ads. The most effective ads are ones you like. Also, please, please, please, check out ads you DO like. Click it, go to the website, buy that product - it re-inforces sponsors to do that kind of advertising if there is a positive response to the good ads.
Remember, ignoring the good ads is what makes people do shitty stuff that forces it on you. Advertisers have so much difficuly online because in Magazines and Television shows, people actually accept ads totally interrupting their user experience. However, when it comes to online people want to ignore ads - which makes advertisers say "Fuck that". Then advertisers come up with shit like massive popups, interstitials, shit flying around your screen, and 30 second pre-rolls.
But we'll stay away from that shit... 'cause it drives me fucking bananas.