N4G Quality Control?

N4G have to started advertising external Hard drives bundled with PS3 pirated games.

It seems a little hypocritical considering the communities stance of piracy. Of course I know N4G is website run by massive hypocrites profiting from the "console wars" and generally just helping to create a horrible gaming culture.

But is that a step to far, they're now bringing in advertisement revenue from piracy websites. I know many of you feel very strongly about Piracy ain't it about time N4G starts worrying about it's quality control?

Instead of just leeching off the fanboy gaming culture to squeeze as much profit from it's users as possible, you decide.

[mastiffchild]

If true I find this appalling. A site for gamers should never take money from those who selfishly ruin things for those of us with morals or that care about gaming. Shitty.

Advertising this or R4 DS carts or chipping services for a 360 is just below the belt and not something you'd expect to be allowed here.Seriously, I'm amazed and disgusted. No wonder the companies in the games industry have no respect for us or our rights if sites supposedly for us have ads for stuff like this. It stinks.

[PirateThom]

Sadly, N4G had an advertising service set up, this servive shows relevent advertisements, it's a gaming website, so it's gaming related. It's the ad company more than N4G.

[MidnytRain]

Speaking of quality control, there are many grammar and punctuation errors in your blog. You may feel strongly about this, but don't type so quickly and make sure you proofread.

I don't pay attention to advertisements on websites. I only buy from trusted retailers.

[Speed-Racer]

Sadly that is a narrow minded approach to the whole situation. Just because you do not look at ads, does not mean the rest of the population does not. I think the ad industry would have been bust if no one looked at ads.

[MidnytRain]

...
I was just sharing a personal experience.

I don't understand why I received so many disagrees. I want to be smart with my money and with who I associate myself with.

Why didn't anyone tell Menech to edit his blog before approval?

[Speed-Racer]

I see many ads every day (because I have to), but that doesn't I don't shop smart. Also many people pay attention to ads. The online ad business is actually up this year from 2009 and 2010.

[Menech]

The reason I disagreed was because you where being a grammar nazi, And the topic of my blog wasn't only the advert it's the general lack of quality on all aspects of N4G lately.

[mandf]

This site quality is going downhill very quickly. I love this site and have here since 2006 but it's out of control now. Articles that help people get flagged as duplicate but smear campaigns, flamebait, and idiot blogs get approved.

Just because you can make a site doesn't make you an expert or even relevant in the industry. Half of summited articles come from nobodies that just started gaming and have no clue about the industry.

Then you have the same people post and bash every game even though they haven't even played it. This site should make you post your gamertag, psn id, or wii code to comment on a specific system. People think cause they see a video they have a clue. I hate reading comments from people who have never even played the game and bash or praise it.

[news4geeks]

so basically you want a system that would rival North Korea for censorship and freedom of speech?

@LostDjinn below - The mods are fine. It's a fine line to distinguish between trolling and a legitimate complaint. I see no ulterior motives from them.

They don't troll or create multiple accounts, they just have ultimate control over your bubbles. That's why I have only one, because they don't like me being so outspoken but I'll still defend them as doing a good job. Plus I won't stand for a bad word said about Cat.

My complaints are with the trolling websites whos members fancy themselves as journalists.

[mandf]

I never said anything about the mods. Get your facts straight. If you never played a game then you have no right to bash or praise it cause you have no clue what you are talking about. It's called common sense. Half the comments are haters or the uniformed.

It's like going out to eat at a place. You can say if the service and quality of the food is up to par or not. If you didn't go there and say bad stuff about the place then you are no more than slanderer or an idiot. Same deal.

At least when I comment on a game, I have played it unlike the haters. I can promise you this, I bet I have played more games this gen on just the Ps3 than 75% of the people on this site have played in their whole life. Uninformed people make this site go downhill. It's news for gamers` not news for arguers.

[Peaceful_Jelly]

with this I agree. Lately most of the articles that are being posted are from school kids that created a website yesterday or from blogs. And I have no problem with that but 99% of the time the content is just flamebait. And even though the articles are tagged as "opinion" and are coming from a no name website that doesn't stop people from commenting stuff like "how this got approved?" and the Heat starts getting higher and higher.

A few minutes later we have the entire front page covered with garbage and with other articles directly responding to that other one while using N4G as their battlefield.

[Breakfast]

I cant remember the last time i saw an add on the internet.

[Cat]

Hey guys! N4G uses a 3rd party advertising service, so its going to pull ads based on content (as mentioned above). If you find a corrupted ad (b/c yes, sometimes these 3rd party ads have their code, er, compromised) let us know!

[MidnytRain]

Are you the only administrator on this website? I never see anyone else with that title make any posts.

[Cat]

I'm the N4G Community Manager and Admin for the NewsBoiler Network, you're likely to run across our News Admin, JamieSI; site founders Dusty and DragonFly; and of course the Mod tea,! Here's a link to the staff listing: http://forums.n4g.com/NewsB...

[mandf]

I don't think it's you or other mods or this site, it's the members on this site. Members make their own site then make multiple accounts to pass garbage articles like they are professional writers or have any contacts in the industry. Once a garbage article is posted 20 new no name sites reply with a follow up garbage article to combat a point of view. It's called highjacking of a website. It brings the overall quality of this site.

Ads are part of all websites. It is a fact. I would like to say to any mods that read this, ads that hurt the industry ( piracy for example ) shouldn't be on here. This site was made for discussion of video games. Too fund this site ads are needed but not at the expense of hard working individuals in the industry.

I would also like to the say to the owners and mods that this is the best site going for video games. It's irritating to deal with others that think freedom of speech makes them educated when they don't know what they are talking about and never even played the games they talk about like an expert. If someone says a game is bad and played it that is their opinion that I may disagree with but I can respect it. I can't respect people who just downplay or praise a game based off trailers or articles.

By the way if sucks being able to post 3 times it limits discussion. I have never attacted another member or commented on a game or system that I have never played.

[JD_Shadow]

"ads that hurt the industry ( piracy for example ) shouldn't be on here"

I need to respond to this because it shows that you think that piracy is the only issue that the game industry has at the moment. The high prices and lack of innovation are far greater of issues right now (and some publishers war with the used game market over things they were never worried about before), and piracy, as I've read, doesn't hurt the industry as much as we think it does.

If piracy is seriously hurting the industry that bad, then why is Steam so successful? I'm not condoning piracy in any way, but I wonder how something is so successful if piracy was such a big deal!

[JD_Shadow]

I got Ad-Block Plus installed on Firefox, so I don't see any of the ads.

But you should complain to the ad supplier, not to N4G, since they have no immediate control over what ads are being shown.

And I wouldn't worry too much about the morality of the ads. I'd worry more if the ads were taking up more of the screen than they should rather than if they were showing something that interferes with our beliefs.

[coryok]

when i dont like the ads (too intrusive or something) or theyre like this, i turn my ad block on for that website.

you guys should all do the same, firefox has quite a few available as does chrome, not sure about ie, ie sucks :P lol

[Tachyon_Nova]

Firefox is good, it's just a shame it's so slow. Safari on my iPod over wireless frequently outdoes firefox over wire.

[coryok]

they just released a new update not long ago, has been recorded as the fastest running browser at the moment with the new release. i personally use chrome, its just too easy, being able to sync my browser preferences from my computer to my phone. pretty quick too, i have no complaints

[JD_Shadow]

You know something, though?:

I would bite on that offer just for that gold DS3 controller. That looks pretty sweet (if it's as real as it looks).

[xDaRkModEx]

I use a hosts file to block all ads. Works for all browser + programs.

[Kon]

Does anyone still uses a browser without AdBlock?

[Nes_Daze]

It's ads, what can you do except regulate it somehow, but I guess nobody cares. What really needs fixing is the way n4g does moderating.

[andron]

That is whack... But I use Ad-block so I don't see any ads anyway...

[Nivalis]

I'd have to agree with the article, some quality control on who can and cannot approve/report articles would be nice too.

Only last week I submitted an article warning users that their account data was currently at risk on PSN, and all the idiots piled on to call it fake, only for Sony to take the servers down the next day and publicly admit that the exploit existed (as was reported to them by the site I had linked)

So thanks to the idiots that tagged the article as fake without taking a moment to check if it was actually true or not, and simply assuming, users accounts were at risk for a good 12 hours before other sites picked up on the news.

Incidentally, once other sites picked up on the news, a flood of posts on n4g covering the exact same story were approved without problem at all.

*sigh*, n4g has really gone to shit.