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Allegro.cc Banner Network
Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
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Ok, I'm in the process of developing an Allegro.cc banner network. It's basically like a local link exchange among Allegro.cc members.
I want to test the system first with the industry-standard full-size banners. In order to do this, I need about 15-25 people to sign up. Your bnner ad would need to be a GIF image, 468x60 pixels, and less than 20K in size. If you're interested, just send me an e-mail at matthew@allegro.cc. Don't send me any banners, you'll be able to manage your account via a webpage on allegro.cc. There won't be any strict rules about where the banners must be placed, etc. I just trust no one to abuse the system, and I'll monitor it loosly.
For those who don't like full-size banners, I plan on also supporting button size images and maybe text links as well. But I want to test the full-size banner ads first.
The banners will be displayed by a weighted process. So the more banners you serve, the more times your banner will be displayed. I may take click-throughs into account as well, etc. I know most of your websites probably don't generate much traffic ... so this is where Allegro.cc steps in. I'll be adding the same banner on Allegro.cc - so you'll be getting free "advertising" here as well.
For the concerned, banners will not appear on the main Allegro.cc content, only the download page and possibly these forums.
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Matthew Leverton - matthew@allegro.cc

Gabhonga
Member #1,247
February 2001
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this is of course a great idea, and I will step in when I finally manage to finish my own homepage (and something to put up there...)...I hope the banner looks nice :-)

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sigs suck

Bob
Free Market Evangelist
September 2000
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I think it's a good idea. However, could we use png instead? (patent free, and the Gimp works with them :-)

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- Bob
[ -- All my signature links are 404 -- ]

Sirocco
Member #88
April 2000
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May I humbly make one request?
I know this is going to sound rather selfish (and indeed it is!) but could there possibly be a rule or option to exclude animated banners? I have nothing against static images or buttons (about a year ago I looked into starting a button exchange network for indie games, but nothing came of it...heh).
I've always had a huge problem with animated banners; they just suck your attention from the page content, and in the worst cases can really hose your browser and slow down your system. Let's see, with a 20k size limit you can't put that much animation in a banner, but then again you'd probably be surprised :)

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Graphic file formats used to fascinate me, but now I find them rather satanic.

Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
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I was thinking of doing jpg or png for the sake of prohibiting animated banners. But then I figured I didn't want to prohibit people from being creative. I thought it might be a case where you are punishing 95% of the crowd due to 5%.
So what do people here think? GIF, PNG, JPG? All three? If GIF are accepted then animated banners will be allowed. (I could probably write code to parse the GIF image and check to see what type it is, but I don't feel like it at the moment.) Or maybe allow GIF for the small buttons, but only static images for the banners?
It really doesn't matter to me...
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Matthew Leverton - matthew@allegro.cc

Josh Bolduc
Member #251
April 2000
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I agree that you should allow more than just gif, and as far as animations go I don't think it would be too bad since there is a limit on size anyways.

StevenVI
Member #562
July 2000
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I have no preference on the file type, as long as I have some way of converting an image to that format. Where on OUR sites would the ad have to go? Anywhere we want? Since you get more display time if more people come from your site, that would probably be good. I once joined one of those banner exchange things. I made a really lame banner. There was also the same stupid ad on my page everytime I went there (which was rare), I doubt mine ever got displayed on anyone else's site... I got rid of that "service" :P.

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Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
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The banner can go anywhere. Like I said, I'm not going to have some strict regulations about it being on the top 25% of the front page or things like that. Since I'm only dealing with Allegro.cc members, I don't believe I'll have to worry about cheaters - who'd want to loose access to Allegro.cc just over faking banner impressions. ;)
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Matthew Leverton - matthew@allegro.cc

vpenquerch
Member #233
April 2000

Matthew:
could you please be more specific about what you intend to do ? what do you mean by benners ? ads ?
if i understood correctly, we would put ads for our own games on allegro.cc and get ads for others' games ???

Bruce Perry
Member #270
April 2000

I'll gladly join in with this, but not on my fortunecity page. Wait till I've got the netfirms one set up (already registered and under development :-)
Vincent: I think he means you have some banners on your website, and other people have your banner on theirs. Allegro.cc then displays some of them too, instead of the current satirical "INVALID ACCOUNT" message :-)

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Bruce "entheh" Perry [ Web site | DUMB | Set Up Us The Bomb !!! | Balls ]
Programming should be fun. That's why I hate C and C++.
The brxybrytl has you.

vpenquerch
Member #233
April 2000

when it's finished, will we have to do that to be on allegro.cc ? i don't want more ads on my page, and i'd feel awkward annoying other people with ads ...

Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
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No, it's completely optional. If you don't want to place a banner on your site, no one will mind at all. If you don't participate then the you just wont have an opportunity to have your website banner displayed on Allegro.cc and the other member sites. Many people have asked me to do this, and I'm just finally getting around to it.
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Matthew Leverton - matthew@allegro.cc

vpenquerch
Member #233
April 2000

cool :)
i might have a go at it later :P

Troy D Patterson
Member #41
April 2000
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Is this one of those things...
"If you enjoy this game.. you'd also like..." Sorta thing...
Cool ^_^

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I am Troy
KQ Lives!|Studio-Griz

Peter Wang
Member #23
April 2000

I don't know if I'll participate in this (my server is already slow enough), but some of us have a "no GIFs" policy. Maybe it's just me :-)

Cage
Member #1,277
March 2001

Sounds like a very cool idea... I think you should allow GIF, JPG, PNG, BMP, and all sorts of other formats. Uhh, does anyone know where I could find a free program for creating animated GIFs?

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leo
Member #46
April 2000

This is just in time - I was considering resizing the Allegro.cc logo to a button size so I can fit on my frontpage along with a few others....
If someone can come up with a good button that is sized around 88x31 pixels, I'll put it up immediately.

Mars
Member #971
February 2001
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And Flash! Don't forget Flash! The coolest banners are made with Flash! !!! :) !!!

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This posting is a natural product. The slight variations in spelling and grammar enhance its individual character and beauty and in no way are to be considered flaws or defects.

Bob
Free Market Evangelist
September 2000
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Flash? Why not a Java banner while we're at it? :-P

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- Bob
[ -- All my signature links are 404 -- ]

leo
Member #46
April 2000

Urgh. I hate java banners... they crash my computer all the time.
Whoever invented java banners should be shot. >:)

Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
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Sorry, no flash or java banners. Those things are dangerous and annoying. I'll try to get this up an running tomorrow and send an e-mail to those of you who signed up. If anyone else wants to, make sure you send me a message to matthew@allegro.cc.
It will require one line of javascript on your website. It was either that or cookies (no other way to do it), and I opted for javascript because it allows me better control. The line will be like this:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.allegro.cc/blah.php"></script>
All that javascript file will do is use "document.write" to output the banner image surrounded by an <a href> tag.
For those with out javascript, nothing will happen at all - so I don't see a problem with doing it that way.
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Matthew Leverton - matthew@allegro.cc

rockslave
Member #873
January 2001
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Man, I entered colappse when Allegro.cc was down. What was I gonna do?
Anyway, I'm in this banner stuff. What Allegro.cc banner should I get? What's the one I should place on my page?
Well, anyway, here's my URL:"
http://rockslavesoft.tripod.com

rockslave
Member #873
January 2001
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Hey Matthew, answer me, man! What allegro.cc banner should I get? Sorry, but my e-mail service is going mad...

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