GIF Advertisments as a Prospective Member

[StormyWays13 91]

As a perspective member, has seeing GIF advertisements attracted or deterred you from joining you a new site? 

 

Site Admins:

 

[Kit the Human 758]

If I see a gif advertisement I'll assume that the admin team are big on pic shipping (is that what it's called?) and that's just not something I enjoy. I also assume that it'll come with a community that I won't really integrate with.

[Icewolf 258]

Not really. It may, if the site is in a fandom I'm looking for and there aren't that many around, but in general? No. They'd just irritate me.

[Elena 546]

They are unusual, eye-catching, and I have been compelled to click. I joined some, in the past. Others had aspects which didn't allow me to join, but the gif made me click and check.

[Arceus 1,082]

I'm epileptic.

 

Nobody can choose and design animations correctly, and not manage to give me a migraine, at the very least. At least no one's managed to set off a severe reaction, but that's a small comfort. Animated gifs are so common, now, I expect to run into several, and many not-severe-but-migraine-inducing gifs together on the same page just completely tanks my day. So I have a gif jammer built into my browser. It freezes them on the first frame.

 

So if I come across a gif advertisement, that first frame better be poppin', or it's not doing the site any favours, and chances are, it isn't poppin'. Further, usage of a gif advertisement tells me that site is either extremely visual, and I don't need that kind of negativity, or everything on the site moves, so in general, I'll pass over sites I know use a gif advert (if I can tell... sometimes I can't tell it's supposed to be moving).

[Guest LOVE ME AND DESPAIR]

Honestly not a fan of solely image advertisements in the first place. Plus always felt as far as advertising it could cause issues. Sometimes images don't work right, the links break, etc. With gifs I'd imagine for mobile users who have data limits they likely would be a strong deterrent plus if say they're a member of the site you advert on they could have images set to not display(some forum hosts have this option). The ads that tend to get me are the ones that include text details or even links.

[Jones 177]

I scroll right over them without looking. I won't even read the text part if there's a gif. They just do not bode well for me meshing into the community. As others have elaborated, they just give you certain opinions about what is happening on the site. And its rare that having an unexpected flash of movement suddenly on my screen doesn't make me sick. As in nauseated/dizzy. 

[Huskerdust 625]

Eh I can take em or leave em. I barely even look at ads actually. I usually come across sites while advertising and decide to join based on the site itself not the ad. 

[Sage 289]

I don't like blatant gif ads - they're usually super pixel-y when they're not supposed to be and just generally badly done. But like a subtle gif effect? Something tasteful? Hellz yeah I'll click on that sucker. 

[Somniac 207]

On 12/26/2018 at 5:30 PM, Arceus said:

So I have a gif jammer built into my browser. It freezes them on the first frame.

I'm looking for one that works on Chrome - what browser and jammer do you use?

 

_______

 

Yeah. Gifs are an instant turn-off for me. If there's unavoidable gifs on the site or leading to the site, it's not worth the migraines for me.

[Arceus 1,082]

@SomniacChrome Gif Jam.

It only works on gifs, so it won't jam animated pngs or gifs that use a different extension, though, but it kills most of them.

[Rhindeer 217]

They don't influence my decision to join at all, whether negatively or positively. *shrug* Same for any image advertisement. I ignore it and click to the site to see what it's about.

[Scarlet 8]

It really doesn't matter to me.  Yes, GIFs are more eye catching, but it isn't going to make or break a deal for me.

[Morrigan 1,826]

Being that Gifs bog down load times (as they are huge images) and that they are overall not normally made particularly well I dislike them. I actually tend to avoid sites with gif advertisements as they appear to normally be flashy and overabundant in gifs (like gifs for avatars instead of a hover over gifs in mini-profiles). They are often headache inducing and I'll be honest it makes it horribly difficult to type up a reply while a jerking gif is in view and getting them out of view is a pain in the ass when you're used to using a "fast reply" feature to quickly reply. It's also a pain to try to get them out of view when you are trying to read.

 

To me, many gifs are like mini-strobe lights on a website. You can take them for a little while but eventually you need to get out of the strobe lights to give your eyes some rest.

 

Don't get me wrong, they can be awesome, but they also have the tendency to just be annoying little strobe lights on a site.

 

I prefer my gifs stay to where they are warranted. Normally a joke in a thread. Not a signature, not an avatar, not an advertisement but some good fun.

 

[Stat 60]

I'm a complete GIFaholic. I use them all the time, post them all the time and make them all the time. A well-done gif advertisement (the subtler the better, usually, or mixing static elements with small movement) will absolutely make me happy to look at it, but it won't really make me any more likely to click the add or join the site. GIF ads work for me as any other ads. I may look at them and love them if they're really well made, but if the site doesn't sound like something I'll like or if there isn't any actual information other than a pretty gif, I probably won't click it!

 

I voted I join sites with gif advertisements mostly because it won't deter me from joining and I love looking at them, but I don't think they'll help a lot with making me curious for a site. I had never considered that people might get migraines from them, and I'm curious about this.

 

Do subtle or gifs with only a small moving part suck for you too?