I was not aware that Valve was using Pinion on their official servers now. Guess it's a good thing I got out of TF2 when I did. When I ran a community it was completely funded by donations, and normally those donations were met without issue, anything extra was either put back into the community or used when the goal was not necessarily met. I didn't have to force ads on people to stay afloat.
Next thing you know it, you'll purchase a game full price and have to watch a 30 second ad (lol EA games intro movies) to even play the game. I completely support players using the HOSTS file, turning off the MOTD, or etc to not see those ads. On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 9:45 AM, Mart-Jan Reeuwijk <[email protected]>wrote: > I've been using MVPS Hosts for many years: > http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm > for a number of reasons like security, ad blocking, stats blocking etc. > > One of the listed lines in it: > > 127.0.0.1 motd.pinion.gg #[Game Adverts] > > There is no reason to ban ppl who use localized settings as their > preference. People have the choice to disable the MOTD, etc. > > And actually that is not hacking "your" server. They block the content > from Pinion, which is a 3rd party who has nothing to do with the client but > way more with the server ('s owner). The client blocking the third party is > entirely up to them. They didn't change or access your server in any way > inappropriate. > > And btw, "hacking" in relation to the game is being able to overcome > server settings/limitations by using arbitrary means that change processes > run-time. Like the named "aimbots" "wallhacks" etc. Protection/insurance of > client settings and files is done via the sv_cheats and sv_pure var's. Its > "exploiting" when something is abused but not protected within the game. If > its downright a OPTION in the game to block MOTD's, its neither in regards > to blocking the pinion ads. > > You state that its in the "rules" of the server that clients should view > the MOTD... but where/when do you state that? When the client connects? in > the MOTD? oh, no, thats already (ab)used with Pinion. so where/when then? > in the game's chat? more ads in-game midscreen ? I've always seen the MOTD > as a place where a server owner can put his banner, server rules and > whatnot so players have an idea what community and rules they have to play > by. If you as server owner replaced that with 1 big advert, then when are > the players to find out about the rules? not from your MOTD, and by the > time you can advert them, they are already past that. > > Also, with Pinion crashing clients if they have the latest Flash > installed, who are you to crash somebody's game? > > With what I read bout the pinion stuff, I'm just glad I disabled MOTD a > long time ago, it has been a pain crashing the game for a number of things > over the years, and there is never been anything there thats interesting > enough. So far I've not seen even 1 positive argument to enable it anyways. > With positive one I mean not saying: > - or otherwise you just look at a countdown > - or you get a ban > - etc. > > Make it a privilege, that they get a "donator slot" or other perks for 3 > hours or something like that. Reward them doing "good", don't punish the > "bad". I bet you get then even discussions about it to get ppl to enable > it. Instead of now ppl recommending each other to turn it off, getting a > hosts block, etc. > > "Join a Pinion enabled server, watch their video, and get a Neon-sign hat." > > No idea how it can be that a advertizing company doesn't know how to > please their audience. Guess thats the gap between the "positive" message > and actually giving a positive experience. > > Also, reading the SPUF, with Pinion ads running, it loads its video, and > takes so long to load the video, and then it still has to finish it. So > thats 1-1,5 minutes instead of the 30 second countdown? pfff, 30 sec > countdown any time beats that timewaste. > > > ------------------------------ > *From:* Todd Pettit <[email protected]> > > *To:* Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list < > [email protected]> > *Sent:* Tuesday, 19 February 2013, 6:11 > > *Subject:* Re: [hlds] Pinion Pot of Gold blacklist? > > My point is if you are using you client settings to subvert my server > settings then you are hacking. So there is no reason I should not punish > players who subvert the ads any differently than someone who spams chat, > abuses voting, trolls the server, aimbots, wallhacks, etc. By your > reasoning these hacks, cheats, and behaviors are perfectly reasonable to > use on any server simply because you are located somewhere else. The second > you connect to our server you are taking the slot of a player who actually > contributes to the well being of the community and you are just to lazy to > join one of hundreds of other servers and not contribute to them. I don't > take it personally, by the way, I prevent it. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "[BT]Black V" <[email protected]> > To: "Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list" < > [email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 12:02:24 AM > Subject: Re: [hlds] Pinion Pot of Gold blacklist? > > > > > > > > The game is free NOW. > But yes that is my point I would join another server rather than see ads > > and your point is you feel you have the right to show me those ads > > It's not a personal attack on you, I don't like ads, where I can avoid > them, I do > As you server is under you full control, so is my client > > > > > On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 5:35 PM, Yun Huang Yong < [email protected] > > wrote: > > > > On 19/02/2013 3:12 PM, Todd Pettit wrote: > > > I offer a pinion bypass to all my players for $1 a month. It already has > close to a hundred people who are contributing. So our players obviously > like our servers enough to contribute. > > How do you handle the billing? > > I looked around for ways for players to contribute micro-donations and > most solutions made it crazily inefficient. e.g. PayPal is 2.4% + 30c for > every transaction. > > I would love a mechanism that allowed players to easily contribute micro > amounts... :) > > > > ______________________________ _________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > https://list.valvesoftware. com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ hlds > > > > -- > Cheers > > Terry Wrennall > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds > > > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds > >
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