We've had a lot of requests for more ways for users to earn Buzz. Its been a challenge mostly due to our costs with running generation. With the addition of Buzz, ads can now serve this purpose; offsetting our cost of generation so we can offer more free generations to users per day!
Why were Ads Removed Before?
Originally, we removed ads for a few reasons:
We're users of the site just like you, and we hate ads and unnecessary site cookies too.
The previous implementation was… ugly, and it cheapened the experience.
We tried to make ads work in more places than was feasible based on content types. For example: we wanted mature ads to appear when browsing mature content and the result was a lot of really terrible ads, further compounding what we already disliked about ads.
At the time, we wanted ads to potentially be our only form of revenue to keep the site going, so we couldn't give anything in return for viewing ads.
In summary, ads were annoying, ugly, low quality, and intrusive without significant value. We scrapped them and got to work on bettering the Buzz system to meet our revenue needs instead. Which begs the question:
Why are Ads Back?
We feel like we've addressed a lot of the concerns we had previously with ads, and now with revenue through other channels we can tweak the ad experience to be an addition as opposed to a requirement.
So what's new?
We still hate ads, but unless you're in Europe you don't need to agree to any additional cookies.
Rather than ugly banners on model pages and feeds, ads are now integrated directly into the browsing experience. It's still very easy to tell what is and isn't an ad, but they're nowhere near as in-your-face.
Ads now only show up in specific scenarios, such as when you're not logged in or if you're browsing exclusively Safe For Work content.
Additionally, any tier of membership will never see ads (unless you want to - Members can toggle ads from their Account Settings!)
You now earn Buzz by browsing the site with ads enabled!
Earning Buzz by Viewing Ads
Ads can be used to supplement free Buzz for users that can't afford to buy a subscription. If you do have a membership you can still earn Buzz by toggling on ads in your account settings.
If you're browsing the site without adblock in a Safe For Work filter option you'll earn "Generation Buzz", Buzz that can only be used inside the onsite generator, at a rate of ⚡0.5/ad viewed. Currently, we cap this at ⚡100 Buzz per hour and ⚡400 Buzz per day, but that's subject to change as we tweak the system.
Buzz earned from viewing ads are paid out at the top of each hour (1:00, 2:00, 3:00, ect) the daily limit resets each day at 12:00AM UTC
Generator Buzz
Browsing ads will now earn you "Generation Buzz" Buzz that can only be spent in the generator. This buzz still compensates creators, but cannot be traded between users. By default the generator will use your Generator Buzz first before using your normal Buzz.
What's next for Ads?
Currently this reimplementation of ads is an experiment. As long as it's breaking even and giving more people a way to generate we'll consider it a success, but expect tweaks and changes while we do so!