And it’s back! Our horribly out-of-date, barely interactive letters page is now into its second year, and bizarrely, is still going strong. If you want to get involved, the details for getting in touch are at the bottom. But for now, this is what we found in our mailbag this month…
Ad Block & Disqus
I was just starting to feel accepted and part of this community, but now that my adblock has started hiding the Disqus comments (two or three weeks ago) at the bottom of the articles, I find I am coming here less often, and that makes me very sad. These ads are a massive annoyance and very distracting, I do not watch them on TV at home because they are so annoying, and I should be able to enjoy the Internet without them too. Especially my favourite website.
Is there any way you can look into this and change it back to what it was before? As a semi-regular comment contributor to the excellent Geeks vs Loneliness feature of your site on which I have written about my own depression and loneliness, I am now feeling kind of excluded and out of touch because of my preference to not look at ads.
Sincerely yours,
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Rod
Simon writes: A few things here.
Firstly, you’re the second person to say they’ve had problems seeing Disqus comments in the last couple of weeks. Is anyone else having the same issue? To the best of my knowledge, nothing has changed, but then Disqus is a third party plug-in that we use, so there may be something out of our control there. If anyone else has had similar problems, can they let us know?
Secondly, your contributions to Geeks Vs Loneliness have been warmly welcomed and appreciated. You are a part of the community here, and we very much appreciate that. Genuinely.
Thirdly, ads.
Since the day this site started, we’ve tried to balance advertising and editorial, and on the whole, most of the feedback we’ve had has been positive. The harsh reality, though, is that without ads, there’s no site. We pay people to contribute to Den Of Geek, and want their writing to have a value on it. We fund that via advertising. I appreciate that one or two campaigns have made the site trickier to navigate, and they have been adjusted as a result of feedback. But it’s the support of advertisers that allows us to pay the bills, and do what we do with Den Of Geek. We can’t stop people using ad blocking software, but it does hurt the site if you do. Not massively, granted, but it still does a little damage.
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That third point isn’t directed at you personally, Rod, rather that one or two people have brought this up over our Twitter feed and thus it seemed right I address it. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so.
Once we find out more about Disqus issues, I’ll give an update!
Orphan Black and Peterborough
[Redacted kind words] stuff about the site etc etc.
Anyway, do you have any news of a UK transmission for S3 of Orphan Black. BBC Three’s Twitter says soon everytime you ask it.
I have a six-month old son, so I would like it on my TV for so I can try and concentrate through all the science stuff once said son is asleep!
GuyPeterborough (it’s not as bad as people think it is)
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Simon writes: Four things.
Firstly, Peterborough is adorable.
Secondly, given the deadlines for our letters page, we suspect an answer to this would have been more useful to you in August, when you originally asked the question.
Thirdly, there’s still not been an official announcement on when we get Orphan Black season three over here. We share your frustration.
Fourthly, belated congratulations on the birth of your son! Gnomeo & Juliet just about works as an entry-level Statham film.
The DoGMRoD?
I am a regular follower of your early morning Tweets, which seem to consist of coffee and general morning despair, to which I can relate. However, over the past few weeks, you’ve been Tweeting about DoGMRoD (TM). Can I ask what it is?
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John B
Simon writes: You can indeed. DoGMROD (TM) stands for Den Of Geek Morning Refresh Of Doom. Basically, somewhere between 6.30am and 7.30am every weekday morning, alarm clock-depending, we try and put live the main day’s content in one go. This usually entails 10-15 articles going live at roughly the same time. That, John B, is the Den Of Geek Morning Refresh Of Doom, which at the last count, was anticipated daily by 47 people.
Ant-Man
I have a request for you. When you talk about the film Ant-Man in future, do you reckon you can get through ONE ARTICLE without mentioning that it was going to be directed by Edgar Wright? WE KNOW!
Peyton Reed did a brilliant job, and whilst he wasn’t the first director of Ant-Man, I don’t think Edgar Wright could have done much better. I’m sick of reading every news story everywhere talking about the person who didn’t make it, rather than the one who did.
Simon writes: Oddly enough, the last time we wrote about the film, we didn’t mention Mr Wright’s name once. I do see your point, Andrew, but also, it’s unavoidable to a degree. We’ve been held to account in the person for assuming the everyone knows the background of every film, and it is a shadow that hung over Ant-Man.
Point taken, though. And I do think Peyton Reed did a solid job in very difficult circumstances on Ant-Man.
And that’s it for another letters page! We’ll be back again for more next month!
Send your letters to denofgeek@yahoo.com. Or write to Den Of Geek, Dennis Publishing, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JD. Please enclose a stamped addressed envelope if you want us to send you your letter back once we’ve read it.
