Ads in Conversation Replies

In order to avoid ad clutter in replies, we have recently updated the logic behind the frequency and placement of ads in Conversation replies.

Goals

  • Avoid ad stacking
  • Decrease ad density by increasing intervals between ads
  • Mitigate loss of revenue by keeping ads in reply threads with enough spacing to balance the UX.

Logic Updates

Footer Ad

  • First, check if the last comment has an ad:
    • If so:
      • don't load the footer ad
      • apply any CSS related tweaks (eg. remove extra whitespace)
    • If not, load the footer ad

Example 1

819

An example of last comment having an ad which disallows an ad in the footer.

Reply Thread Ads

Let the default ad interval be x.

  • If the parent comment of this reply thread has an ad OR
  • if the next comment after the parent comment has an ad:
    • 2x - double the ad interval for this thread for less ad cadence
  • If neither parent nor next comment has an ad:
    • 1x - no change to ad interval

Example 2

631

In this example, the promo interval for replies is 2 but because the next comment has an ad, the interval is overridden and becomes 4.

Special Case

  • If the final reply in the thread lands on an ad interval AND
  • if there is a next comment:
    • show ad
  • Otherwise, don't show ad

Example 3

631

For this special case, if we remove one reply from the previous example, the promo interval is ignored to avoid the ads from stacking.