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Back in April we got together and put together a shortlist of community ads that can be posted to other graduated sites. That was a very successful campaign with probably a thousand or two "click throughs" to Code Review.

Let's reboot the process and roll the ads out again!

Results

The following are the top-3 voted candidates, and will move on to the 'post to ads' system:

  • (30) Mjolka

  • (27) Mat's Mug

  • (22) Flambino

The possible candidate sites for these ads are (graduated, computer-related, not Stack Overflow):

Are there graduated sites that make sense in addition to these (not Stack Overflow - off-limits)?

Last round we only targeted Programmers....

What's a good way to narrow down this decision?

I would like to see ads on Programmers, and potentially comp-sci, GameDev, and Webmasters. Possibly more. Do all the ads go to each? Decisions, decisions....

What are Community Promotion Ads?

There is a blog post about community ads, but the short version is:

Community Promotion Ads are community-vetted advertisements that will show up on the main site, in the right sidebar. The purpose of this question is the vetting process. Images of the advertisements are provided, and community voting will enable the advertisements to be shown.

What are we going to do?

We are going to make ads for Code Review, and 'inject' them in to the ads that are shown on sites like Programmers

These ads are shown in a cycle that is displayed to viewers of those sites. Any graduated site, oher than Stack Overflow, is a candidate site for community ads.

Two Things...?

  1. What sites should we advertise on?
  2. What should the adverts be?

The ad submissions posted as answers on this question, that get the highest votes will be the top candidates for the actual ads on other sites. You can make special ads for certain sites if you want too. You should clearly include in your answer any details you think may be relevant.

We will run this till Halloween (Oct 31, 2014)!

The strict rules for the ads:

  • The image that you create must be 220 x 250 pixels
  • Must be hosted through our standard image uploader (imgur)
  • Must be GIF or PNG
  • No animated GIFs
  • Absolute limit on file size of 150 KB

Examples

Look through the last round of ads that were done

The highest voted ones were:

Ad1Ad2

May the odds be ever in your favor!

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  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ When we grow up, we'll have our own community-ads tag, and other sites will come to post their ads on our graduated meta site! \$\endgroup\$
    – Mathieu Guindon
    Commented Oct 4, 2014 at 3:48
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ I just like the left one. Only the comment should be changed to "Share your working code for peer review" \$\endgroup\$
    – Heslacher
    Commented Oct 6, 2014 at 5:54
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Don't have an image to go with it, but what about a play on the Six Million Dollar Man: we can review your code. make it better... stronger... faster. \$\endgroup\$
    – cimmanon
    Commented Oct 6, 2014 at 13:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ Total duplicate of another question: Vote to close! Ok, kidding of course, but I have to ask: Are the non-winner ads from last time back in the running? I'm guessing no, because that feels like cheating. At the same time, this is basically the same thing all over again, so ideas from last time are still relevant (full disclosure: My ads from the last round hold places 3..6, so I'm sympathetic to cheating :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 6, 2014 at 19:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ I see no problem in re-submitting previous ads, @Flambino Go for it. \$\endgroup\$
    – rolfl
    Commented Oct 7, 2014 at 10:11
  • \$\begingroup\$ 'Does this code make my ass look fat' :D \$\endgroup\$
    – BoJack Horseman
    Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 15:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ @IbrahimApachi - this has some historical significance too... since it was essentially the 1-liner used to describe what code Review is about, when Code Review was first started. \$\endgroup\$
    – rolfl
    Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 15:33

13 Answers 13

Reset to default
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enter image description here

Theme and icons from MahApps.Metro, source available on GitHub. Thanks to @Mat'sMug, @IsmaelMiguel, and @200_success for suggested improvements :)

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Simple, sleek, and catchy. I like it. \$\endgroup\$
    – RubberDuck
    Commented Oct 7, 2014 at 8:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ Nice! Only missing a little border :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Mathieu Guindon
    Commented Oct 7, 2014 at 22:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Mat'sMug thanks, added a border :) \$\endgroup\$
    – mjolka
    Commented Oct 7, 2014 at 22:48
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Nice indeed, but shouldn't we initially show the (hopefully) new user that we expect the code to be working ? How about "your working code, improved." ? As I am not a graphic person (Truth is, I hate it), I can't design such a thing. \$\endgroup\$
    – Heslacher
    Commented Oct 8, 2014 at 5:23
  • 6
    \$\begingroup\$ @Heslacher I don't think it's the responsibility of the ad to educate future users, just to attract them. If CR doesn't make clear the minimum standards we have for questions (and I think we certainly fall short on that), that should be addressed in a different way. \$\endgroup\$
    – mjolka
    Commented Oct 8, 2014 at 6:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ +1 Good point . \$\endgroup\$
    – Heslacher
    Commented Oct 8, 2014 at 6:14
  • 4
    \$\begingroup\$ Something tells me that those braces may be the new CR logo... \$\endgroup\$
    – syb0rg
    Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 3:40
  • \$\begingroup\$ @syb0rg that gives me an idea: {ode}eview (has that been done?) \$\endgroup\$
    – mjolka
    Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 3:51
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @mjolka an ode to to clean code? \$\endgroup\$
    – Mathieu Guindon
    Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 11:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ Where is the code? \$\endgroup\$
    – Ismael Miguel
    Commented Oct 19, 2014 at 3:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ @IsmaelMiguel follow the GitHub link. \$\endgroup\$
    – mjolka
    Commented Oct 19, 2014 at 3:28
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ It's not that... The window has no code. What will you be reviewing? Or is it a tiny Whitespace program? \$\endgroup\$
    – Ismael Miguel
    Commented Oct 19, 2014 at 3:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ @IsmaelMiguel oh, I get you now. I thought code would clutter it up. Feel free to make a variation with code if you want :) \$\endgroup\$
    – mjolka
    Commented Oct 19, 2014 at 3:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ @IsmaelMiguel I've posted a version with code below. \$\endgroup\$
    – mjolka
    Commented Oct 19, 2014 at 22:40
28
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Jon Skeet leads the all-time SE rep score leaderboards with over 700K reputation on Stack Overflow.

Nobody can beat Jon Skeet... except on Code Review!

CodeReview is graduating; come beat Jo

"@Mat's Mug: Fine by me." - Jon Skeet

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  • 5
    \$\begingroup\$ It might work. Personally, though, while I've heard of Jon Skeet, there was no immediate recognition. My very first impression was "Who? Oh." I actually thought it was a yearbook photo, and a play on "graduating". Then I saw the rep count, and it became "oh, so it's an SE in-joke." Though it could certainly interest those who are more tuned into the SE meta, I imagine the more casual user will stop at just "Who?" \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 16:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Flambino the "yearbook effect" is intentional. The ad is targeted at somewhat experienced SE users, aiming to attract would-be regular reviewers. Even if you don't know who Jon Skeet is, beating 551 rep shouldn't be that hard right? (and by the time you get there, you're hooked!) \$\endgroup\$
    – Mathieu Guindon
    Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 19:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ Well, then I can report that the yearbook effect worked as intended :) And your points are of course valid; it would no doubt do well as an ad! I think I'm sort of an edge case: I know enough to know that I don't care, so to speak (that's too harsh a formulation, but I trust you know what I mean). I'm ok with broad memes/culture references (I mean, I did a "keep calm" poster-ad last round), but references to a sub-culture's meta discourse is a bridge too far for me :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 19:57
  • 21
    \$\begingroup\$ oh my god... I just noticed... Jon answered you 37 seconds before you'd even asked him! No wonder his rep is what it is! Though if I were him, I'd play the stock market \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 12, 2014 at 8:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Flambino I imagine our target market with this ad is the hundreds of thousands of people who do know who Jon Skeet is, since statistically they're more likely to join another SE site than a random person. #knowyourdemo \$\endgroup\$
    – corsiKa
    Commented Oct 12, 2014 at 18:26
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ @corsiKa it's precisely because I know who he is I kinda got turned off by this. Again, personal opinion - I even said I thought it'd do well. My personal feeling is just that it's too targeted. Too much of an in-joke for my taste; more about the meta of SE (rep hunting and who's who) than the content and of SE and CR. That said, it'll probably be effective; it's just not my cup of tea. \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 12, 2014 at 18:43
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ I think the whole Skeet meme is horribly over-rated already. I'm not a big fan of this ad. \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Forsberg
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 19:40
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @SimonAndréForsberg TBH I'm surprised at the score this one is getting. But where's your ad? \$\endgroup\$
    – Mathieu Guindon
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 3:49
22
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Since the previous round's ads are allowed, I'll post my personal favorite. Incidentally, it was the least upvoted one of the 4 ads I made back then.

steps

Here's the original description:

I was originally thinking of using "refactor, rethink, redesign" and other "re-" words with "review" and "refine" being the key ones. But "Review → Refine" is really the core, and this also better alludes to what's on-topic on CR (assuming "Run" actually works).

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5
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ I really like this one. Leaving a comment because I can't vote twice... \$\endgroup\$
    – RubberDuck
    Commented Oct 8, 2014 at 22:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ @RubberDuck Thanks, appreciated :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 16:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ In my opinion, I think you should give some space between "Code Review" and the other words. And the logo coming before the name. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ismael Miguel
    Commented Oct 19, 2014 at 3:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ @IsmaelMiguel Actually, the intention is present "Review" as just another verb in the list from "Design" to "Refine". It just happens to also be the site's name, but here's it's mostly just another step in the process. It stands out a little more by being bolded, but not so much as to break the list of verbs completely. The logo (insofar as we have one) is just there for a bit of graphical flair, so it's not just text. \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 14:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Flambino I get your idea now. Thanks for the comment. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ismael Miguel
    Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 14:20
20
\$\begingroup\$

simple ad

@throws graduation party

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4
  • \$\begingroup\$ nitpicking, but perhaps right-align your code and great code? \$\endgroup\$
    – h.j.k.
    Commented Oct 15, 2014 at 6:22
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ @h.j.k. outlining comments is baaad. See Clean Code on comments. \$\endgroup\$
    – Pimgd
    Commented Oct 16, 2014 at 9:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ hoho must be my self-prescribed OCD kicking in then... \$\endgroup\$
    – h.j.k.
    Commented Oct 16, 2014 at 10:27
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @h.j.k. To be honest, I spent some time in Photoshop going back and forth before deciding not to align the two. But it took a while :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 16, 2014 at 11:14
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I wanted to reuse the "tough questions, smart answers" slogan from the previous round, so I combined it with @flambino's idea and got this:

word cloud; tough questions, smart answers.

Too crowded?

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4
  • \$\begingroup\$ +1 Nice - I was thinking of doing something similar (something à la Apple keynote slides like this), but I kept coming back to "pure" text, so to speak. But this certainly works! I might skip the drop shadows, though. I think they attribute to the "crowdedness" and hurt readability somewhat \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 18, 2014 at 23:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Flambino removed the drop shadows layer. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mathieu Guindon
    Commented Oct 19, 2014 at 1:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ Nice - I think it's an improvement. Simplicity and all that :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 19, 2014 at 16:56
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ I find the fact that the slogan has stuck hilarious. +1. \$\endgroup\$
    – Adam
    Commented Oct 25, 2014 at 8:10
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I liked the old one that had some code in it, but it was basically demonstrating the process rather than showing some code and potential feedback on it. This might show a bit more about what you might get if you asked for a code review:

You wouldn’t publish an article without copy-editing. [some code with suggestions: “use for-each”, “be consistent w/ brace pos.”, “use .equals()”, “camel-case”, “catch exceptions”, “use consistent tab size”] Why would you for code?

The font size is a little small, but I’d have to remove something if I wanted to make it bigger. I’m no designer, so perhaps some other parts could also stand some tweaking. (Hey, maybe I could take this over to Graphic Design.SE… hmm…) The “You wouldn’t” part was inspired by this ad, but the general theme of that doesn’t fit; nevertheless, I think this worked out okay.

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  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ If you want to turn Mailmessage into MailMessage, I believe that's 'PascalCase'. \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Forsberg
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 19:45
  • 8
    \$\begingroup\$ I like the concept, but there might be too much information in it. +1 though. \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Forsberg
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 19:46
  • \$\begingroup\$ Thought the ad was the one from IT Crowd. \$\endgroup\$
    – Quaxton Hale
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 0:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ It's a fantastic idea, but a little cluttered. Maybe use a language without brackets (e.g. Python) to save 3 lines? \$\endgroup\$
    – raptortech97
    Commented Oct 29, 2014 at 20:10
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Best Medicine for anti-patterns : Code Review SE

Suggestions welcome

Anti Pattern

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  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Oooh I like this one! \$\endgroup\$
    – Mathieu Guindon
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 17:27
  • \$\begingroup\$ We could strike out Best, replace with Bad, call Bon Jovi to get his approval on putting his face on the ad, bingo! (Alright, I'm out) \$\endgroup\$
    – IEatBagels
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 18:51
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Modification suggestions are welcome

First One

New version without M$ Logo

Updated

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I'd be very careful about using a trademarked logo (look under "V") \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 11, 2014 at 18:29
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Flambino see the new version \$\endgroup\$
    – JaDogg
    Commented Oct 11, 2014 at 20:09
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ I love it, only the Java logo (and VS logo in the first) seem like they don't fit with the others. Maybe a comment // instead? Otherwise great work :) \$\endgroup\$
    – mjolka
    Commented Oct 11, 2014 at 22:37
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ @mjolka that's coffee \$\endgroup\$
    – JaDogg
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 17:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ Java is coffee ;P \$\endgroup\$
    – Seth
    Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 1:29
12
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I actually deleted this one, but it seems others have undeleted it without my knowledge.

Personally, I just changed my mind about it. It seemed funny at first, but, if anything, it's a better joke than it is a good ad; it's crass and graphically speaking it's just not great. Hence why I deleted it to take it out of the running. But apparently I got overruled. Kinda strange, if you ask me.

If you too think it's inappropriate, by all means downvote. I'd do it myself, if I could :)

Below is the answer, unaltered from its undeleted state.

Ok, this is mostly a joke but I couldn't help myself.

But we can help!

On the pro side, it implies we're good at what we do: Cross-domain sense of smell!
On the con side, it's just low-brow and aggressive. And dumb, frankly. And it doesn't really explain anything.

I feel like it might get some clicks, though... but it'll probably lure more idly curious visitors than genuinely interested ones.

Also: Caps lock. And the typography is lackluster. Yeah, The con side is getting crowded.

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  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ While I find it funny, I don't think is the type of ads that I want to promote for Code Review. \$\endgroup\$
    – Marc-Andre
    Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 15:52
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @Marc-Andre I completely agree. As I said, I just couldn't help myself. Funny, but not the right tone. \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 16:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ It's cocky, but funny. I get a chuckle out of it, but loud with the caps lock. It's good to keep it around to inspire. \$\endgroup\$
    – janos
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 5:43
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adjectivitis

I admit this is pretty abstract, but that's the sort of thing I like.

I tried with "make your code..." at the start or just "... code" at the end, but either thing detracted from the visual impact, I thought.

Edit: Speaking of visual impact, here's a true "block" of text

CR makes your code
neat, maintainable
simple, extensible
concise, efficient
elegant, idiomatic
reusable, flexible
readable and clean

It includes the 3 extra adjectives mentioned by Simon in the comments, but it's getting a bit too tl;dr :)
But it's nice that you can make it line up (for no real reason) :)

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  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ Thought this was an acrostic at first. \$\endgroup\$
    – Quaxton Hale
    Commented Oct 11, 2014 at 22:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ @EngieOP Heh, nice idea actually. Too bad that this spells "scriereb" or something... Still, it is a "puzzle" in the sense that I hope the reader will figure out that all those adjectives relate to code and be intrigued. Maybe. \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 11, 2014 at 22:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) +1 tho , verrry niiiccee. \$\endgroup\$
    – Quaxton Hale
    Commented Oct 12, 2014 at 2:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ You should add flexible, maintainable, extensible... \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Forsberg
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 19:47
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @SimonAndréForsberg Good ones. I had "maintainable" on there to begin with, but it just didn't look nice (too long a word). Flexible and extensible could be nice additions though. Just don't know if there's any room. I want it to stand out visually before you start reading, and the block of text and its wide margins helps that, I think. Besides, I'm not sure it's possible to do a truly exhaustive list of adjectives anyway - at least not in the space given. I'll try it out when I the time though. \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 20:20
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Very neat!\nNice it is\nwhen right\n ;-) \$\endgroup\$
    – rolfl
    Commented Oct 18, 2014 at 22:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ @rolfl "Strict word arrangement / Should just make a damn haiku / But that is too trite" ;) \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 18, 2014 at 22:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ I borrowed from this one a bit. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mathieu Guindon
    Commented Oct 18, 2014 at 23:23
8
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Yoda

suggestions welcome

Yoda

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  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ This is cool but may have some copyright infringement issues.. \$\endgroup\$
    – Phrancis
    Commented Oct 12, 2014 at 10:47
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ it's one of those pug dogs with a really big lower lip ;) \$\endgroup\$
    – Malachi Mod
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 14:51
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @Malachi haha yeah \$\endgroup\$
    – JaDogg
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 17:43
  • 5
    \$\begingroup\$ "When 900 lines of code you reach, smell as good, you will not!" \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 18, 2014 at 23:39
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Also, I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help but be reminded of this damn meme :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Flambino
    Commented Oct 18, 2014 at 23:40
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Technically, it should be "smell bad in your code is", or "smell bad your code does", or "smelly your code is", no? (better ask a native English speaker / Yoda fan for the best) \$\endgroup\$
    – janos
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 5:38
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yes, I agree the first line doesn't really sound like Yoda.. \$\endgroup\$
    – Seth
    Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 1:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ omg I hope this one will make it :D \$\endgroup\$
    – BoJack Horseman
    Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 15:34
2
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enter image description here

Created this while playing Team Fortress 2 using an online SketchPad within Steam's web browser. FYI, Jamal's team was rekt.

Also something strange happens when I use the combine feature on all elements. The face...WTF.

enter image description here

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0
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Suggestions welcome

allur

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

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