Nonstop Parties, Patent Trolls and Members Choice Awards

They lost me when the ad appeared.

That's the second LinuxInsider Link that's done that. I won't get suckered a third time.

The "skip this advertisement" link is quite clear, and in a fairly standard location. In fact, my internet here is so slow that I skipped it before the thing even loaded. Really it's nothing to get worked up or negative about. Nobody suckered anyone into anything.

Let's see now, I clicked on the link at Lxer, the next thing I saw was a "full page" ad. I'll admit I didn't go looking for a skip this ad link, I just went back to the LXer page. If they are that desperate for money from advertising, they can be just a little more desperate as far as I'm concerned. They've lost my readership.

Don't have to go looking for it, it's rather hard to miss. It's a fairly common way to deliver ads actually - a bit in-your-face sure, but this is why they make it easy to just skip past. I have seen ones that make you watch an animated Flash advert that automatically forwards you to the content you wanted after you were done watching... now THAT is annoying.

And yeah, methinks maybe they just want to pay the bills. Crazy, I know.

Quoting:methinks maybe they just want to pay the bills.

Fine, and because of the obnoxious way they delivered the ad, they will have to do so without my help, in future.

I don't visit other sites that are equally obnoxious any more either.

I have Adblock. All I see is the "skip" link on an empty page :-)

I vote with tracyanne, rude advertising is bad for your business. In your face marketing gets a look at my backside as I leave response.

I can't stand annoying and in your face advertising, which is why I use adblock, no script, etc. I don't mind mild advertising as it pays for the website, but big flashing ads that occupy more space than the content makes me not want to go back. Small static adverts that don't get in the way of the content is good, sometimes I'll even click on such an advert if it is relevant to what I am interested in. I never click on animated adverts, if I see them.

Just a little heads up for those who want me to visit their site and click on an ad.

boomboomcars, hoping that marketers ever wise up is a futile hope. They operate on the principal that if shouting doesn't work, shout louder.

Tuxchick, I am not sure I have hope that they will listen, but I thought I would share my views anyway. I guess they miss that when speaking and the crowd get louder, often a good way to get them to queit back down again is to speak quietly, or stop speaking. That is one of the things I like better about gmail than yahoo or hotmail, their ads are unobtrusive and relevant opposed to large flashy distracting ads that make you not want to use the email system.

Oh I agree with you, boomboomcar. The other big thing wrong with Web ads is they are pointless. They should learn from newspaper ads. People buy the Wednesday and Sunday papers to get the ads, because they are all about sales and good deals. Can you remember any Web ad that offered an attractive coupon, or any enticing reason to pay attention to it? I can't think of one. I want to like them because they pay my paycheck. But they make it difficult.

> Can you remember any Web ad that offered an attractive coupon, or any enticing reason to pay attention to it?

Yes. Then when I click on them it turns out to have been a lie. Either the product is sold out, simply cannot be found on the website, or there is Boss Hogg-style fine print.

It seems that in this economy many companies are taking the dishonesty route. I wanted to buy a laptop from Staples, but it turned out that there was a complicated reason it could not be done. But they would have been more than happy to sell me an expensive laptop.

Just this morning I wanted to buy a new set of tires. By chance, they were all sold out of the ones on special, and it would take a minimum of two weeks to get them in.

For the record, I do try to link to the pages that do not prompt an advert at you, but the host can change that anytime they want.

There is little I can do about it. It is the 'most' direct link I can find, every time.

Scott

You do a great job, Scott, and it is appreciated.

Oddly, I have AdBlock Plus, and yet the ad appeared.

@tracyanne: You can configure different filtersets for AdBlock plus. It's possible that the list you use doesn't include that ad while mine does.

I just don't go to any articles from Linux Insider anymore.

I've just spent the last 20 minutes being insulted by that ad. My Filters are working correctly, I've got several enabled, including one from the US, but I can't get rid of the ad, I've even had a look at the generated source code of the page, using the Web developer tools, there is an extra image that doesn't get hidden on my set up. I just won't go anywhere near Linux Insider again, they can go do unspeakable thing to themselves as far as I'm concerned.