Web designers have developed their ability to annoy readers to the point where I now weigh the value of getting free information against having to suffer as the price.
There is a defense for the type of on-line advertising that shoves messages in your face: leave. That’s what I did when the Advocate’s blog page was overwhelmed by one of its pop-up ads. I voted against it in the only way I could: I checked out.
Most, if not all, of the Advocate’s on-line pages have become excruciatingly tedious by the insertion of over-sized, flashing, garish “ads” begging by their cheeky and cheesy appearance to force feed unwilling readers.
Only this morning I removed the Columbus Dispatch from the news sites I visit daily. I did it for the same reason. Just one too many of their over-zealous and unwanted intrusions into my life.
Neither the Dispatch nor Advocate sites work well with my Mac and its Safari browser anyway. Their on-line pages, unlike other web sites I visit regularly, require special effort to make them fit my screen, and of the two the Dispatch is by far the worst.
There comes a point when the effort required for reading overwhelms the need for information. The Dispatch has reached it and the Advocate is drifting closer.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
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I agree. It's the equivalent of the Columbus Dispatch Sunday edition where you have to turn page after page of ads to read a story. I never read it much because of that, I won't read the Advocate anymore either.
ReplyDeleteThe Advocate is going through growing pains, hopefully not dying pains. They're trying to apply old-style newspaper business practices to the Internet and it just doesn't work well for the reader. Being the only game in town, they'll get by, but if that ever changes, they're done.
The game is already changing on them and I've found many good reasonable news services. One simple way is to put an e-mail alert in Google news and blog for "Newark Ohio" or any other search term that you want news on. The methods are increasing in number weekly.
I don't have anything against advertising on a website. Sometimes, I actually find something I'm looking for. The problem is as you stated, it's overwhelming. It shows greed and lack of taste with their methods. My guess would be that the website is losing money and subscription prices are low. The only solution that they found, throw out more ads. I feel sorry for the poor soul who may have suggested, "Lets ad some more compelling content.".
In historical times like these, stories are everywhere. It's a shame.
Good thoughts, Mark. but most especially the one about trying for compelling content as a means of drawing readers to pages with ads.
ReplyDeleteassholes
ReplyDelete