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My Two Bits for October,
2004 is titled :
This Editorial Can Be Closed By Clicking This TINY LITTLE
DOT!---> 
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I'm a big advocate against this whole
"pop up ads" thing. Just for newbies to know; the blurb in the
opening title page of this web site is on the level: NO
POP-UP COMMERCIALS. **EVER**. GUARANTEED! Sure, sometimes we don't make much money here to do what we
do, to the point where when one of us goes on vacation, the whole site
goes with them (in other words: no updates, until their return). That's still a heck of a lot
less convenient than... these ...stupid ...dumb ...annoying ...pop-ups!!!
It was bad enough when I wrote the
editorial, DEATH to Pop-Up Window Commercials,
which even had a follow-up. Sure, pop-ups would appear right in front of what you were
reading, without provocation, yet at least then they were separate
windows, easily closed. That is starting to change...and, like all pop-up
window etiquette (cough, cough!), the change is even more annoying than ever
before, as impossible as that may seem.
Here's the deal: as a rule, you can no
longer easily close a pop-up window. Nor can you "click" on the
larger window, to put the window you're reading in the front, ignoring the
ad for later. You cannot even move, or otherwise "detour" the pop-up. No; these
are Macromedia Flash pop-ups (gee; thanks a whole heaping bunch,
Macromedia!!!), which means they are part of the page...literally. They
cannot be moved or even ignored, until the pretty little Flash
animation does its pretty little thing. Only then will these new pop-ups
give you permission to get back to reading the page you wanted to read.
What's worse; as a rule, the only way to close these pop-ups is either a
teeny little "x" on the corner of the pop-up, or even
worse, an itty bitty little dot. Yes; a DOT! Some ads can't even be
closed, forcing you to see their little commercial for a whole (wasted)
10-30 seconds, until you can get back to what you were doing...like, say,
your actual job.
My; what a brilliant advertising strategy
this is...NOT! See; many of us use the internet as a pastime...and
admittedly, not at the best of times. Here we log into what appears to be
another incongruous title page of, say, our favorite theater page, to
see what times we can see the latest Oscar contender this weekend.
Suddenly, some stupid character appears on screen, from The Stupidest
Movie Of All Time (This Week!), with a stupid voice
bellowing on your PC's speakers to the max. Who knows what this little dweeb actually said; all you
know is that he just alerted every cubicle within a 100 yard radius that
you aren't doing your work. Not that this ever happened to me of course
(knock wood), but it is one likely anecdote among many, showing how stupid
these unpredictable popup commercials are.
In case you were wondering: yes, I'm
serious, when I say that this editorial can indeed by closed by that tiny
little dot. It can even be closed by this tiny little dot:
The point is: 1) it isn't a stupid commercial in front of what you're
reading, and 2) it can also be closed normally. There
are many ways to make an entertaining advertisement, to get some needed
revenue for your web site; none of them include
forcing people to read something they don't want to. While various bigwig
commercial teams pay a web site big bucks for such coerced
commercials; what about the people who visit your site? I guarantee you
that many of those people will do everything in their power to avoid sites
with too many popup ads;
I should know, because I'm such a person. Who knew that adding too much
"Flash" could be so annoying?
As Always: I'm Techtite,
and these are My Two Bits...
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