I’m sorry to say that I had a terrible experience with an audio advertisement. The ad was so bad that it made me want to vomit. I can’t believe that anyone would put this kind of crap out there.
Photo by Vitor P
If you were subjected to the annoying ad, we’re sorry, and this time it’s really not going to happen again. We’ve disabled the offending advertiser and won’t do business with them until they find a way to leave control of the ads completely in our hands so we can make sure it doesn’t happen in the future—or we just won’t do business with them period.
Audio ads that play automatically are the lowest of the low, one of the most dirty rotten tricks that a website can play on a reader. At least your browser has a built-in popup ad blocker—you’ll need to install Flashblock or something similar to stop audio ads from blaring out of your speakers (which is also one of the ways we prevented YouTube videos from playing automatically—you’ll simply see the Flashblock icon in place of the normal Flash ad).
We’ve long prided ourselves in avoiding intrusive, sleazy advertising and providing a clean, genuinely useful website for our readers—and we intend to stick by it, recession or not. We don’t think a recession is any excuse for compromising your core principles—and frankly, it’s a critical point where you need to stick with the core values that brought you success in the first place. You can’t simply sell out because it’s too tough for you.
