<cfrant>Ok…
I understand (though I’m not happy) that advertising is a part of our everyday lives and ‘online’ is no exception.
I understand that to subsidise costs, many sites have to display advertising to bring us (the audience) great content. These ads are usually in the form of banners or inline (adsense) textual ads etc.
I understand all of this but what I HATE is video based advertising.
I’m really not trying to pick on these guys, but the ColdFusion Developers Journal currently has video ads on most (all?) pages. It’s just that I’m a frequent visitor to that site, and often I’ll open a few Firefox tabs to start reading when all of a sudden this concerto of advertising hits my ears!
So now when I’m at work (either enhancing my knowledge or doing some research) I need to make sure my sound is off or I’ll annoy my colleagues with some stoopid advertising jingle. I also wonder if this sucks up much extra bandwidth?
This is almost as bad as OTP (over the page) ads in which you HAVE to close the window to even see the site.
Having ‘rich’ advertising is fine, but if I want to view it I’ll click the play button. OK?
I feel a little better now 
</cfrant>
11 Comments
… then get the PDF version.
http://pdf.sys-con.com
hehe, I might just consider that one!
Not great when I’m googling though
Or make you browser (mostly) ad free with the AdBlock Plus FF extension. I haven’t seen an internet ad in ages since I installed it.
Oh man, I didn’t you know you could just go in and grab the PDFs like that. Awesome tip.
But yeah, the Video ads are amazingly irritating.
I was trying to read a 3-page Hal Helms article about mixins today, and it literally took minutes to navigate between the pages due to the video hanging up Firefox
1) use FireFox
2) install adblock
3) visit CFDJ site
4) right click video add and block it.
I don’t MIND ads and I don’t MIND video ads… what I mind is SELF STARTING ads that are BLAZINGLY loud and for Visual Studio el crapomundo!
No, It’s a serious problem. CFDJ is the premier ColdFusion journal and while it’s core content is usually of a fairly high caliber, it’s presentation makes the ColdFusion community look like undiscerning Franklin Mint traders. The entire sys-con style is really embarassing. It’s a shame they can’t bring some professionalism, restraint and style to a much needed forum. Sys-Con media is fucking garbage and I avoid it like the plague.
What Ralph said…
I found this while browsing one day. Updates your hosts file to automatically block most advertisement servers. I got it, now I’d say 98% of ads on the pages are 404-ed right outta here.
http://everythingisnt.com/hosts.html
Theres an installer, or if you don’t want/trust that, theres just the hosts file.
I second Ralph. Considering sys-con deals largely in new media, its website antiquated at best. No one surely takes a website seriously that has a gratuitous amount of advertising. Usability is also an absolute nightmare when popup ads float indescriminately around the window. Someone from their Web2.0 and Design Journals needs to give them a wake-up call.
Grabbing the PDF is useful, but doesn’t allow access to the archive in a more structured way (although the search is also naff on sys-con).