[LINK] Fwd: Re: Unusable Web-Site

[Ivan Trundle]

On 16/07/2007, at 3:45 PM, Roger Clarke wrote:

> At 15:11 +1000 16/7/07, Ivan Trundle wrote:
>> Other users might not see it as a problem, though. ...
>
> Is my taxis *really* worse than other people's? http:// 
> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxis

Or my tropism? It's hard to gauge, but we are of a different  
generation to those who often make and place the ads that we both  
loathe.

> A sample page from the site in question is here:
> http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6104
>
> The AFR ads bobbling around on it at present are bad - although not  
> as bad as some that were hurtling around there a few days ago.
>
> Apart from busting (some people's) concentration, bouncing images  
> significantly detract from the attempt to point-and-drag in order  
> to extract quotes from papers.

The SMH site had (or still has) what is possibly an identical  
problem: I complained more than a year ago, received a reply which  
told me to like it or lump it, then I resorted to ad-blocking, which  
is why the web is so much more civilised through my lens.

> For the record, no I don't have an issue with the use of  
> advertising as a means of earning money.  It's the intrusiveness  
> into the would-be reader's attention-space that's at issue.

On the same path, Roger. But clearly, one person's flashtaxis or  
giftaxis is another's ganglion cell axon blind spot. We should be  
thankful, I suppose, that we still have receptors. But I'm saving my  
fovea for more useful tasks.

>
> (And clearly a site that's intended to offer overloaded multi- 
> media, and where the consumer's expectation is to be subjected to  
> cognitive overload, is a different kettle of fish from a site with  
> genuine content intended for consumption using intellect as well as  
> - or even instead of - the more pleasurable sensory organs).

I've yet to find any multimedia advertising that has been a pleasure  
to watch. It might have improved since I began using ad-blocking, but  
from Roger's account, this is most doubtful.

iT

--
Ivan Trundle
http://itrundle.com ivan at itrundle.com
ph: +61 (0)418 244 259 fx: +61 (0)2 6286 8742
skype: callto://ivanovitchk