There Is No Cat

Falling prey to the dark side

Earlier this week, UK newspaper The Guardian announced that they were going to offer an ad-free version of their web site for a £20 per year fee. This weekend, it appears that the other shoe has dropped; they’ve made the ads on the existing version of the site so fµcking annoying that they’ll drive anyone who tries to actually read the site mad. It’s bad enough that every page has an seizure-inducing blinking ad for something that claims to be Napster’s replacement. But to add insult to injury, every single page also has the most annoying pop-up window I’ve ever seen. It starts as a small window in the upper-left corner, then gets longer until it takes up the whole left side of your screen. Then it expands to cover the entire screen. I have no idea what the ad is for, because this jarring experience lasts long enough that I’m able to whack the mole before it fully appears. But damn, is it annoying. I want to throw something through the screen. If I could be assured that the rock I tossed would come out the other end in England and knock some sense into the jerks that decided upon this supremely annoying tactic, I’d be willing to sacrifice the monitor. I’m amazed that a paper that until now has been so clueful has done something that displays such contempt for its audience.

I love reading The Guardian, and I was considering subscribing to the ad-free version and to their upcoming US-based weekly magazine to support their up-to-now enlightened approach to the web (open archives, in particular) but I won’t be visiting it any more. Fµck you with a chainsaw, Guardian web overlords.

Posted at 9:54 PM