Banner Ad Comments

Here's some recursiveness for you: From PLittle, a comment on comments, and specifically about people putting comments about banner ads in entries here that have nothing to do with banner ads:

Although I dislike the journal ads as much as anyone else, I would not be in any way upset if you took a harder line on comments in your journal. As in making sure they remain on topic to the post they are attached to. It would not upset me in the least if you simply deleted comments critical of the journal ads that are made to entries that have nothing to do with said ads. Like this one.

Heh. It's not every comment that begs for deletion.

But since someone else brought it up for discussion, here's my take on people deciding that every single comment thread here is not well dressed unless it has a banner ad protest comment in it: I find it annoying and I wish people would stop doing it. I don't think I've been neglectful of writing entries where it's appropriate for folks to discuss banner ads, leave links and so forth, so the continual intrusion of the matter in other comment threads is of debatable necessity.

Also, in my opinion, it pretty much craps on the enjoyment of the comment thread for everyone who might just want to talk about the topic at hand rather than the banner ads over and over and over and over. I do have to say recently I've been finding reading the comment threads a chore because I know that no matter what happens I'm going to find a banner ad protest comment in there somewhere, and I'm tired of having to wade through them every single time.

The natural rejoinder to this -- and quite defensibly so -- is that AOL Journalers have to suffer through a banner ad every time they visit their own Journal, so me (and everyone else who visits this Journal) having to suffer through an anti-banner ad comment on most comment threads is no less intrusive. I grant this point. However I would note that if we grant for the purposes of discussion that AOL did an arrogant, intrusive and boneheaded thing in posting the banner ads without consideration of the effect they would have on the Journal experience, it does not necessarily follow that folks upset with the ads responding in a similar fashion is any better. It just means this site now has two different flavors of experience-jamming clutter, and you can imagine how thrilled I am at that.

Here's the deal. I won't be deleting anti-banner comments here, so those of you who feel you must bring the subject up will not see your efforts zapped into non-existence. AOL didn't ask you if you wanted the ads, and whether I personally find anti-banner ad comment tailing every entry tiresome or not, I recognize that this is a place where people register their displeasure -- and more to the point, it has to be a place where people feel they can register their displeasure. As long as the comment doesn't fun afoul of the basic TOS language issues, say what you want, where you want to say it.

However, I respectfully ask that you be mindful that other readers are reading here too, and that by and large comment threads read better when the comments in them have something to do with the topic at hand (more than a cursory sentence at the beginning, followed by a gout of anti-banner ad stuff). I would appreciate if you kept banner ad comments to entries where that's a stated topic of discussion (like, quite obviously, this one), or entries where I am discussing AOL-related issues. I do these sort of entries on a regular basis, so you'll not want for places to comment.

And now, of course, the floor is open for your comments.

Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry

This entry has 48 comments: (Add your own)

#48 Comment from mmazing786
6/4/07 2:15 PM | Permalink

dont people realize that the banner ad they see might not be the same as what someone else sees? ever notivced how sometimes if you refresh the page the ad is different? i agree, ads are not that big a deal, and even comments on the ads arent all that annoying, like the ad itself i just glance over it.

please, just realize that bc you saw an ad it doesnt mean that everybody, or maybe even anybody else, will see it. however, if you want to waste your time be my guest.

and if you wanna learn how banner ads work here is a little link. i would also check wikipedia.

http://www.advertisingonlinesite.com/Banners.html
#47 Comment from gernicke
12/9/05 11:08 AM | Permalink

I don't notice the banner ads so much. That is because when I start reading a journal entry, I start to scroll down right away and don't even glance at the top. I have to make an effort to really look at the banner ad to have it register what product is being advertised. So ... as a reader, they don't bother me. However, if I had a journal, I would feel somewhat cheated AOL is making money off the ad, and not me.
#46 Comment from floralilia
12/1/05 11:28 AM | Permalink

..and ya know, neighbors help other neighbors when someone sets their house ablaze.

In fact, as the founding community - we have a responsibility to sound the alarm to all new neighbors here - rather than see anyone else get hurt.

If our "distruptive" behavior is construed as bad PR for AOL - well, too bad -

they're the ones holding the matches.
#45 Comment from floralilia
12/1/05 10:35 AM | Permalink

"Also, in my opinion, it pretty much craps on the enjoyment of the comment thread for everyone who might just want to talk about the topic at hand rather than the banner ads over and over and over and over. I do have to say recently I've been finding reading the comment threads a chore because I know that no matter what happens I'm going to find a banner ad protest comment in there somewhere, and I'm tired of having to wade through them every single time."

yah. well, I'm pretty tired of seeing aol ad's crapped all over my journal pages every time I look at it.

And I'm pretty annoyed that as the PAYING CUSTOMER, I'm not being heard.
#44 Comment from gotomaria
12/1/05 10:34 AM | Permalink

FYI...I don't know if the ads have something to do with this but I can't seem to consistently add the larger photos from my FTP space...and I just recently learned how to do this. I'm back to the little ones since they are somewhat more reliable. Today day I couldn't even open them to see them larger in the entries that I've made which have this feature and I have cable. If I'm just doing something wrong...I'd like to know. I can truly understand now why people who try to experiment and use all the features that the AOL journal offers would want to leave AOL. The system is very inconsistent with delivery. I've been with AOL a long time...years. I just started blogging this year. It's pretty much hit and miss as far as being able to upload exactly what I want, but I do end up with something up there. Considering that it is also time consuming does not make it any more palatable. ....'Patience', said the cat. 'Grrrrr', said the dog. 'Keep trying', says I.
Maria http://journals.aol.com/gotomaria/TheLittleThings/

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