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penginkun · Apr 17, 2002, 11:33 PM

Have to tell you, I'm a little angry right now. I just got hit for the SECOND time today by a popunder here. If you want to improve the site, STOP USING POPUNDERS.

MacNN has been my home page for years, but no longer. I've stopped frequenting MacCentral because of the insane amount of advertising (including popunders) they use, and now MacNN (whose webmasters I THOUGHT had better sense) joins the ranks of the porn merchants.

Popunders are the lowest form of advertising yet, little more than browser spam. I have to have JavaScript turned off everywhere I go now because of them. I also have plugins off because of all the flash ads.

To the webmasters: FIX THIS PROBLEM, *NOW*, or you will lose the eyeballs you need to be able to sell advertising in the first place. You've already lost mine.

Apr 18, 2002, 09:59 PM

-The pop-up advertisements that have appeared on MacNN are the result of a misunderstanding with our advertising broker that lead to the ad's unwelcome implementation. We have filed for removal from the pop-up program, and we appreciate your patience as our request is processed.-

Get with the program, we *are* trying to fix this.

[ 04-18-2002: Message edited by: Nick ]

Apr 20, 2002, 11:25 PM

Not to be inflammatory, but you may want to consider posting this fact to the main page when things like this occur. MacNN has been my homepage for well over a year now, and my first inclination was to change homepages when these pop-up ads began.

Instead, I decided to head in here to complain, and found this thread.

Just a suggestion, take it as you will.
zeroEra

Apr 21, 2002, 12:09 AM

Thanks, maybe we'll post something on Monday and for some of next week.

We really regret this situation.

slipjack · Apr 21, 2002, 11:39 PM

DO'h... sucks to be jerked around by the MAN

yukon · Apr 22, 2002, 05:27 PM

personally, when people started talking about how annoying these "popunders" were, I had no idea what they were talking about. When I saw the first popups, they annoyed me so much that I immediatly turned off javascript. I had never seen a popunder until I used IE on a computer where I could not save configurations. They are all over the net.

My advice - turn off javascript, but if you can't, try icab from www.icab.de, and use the javascript filter to stop JS from opening windows (and other annoying things)

� · Apr 22, 2002, 07:07 PM

I don't see the relevance of the popup as well. I immediately click them away. No doubt in my mind. All spam and popups are misplaced.

penginkun · Apr 26, 2002, 01:11 PM

Originally posted by Nick:
-The pop-up advertisements that have appeared on MacNN are the result of a misunderstanding with our advertising broker that lead to the ad's unwelcome implementation. We have filed for removal from the pop-up program, and we appreciate your patience as our request is processed.-

Get with the program, we *are* trying to fix this.

[ 04-18-2002: Message edited by: Nick ]

Your abusive attitude isn't helping very much. You act as though I should just KNOW this by instinct, but I don't. Put a notice on your main page, or shut up and take the heat.

It MAY just be a c0ckup, but your attitude toward complaining users (many of us LONGTIME readers) stinks. And the problem seems to be taking a LONG time to get fixed. Any idea WHEN it'll be fixed? Hm?

fulmer · Apr 27, 2002, 12:30 AM

Originally posted by penginkun:


Your abusive attitude isn't helping very much. You act as though I should just KNOW this by instinct, but I don't. Put a notice on your main page, or shut up and take the heat.

It MAY just be a c0ckup, but your attitude toward complaining users (many of us LONGTIME readers) stinks. And the problem seems to be taking a LONG time to get fixed. Any idea WHEN it'll be fixed? Hm?

it's been discussed. most resourceful readers will search the forum for their interest or question before posting. a quick search would have turned up a couple of threads where this is discussed and in this thread Nick is repeating what has been covered in the recent past.

Millennium · Apr 27, 2002, 12:49 AM

Originally posted by penginkun:
Your abusive attitude isn't helping very much. You act as though I should just KNOW this by instinct, but I don't.

We've been discussing this for weeks. While we don't expect people to know this by instinct (although this would be nice; after all, what sane person likes popups?), it would be nice if they'd have read the thread by now.

Put a notice on your main page, or shut up and take the heat.

You do have a good point here. We should do this.

It MAY just be a c0ckup, but your attitude toward complaining users (many of us LONGTIME readers) stinks.

Pot, kettle, black, perhaps?

And the problem seems to be taking a LONG time to get fixed. Any idea WHEN it'll be fixed? Hm?

When the ad broker gets off its rear. We've done everything that we possibly can. It's not in our hands anymore. We could complain to them, but our complaints probably wouldn't be any more effective than yours are here.

Apr 27, 2002, 07:35 AM

Originally posted by Millennium:

When the ad broker gets off its rear. We've done everything that we possibly can. It's not in our hands anymore. We could complain to them, but our complaints probably wouldn't be any more effective than yours are here.

Actually, you could simply remove the ads until the fix it.

arn

fulmer · Apr 27, 2002, 11:08 AM

Originally posted by <arn>:


Actually, you could simply remove the ads until the fix it.

arn

and remove all revenue? that's a *great* idea.

the current popups and popunders, as I understand it, are the fault of the ad provider. getting rid of those ads would also kill legit ads.

Apr 27, 2002, 11:59 AM

Originally posted by fulmer:


and remove all revenue? that's a *great* idea.

the current popups and popunders, as I understand it, are the fault of the ad provider. getting rid of those ads would also kill legit ads.

Yes... I'm well aware of this. But they claim to have done all they can. I think dropped all ads on the site altogether until they fix it will light a fire under the ad network's *** ... The ad network doesn't make any money either if they drop the ads.

Point being... they obviously care up to a point... but not enough to drop ads for a few days.

arn

Apr 27, 2002, 12:55 PM

The pop-up ads should be gone May 1

Apr 27, 2002, 01:22 PM

OK, 1 May. Was that such a difficult question to answer?

As to losing revenue, how much will be lost when people leave your site because of the popunders? What about the loss of reputation? You can't tell me it hasn't hurt, even if it wasn't your fault.

digimage · May 1, 2002, 02:15 PM

Well, It's may first and it looks like they are gone!

[ 05-01-2002: Message edited by: digimage ]

DigitalEl · May 2, 2002, 08:17 AM

The pop-up ads should be gone May 1

My calendar says May 2 and a Pop-Under for "PowWeb Hosting" just, um... popped under my browser.

Guess the operative word above was "should."

agentz · May 2, 2002, 12:43 PM

Yup I just got one of them too. Why are they still here?

KidRed · May 2, 2002, 09:04 PM

First of all, they are called "POP UPS" not 'pop unders' as the media and those who have no clue and listen to the media call them. Secondly, as annoying as they are, they are one of the few real ways to make money on the net. If you don't like them, tough, turn off java script, click on the main window, close them as the pop up, whatever. Get used to them, because until something else comes along that can make money off of surfers, they are here to stay. Be glad that you only get hit with one. Some sites could throw you into a multitude of pop ups.

They are a fact of life for non subscription type sites. They have to pay for the bandwidth some how. Buy a product thru their static ads, or shut up, because you're not supporting anyone by *****ing to them to scrap these ads.

Leave if you don't like them, bunch of whiners.

RAzaRazor · May 2, 2002, 11:13 PM

Christ, you're an idiot.

They are called pop-unders because when they load they load under the current browser window. The reason they are "effective" is because when you close your current window they are there staring you in the face. (If you happened not to notice when they loaded.)
The only people worse than media-whores are the people who as so self-rightous and believe that everything they hear in the media is a lie.

Anyway, we were told that they would be gone as of the 1st. Obviously, that didn't happen. It's not something that the MacNN staff wants. Customer Service among ad providers is notoriously bad, sometimes taking weeks just to get a response. For them to take action is even slower. I'm not surprised that it wasn't fixed when thay said it would be. It will probably be another month before we see any results.

In the meantime, I have kermit.macnn.com set to 127.0.0.1 in my hosts file, along with several others used here. Not that I don't want to support MacNN. I know where their limited revenue come from. When the pop-unders disappear, so will the hosts entries.

[ 05-03-2002: Message edited by: RAzaRazor ]

May 3, 2002, 12:25 AM

Well, I've been on and off MacNN across 3 machines today and I haven't seen any pop unders.

zac4mac · May 3, 2002, 08:39 AM

I got one, first time the page loaded this morning. It was a pop-under, don't remember who, I killed it as fast as I could. It was probably "pow-web" as that's what I usually get.
Dammed annoying critters, I'll be glad when they're gone.

digimage · May 3, 2002, 11:18 AM

I just got hit with one as well. "Save 30%!!!!!!!!!!!"

Dammit.

santa · May 3, 2002, 11:34 AM

I also just got a pop-under (and whoever the idiot is that want's to correct people's use of that phrase wins the anal-retentive nerd award for the day) and I came here to mention I won't be bothering with MacNN for a week or two and then if they are still there (the pop unders) I'll just take MacNN off my bookmark list and move my Seti account to some other place.

gumby5647 · May 3, 2002, 11:55 AM

Originally posted by KidRed:
First of all, they are called "POP UPS" not 'pop unders' as the media and those who have no clue and listen to the media call them. Secondly, as annoying as they are, they are one of the few real ways to make money on the net. If you don't like them, tough, turn off java script, click on the main window, close them as the pop up, whatever. Get used to them, because until something else comes along that can make money off of surfers, they are here to stay. Be glad that you only get hit with one. Some sites could throw you into a multitude of pop ups.

They are a fact of life for non subscription type sites. They have to pay for the bandwidth some how. Buy a product thru their static ads, or shut up, because you're not supporting anyone by *****ing to them to scrap these ads.

Leave if you don't like them, bunch of whiners.

as posted by milhous asking about a gift shoppe:

"nobody likes banners or pop-ups much. so why not start to lean away from advertising revenue (banner ads / pop-ups for money) and more tangible assets from macnn business / services?"

Bring on the the MacNN Gift Shoppe!

penginkun · May 3, 2002, 12:21 PM

I'd subscribe to MacNN. I think I've said that about a few different sites. If it meant a 100% ad-free environment, I'd pay a few dollars a month. A store would be pretty cool, too...I bet you could set something up with CafePress or another such services on the 'net.

gorgonzola · May 3, 2002, 02:54 PM

From the front page:

Effectively immediately, MacNN has removed all pop-up/pop-under advertising, following the expiration of previously negotiated contracts with a third-party vendor. It may take up to 24 hours to clear current campaigns, but our no popup/pop-under policy will remain in effect indefinitely. We appreciate your patience and understanding, while the request was processed and fulfilled by our third-party ad vendor.

Thanks for your patience with the issue; it looks like this is the final stretch.