The Internet sucks

“Has anyone noticed how commercial the internet is all of a sudden? It used to be you would get a pop up add every now and then or even never, but now it seems that every single site I go to has a popup add for that stupid x-whatever miniture camera. Come on, this thing can't be that profitable to have site pop up an add for it. Also, have you noticed now how many sites require you to register now, just so you forget to uncheck that little box at the bottom of the page that says, "Yes, give my e-mail to other companies so they can Spam the living crap out of my in-box." What's the deal? I just decided yesterday to start unsubscribing from all the junk mail that I recieve and I started to notice that I never actually signed up for it. It also seems that the unsubscribe process procedes to subscribe you to another list, so the process just keeps going. I think we should make a new subscription based internet with no adds and no stupid popups. While we're at it, we're going to use a code other then HTML that doens't have pop up windows as an option. Adds are just a waist of bandwidth.”

“Yeah, it's somewhat Catch 22.. companies are paying websites to have pop-up ads of their products or services, but I also question just how effective they are. They are downright annoying, I just right click and delete them from the bottom of my screen without even looking at them. But, it is revenue for websites, regardless if nobody looks at them.”

“All the more reason to have the ”

“oops,,,,,the is pop up stopper ”

“How can you not look at it? It pops up averytime the page changes. This site is a great example. Feckin classmates.”

“The pop up stopper kills it. I dont think Matt is too fond of the pop up stopper, but I have sure grown to appreciate it.”

“Alt + F4 = my own personal popup stopper. And it doesn't use any disk space or RAM.”

“I saw an ad for the pop up stopper. It was advertised on a pop up ad.”

“ROTFLMAO!”

“You need two email addresses. A real one that you only give out to those you know won't abuse it (family and friends) and a second that you use when you sign up for anything. Just check the spam address every so often to clear out the inbox and keep it active.

Yes DM99 that is EXACTLY why so many sites are asking you to register. To SELL, not give out, your email address and your tracked online activity. Other than a couple of message boards and my Credit Union site I won't use sites that require registration. I strongly urge the rest of you to do the same.

They don't take down my personal information when I walk in a storefront, why should I have to give it out to use a website?”

“I'll agree that pop-ups are annoying. HOWEVER, no pop-ups, no ads........ no Trail Talk, no other discussion boards, nothing free period.”

“Just turn off your browser's active scripting. It's easy”

“It's sucking my brain waves.

Need pop-ups...no pop-ups, no free net.”

“I know I hate all the dumb pop up ads they suck!”

“I had a great program by norton called Personal Firewall that did all that plus a lot more, but it won't work under 2000/xp. errrrr. I swear companies make stuff incompatable just so you have to buy the upgraded version.”

“Ya they do.

8)”

“Everyone here that complains about pop ups and banner ads are missing some key points. A lot of us read Backpacker magazine(not myself) and that magazine is about 50% ads. Even their colums and reviews are geared so that they can also make money off of those making their reviews very biased (I think). Yet no one complains about that! You pay your $20 a year for a magazine half full of ads. Now you pay your $20 a month for internet access and you get an entire world of information at your finger tips. The only sacrifice you make is that on some sites who are desperately trying to make some money you have to close a pop up window. Do you think this website would be here if there was no more advertising on the internet. Whether you realize it or not these sites take a hell of a lot of work and know how. Yet you all complain about a little pop up window when your really sitting here on TT all day for free. Think about how boring your life would be if all of the sites that depend on advertising went away your life would be quite boring. Just think all you would have is Backpacker. So everyone just shut up about the advertising I say make 10 windows pop ups on this site with every page view if it means Matt would make a few extra bucks, hell he deserves it. You guys are ungrateful. Matt should delete your accounts”

“"Just think all you would have is Backpacker."

No, all I would have is hiking. I let my subsciption laps last year because the other 50% besides the ads sucks just as bad as the ads themselves. An ad in mag is buy a page turn away but I can't stand it when a pop up interupts my other browser window and causes the TT browser to pop back up. I just wish the bottom 99% of the TT page loaded half as fast as the damn banner ads. The damn pop ups load just frickin' fine too.

If having critisms about a product (yes, TT is a product) makes me ungratefull, so be it.”

“Nigal, you ungrateful bastard! LOL”

“Imahiker: No.. I got a better idea.. Matt.. give me a mailing address, and I will send you a contribution to cover any money you might lose just cause I don't like popups.”

“Hey if everyone sent in contributions I'm sure Matt would love to take the crap off of the pages. Website designers hate banners worse then the visitors because they often don't go along with the design of the pages and they are a distraction to the visitors, but what do you expect Matt to do this all for free just for you all, I don't think so. The problem would be a few would contribute and the rest would rather sit around and #&%!$ about the ads because that is what they do. I just wish everyone would realize this site is free for everyone to use, a little window is not much of a sacrifice compared to how much I see some of you using TT.

Nigal,
Why critisize something as free. If you don't like this "product" go find another.”

“I have no problem with paying for this site..”

“I'm not complaining about sites like this with a single pop up add. What I hate are the sites like weather.com that indulate you with a pop up add on every link and a page with more banner adds then actual weather info.”

“No one complains about ad vs. content in Backpacker and other mags?
Wrong, search the threads.

I personally don't give a crap about banners, my problem is with the selling of personal information which incidentially is not an issue with this site.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I understood DM99's first post to be a complaint against other sites and the web at large.

As far as pay to play internet. DM99 proposed that in his first post.

Constructive criticism is intended to improve products. Products that don't fullfill the needs of customers die out. Just because someone doesn't want to hear a criticism doesn't make the point invalid.

Yeah, I enjoy the folks here, and yes I am willing to pay for it. So I leave banners alone and occasionally click through.”

“Some of those pop-ups are downright risque - which makes for some embarassing moments at work when you close down a program and you and your female boss see some chick in a bathing suit selling online gambling and interenet cameras.

Change is bad! Go back to the old way! I'm joining the Amish Internet - like it was back before those dudes from Netscape (whatever college they were at in the midwest at the time) cluttered it up with graphics!

Skully - just tried ALT-F4 for the first time. Now I know how my cat keeps rebooting my computer.”

“LMAO! You have to have a program open OTHER THAN WINDOWS in order to use that to shut it down. Otherwise it shuts down Windows! Try it with a couple IE windows open.”

“Skully give Coop some time to respond.

He's waiting for his box to come back up.

LOL!”

“Everytime I read that part about the cat it gets funnier!”

“I gathered as much...”

“Your cat's not going to start posting when you're not home, is it?”

“If I've ever said anything that seems out of character or offended you - that was probably my cat. He's a bastard.”

“I wouldn't worry about the cat posting.

I'd worry about the cat shopping.”

“Actually he's pretty cool.”

“Hustler?! - That darn cat!”

“I have no problem with paying for this site.."
TownDawg
03:32:33 PM
02/28/02

Same here. In fact, I know of a group that went together to pay the originator of the forum to pay for another forum site where the ads were not allowed. A few bucks from each of us on Phil's Photo Page would do the trick. A couple more bucks from each would cover those who do not pay. Five to ten dollars from each should cover it for at least a year.

Why not set it up, perhaps with a list of contributors. Without any other pressure, which should not be allowed, some of the others would ask how to get their names included.”

“...delivering gourmet cat food!”

“You guys are killin' me!!!! :)”

“So if someone gave Imahiker a #&%!$ sandwich he would eat it and not complain a bit. Hey, it's free! LOL!”

“Fewer ads”

“Why not set it up, perhaps with a list of contributors. Without any other pressure, which should not be allowed, some of the others would ask how to get their names included."

nowslimmer
06:46:26 PM
02/28/02

We could have a FOUNDERs club.

:)”

“dont you mean foundlers club, lol





















yaya ino thats sick!”

“I appreciate the fact that this site has so few popups. I also especially appreciate the fact that the banner adds are on topic. Thank you Matt! And thanks for the Georgia add!”

“I LUV this site.. it is part of every good morning.. :)”

“*”