Today I logged on to MS as usual, and started with the very pleasurable business of reading reviews, but something was different - there were great big pictures bang smack in the middle of the page and completely irrelevant text ads too. What was worse, the reviews were chopped up willy-nilly to accomodate these eye-sores.
The articles were now a pain to read!
Dear Faisal,
I love your website. It’s a mela of the best kind - it has people, opinions, writing ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime, and best of all is a mostly uncensored platform for people from all walks to share their two bits with anyone who cares to stop for a minute and read.
Everybody loves money, even the so called sadhus and other loonies found on the fringes of society. No reason therefore for your site to be an exception - after all it is a business, we all know that!
Revenue generated from advertisements do the job of putting businesses in the black very well, we all know that too, and don’t have a problem with it either.
But what on earth happened to good sense and to keeping your readers happy?
According to my understanding, this site primarily exists to
1- give consumers the opportunity to share their feedback on product good, bad, and uglyies
and to
2 - give prospective buyers/readers access to unbiased(well, mostly unbiased) information
For this to happen successfully
1 - posting reviews must be a simple hassle-free procedure
(it already is)
and
2 - reading those reviews should be a pain-free experience
(it isn’t anymore!)
When you ask your readers to hunt around’in their face’ ads for their daily dose of information and whatever else they come here for, they might indulge you for a bit, but sooner or later will get fed up of the exercise.
Come on, we understand you have to survive, and even have a vested interest in your survival - we like our fleeting moments of fame- but this’chop and serve at random’ exercise is just not done.
Please take these offensive ads off the centre of the page; they sure don’t belong there. They not only chop up the reviews, interrupt thought flow, and look ugly, they also make me feel like you are using me and the rest of your readers/writers to make your money - not a nice feeling at all.
Get a bit more subtle. Find some other place to park those things so that your advertisers feel happy that they are getting enough eyeballs, and your readers are happy that they don’t have to play hide and seek with words on the page anymore.
Faisal, you have 60+ people working to make this site a place readers and writers want to hang out in - you guys can definitely come up with better ideas!
MS
Ps. If you need additional help, I’m sure Anuj, Pras, Rajeev, and many more of your readers will be glad to offer their services as’placement consultants!’