I used to be a pretty big fan of wimp.com, a site that collected links to all kinds of interesting videos. Not having much time on my hands, this was the perfect aggregation of interesting content.
Now, when I go visit a link, an ad usually pops up. I have to close it. Then the video starts. And, again, another ad slides up from the bottom, and I have to that add. Then all the while the video is playing, I have a little “AD” box overlaid hoping I’ll press it.
The new face of wimp.com — why I’m done.
While I don’t begrudge wimp.com, or other sites, from having advertisements, I really dislike intrusive ads in the video stream.
As such, wimp.com, you’ve just gone from being one of my favorite sites to one of my least visited sites (which means no ad clicks, no ad views, by the way).
The simple solution would have been placing an ad elsewhere on the page, even under the video.
Want to know where the ads should have gone? To the right of the directory listing of links. That’s the page I’m always coming back to.
Another great part of the internet just died for me.
UPDATE 12-Mar-2009: While showing this horrible predicament to a friend the site acted differently; it played the video with no ugly overlays or pre-ads, but displayed an advertisement when done. That is perfectly acceptable! Fantastic compromise guys!
UPDATE 18-Mar-2009: Ugh, now it’s worse — ads pop up while you’re watching, even after you’ve dismissed them.