OT: Grrr... Arrgghh.... A rant agianst the new eGroups banners

["Quindo Ma" <quindo.ma@xxxxxxxxx>]

Anyone else who thinks that this just isn't what it's supposed to be, please raise aa hand.

I know that the banners are the only way to recieve a free mailing list like this, and I doubt that
either Rod (who still thinks it's hilarious to jump out and then hide back every now and then) or
Kimber (who is now co-mod of the lists, and doing a very good job if I may say that) is willing to
pay the 60$ to get a banner free mailing list. And I even accepted them as long as they were at the
bottom of the messages, because that's where they don't disturb the flow of the mails too much.

But *this* is just too much. Ok, if they'd keep the size to, let's say, 4 rows, or the banners about
the same size, I could even live with that.
But NO!
eGroups, or rather Yahoo! which I'm quite sure is behind this whole junk, chose to use those huge
banners on the top of the mails. And now, in my Outlook Express, at a resolution of 1024*768, where
the lower 1/3 of the screen contains the preview window (I bet all of you OE users know what I
mean), *all* I can see in that preview window, maybe except of the last 3 or 4 lines, IS THAT CRAP
BANNER!

I now ALWAYS have to scroll down, even if a message is only a one-liner, just to be able to read
this.
I SO DO NOT like this.
I mean, what do they expect? That we now all start clicking onto those banners like crazy? I know
from my partly long days I spend in the internet, that I normally just ignore those banners.

I'm not talking about banner exchange programs here, because I think that's a great idea, I'm
talking about those tons and tons of ad banners I see on a daily basis on each and every website.
But compared to a website, where I can easily igore them because they are small compared to the rest
of the site (normally), you just can't use the same size in e-mails.
It MAY be acceptable for people that use web-mail to access and view their messages, but totally
unacceptable, and in fact an insult, for those not using said way to access their mails because we
are now totally and unavoidably FORCED to look at those DAMN BANNERS!

Now, I'm not here to say that those should be removed totally, because that would just make the
lists more expensive, but they could AT LEAST try to make them SMALLER! DAMNIT again, I want to be
able to read a message, and not to have to look at those banners all the time.
I am willing to click onto a banner if it gives me a reason, like a good constructed one, or one
that tells me enough to ignite my interest, but those are about 1% of all those banners I see on the
internet. And now I'm forced to look at the other 99%, just because somebody thinks it's better to
stick them into your face, rather than find a decent but good place to put them to, so that enough
ppl see them, but not to annoy those who have blankly NO INTEREST in ever clicking onto one of them.

They should take Eudora as a good example. There the banners are small in one corner, they don't
bother too much, and they still guarantee that the product stays free.

After seeing what they do with the HTML mails, how they now include the banners, I decided to send
this mail in plain text, because it's still better than that crap html banner.

And again, if anyone else thinks the same, just raise your hands. Maybe we'll be able to find enough
ppl to tell eGroups that they should look for a better way to annoy us with those banners.

Quin (angry that he has to look at banners all the time)


Actívist of the NBE (No Banners on eGroups)

Chief of Security of the Senior Executive Committee of List Gutter Affairs
and Wet Noodle Master of the Universe
Unofficial bait boy and self declared Kimber fan #1
Worships the ground Pat walks on.
Wants now even more that Jim continues his B/W/T series for as long as possible.
Lover of the love scenes from Shyfox.
Occasional writer.