February 4, 2002 #140 wow... a happy ending for a change Someone may be paying attention Have you ever wanted to complain about something, but then decided there's no use, no one is listening? . That's the way I usually feel. But this time was different. ___ I had received a hot tip to go and check out an article at the MacCentral.com web site. I thought nothing of double-clicking the hot link in the email to launch Explorer and zoom right out to the article. ___ When I arrived I was met with a scenario I always hate to run into. The page began to load, and load, and load. Since I usually run with cookie permissions turned on, one cookie dialog after another popped up to request that I accept or deny the cookies. There were 16 of them in all. ___ But that's not the bad part. After a minute and fifteen seconds I got the first bit of visual info... the header. After another 45 seconds the content frame started coming down, but then was suddenly interrupted. ___ To the right of the content column was a graphic two inches wide, and as tall as the window. It began slowly to dissolve in an image... HP logo. Then I could see this was actually a video being downloaded to my computer. It churned and churned -- I watched the progress window at the bottom of the screen: 700K had been downloaded, but I still hadn't seen any content. So I clicked the STOP button. ___ From there, I clicked on the "Contact" button and was taken to their contact form, writing as breifly and as politely as I could... "Dear MacCentral. The reason people come to your web site is to read your content, NOT look at videos in ads you've sold to advertisers. This ad from Hewlet Packard is so large, and so slow moving that it has monopolized your entire page, preventing me from reading the article I came for. When advertising overtakes content, then there's no longer any reason to post the content, or to visit your site." I signed it, logged off and went on about my business. Today, two days later, it occurred to me that this story would be perfect for this month's 60-Second Window. I returned to MacCentral to capture the ad in it's tormented attempt to fully download, only to find it gone! No ad. ___ I do not know if the letter I wrote actually prompted them to remove it, but I like to think so. Perhaps others who felt slighted also took the time to write. So, the next time you feel an urge to speak up, go ahead -- DO IT. Sometimes, someone may actually pay attention.

Fred Showker is a designer, consultant, writer and speaker. He has published 60-Second Window and DT&G Magazine online since 1990, and is director of The Graphic Design Network which includes The Design & Publishing Center at www.Graphic-Design.com. (1994) He was a co-founder of both The User Group Forum on America Online (1987), The User Group Network at www.User-Groups.net, (1994) and the Designers' Bookshelf (1996) He originally founded Showker Graphic Arts & Design in 1972, has been an avid computer activist and supporter since 1984. Got Comments??? back to the 60-Second Window Index, 60-Second Lobby . . . or: The Design & Publishing Center. / . The User Group Network. / . Design University. / . The Designers' Bookshelf. / Would you like to carry the 60-Second Windows column in your newsletter or web site? Ask us about our syndication program... join hundreds of others who now publish 60-Second Windows! Thank you for visiting http://www.60-second.com/ DT&G: The Electronic Journal for Design, Typography & Graphics c/o Showker Graphic Arts 15 SouthGate, Harrisonburg, VA 22801 TAD, Voice, FAX: (540) 433-8402 Thank you for visiting 60-second.com, graphic-design.com, user-groups.net, and all of the sites including The Design & Publishing Center, The User Group Network, The Graphic Design Network. We bring you 100% spam-free content for designers, illustrators, publishers, photographers, and visual graphics arts professionals from all corners of the world. http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/ -- Contents Copyright (c) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001. 60-Second Window is trademark, copyrighted since 1990. DT&G Magazine, and The Design & Publishing Center invite you to visit Photoshop Tips & Tricks at: http://www.graphic-design.com/photoshop/. Reproduction or reuse of parts or all of this manuscript without prior written permission is expressly forbidden.

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