How The Bold Italic ensured I'll never click a link to their site again:

8 years ago

As usual, I click a link, am able to read maybe two sentences of the article, and then a full-screen spam popup smacks me in the face, and I hit the Back button. What the hell is wrong with you people?

Exhibit A:
How The Bold Italic ensured I'll never click a link to their site again:

"Let's keep this going"? This call to action makes me feel that I am fully engaging with this brand!! But is there a Loyalty Program?

Exhibit B:
How NBCBayArea ensured I'll never click a link to their site again:



Bonus points: Oh, I am so sure:

Previously, previously, previously.

Tags: a/b, doomed, firstperson, spam, www

13 Responses:

1. CJ says:

   8 years ago at 5:21 pm

   The day I realized Safari had a setting to disallow web sites from asking to send notifications was a good day indeed. It was yesterday. I didn't even have a burrito yesterday, which says a lot about how happy the setting made me.

2. Eric says:

   8 years ago at 5:23 pm

   I hate them with a passion, but, sadly, they appear to work. Some people find they increase subscribers by 1375%: http://blog.crazyegg.com/2014/08/18/opt-pop-ups/

   • jwz says:

     8 years ago at 5:33 pm

     Just because you can be a fucking asshole doesn't mean you should be a fucking asshole.

     That article says:

     While it’s true that some readers find them annoying, the benefits gained by employing them far outweigh the losses.

     This is only true if you consider "being a fucking asshole" to be a value-neutral proposition.

     Indeed, after reading this post you may kick yourself for not using them earlier on your site.

     Uh huh.

3. J. Peterson says:

   8 years ago at 6:10 pm

   

4. NT says:

   8 years ago at 6:31 pm

   Ok but you started this by clicking on a bolditalic headline about disruptive yuppie urban transit parasitism. So basically you ordered a facefull of shit and now you're complaining about the complimentary appetizer.

   • jwz says:

     8 years ago at 7:11 pm

     But this was not the poop sundae I ordered!! And the portions are so small.

     • NT says:

       8 years ago at 7:24 pm

       Lucky for you this is an all you can eat buffet.

5. Russ says:

   8 years ago at 12:28 pm

   I say let them come. The more common this becomes, the more motivation there will be to maintain a set of rules that blocks this kind of shit.

6. mattyj says:

   8 years ago at 12:41 am

   "Just subscribe to the RSS feed" says the middle-aged guy whos eyes get fatigued if there are too many colors on the screen at one time.

7. Alex says:

   8 years ago at 6:24 am

   My collection of dickbox hiding rules continues to grow. I should probably start an Adblock Plus filter list for these.

   ##div#optin-monster-overlay
   ##div#mc_embed_signup
   ##div#colorbox
   ##div#cboxOverlay

   • Laura Rubin says:

     8 years ago at 4:18 pm

     I would subscribe. Please do. I think you're missing the "modal" keyword that a lot of them use.

8. Alex says:

   8 years ago at 6:26 am

   Also, I wonder if calling them dickboxes would help. #dickbox

9. J. Peterson says:

   8 years ago at 12:30 pm

   Either they read your blog or it's hitting critical mass.

   

   [April 1st is coming right up, you know.]