8 replies to this topic

[operabitch]

Does the WOS team get some perverse pleasure from flash video?!

For some reason, they have decided that a silent website was not working, so the have stuck the b***dy annoying video back on - this time with no controls so you can't even turn the damn thing off!!

Is advertising revenue still that desperately needed on WOS when over a third of the page is taken up with half arsed attempts at ticket offers as it is?!

Rant over.

OB.

[Boob]

I am disgusted by this.  Was enjoying the silence.  WOS were highly aware of visitors' sentiments towards these irritating videos and it almost seems like a deliberate slap in the face to us all by removing the controls.

I shall no longer be visiting the main page or clicking on their crap advert links.

Appalled.

[M George]

Oh stop overreacting.  Yes it's annoying but to refuse to visit the main page is just silly.

[operabitch]

Either way, it's still damn annoying.

OB

[Boob]

"Smoke, Mr. Braithwaite!"

[David]

I have yet to see/hear the Evita advert, but I grew to loathe the Billy E and Porgy and Bess ones- the lack of controls is particularly annoying, since I have no physical mute button on my laptop!

[JR1]

Why not just turn your sound off before you hit the WOS site?

[operabitch]

I don't think users of any website should have to turn off their sound - it's fair to have advertising in various forms start when you visit a site (music, banners and even video), but you should at least get the option to opt out of it and not have to be forced to listen/watch it. Most websites that include this will always have a 'close' button or something.

I think the issue is not that the video is there, it's that you can't stop it!

OB

[Job]

It's one of the mysteries of Whatsonstage that they insist on inflicting offensive video ads which guarantee that a proportion of their readers will navigate away from the front page as swiftly as possible - thereby ensuring that they don't get a sense of what's to see and what's new. I too was enjoying the recent silence, and for the first time in months I was starting to explore the byways of the site. That is now lost to me once more. My computers both at home and at work are in shared spaces, so I could not possibly allow these offensive ads to play even if I wanted to (and God knows I don't). I just have to get away asap, and if others do the same then WOS is as much the loser in this as I am.

The other obvious loser is the misguided promoter who thinks that Billy Elliot or Porky & Bess or Evita is going to make new converts by slamming their precious noise, uninvited, into the ear of the unwary surfer.

I appreciate that WOS has grown from a cottage industry into a big concern whose editorial section is at one remove from its marketing arm. Good luck to you for making such a success of it. But Terri et al., do you really have no influence over those insensitive colleagues who damage your site in this way? Shame on... well, someone.

Job