Web Articles and the PITA of free content.

PITA: Pain In The Ass: I know that websites needs advertisers to see total page clicks in order to justify being advertisers. This however does not change my annoyance with most of the free content sites these days. Why am I annoyed? I can't seem to click on an article just once, I have to click on it several times.

I want to see a picture gallery and each picture is it's own page. This results in tons of extra clicking on a site rather than just a relaxed read. This tactic is used by sites like PopSci, Cracked, Alernet (they at least give you a read full article option) and many others.

Do the advertisers not see through this tactic? Why do I have to click 40 times to see 40 pictures? Or six times to read a single page article....

All that being said I still appreciate the free content and a few extra clicks are worth keeping it free. Still annoys me though.

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You said the magic word: an oxymoron: "FREE CONTENT".

There is no such thing. They got us coming and going. "Content" is supported one way or the other.

Content has to be paid for by somebody. And its us. Nothing is free.

It's annoying but 'they' have to pay the bills.

I visit this one conspiracy website and it's loaded with ads. Not too many pop-ups but they have this one ad that pops up every time you roll your pointer over the picture. Drives me freaking bat # crazy! It's most annoying when I attempt to login.

The website is free and I enjoy the content so I just bite my tongue.

reply to post by mysterioustranger


I agree. I found out about free pizza at my apartment complex HQ, but my smile turned upside down when I had to listen to a police officer talk about safety. They made me eat my pizza there. I had to escape to my happy place. There is no such thing as free.

reply to post by justreleased

Agreed, it's a tiny rant and I begrudge them not one bit. I do however think that the advertisers would be savvy to the tactic and adjust accordingly. Hence negating the need to have people that visit their sites do a ton of clicks.

My business website has nifty charts to see "unique visitors" Seems those would be the only numbers an advertiser cares about.

reply to post by Adramelech


LMAO!

How can you complain about free pizza?

Next thing someone will come along and complain about free beer or free sex. (free sex is a myth by the way.)

reply to post by Adramelech

I got a ROKU "FREE 100,000 Digital TV, Radio, HD, Movies, Shows...etc" for Christmas. How disappointed I was that the wife spent near $100 on it.

You had to join a "club", HAD to have a credit card "in case you may ever want to buy soemthing" and there in the initial process popped up ad, after ad after ad. And I wasnt even signed up yet!

So much for "FREE".