Mea Culpa or Constant Vigilance, Mr. Potter

Quick note, apology and request from us here in The Back Office. As you all probably know RTH has an ad block in the upper right sidebar. We are, somewhat, proud members of the MOG ad network, but trust us when we say, no one is getting rich from these ads. However, they do help offset some of the cost of this labor of love. Within the last 6 months we have noticed two disturbing trends: 1. Ads that play “forced audio” that is audio automatically plays without user request and 2. Middle screen “survey” ads that lay over our content. When we first discovered these back then we ripped MOG a new-one in a vitriolic email. We stated our position firmly “These ads are not OK.”  (I know, brutal…right?) They apologized and said that we would be eliminated from any ads of this sort.

All was good until last week or so, when they started appearing again. We don’t make enough money from these guys to put up with this. Seriously. Our official position is, If we have to include these ads then we’re out of your program.  Not like we have any leverage with them but apparently we aren’t the only ones to be pissed off. From now on when we are alerted of new buys via email we will be able to log-in and see (for the first time) if any ads contain forced-audio and/or surveys and will have the option of blocking them.

So the first part of this diatribe (these are words with a “d” this time…) is “Sorry” and “this is not OK with us” and “we have taken steps to stop it.”

The second part is a request. Just as these things started to appear after being promised to disappear we ask your patience and more importantly vigilance. If you encounter one of these during your routine stroll through the hallowed halls, please alert us here in The Back Office (thebackoffice[at]rocktownhall.com) ASAP and we’ll send the alert out to the Justice League for immediate action.

Thank you for your attention.