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For years I have put up with the sophomoric writing and typographical errors of the Times-Daily. Just a symptom of a small town newspaper, I guess.

But today, I feel the need to say something. Is it just me, or do you find the roaches that crawl across the page to Bohannon Pest Control's ad disgusting? Who in their right mind would advertise in such a way? Who sold the pest control company the 'Roach Ad'? And now, with today's Web Edition, a huge page peel covers the screen every time one hits the 'page back' command. I had to try three times to manage just to get over here to the Forum to write this. Every time I tried to click on 'Forums', the dang 'Homefinders' page would trigger.

Folks at the Times-Daily, I suggest that you stop trying to be clever. Please remove the ****roaches from my screen, and take the page peels and put them back in the amateur Web design toolbox where you found it. Work on your typos. That would do more for you than anything.

Thanks, Steve.
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quote:
Originally posted by AtticFeline:
Steve, after two days of trying to get to the forum around that stupid folding page, I figured out that if you scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "forums" you can bypass that annoying BS.


Is this crazy or what? How about the roaches? No wonder newspapers in general are on their way out!
quote:
Originally posted by E.Z. Lee Pistoph:
I think the idea of the roaches was to draw attention to the ad for the pest company..........seems to have worked, I agree that the prose in this periodical is not "high brow" but I guess most of us readers aren't either


Perhaps. But folks pay pest control companies to get rid of roaches. I seriously doubt that roaches running across a computer screen does much for their image. Hey, how about they change up the ad? How about a bunch of roaches, belly up, legs all akimbo as though they had just been sprayed?

Now, as for the writing, why, land's sake, I have nothing but praise for the Southern colloquial style. Faulkner, Mitchell, Lee, Grisham, Patterson. Now that's writing! I'm not asking for that. And the Times-Daily has several people on staff that do a credible job. I don't want to disparage those journalists. But there's one or two that should be kept away from a word processor at gunpoint (I wouldn't even trust them with my Grandfather's old Underwood). And don't get me started on the Editors. Hold me back, please. Well, one thing comes to mind. Does anybody at the Times Daily check the datelines to see if the town where the story takes place is mentioned? Correcting little stuff like that would do a lot for the newspaper.

Heck, I carried the Tri-Cities Daily for three years when I was a kid. That's how I got into Journalism. Smiler
I use Google Chrome and so far haven't seen those adds.
I used to use Firefox, and loved it, but it improved itself to the point it was taking 96% of my processor if I left it in very long. The computer would slow to a creep, so I quit using it, but I do have fond memories of it before all that.
PS: As far as my dealings with Bohannon, I wouldn't call them in to stomp a bug of any kind. He (Bohannon) is rude and I have no patience for that from a businessman.
Friends, I appreciate the responses that deal with browsers and ad filters, however I think that we are straying from the point of my original post.

I would like to gain some traction on the notion that the powers-that-be at the Times-Daily are creating an environment where Readers are 'put-off' by the intrusive or disgusting adverts on the pages with their Online Edition.

Again, I find it incredibly stupid to put a Flash swf of roaches scurrying across the page. I will never call Bohannon. Never.

Secondly, the discussion started with the Homefinders Flash-based page peel that intrusively covers the front page and doesn't allow a reader to peruse the paper in peace. Granted, these are at random, and probably don't reach every online viewer all the time. Perhaps I just have bad karma, 'cuz it always seems to happen to me! Smiler

Cheers.

ps And don't get me started on Tom Smith's writing competence. Please. Don't.
I agree with you Steve. The TD under the new ownership is terrible. The ads are constant. The one that folds back is annoying, the roaches are disgusting and the furniture ad that drops your page half way down for forever is frustrating because you can't get to the close button. They forget that if we want to look at the ad we will click on it -- they don't have to shove it down our throats.
I tend to agree with a lot of you in that it's tacky and annoying, especially the fold down home ad on the front page... But at the end of the day it's their website and they can run it any way they like. It's not really that surprising either as a large chunk of the internet is funded by spam in some shape or form. I think I've learned to just overlook it or even filter it out.
A basic law of advertising is: Don't aggravate the people you're trying to entice into purchasing your product or service. TD doesn't understand that in this age of 'pull media', such tactics are counter productive, if subliminally, for their Clients. The fact that you have to navigate to the bottom of the page is tacit proof of this statement. You are drawn away from the ad to another location. Have you noticed that once the page peel has rolled back up, it sits up there in the corner hovering, waiting to strike again, much like a cobra? Smiler
"Who; What; When; Where (and Why)". Basic journalism.

What's wrong with this opening sentence, "The Town Council on Wednesday terminated its attorney/prosecutor, hired a new prosecutor and hired a municipal judge in rapid succession, prompting some residents who attended the meeting to spontaneously shout at council members."? Ms. Singleton-Rickman is one of the better reporters at the TD, in my opinion, yet she writes for seven paragraphs before letting her readers in on the fact that the story took place in Cherokee.

She went on to report that Attorney Chad Coker had won his election bid for District Judge. I'm certain that Chad will be relieved to find that out. Up until this morning, I suppose he was busy as heck working on his campaign for the fall elections.

Just because one works for a small town newspaper is not enough to excuse sloppy journalism. Where is the Editor?

Couple that with roaches scampering across the page into their roach hotel ad for Bohannon, and this becomes more of a parody than a respected newspaper.

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