I’ve run into a couple of talking ads saying “Congratulations, you’ve just been selected for a free iPhone.”
WTF?
Did I ever mention that members don’t see ads?
They don’t hear them either.
I don’t mind the ads, but the talking ads are a bit much, don’t you think?
Well, you gotta admit, though, that no matter how annoying the ad is or how NSFW it’s made by the audio, it’s still pretty cool that you were selected for a free iPhone.
Now if you can just figure out a way to give guests random electric shocks to the testicles, we’ll be on the road to riches!
Would that be because they would want to avoid them, or because they’d want to get them?? :eek:
Maybe it’s a win/win proposition.
But do members get selected for free iPhones? 
So your strategy is to piss off potential customers in the hopes that they will become actual customers?
No. The strategy is to try and make a go of the Board through advertising so that no one will HAVE to pay to make it work. That means accepting what advertising they can, probably including some that have sound files that go along with them.
IF you don’t like seeing/hearing ads, you are still allowed to opt out through payment of an annual fee. But really, if advertising on the web bothers you, then either you get bothered aLOT on the web, or you use a sophisticated ad-blocker. I’ve never understood why people think this place should be immune to the economic forces that are shaping the web.
Flashblock works as well, if you’re a Firefox user.
That’ll only work for guests with members.
There are always the nipples. Just sayin’.
I was going to suggest an adblocker but, nervous nellie that I am, I suddenly wondered what the board policy on this was. Is it OK to suggest ways to circumvent the ads for guests? This, after all, would presumably be one of the main reasons a guest would subscribe, to avoid those pestilent ads. If they can do that without subscribing then they may well not bother.
If talking ads really piss the OP off, maybe he could invest in a mute button on his computer. They’re all the rage, or so I hear.
If so you heard, then you were not using one.
Anyways, like most guests, I presume, I don’t mind seeing the ads. My mind is trained after years of visiting all websites to not see them. Talking ads or disruptive pop ups are different. Paying to not hear them is not the only alternative. You may want to reconsider those lest you lose all ad income by forcing people to block them.
We neither encourage nor prohibit mention of ad blockers. It’s not like you couldn’t google up in the info in two seconds anyway.
It’s the NSFW ads that bother me. The ad for chichou dot com is nice to look at (I’m no prude), but it’s pretty NSFW – especially the animated graphic that has her near-naked butt twitching all over the place! And especially when it’s the full-size ad in the center of the screen!! I know, I know – subscribe. But for a board that goes crazy when an NSFW link is posted, I thought it was pretty odd. Plus, it seems somehow anti-Internet to pay up not to see skin. 
Geez, have you decided that your Kzinti name is “Speaker-to-Posters” or something?
But hey, thanks for that illuminating response, because until now I was completely ignorant of both the SDMB pay-to-post/let’s-show-ads brouhaha and the existence of adblocking software.
Of course, I also had this weird delusion that it was a good thing for site owners to maintain a clear authorial voice. If the Straight Dope claims that its users are thousands of the smartest hippest people on the planet, and then decides to display audio ads–which are intrusive, annoying, and basically a violation of any netiquette guidelines you’ll find–that’s decidedly a mixed message.
I use AdBlock (but I have the SDMB as an exception) AND Flashblock. I hadn’t gotten any talking ads at all, but I just got one at www.bartleby.com which I do NOT have as an exception!
You forced me to take countermeasures, SDMB. Now I won’t be accidentally clicking on any ads.
Hmph.