"Your download will start automatically in ten seconds"

The BBQ Pit
1

Go fuck yourselves! Why do you think I want to wait ten seconds to download a 2MB file that will be finished downloading in less than a second in the first place? Why does there need to be a delay at all? Why can’t you just redirect me directly to my fucking file, instead of making me click on your stupid “Click here if it does not start” link? For that matter, why do you need to stick your stupid HTML pages between the original download link and the file anyway?

Sourceforge is the biggest offender here.

2

Because you might have missed some of their adverts

3

Click == cha-ching

No click == no cha-ching

So how can we make the people click?

4

It’s still a stupid idea and it doesn’t actually work at getting people to pay attntion to ads.

5

The website doesn’t really care if you pay attention to the ads, as long as you click on them. They aren’t being paid to get your attention. They’re being paid to get you to click.

6

Go fuck yourselves! Why do you think I want to wait three minutes of commercials in the middle of a program that’s only twenty minutes in the first place? Why do you need to be a delay in my program at all? Why can’t you just put all the commercials at the end of my fucking show, instead of making me watch them or “using Tivo”? For that matter, why do you need to stick your stupid upcoming show banner on the bottom of my programs anyway?

Fox is the biggest offender here.

7

If it’s one of those sites hosting a large number of files, the delay may also be partly to serve as a disincentive to downloading everything, then setting up your own version of the site, hosting the files yourself.

8

Are you parodying the OP? Because I do think this is a good enough reason to not watch TV…

ETA: Shit, wait, I get your point. I of course don’t blame the networks for trying to make a buck.

9

:smiley: Then how can we blame the websites? Especially if you’re not paying for the service.

OTOH, I haven’t had the TV hooked up at my place in years. I don’t miss it.

10

Well, would you look at that. A visit from the Emperor of the World.

Shall I bow, Your Imperial Majesty?

11

I’ve been thinking, and I do sort of blame the networks, and people who make soul-sucking advertisements. I mean, their job is making the world a worse place. This is a moral failure! We should not have to excuse it just because it is part of the system, and it gives them a paycheck.

I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore?

12

I thought the message was put into the downloads page after Internet Explorer started putting a bar at the top which people had to click to allow possible malicious downloads to occur. People didn’t notice the bar and got pissed at the web page, not realizing it was IE stopping the download.

13

How far we’ve fallen from the old BBS days, when there were no ads. Sure, you had to leave your C64 running overnight to download a 128K “ware” at 300bps using Punter, but still… no ads!