I’ve liked Gizmodo’s content, despite some of their more outrageously invasive ad setups. But now they’ve completely lost me. I often open up the site as one of many links opened at the same time–click click click click click, then visit the opened pages one by one. When I got to Gizmodo recently, however, I thought it was an error–it was a single article with a huge ad at the top. I figured it was some kind of page opened up by another page as a kind of ad, or that I had clicked on some errant link somewhere and not realized it.

But no, it was Gizmodo’s new site: instead of its classic list of stories you can skim and choose from, the new site opens on a single full article, with its sponsors’ giant ad flashing across the top. The list is still there, but now it’s an independently-scrolling sidebar, and kinda awkward to scroll through at that. You can return to the “classic” list view (there’s the giant ad again), but now the list is far shorter than before, and each time you go to a new page, you get–surprise! the giant ad again.

Not worth it, Giz. I was already fed up with trying to get the ability to post comments (verification emails didn’t come through, and once when I did get it, after a short time my account stopped working, and then later my data got stolen as part of your database hack–way to go). I had been frustrated by the site’s “helpful” localization “feature.” But this is just too far. I know you gotta make money, but there’s such a thing as becoming too obnoxious about it. Way too obnoxious.

Seriously, sites: static ads–better yet, text ads, Google-style, and you won’t find me even trying to bother with ad-blocking plug-ins. Make them contextual to the story I’m viewing and I’ll probably even click through from time to time. But making your site a morass of crap shoved in my face just won’t cut it.