Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Don't Be Annoying

I'm a member of MyPoints - you get a bunch of e-mails and when you 'read' them (by opening a link) you get points. Those points add up and you can earn all kinds of things like gift cards to Target, Macy's, and other great stores. Oh and you can shop through their website and earn even more points. I've earned several hundred dollars in rewards over the last few years.

It's usually not a problem. I click on a link and close it and get my points. Every once in awhile there's an interesting offer that I may linger awhile longer, but usually I have no interest.

And if I have no interest I just want to leave the site. Should be simple right?

One site this morning, instead of letting me leave by closing the page actually had a pop up "chat" screen inviting me to stick around. Even closing out the initial pop up didn't work because they gave (har) me one more chance to stick around and chat with someone.

Um...NO! Leave me the heck alone please. I don't want your stupid product and I want to leave NOW.

What is wrong with these people? If I wanted to stay on the site I wouldn't close the window. A popup is not going to convince me to stick around. "Oh gee, look I get another chance. Maybe I should stick around and see what's so good if it's worth a pop up." Jeez-a-lou. The fastest way to get me to hate your product is to force me to stay on your site. And music...I hate music that just starts playing. It's annoying.

I try very hard not to be annoying on my website. If you don't want to stick around you are free to leave. No music. No sparkly flashing words. Simplicity is the name of the game. I wish all sites were so considerate.

3 comments:

Stacy said...

I recently signed up with mypoints also =) I didn't get that email though. But i agree, sounds annoying! Pop ups are evil.

Unknown said...

Amen!

CastoCreations said...

And I got ANOTHER one even after I wrote this. Sheesh. Talk about annoying.