Taking money from the bad guys

January 22, 2007 11:29 PM

Could the AT&T graphic in the advertisement on the front page be replaced by the EFF Death Star image? That would make it less disturbing.
posted by homunculus to feature requests at 11:29 PM (56 comments total)

Aw relax. At least it's not naked chicks with tattoos.
posted by felix betachat at 11:32 PM on January 22, 2007

lol... I realize that AT&T has become an evil bad guy, but my dad worked for them (and various Bell companies) for 25 years before he died... The ad doesn't bother me...

A side-note: back in the 70s my dad and his fellow workers went on strike ~ back when the Bell companies were known collectively as "Ma Bell" ~ and I can remember, as a child, giggling over the naughtiness of the striking worker's t-shirts, which read "Ma Bell Is A Cheap Mother"
posted by amyms at 11:41 PM on January 22, 2007

yes
posted by The Deej at 11:41 PM on January 22, 2007

The remixed ad is cute, but I don't see the original anymore because of Adblock Plus.
posted by exlotuseater at 12:08 AM on January 23, 2007

Best MeTa ever. I'm sure AT&T and Matt's lawyers would adore that one.

10 A = input chr$ : ? "Number of advertisements to mash?"
20 ? "Find image in browser cash, open in editor"
30 ? "Edit image, save as same filename, same path"
40 ? "Set browser to manual update. Refresh."
50 for x = 1 to A : Goto 20
60 Next x


AT&T/Bell hath truly giveth us much near, dear, inextricably cool shit but I'll be as damned as a naked priest in a barnyard brothel if I'll deny that they're more evil than the devil's own long lost evil twin brother.

Do not run that code on an applesoft interger basic emulator. I'm pretty sure I fucked it up.
posted by loquacious at 1:06 AM on January 23, 2007

sorry if that was excessively harsh. even if you're trolling. i love the idea and i'm all in favor of it and i am deeply in awe of the size of your heuvos in any case but then again imagine even if AT&T was cool with using it and, really, do we really and truly want them taking off the mask and going "boo, motherfucker. ooga booga." let's just say 10 points for style and minus several million for good thinking. thankfully i haven't seen any ads in months.
posted by loquacious at 2:45 AM on January 23, 2007

Stay logged in and you won't see any ads. Problem solved.
posted by ardgedee at 3:04 AM on January 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

AT&T/Bell hath truly giveth us much near, dear, inextricably cool shit

Depends on your definition of "given" I guess. There are thousands of old folks still paying rent on dial phones because they don't know they can own one cheaper. Ma Bell always preferred to rent you the equipment at a very steep rate, whether it was phones, or answering machines, or whatever. All the while insisting that nobody else's equipment was compatible with their system, so you could not use it.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:09 AM on January 23, 2007

Stay logged in and you won't see any ads. Problem solved.

I was getting them all day when logged in, but it's stopped now.
posted by The God Complex at 3:19 AM on January 23, 2007

exlotuseater: "The remixed ad is cute, but I don't see the original anymore because of Adblock Plus."

Congratulations. You just announced to all of MetaFilter that you are actively pilfering money from Matt's pocket. If MeFi goes away, we'll all know who to blame.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: that's exactly why I don't use Adblock. I don't visit a website unless I find it informative or interesting, and those are exactly the sites I don't want to disappear due to lack of ad impressions or ad clicks. (It's the same reason I'll actually click on ads I find interesting.) It goes without saying that I don't view or click on ads on websites that I don't use.
posted by Plutor at 4:46 AM on January 23, 2007

I logged out and looked for it, but I can't see it. Where is this ad?
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:37 AM on January 23, 2007

Plutor writes "Congratulations. You just announced to all of MetaFilter that you are actively pilfering money from Matt's pocket."

Plutor, I think you're being a bit melodramatic. 99.9% of the time there are no adverts for members. The last thing I remember seeing was the CD Comp which is a kind of in-house/charity thing anyway. That said I mostly agree with the rest of what you're saying although I do use flashblock to stop being distracted by moving kludge.
posted by peacay at 5:41 AM on January 23, 2007

Yeah Plutor, and people who mute the commercials on TV are STEALING FROM JERRY BRUCKHEIMER.
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:46 AM on January 23, 2007 [3 favorites]

The difference is I don't care about Jerry Bruckheimer as much as I care about MetaFilter. Tell me you feel differently.

Yes, I was being melodramatic. But a big part of me feels like without ads, a lot of companies would treat the Internet like they did in 1994. And the Internet isn't like a free truck. It's a series of expensive tubes.
posted by Plutor at 5:54 AM on January 23, 2007

Depends on your definition of "given" I guess. There are thousands of old folks still paying rent on dial phones

Full stop. You got me. I forget. (No sarcasm. I'm not worthy, etc.)

The "company" begat some cool stuff - digital voice encoding, the transistor, more. But what you said among other outrages is totally valid and takes a great deal away from it all.
posted by loquacious at 6:07 AM on January 23, 2007

I didn't even know AT&T was working on an album.

Jerry Bruckheimer needs all the help he can get.
posted by cortex at 6:28 AM on January 23, 2007

I didn't even know AT&T was working on an album.

Ow. Thank you, mistress. May I have another? You suck so very much.
posted by loquacious at 6:32 AM on January 23, 2007

*blasts loq with 2600hz whistle*
posted by cortex at 6:59 AM on January 23, 2007

It's kind of a bummer because ads come in a few weeks in advance of when they run, and although I'm not the biggest fan of AT&T's antics in the last few years, I didn't think much of it a month ago when I approved a little "cingular is now at&t" thing. Worse news has come out since then and when I saw it start running yesterday I sort of wondered if there'd be a backlash from either them or the membership here.

The first time I saw the ad, the mefi post on AT&T was still on the front page, just a few posts down from the ad itself. It's never fun when editorial clashes with advertising, but maybe I should donate a hundred bucks to the EFF as penance.
posted by mathowie at 7:00 AM on January 23, 2007

Plutor: I don't mind if you block ads, feel free to continue doing it. I'm just sayin', is all.
posted by stet at 7:01 AM on January 23, 2007

Stay logged in and you won't see any ads. Problem solved.

Unfortunately, not true. The thing is popping up at random intervals and I'm always logged in.

Matt, just for the record, should logged-in people ever be seeing ads? If not, should we be mailing you to let you know specifics?
posted by dobbs at 7:06 AM on January 23, 2007

It's never fun when editorial clashes with advertising, but maybe I should donate a hundred bucks to the EFF as penance.

You know, that prompts a half dozen thoughts at once, none of them charitable.
posted by Tuwa at 7:08 AM on January 23, 2007

dobbs, did you see the ads in old archived threads?
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 7:29 AM on January 23, 2007

hat would make it less disturbing.

Stop whining like a baby.
posted by caddis at 7:34 AM on January 23, 2007

Plutor writes "Congratulations. You just announced to all of MetaFilter that you are actively pilfering money from Matt's pocket. If MeFi goes away, we'll all know who to blame."

If matt feels we're stealing from him he can stop serving on port 80 at anytime.
posted by Mitheral at 7:48 AM on January 23, 2007

"In 2002 AT&T began an initiative called "Project Genesis" that involved a GSM/GPRS overlay of the entire wireless network. Project Genesis was completed by the end of 2004. The Genesis effect also regenerated the dead body of Captain Spock."

Nerds.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:48 AM on January 23, 2007

Matt, just for the record, should logged-in people ever be seeing ads? If not, should we be mailing you to let you know specifics?

The only ads that members would ever see are the 125x125 ones on the front pages of mefi and ask mefi, and that's only because I've traditionally always run ads there. I should make it a preference to turn off for members.
posted by mathowie at 8:43 AM on January 23, 2007

The difference is I don't care about Jerry Bruckheimer as much as I care about MetaFilter. Tell me you feel differently.

Metafilter doesn't make sugar coded eye candy, so it's a toss up.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:50 AM on January 23, 2007

And there are google ads on the bottom of the page of closed threads (which bother me not) - at least in the blue.
posted by peacay at 8:52 AM on January 23, 2007

I never, never see ads, do I have to thank Firefox?
posted by matteo at 8:53 AM on January 23, 2007

"Sugar coded"? Is that a spectacular typo, or have I just discovered a fantastic Brandon Blatcher eggcorn? Please answer honestly, I'll think no less or more of you either way.
posted by cortex at 8:53 AM on January 23, 2007

I thought MeFi was coded with sugar. Isn't that why it melts down so easily?
posted by languagehat at 9:06 AM on January 23, 2007

Sugar coding will make you Fat







32
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:07 AM on January 23, 2007

Hey amyms, my dad worked for AT&T too! (Western Electric, before the breakup.) I remember that 70s strike well, although my dad was management so he didn't get the t-shirt, darnit.
posted by JanetLand at 9:09 AM on January 23, 2007

If MeFi goes away, we'll all know who to blame.

I feel important.
posted by exlotuseater at 9:30 AM on January 23, 2007

hat would make it less disturbing.

Stop whining like a baby.
posted by caddis at 7:34 AM PST on January 23 [+] [!]

I never said hats are disturbing. I like hats. You're misrepresenting my position.
posted by homunculus at 9:59 AM on January 23, 2007

sugar coded

sweetly secure.
posted by quonsar at 10:09 AM on January 23, 2007

I need more coffee.
posted by homunculus at 10:10 AM on January 23, 2007

Clearly, the only appropriate action is to delete homonculus's FPP.
posted by mkultra at 10:16 AM on January 23, 2007

Don't hat the player.
posted by cortex at 10:17 AM on January 23, 2007

Gate the ham!
posted by thirteenkiller at 10:25 AM on January 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

at&t: we put the no-cap in low cap
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:46 AM on January 23, 2007

I think we're all missing something important here: AT&T merged with Cingular? How does this effect the iPhone?!
posted by mr_roboto at 12:12 PM on January 23, 2007

No merge. Just a name change. Cingular merged with AT&T Wireless in 2004.
posted by Plutor at 12:20 PM on January 23, 2007

You're missing several phases of mergy-goodness, Plutor. Not sure if the YouTube link is still good, but Colbert did the best job of explaining this that I've seen, yet: http://digg.com/tech_news/Stephen_Colbert_Helps_Explain_the_Whole_AT_T_Thing
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:30 PM on January 23, 2007

Music to merge by: AT&T to Acquire Bellsouth.
posted by cortex at 12:34 PM on January 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

hahaha, man, if blocking ads is theft, im the world's biggest crook.
posted by keswick at 1:17 PM on January 23, 2007

Clearly, the only appropriate action is to: Put a donation link to EFF that pops up whenever the ATT-ATT ad does.
posted by edgeways at 4:16 PM on January 23, 2007

I just don't know...
posted by scarabic at 8:35 PM on January 23, 2007

The ATT ad was gone for me today. Now it has returned.

If we all refresh the ad hundreds of times, will matt get mad cash from them?
posted by b1tr0t at 11:03 PM on January 23, 2007

So Matt is getting paid to show the logo of an evil corporation to a bunch of people who KNOW it's an evil corporation. If Matt has anything to feel guilty about it's taking AT&T's money for totally ineffective advertising. Now we just need more AT&T-related posts on the front page...
posted by wendell at 3:10 AM on January 24, 2007

In the beginning....
posted by caddis at 7:13 AM on January 24, 2007

The BF works for AT&T... and I'm considering. It's the propaganda!
posted by youngergirl44 at 9:01 PM on January 24, 2007

Actually, as I think more about this, AT&T is the reason I hang around Meta so much... the BF works a late shift. I call shenanigans!
posted by youngergirl44 at 9:06 PM on January 24, 2007

GAH!
posted by homunculus at 9:07 PM on January 24, 2007

I should make it a preference to turn off for members.

How's that going?
posted by homunculus at 9:27 PM on February 8, 2007