Could anyone explain to me why a site dedicated to the abolition of NGDs is advertising them on it's home page please?

Thanks Keith, I am sure it may be to do with Google ads or something (and I know this site has to be funded somehow) but that isn't really an excuse, as I am sure the technology exists to block certain ads from a site. After all, you are unlikely to see religeous sites with ads for porn. Presumably almost everyone who visits this site does so because they are fed up with paying for services which, morally, should be entirely free (as in paid for by the company as a cost of sale expense) For this site to allow, for any reason, ads which promote the very thing it exists to stop is at best embarassing and at worst hypocritical and more importantly damaging to the cause.

You are right though, the least we should see is a prominent and detailed explanation of why this cannot be avoided.

Thanks for the link Andy9. It would seem that this debate has been going on for sometime. However none of the responses address the issue I raised before. That is that there must be some way of filtering out inappropriate adverts for sites with a particular focus. I repeat the religeon/porn example. If Google or any other ad provider is so all powerful that they can overide the needs of the site owner, then this whole site is pointless. We may as well not protest over anything anymore. The point is that the use of non geogriphic numbers is so abused that in any ethical society they should be banned. The only people who have a right to make money from provision of telephone lines are the service provider, and companies who offer non-essential services that we can choose to use or not e.g. directory enquiries and other informational databases that are saving us the trouble of looking something ourselves. This would/should exclude helplines, government bodies and people who want us to use them.  The owners of this site have an ethical duty to not propogate the use of NGDs in any way whatsoever.

Perhaps I am being over-dramatic, but yes one of the criteria I use for buying a newspaper is it's advertising tastes. This is because it sometimes (but by no means always) is an indicator of it's editorial policy. I do not buy the Sunday Mirror for instance because I can buy another paper without two pages of chatline and other adult services in a paper that my children can pick up and read. Perhaps I can block the ads myself (not that I know how) but surely you can see that that misses the point. This is not like a tv channel that you can choose not to watch. This site, and therefore this forum, exists to specifically reduce and eventually abolish the use of NGDs. It is incumbant on the site owners not to propogate the growth of that very thing in any way at all. That no effort is made to stop it or at least explain it, is quite frankly ridiculous and insulting to those of us who are trying to support the site and it's goals.

andy9 wrote on Feb 27^th, 2007 at 1:40pm:

What adverts?

I never notice them.

I come here for a purpose and that doesn't included reading adverts.

Flipping heck! How many more times? Whole heap of point missing going on here! You wouldn't go to an anti-smoking clinic and expect to see the Marlborough Man on the wall! Or go to the dentist and see adverts sponsered by Cadburys and Coca Cola. Whether you see them or not, and whether you can turn them off or not, is irrelevent. They should not be here! If this forum is just going to be a load of angry people sounding off, I'm not gonna play anymore. Debate is good when it advances knowledge or advances a cause, but useless when you just going round in circles.

scatman wrote on Feb 27^th, 2007 at 5:17pm:

I'm sorry, if you consider the wording of my post above classifies me as an 'angry person' who is 'sounding off' then, perhaps, not 'playing', as you put it, might be better.

My post was a statement, was not offensive and was not antagonistic.

scatman wrote on Feb 27^th, 2007 at 5:17pm:


scatman,

Edited:

… I cannot see how people can with a clear conscience lobby against the immorality of businesses having hidden premium rate numbers while this site then tries to derive an income from displaying click thru banner ads to the firms that sell them.  Also it has been explained before that Google does have a facility to block out appropriate ad banner links.  However the site owner has chosen not to make use of this.

I know you are a new forum member but have you not also already seen the horrible banner ads on the top of the page for "Grab A Grand" which lead to a very dubious website run by an outfit called www.winthecash.co.uk ; This professes to offer some form of free entry in a lottery syndicate but the main criteria for entry is to provide your name and email address.  Now you can only imagine what probably happens next in terms of your inbox then going crazy with unwanted share tips and viagra purchase opportunities.

I find the whole ethics of GrabAGrand and its slogan "Live A Little" thoroughly tawdry as you have almost no hope of winning the alleged prize (if it even exists) but the absolute certainty of disclosing your name and email address to this commercially dubious outfit concerned.

Unfortunately certain members of this site are more than a little blinkered in their outlook and all they want to do is avoid calling 084/7 numbers because it costs them personally money and they simply don't want to think about the wider ethical irrationality of this site promoting the very scam 084/7 numbers we hate calling or repeatedly promoting the Live A Little/Grab A Grand/Win The Cash grab your name and email address banner scam.

It seems some members of this site are motivated only by saving money and are utterly blind to the wider moral and ethical issues of the site promoting other commercial scams.