This cool weblog that i enjoy has this saying, i think it goes something like this:

"If you don't like something, change it"

I can see only two ways in which i can affect change in this case: the first: to post my opinion in hopes that mine and other readers opinions are heard. the second: stop visiting BB.

So, here is me, respectfully submitting my humble opinion that the MS Mobile ads are really icky and they run contrary to the spirit of BB.

Thank you.

yay! the original comments are back!

First I want to say that i really appreciate the fact that Teresa (and Mark and Joel and others from BB) actually take the time to respond to the generally anonymous snarky masses. Even tho i dont necessarily agree with what you are saying (in this case) i do appreciate that there is at least a discussion going on, and not just a big reader-echo-chamber.

I think i made my main points just fine in my earlier posts so i wont belabor any of that. but I do want to respond to specific point from Teresa since it was in response to one of my earlier posts:

She said: it's always nice to get ads from "cool companies doing cool stuff," but sometimes they're not the ones who are buying the ads.

Fair enough, then you go on (in a later post) to say: "What I'm saying is that the site could still exist if it didn't have a large and constant revenue stream."

So I guess what I am saying, (and what i believe some of the other posters here are saying) is that if you have the power that the other media outlets don't have (ie the power to hold out for 'cool' ads from 'cool' companies, even when 'cool' companies aren't always buying the ads) why dont you exercise that?

along the same lines Mark says: "Our editorial content is completely independent of our advertising."
But how is this possible when the ad IS the content (ie this post brought to you by: big advertiser) ('the ad IS the content' might be a bit hyperbolic, but it is embedded IN the content, and so is most definitely NOT independent from it.)

that is all for now :-)
Hamsters, Hamsters, Hamsters!

I feel kinda bad for Coco's and the Hamster's Lunch guys. Here is their big BB break, and they unwittingly get upstaged by being sponsored by MS.

If my "cool" stuff ever made it's way to a maker faire or some other BB-type gathering and made the website, I sure hope it wouldn't be sponsored by MS, since that would suck all the coolness from the main content.

As for the original post, i think the hamster is cool (and very cute), and I also wonder what is on the shelf below? is it a monkey of some sort?

hmm.. I don't disagree with the need for ads. Gotta pay the rent and all. But along the lines of #8, it seems like the ads are not from 'wonderful advertisers' so much anymore. Having read BB for a long time now, I am so used to the ads being from cool companies doing cool stuff (generally). With the honda and hp stuff, i was kinda irked, but the MS thing definitely pushed me over the edge (enough to comment anyway :-)

Also, when i see a banner ad on the top of the page, or on the sidebar, i don't think of it really as an endorsement, it is just and ad served up by some server. But when i see "this post sponsored MS Mobile" i take that as you guys saying to me the reader: hey MS Mobile is great! Now, MS might make some good stuff, but the Mobile product line aint it. (having used it myself) So then i think" if they are willing to pimp MS mobile, are they willing to pimp anything? should I expect to see 'this post brought to you by the MPAA'.

Anyhow, sorry to get so long in the post here, but i really really like BB, and change is inevitable, but i always kinda hoped it wouldn't change to be more like the 'other major weblogs', and might try to keep some of it's uniqueness.

@1: Apparently the TSA is also requiring boingboing to remove all comments from posts that were recently sponsored by hated corporations. wtf is going on at BB HQ? Comments critical of BB are not allowed?

The problem that I have with the MS sponsonship is that (as mentioned a few times above) MS Mobile is bad bad tech. I understand the need to pay for the site, and make some cash from your efforts. However, the reason people like myself visit this site is because I trust your opinions on what is fun and cool and as a result most of the things you post i find interesting.

So, if you are going to sell out, then please sell out selectively. Try at least to get sponsors of products that aren't the exact opposite of what this site is about. (ie new innovative and interesting vs poorly implemented, me-too and buggy)

so sad.

i'm with erissian here. There isnt a single legitimate advertisement image that hasnt been photoshopped these days. (this is especially true of any ad images that contain models)