LinkSwarm.com LinkSwarm Journals

I contacted them through their little online form, so I have no record of it. They emailed me back, I responded, then they responded again.

--Their response to my website form comments
* on 01-18-05, ImageShack wrote:
>Thank you for contacting.
>
>ImageShack is currently working with providers of advertisements
>to provide the best possible promotions that may be of interest,
>so you will see some better ones later on.
>
>Also, you can click "remove this advertisement" at the very bottom
>of the advetisement.
>
>There is a balance that can be struck, and ImageShack is
>implimenting it.

--My response to that
No, you're not implementing a balance. You're falling squarely on the side of deceptive dollar-sucking sites everywhere.

Imageshack had the cachet of Google. You're throwing that away now
because you're not Doing The Right Thing.

I almost mentioned the "remove this advertisement" thing to head you
off at the pass, but I figured you'd know better than to go for the
cheap maneuver.

You see, simply hosting deceptive ads -- whether or not users can
turn them off -- is enough to turn off anyone Internet-savvy.
People know when they're being tricked, and hosting ad-free image
uploads for a while isn't going to make up for subjecting people to
popup ads which pretend to be windows.

I bother with this only because you had a truly cool service, one I
don't want to see fall by the wayside because the promise of a quick
microdollar-per-impression is more enticing than actually becoming a
honorable piece of the Internet.

Here's to hoping.

--To which they responded:
Thank you for your thoughts regarding this issue.

ImageShack recently signed on with peel.com , an advertising service
that brings much better content ads than the dialogue box type that
ImageShack currently serves.

If ImageShack finds that the advertisements do not improve in quality,
they will be removed completely.

Also, concerning the "Remove this Advertisement" system, the cookie has
been extended to 5 days (if you click "remove this ad", you will not see
the ad for 5 days), it also has been bolded and been put on a white
background in order to facilitate ease-of-sight.

Sincerely,

Alexander Levin
www.imageshack.us
--THE END

So this gives me hope. They're aware there's a quality issue with ads. Also the "remove this ad" link works for five days. That doesn't erase the fact that they're the kind of site that's willing to display unethical ads, but it does make it easier for us to put up with such bullshit until they remove those ads, or we find another free image host that automatically generates thumbnails, which is really the only thing unique about ImageShack.

The sad part is, I was more than willing to donate to their service, before they decided fuking us in the face with ads was the way to go. It was a cool service, and one I didn't mind paying for.