Fast Fiction

Is anyone else as bugged with audio on the web as I am?

If I’m browsing a newspaper online or maybe IMDB, I do not want something PLAYING AUDIO. I don’t want to hear a trailer going on. I’ve got my streaming radio or my jukebox playing what I want to hear. This is the equivalent of magazines having perfume samples in them. Please only assail one sense at a time. The web is for stuff I can see. Go ahead, have your ads on the page. I understand this is how I enjoy free content. But please do not have the auto-run audio, jeeze it’s as bad as pop-ups. If I wanted to watch a damn trailer for Deadwood, I’d turn on HBO or go to their website or click on the damn ad. I do not want it playing.

The LA Times seems to be the worst of the bunch. They’ve got this damn western themed Eclipse gum ad ... pops up in front with the audio on. It’s got a mute button. Hell, it’s got a close button too. But if you’re a pixel off, you’ve just “clicked” on the ad and it’ll pop something up.

Is there some setting I’m not aware of that will keep my browser from playing audio content? It used to be when you went to a site that had midi audio or something like that, you just hit escape and it’d stop. (Tip, that still works for stopping animated gifs.) I know most of these audio ads are in Flash or something. I can’t very well uninstall Flash.