We don't condone
"Popups"

A Message From Our Chairman

Dear Reader,

Are you seeing popup advertisements appear on our sites? Let me be perfectly clear, our sites do not use, condone or authorize, the use of popup advertising. Like most people, I find popups to be quite obnoxious and intrusive. Yet, I will assume that because you are reading this, there's a pretty good chance that you saw such an ad while visiting us.

How can this be? It's simple, really. You may have a spy program tracking your Internet use and popping up ads without your consent. These programs are typically called "spyware", and countless people have these popup-generating spies installed on their computers without even knowing it! They spy on your Internet usage, and if they see that you are visiting a targeted site or topic, they pop up an advertisement.

The effect of spyware on businesses like ours is extremely hurtful. As publishers, we have spent years building our sites, editing them with care, only to see hoards of companies utilize these spyware programs to steal away our readership. And our readers, often without even understanding why, see popup ads that many see as intrusive and a nuisance, disrupting their online experience. While some people like popup-generating spyware, if you are one of those persons who doesn't want your internet usage monitored, and would also like to help family publishers like us continue to provide our services, I would like to ask you to try to remove such spy programs from your machine.

What can you do? Take action and remove from your computer these spy programs and the popups they cause. Take advantage of utilities out there that can help you detect and remove unwelcome spies on your system. Personally, I have had success using a free program called Ad-aware that you may wish to try, but there are others available online as well^*.

In the end, the only thing that will stop the scourge of popups is to stop financially supporting the advertisers who employ them. As always, it's your choice, but if you'll join me in not patronizing businesses that engage in these practices, we will stop rewarding those who don't respect our privacy. Being able to surf the web without being spied on is everyone's right.

Sincerely,

Mark N. Metz
Chairman
MetroGuide.com, Inc.

^*Important: I am not warranting or endorsing any particular product or company, and I have no relationship to Ad-aware or any other vendor of popup blockers.