Bleacher On The Dark Side

There are many Bleacher writers, each of whom has their own reasons to be here.

Many are young wannabe journalists. They can put their work in front of a wide audience and develop their writing skills. Good luck to them, say I, for as print media dies the web is the place for a writer to be.

I am semi-retired, and writing here is a minor hobby. Stringing words together is something I enjoy, especially when they are about a serious interest such as F1.

A motivating factor for all writers must be that everybody likes to hear the words "well done." Praise is one of the goals we are genetically programmed to seek, and even the most hard-bitten cynic gets a secret buzz from it. POTD? Yes please, hit me again.

And our patron, the enterprising Mr. Alexander Freund, what does he get out of Bleacher? He must get the satisfaction of running a successful site, and of course he gets the advertising revenues. Now that is not unfair to writers, who get the exposure they seek in returning for generating the web hits that ring the till.

Yesterday I wrote an article on a hero of mine, the late and very great Colin Chapman. When I checked the article today I found it next to an advertisement for a product named Vimax, the copy for which asked me if I wanted to surprise my woman. Clicking the ad linked straight to a page with photos of a penis before and after taking Vimax, thereby demonstrating the claimed enlarging effects.

Would I now ask my grandaughter, seven this month, to look at my work on Bleacher? I would not. If anyone wants to look at sexual organs there are very many websites to cater for the interest, they usually make at least a pretence of ensuring visitors are of adult age.

There is another harm from such advertising. It invariably carries malware, and after clicking the Vimax ad I was warned by my software of adware and a trojan downloader being present.

Do the operators of this site consider the advertising feeds they are taking to be suitable for their younger visitors? Do they think they have a duty of care to all visitors in regard to the malware that now infests the Internet as never before?

I've said my piece, now I must get on with disinfecting my PC. Thanks for selling our souls, Zander, thanks very much.