Dear ESPN

Evil
I wrote and email to the ESPN.com people today. My email will never see the light of day, of course. But it felt better just writing it.

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Dear product managers, customer support team, and anyone who might be reading this at ESPN:

I don't imagine that I'm the first to write in about this, but I just need to get this off my chest... PLEASE stop it with the auto-play ads where Trey Wingo is hawing Mobile ESPN. You know it's annoying to your users. I think in your hearts you know that auto-playing the ads is disrepectful to your users. Yet you do it anyway.

I realize that you're a business and you need to make money. However, I think there's conclusive ad market research that says, beyond a certain number of ad impressions, the incremental impressions will make no difference whatsoever. That limit is somewhere between 3 and 5, depending on what research you believe. I had that Trey Wingo ad auto-play on my about 8 gazillion times now. Really.

I've started getting my sports news from FoxSports. I'll admit that typing "espn.com" is part of my muscle memory, but you know what, every week I find myself visiting FoxSports more and more.

You likely don't care about losing me -- a single user. But I'm sure many others feel the same way. Please, just asking for a little consideration and respect. It's a better way to sustain a loyal user base and positive brand.

Best regards,
(Evil's real name)
(Evil's real email address)
(Evil's real phone number)