Saw this post come across the community section the official Digg blog today discussing changes to the ads they’re running in the PC Games section. The mind-blowing line:
And if advertising skins just aren’t your thing, one of our users provided this story on how to disable them.
They not only acknowledge that people are going to remove ads, but actually link to instructions on how to remove it. Sure, it’s a bit of a challenge for non-techies (although installing AdBlock Plus makes this super-easy in Firefox), but the vast majority of the audience in the PC Gaming section is going to be able to figure it out.
You want your users to love you? Don’t BS them. An overt effort to tell the cold hard truth, especially when it hurts most, will win over people far more often than it will lose. Real relationships are built on trust, after all, and you can’t fake real.