Kudos to Scott Jangro, all the bloggers and forum posters that pushed the FORCED LMI initiative back where it belongs. They just announced that JavaScript links are simply an optional way to create links and removed JS as the default link format.
I'd give Commission Junction kudos for listening, except they put everyone through too much hell for too long with this badly thought out initiative. They are now calling HTML links what they are, as opposed to calling them by their LMI term "Legacy" links. So without admitting how much they blew it on this one, they are quietly trying to go back to business as usual.
I always feel a company can gain so much more favor and credibility in bad situations like this to just openly admit they made a mistake, listened to the people, thank them for their feedback and then correct it instead of just trying to subtely sweep the mistake under the riug.
I feel pretty certain that the main impetus for them changing and finally backing down is the upcoming CJU convention. CJU typically sells out in days. Here we are with less than a month to go and the convention has still not sold out. I think they got everyone's message loud and clear and realized if they didn't back down quick, the whole conference would be focused on how stupid and wrong the entire LMI mess was.
If you go past the announcement on the home page and dig into the FAQ the
bright orange changes clearly spell things out.
"How are JavaScript links impacted with the August 30, 2006 release of LMI? Now in the Get Links area of the CJ Account Manager, there is no longer a default to JavaScript links; publishers can choose the format they prefer to work with, whether it is HTML or JavaScript."
"Advertisers will also have the ability to designate any link (except Keyword Links) as JavaScript-only. This feature was added in response to some advertisers who have particular concerns with legal and regulatory compliance, such as an interest rate advertised by a financial institution. We recommend that advertisers only use this feature as needed, and to continue to support both JavaScript and HTML, to accommodate the varied needs of publishers. To reiterate there are no plans to remove support for HTML links."
What do you guys think?
Did you breathe a big sigh of relief when you heard about this???