I'm way more than just happy with The Thread - it's been good to me. I'm very greatful to Michel for living with it (and us).
Caveat: I really, really, really (I say it three times) don't care for ads that move, wiggle, jump, or constantly change in my face.
I'm writing this in a public format, because you can't argue that it doesn't constantly attract your attention - this is a selling point for any advertiser. So there's a strong business case in favour of it, and only aesthetics and a feeling of what's important to the contrary.
Personally, I can hardly read the text with a half dozen pirouetting piranhas dancing to the side of what I'm hoping to read. The top couple of articles in the News, I just skip.
The half-second, MTV style frame shift was never my favourite either.
If I could just Auto-Login, and go right to my favourite forum...
But that also would defeat the business case of having advertisers support the UT, and I -like- to read the news here.
Is there a middle ground? Are the ads here just as powerful without the the tricks? They are all for things we are already interested in anyway; they don't need to get us to look at something we never heard of before.
A tasteful, static ad, in this particular place, get's my attention just by being here.