I have to admit that I find the responses from the administrators in this thread to be far less helpful than virtually all other comments I have seen from the House of Miles.

"We need the money, you should be grateful since that's what it takes to run a free site, so live with it," is what, rightly or wrongly, I infer from the tone of these responses.

Well, they're right. But since I find this particular form of ad as more intrusive than virtually any other, and since at some of the places I currently view FT, I can't install ad blockers (like at work),
the net effect is that I will look at FT less often.

It is a two way street. For example, I subscribed to the magazine as my way to "pay back" for FT, even though so far, everything I need I have found here first. So I don't feel guilty in suggesting that a little more sensitivity to the desires of FT viewers is appropriate, even if this is a free site.