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Advertising is a crucial part of the web's ecosystem - without it, there would be fewer useful websites, and we'd all be poorer Internet users as a result.

However we all know that some adverts are annoying and historically there have been few ways to communicate with site owners and provide feedback.

This has been changing. Some Adsense adverts, for example, have feedback links under them. But even when feedback is provided it normally disappears into a black hole and the users never see any impact of their actions. So next time, they don't bother - and may never the use website in question again.

Digg, like all UGC* websites, relies on it users not just reading at the site but actively contributing and regularly re-visiting - so annoying them is even more of a mistake. Unsurprisingly, Digg's founder Kevin Rose reacted to complaints about adverts with audio by taking steps to remove them. He also blogged about the company's efforts to identify and remove offending adverts.

This is the important point; Digg engaged with it's users without using an anonymous press statement or spokesperson. The founder - the man the buck ultimately stops with - blogged a response and made clear that the process for removing ads wasn't perfect, needed improving - and encouraged the community to continue to report adverts.

This small incident underlines a few simple but important rules of working with a community or user base who regularly use a service or website:

• be honest when there is a problem
• have a public face that is accountable (not just another PR person)
• let users know what's being done to improve things
• tell them how they can help

These steps should mean users feel the service/site is "theirs" and not just some company's revenue stream. Empowered, engaged-with users are happy users - and loyal ones.

*User generated content

Update: Danny Sullivan is one of the most respected figures in the search industry, but even he gets blogging wrong occassionally...and like Digg, sets a good example of how to admit blame and move on using a blog post.