They work well for the creator of the site. If the prime metric is, are people wanting what I'm providing and it's easy for them to do so, then pop-ups work ver

They work well for the creator of the site. If the prime metric is, are people wanting what I'm providing and it's easy for them to do so, then pop-ups work very well. If the metric is, is my site pristine enough for other engineers, then no they don't work well, as seen by the responses here. The choice is in what to optimize for. If it works, it works, regardless of whatever scumminess you may perceive.