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I applaud the move on his part, but should have had some forethought before releasing it. He has skin in the game: profited from Instapaper (essentially an ad-s

I applaud the move on his part, but should have had some forethought before releasing it. He has skin in the game: profited from Instapaper (essentially an ad-stripper), sells ads on his blog and produces a podcast that profits from ad sales. His advertising may be more acceptable in terms of aesthetics and privacy, but it is an acknowledgement, nonetheless, that advertising is the best possible monetization model and one that is depended upon by many to support what they do. Can it be done in a better way? Sure. Is jeopardizing "publishers'" livelihood the answer? No. By saying "But my ads are blocked, too," as he did, was not an acceptable solution. If a big chunk of people visiting his site already paid him $3 to defer his advertising, then he's already won. But nobody else with their ads blocked will see that money. He makes good arguments about both aesthetically and privacy intrusive advertising, but A definite conflict of interest on his part.

derefr 11y ago
He expected to make a tiny ad-blocker nobody cared about, and then keep tinkering with it. Instead, he captured the majority of the market—at which point he realized that his ad-blocker is not nearly "nice" enough (in the ABP "whitelist sites that display non-intrusive ads" sense of nice) to make sense as the one the majority of iOS users use, and he has no idea how to do the work required to get it there (I.e. building a manual whitelist of all "good" sites ever) without stepping on millions of toes. Basically, he just never planned for success.
- shanecleveland 11y ago
  He announced it on his highly trafficked blog and Twitter account. He carries pretty significant weight within a large circle of folks likely to install such an app. This isn't his breast feeding timer app we are talking about.
  - derefr 11y ago
    Alright; he expected to be competitive, perhaps, but I still don't think he expected to win. He's never won a market before, so why would he think his current base is enough to start winning now? Instead, he likely expected it to be another Instapaper: an app existing amicably along with a few other similar offerings, one of which is an entire company (Pocket), and one of which is Apple's own service (Reading List).
philoushka 11y ago
I realize it's only one of your points, and not intending on cherry-picking. > produces a podcast that profits from ad sales There are different forms of ads. He's not saying that ads suck, and it wouldn't be a conflict of interest for him to do ad-reads on ATP while making an iOS content blocker. Overcast also has a skip-fwd button that you can configure in sensible increments. I know I use it maybe 2-3 times per podcast episode. Podcast ad-reads are incredibly effective, and I haven't heard one person complain about them. There are good/better/best forms of advertising, none of which are punch the monkey, malvertising, and those that CPU hog, use your cell data, and drain your battery. For me, I'll keep blocking on the web, going pee during a TV commerical, DVR skipping, podcast forwarding, etc.

derefr 11y ago

He expected to make a tiny ad-blocker nobody cared about, and then keep tinkering with it. Instead, he captured the majority of the market—at which point he realized that his ad-blocker is not nearly "nice" enough (in the ABP "whitelist sites that display non-intrusive ads" sense of nice) to make sense as the one the majority of iOS users use, and he has no idea how to do the work required to get it there (I.e. building a manual whitelist of all "good" sites ever) without stepping on millions of toes. Basically, he just never planned for success.

shanecleveland 11y ago
He announced it on his highly trafficked blog and Twitter account. He carries pretty significant weight within a large circle of folks likely to install such an app. This isn't his breast feeding timer app we are talking about.
- derefr 11y ago
  Alright; he expected to be competitive, perhaps, but I still don't think he expected to win. He's never won a market before, so why would he think his current base is enough to start winning now? Instead, he likely expected it to be another Instapaper: an app existing amicably along with a few other similar offerings, one of which is an entire company (Pocket), and one of which is Apple's own service (Reading List).

philoushka 11y ago

I realize it's only one of your points, and not intending on cherry-picking. > produces a podcast that profits from ad sales There are different forms of ads. He's not saying that ads suck, and it wouldn't be a conflict of interest for him to do ad-reads on ATP while making an iOS content blocker. Overcast also has a skip-fwd button that you can configure in sensible increments. I know I use it maybe 2-3 times per podcast episode. Podcast ad-reads are incredibly effective, and I haven't heard one person complain about them. There are good/better/best forms of advertising, none of which are punch the monkey, malvertising, and those that CPU hog, use your cell data, and drain your battery. For me, I'll keep blocking on the web, going pee during a TV commerical, DVR skipping, podcast forwarding, etc.