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I just think it's silly to completely throw out the idea of ad-based revenue because currently the ad culture sucks. More paid content? Ok, sure. But what if we

I just think it's silly to completely throw out the idea of ad-based revenue because currently the ad culture sucks. More paid content? Ok, sure. But what if we could also have ads that didn't suck? I think it's a worthy goal.

throwaway2048 10y ago
The nature of ads is to be hostile and misleading to the people viewing them. Their purpose is to drive demand where none previously existed, they are at odds with the user.
- news_to_me 10y ago
  That's a simplistic viewpoint. If ads weren't useful at all, no one would click on them, or, if they did, they wouldn't buy whatever was at the other end. There is such a thing as artificially inflated demand, which can be a problem, but I don't think it's likely that all advertising falls in that bucket.
  - kwhitefoot 10y ago
    It would be interesting to have some examples of ads that you regard as not falling in that bucket.
- beaconstudios 10y ago
  the main legitimate purpose of ads is to make people aware of products they didn't know about before. If the user actually wants that product but didn't know it existed, then the advert was a net-positive to both parties.
CodeMage 10y ago
Why? I really don't understand why people think that ads of all things need saving. I understand the desire to make money flow towards the content creators. I understand the desire for free content. I understand that the ads seem to "solve" both of those problems. I just don't understand why people think it's better to keep investing our time and energy into trying to save ads instead of looking for alternative solutions. So why ads?
- news_to_me 10y ago
  For one reason, it's the system we have now. There's a lot of industry inertia that would simply be easier to keep than throw away and switch to a new system. If you want to convince everyone to switch, the question is really, "Why not just ads?", especially if it's relatively easy to fix the problems we face now. From a practical perspective, you need to convince all the stakeholders to abandon ads, which isn't easy. But yeah, personally I'd prefer a different system. I really like the idea of micropayments, but I don't know how that would look exactly.

throwaway2048 10y ago

The nature of ads is to be hostile and misleading to the people viewing them. Their purpose is to drive demand where none previously existed, they are at odds with the user.

news_to_me 10y ago
That's a simplistic viewpoint. If ads weren't useful at all, no one would click on them, or, if they did, they wouldn't buy whatever was at the other end. There is such a thing as artificially inflated demand, which can be a problem, but I don't think it's likely that all advertising falls in that bucket.
- kwhitefoot 10y ago
  It would be interesting to have some examples of ads that you regard as not falling in that bucket.
beaconstudios 10y ago
the main legitimate purpose of ads is to make people aware of products they didn't know about before. If the user actually wants that product but didn't know it existed, then the advert was a net-positive to both parties.

CodeMage 10y ago

Why? I really don't understand why people think that ads of all things need saving. I understand the desire to make money flow towards the content creators. I understand the desire for free content. I understand that the ads seem to "solve" both of those problems. I just don't understand why people think it's better to keep investing our time and energy into trying to save ads instead of looking for alternative solutions. So why ads?

news_to_me 10y ago
For one reason, it's the system we have now. There's a lot of industry inertia that would simply be easier to keep than throw away and switch to a new system. If you want to convince everyone to switch, the question is really, "Why not just ads?", especially if it's relatively easy to fix the problems we face now. From a practical perspective, you need to convince all the stakeholders to abandon ads, which isn't easy. But yeah, personally I'd prefer a different system. I really like the idea of micropayments, but I don't know how that would look exactly.