4 ms·

I agree with your overall premise - that attention-seeking ads and whatnot is usually an indicator of bad content, but not always. It's hard for authors to do

I agree with your overall premise - that attention-seeking ads and whatnot is usually an indicator of bad content, but not always. It's hard for authors to do this full-time without advertising. Who pays them if not users or advertisers? Hobbyists and amateur publishers are one thing, but people who do things and write about them full-time are searching for a way to support themselves. I would replace "no ads" in your comment with "respectful and honest ads" (and even better if those ad fees are paid directly to the author or a small distributor that is being selective about matching ads to pages).

tomxor 9y ago
> It's hard for authors to do this full-time without advertising. Who pays them if not users or advertisers? Hobbyists and amateur publishers are one thing, but people who do things and write about them full-time are searching for a way to support themselves. This is just my opinion: but I think this is the so called "problem" that people need to not solve... medium keep talking about "how can we replace the ad model", and hey, maybe in "reporting" style content this is a legitimate problem, but going forward I don't see it applying to a lot of written content, people with insightful things to write about often have those insights because they do something other than writing for a living. Directly making monkey off literature in the traditional sense is not necessary - but making the literature can indirectly make you monkey by e.g improving your employment prospects if that's important to you, not to mention writing literature can be an enjoyable art form in itself.
- ryanianian 9y ago
  That kind of writing makes sense for a blog, and most blogs I see/follow don't have much advertisting that benefits the author. > writing literature can be an art form Right. There are some amazing writers out there who are true artists and yet have to subsidize their writing with traditional employment. The writing far outvalues the other-job output. (This isn't a problem just for writers - many artists are starving of course) I'd like to find a model that lets them do writing full-time and get paid in a way such that better writing => more readers => more income. It's unclear how to pay a great writer for their writing if not for ads or directly from readers.
  - tomxor 9y ago
    > Right. There are some amazing writers out there who are true artists and yet have to subsidize their writing with traditional employment. The writing far outvalues the other-job output. My "completely free" opinion applies more to people writing informative content based on their successes and experiences separate from the writing it self. It definitely doesn't apply for those who are writing for the sake of writing as a creative work, where the "other" job is just a means. In this case it's back to the same question, and it may even suit the content more because it's more about what people enjoy to read than what is objectively "good" of "useful", in which case voting with your monkey seems not to corrupt as much... then again there is hollywood and pop music so scratch that. I think the best ideas about for this now are things like patreon - where the focus is more on encouraging author creativity rather than monetisation of past works like copyright. However this still has it's downsides... e.g it suits and encourages continuous streams of small pieces of works more than masterpiece style sized works.
kqr 9y ago
Does anyone know of a respectful ad platform suitable for authors who prioritise the privacy of their readers? My site fits your descriptions, but I have avoided adding ads because all good options I know are scary and not good for the readers. It would be nice to be able to justify writing more though.
- tomxor 9y ago
  Have you explored non ad methods like patreon? I don't know if it applies to written content but I would prefer to leave a penny when I enjoy something than see ads.

tomxor 9y ago

> It's hard for authors to do this full-time without advertising. Who pays them if not users or advertisers? Hobbyists and amateur publishers are one thing, but people who do things and write about them full-time are searching for a way to support themselves. This is just my opinion: but I think this is the so called "problem" that people need to not solve... medium keep talking about "how can we replace the ad model", and hey, maybe in "reporting" style content this is a legitimate problem, but going forward I don't see it applying to a lot of written content, people with insightful things to write about often have those insights because they do something other than writing for a living. Directly making monkey off literature in the traditional sense is not necessary - but making the literature can indirectly make you monkey by e.g improving your employment prospects if that's important to you, not to mention writing literature can be an enjoyable art form in itself.

ryanianian 9y ago
That kind of writing makes sense for a blog, and most blogs I see/follow don't have much advertisting that benefits the author. > writing literature can be an art form Right. There are some amazing writers out there who are true artists and yet have to subsidize their writing with traditional employment. The writing far outvalues the other-job output. (This isn't a problem just for writers - many artists are starving of course) I'd like to find a model that lets them do writing full-time and get paid in a way such that better writing => more readers => more income. It's unclear how to pay a great writer for their writing if not for ads or directly from readers.
- tomxor 9y ago
  > Right. There are some amazing writers out there who are true artists and yet have to subsidize their writing with traditional employment. The writing far outvalues the other-job output. My "completely free" opinion applies more to people writing informative content based on their successes and experiences separate from the writing it self. It definitely doesn't apply for those who are writing for the sake of writing as a creative work, where the "other" job is just a means. In this case it's back to the same question, and it may even suit the content more because it's more about what people enjoy to read than what is objectively "good" of "useful", in which case voting with your monkey seems not to corrupt as much... then again there is hollywood and pop music so scratch that. I think the best ideas about for this now are things like patreon - where the focus is more on encouraging author creativity rather than monetisation of past works like copyright. However this still has it's downsides... e.g it suits and encourages continuous streams of small pieces of works more than masterpiece style sized works.

kqr 9y ago

Does anyone know of a respectful ad platform suitable for authors who prioritise the privacy of their readers? My site fits your descriptions, but I have avoided adding ads because all good options I know are scary and not good for the readers. It would be nice to be able to justify writing more though.

tomxor 9y ago
Have you explored non ad methods like patreon? I don't know if it applies to written content but I would prefer to leave a penny when I enjoy something than see ads.