3 ms·

>So the site's owners and employees should work for you for free because you're giving them exposure. Yes, they probably should. It works in the retail world.

by magduf 9y ago

>So the site's owners and employees should work for you for free because you're giving them exposure. Yes, they probably should. It works in the retail world. Shop owners are usually happy to have non-paying customers in their store, and restaurant owners usually happy to have low-paying customers (i.e. they don't buy very much), to make sure their establishment "looks busy". Having a store or eatery with few or no customers is bad: it "looks dead" and can either scare away customers, or just not bring as many in. People are social creatures; when they see a lot of people in a place, they think that it must be popular for a reason, so having some customers brings in more customers, and some fraction of those customers will pay (or pay a lot more than the average), making the establishment profitable overall. Internet publishers need to figure out a better business model if they one they have isn't profitable enough for them. Other businesses have long recognized that not all customers are equally profitable, and some aren't profitable at all, but they figured out how to make things work.

sowbug 9y ago
> Yes, they probably should. Until internet publishers reach that conclusion themselves, is it OK to force a different business model on them? To be clear, that "business model" is "I don't like the form of payment this business is asking for, so I'll take the merchandise for free instead." When a business has high prices or a poor experience, it's customary to shop elsewhere, not to raid the store.
- dorgo 9y ago
  Amazon makes 1000€+ revenue from me bying stuff there and still shows ads and tries to sell me credit cards.. Do you mind if i hide all this shit while bying stuff on Amazon? I use about 5 non-commercial services which may show ads (don't know whether they do or not and not gonna disable adblocker to check). I would happily pay 10€-15€ per month for this services, if there would be good save annonymes payment service. I don't want to send my utility bill to paypal or give away my credit card number. Maybe crypto would be a possibility.
  - evangp 9y ago
    Might I suggest the brave browser?
- magduf 9y ago
  Yes, it is OK. It's my computer, and I can run whatever code I want to on it. If I want to run an ad-blocker, that's my business. If the store doesn't want to give merchandise away for free, then they should stop doing that. When I make an HTTP request, it's just that: a request. Their server can either respond with the page, or not (or a different page). It's my business what I do with the code that the server sends me. >When a business has high prices or a poor experience, it's customary to shop elsewhere, not to raid the store. Poor analogy. These websites aren't actually selling you stuff, they're giving away stuff for free, and hoping you'll look at the ads. If I go into a store that's handing out free samples along with a stack of paper advertisements to look at, and I take some samples and decline to take the ads (or I promptly drop the ads into the trash can), that's the store's problem, not mine. I have no obligation to look at their ads. It's the business's responsibility to come up with a workable business model.

by magduf 9y ago

sowbug 9y ago

> Yes, they probably should. Until internet publishers reach that conclusion themselves, is it OK to force a different business model on them? To be clear, that "business model" is "I don't like the form of payment this business is asking for, so I'll take the merchandise for free instead." When a business has high prices or a poor experience, it's customary to shop elsewhere, not to raid the store.

dorgo 9y ago
Amazon makes 1000€+ revenue from me bying stuff there and still shows ads and tries to sell me credit cards.. Do you mind if i hide all this shit while bying stuff on Amazon? I use about 5 non-commercial services which may show ads (don't know whether they do or not and not gonna disable adblocker to check). I would happily pay 10€-15€ per month for this services, if there would be good save annonymes payment service. I don't want to send my utility bill to paypal or give away my credit card number. Maybe crypto would be a possibility.
- evangp 9y ago
  Might I suggest the brave browser?
magduf 9y ago
Yes, it is OK. It's my computer, and I can run whatever code I want to on it. If I want to run an ad-blocker, that's my business. If the store doesn't want to give merchandise away for free, then they should stop doing that. When I make an HTTP request, it's just that: a request. Their server can either respond with the page, or not (or a different page). It's my business what I do with the code that the server sends me. >When a business has high prices or a poor experience, it's customary to shop elsewhere, not to raid the store. Poor analogy. These websites aren't actually selling you stuff, they're giving away stuff for free, and hoping you'll look at the ads. If I go into a store that's handing out free samples along with a stack of paper advertisements to look at, and I take some samples and decline to take the ads (or I promptly drop the ads into the trash can), that's the store's problem, not mine. I have no obligation to look at their ads. It's the business's responsibility to come up with a workable business model.