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I don't want to see ads, ever. I hope a growing number of people feel the same way. I don't care about the business model of the whole internet. It is obviou

• Intermernet 7y ago
  We're out here. You're not alone.
• enlyth 7y ago
  I completely agree. I don't care if your ad is clever, relevant, organically sourced, environmentally friendly, necessary for financing your product, something I actually want, need, or didn't know I wanted yet. The internet is plagued with this cancer everywhere you go, no matter what you do. Somehow it's become acceptable that every second of our attention and time is competed for by corporations trying to sell us things. I simply do not want to see ads, ever.
  • jimmaswell 7y ago
    I don't understand this overreaction. Ads are there, so what, they don't even make noise or tend to cover parts of the screen like they used to.
    • jordanpg 7y ago
      The point is that I'm fundamentally disgusted by an incitement to spend money being thrust in front of me in any form, for any reason. I see it as exactly at odds with what I'm trying to do with my life and my attention. I do not consent to have my time and attention taken from me in this way. Yes, I am a free rider on much of the internet today, such as it is. That the entire internet is based on this absurd proposition is a symptom of its rapid growth and industries going after the lowest hanging fruit. I am confident that the internet will find another way forward.
    • _Understated_ 7y ago
      You need to look at what powers the ads. It's never "just" an ad. Like the way you see an ad in a newspaper. It's the spyware that comes with it and the fact that tons of them are animated! And yes, I consider it spyware and virus-like behaviour to track me wherever I go and I will actively do what I can to stop it. Even if it means you don't get paid... you chose that seedy medium to make money, not me. It's not my job to validate your business model. By all means block me. I will go elsewhere. Browsing the internet without an ad blocker is actually impossible for me now... whenever I rebuild a machine I have those few hours or so before I get the ad blocker installed where the internet is a horrific assault on the senses with everything trying to steal my attention away from the thing I am there to see and slowing down the page load (significantly in some cases) I still remember when plenty of the internet was running fine from hobbyists and whatnot without resorting to ads and tracking... it costs practically zero to run a website (granted, at scale it's a whole other ball-game but how many people have that problem?) The internet would survive fine without ads. It would have a different mix of behemoths and hobbyists sites but it would survive just fine. That being said... I do remember trying to punch the monkey to win :D Edit: added stuff for clarity
    • RobertKerans 7y ago
      The ones under discussion are the digital equivalent of junk mail
  • mathnmusic 7y ago
    To jimmaswell: Ads wouldn't be there unless they work for the advertiser.
    • onion2k 7y ago
      Unless the advertiser mistakenly believes they work.
  • Xixi 7y ago
    I used to feel that way, until I built several services (the latest being tomotcha.com). Turns out, once you've built something, you need to advertise its existence out there. I mean "advertise" in the largest meaning of the word, not only paid for advertisement on Google/Facebook/Twitter/Criteo. That includes writing blog posts for people to stumble upon, talk about it on Hacker News, send samples to reviewers, etc. How else would people learn about it? Turns out, if you don't talk about it, very few will come... I think this is why HN has a lot more goodwill towards self promotion (Show HN style posts) than a lot of other communities (reddit notably, depending on the sub). Entrepreneurs know that advertisement is a necessary part of any business.
    • wolco 7y ago
      I think people confuse advertising in general with the 360 tracking facebook/google and others use. People need to advertise and it's helpful to both the consumer/company.
      • frenchy 7y ago
        I'm not sure that people confused the two, it's just that the intrusive forms of advertising make up an overwhelmingly large part of a normal person's interactions with ads that we all just assume that that is what you're talking about. I think we mostly appreciate the need for the so-called "getting the word out there", but it ought to be done in way that's appropriate. There's a balance to be made between the potential value of a product, and the amount of attention you're trying to steal. Most people think the products they make are more valuable than they really are.
  • HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
    Vivaldi (Chromium-based browser, built for power users) has a set of default home page spots that companies paid to get a spot on. They are removable, and are a sorta one-time thing. They help pay for development, and are rather non-intrusive. Is that acceptable? What about a set of sponsor logos at the bottom of a webpage that let you visit the companies?
  • hombre_fatal 7y ago
    The take-away here is to just buy covert ads that you confuse for content. It's win-win. You get to think you're not seeing ads, and advertisers get to advertise in unblockable ways.
    • frenchy 7y ago
      I don't really have a problem with that. If you're making content, and it's valuable, and it's related to a product, that's great. If your content isn't valuable to me, then I won't bother with it. If you're just getting folks on facebook to promote your products in the hope of some minor dispensation or something (a popular gimic these days). That's easily identifiable and blockable.
• jimmaswell 7y ago
  The rest of us don't want to pay a monthly subscription to every single website we use, so ads it is.
  • asark 7y ago
    Ad supported also competes with entirely free, by having more resources for development and, go figure, more marketing/ad dollars to promote their services elsewhere and gain usershare, for cases in which everyone-is-using-it matters—so, social media and messaging. Paid services aren't the only things that can/would replace spyvertising-funded services.
• joshvm 7y ago
  One grey area that I approve of is referral links, if they're obviously presented as such. For example if you read a tutorial on how to build a weather station and the author provides referral links to a component on Amazon, I'm happy to use those links. Referral systems are open to abuse though, like the myriad of ultra specific comparison websites with tenuous "expert" reviews.
  • rurp 7y ago
    I agree with this. An ad that is relevant and doesn't track, harass, or deceive users is reasonable in my opinion. There's no reason that most ads couldn't fit this model, but due to greed and laziness they mostly don't.
  • HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
    @rurp- A lot of those referral links do have logging (seeing who visited / hoe many people have) and tracking (general location, some demographics). Is that okay to you?
    • joshvm 7y ago
      In my case, I guess I am? Obviously the site owner will get some logging results, and maybe they will try to optimise for that. I'm fine with a site owner knowing their demographic. That's potentially useful for other things, eg should you invest in localisation? Otherwise unless you have a vpn, your IP is going to be visible anyway. It probably depends on the referral site. For example, do Amazon have any reason to sell my data to anyone else? It's most valuable to them and they already have a decade+ of purchase and browsing history. I still think this a preferable situation to targeted ads which try to guess what I want.
• stronglikedan 7y ago
  Are you saying you want something for nothing? If not nothing, what? Ads aren't just the business model of the internet. They've been subsidizing human interaction since ancient times.
  • shakna 7y ago
    However, they weren't always backed by vast networks designed to stalk, and manipulate you, with access to more data than most ruling governments have.
• miguelmota 7y ago
  Have you ever ran a business? Curious to how you promote a business without ads or sponsored content to get the word out there to the masses..
  • _Understated_ 7y ago
    On that note, I have nothing against sponsored content. For example, a blog on programming that happens to have posts sponsored by a company that specializes in dev tools or something. That makes perfect sense! Sure, some of it can be puff-pieces for the company and they are quite clearly just bullshit but it's easy to leave and go elsewhere if they take the piss. A banner at the top of a blog post saying "this content was kindly sponsored by <insert company relevant to the content>" is a great idea and more should do it. But they don't! They use ad networks that track the ever-living shit out of every move you make. That's the issue for me!
  • Nextgrid 7y ago
    Good old SEO? I mean if your product fills a unique niche it should be really easy to rank high. Get your first few customers like that, then because your product is revolutionary, word of mouth will do the rest. A real-world example: Monzo, a modern bank in the UK. They only very recently started using advertising, but got their first million customers with nothing but word of mouth. Their secret? Simply making a product that's light-years ahead of what the existing banks provide. Your product is not revolutionary? Oh then I don't know (actually I do - make a revolutionary product - switch industries if necessary), but you're not entitled to waste my time, attention & privacy with ads just so your business can survive. Being profitable is not a right, I couldn't care less if you go out of business.
  • revvx 7y ago
    SEO, good content marketing, sponsoring blogs and videos (when done tastefully), product placement, engaging with communities, talking about it in HN/ProductHunt/etc. All those things are acceptable to most people who block ads, IMO.
    • miguelmota 7y ago