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I visit StackOverflow on a daily basis so I haven't seen this - I just tried in incognito mode, and wow, this wasn't an exaggeration! I've always felt like the

I visit StackOverflow on a daily basis so I haven't seen this - I just tried in incognito mode, and wow, this wasn't an exaggeration! I've always felt like the owners of SO have had good intentions, and for the most part felt like I trusted them. But there are now some worrying signs - first they allowed obtrusive ads onto SO, and now this looks like a PI data-grab. Clamouring for PI is always worrying, because it means that PI has value to them - but why?

chii 7y ago
because the questions and answers have not made them enough money. Engagement on the platform is declining due to strict editors and lazy question askers. and with a majority developer audience, the ad blockers are stopping advertising revenue. this is when a site start compromising its stated morals. not out of greed, but out of necessity.
- GordonS 7y ago
  But what of Jobs? Their cheapest package (which allows max 1 job ad at any time) is around $7,500/year. They have 5572 jobs advertised right now, so I guess it's pulling in 30-41M a year.
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  They can solve the adblocker problem by serving developer-relevant ads directly from their domain instead of third-party cancer. Read The Docs do this and I’ve never ever minded their ads. It also helps that the ads RTD serve are for trustworthy products (that I already had good experiences with) so it helps me in trusting them when they advertise something I don’t yet know about.