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If you stop watching ads for awhile and go back to it you’ll see how mind numbing it all really is. I aggressively block ads - no exceptions.

by t34543 7y ago

gatherhunterer 7y ago
Many of the blog posts found on Hacker News are ads in disguise. They are targeting people who block ads.
- buboard 7y ago
  How else will you grab the attention of people already locked into their networks and very resistant to change? Small startups dont have enormous budgets to pay google for it
  - gatherhunterer 7y ago
    Submit it as a “Show HN” or make the intent clear in the title instead of being duplicitous. Throwing money at the problem and being deceptive are not the only solutions.
    - buboard 7y ago
      typically they are not wholly deceptive, or else they wouldnt get upvoted
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  Blatant ads get flagged with impunity. There's a standard here - you can promote your stuff as long as it's genuinely useful and relevant in context. If this was the standard for advertising in general, we wouldn't have to have this discussion. See also: https://xkcd.com/810/ https://xkcd.com/810/.
greycol 7y ago
Since I don't generally see ads I honestly don't mind watching them the first time they come on in the rare cases I'm watching TV. Then of course less than 10 minutes later (or 4 when I'm in America and that's just horrendous) the same ad gets shown again. That's the bit that is truly mind numbing and turns me off ads, the share the copious repetition of low information drivel.
magashna 7y ago
I went and visited my parents who still have cable. I sat and watched for a little while and was dumbstruck by the ads every few minutes. It was unbearable. I don't know how anyone can deal with it unless you don't know better
- irrational 7y ago
  We were at a rented condo and my 6 year old told me that paw patrol was broken, she said it kept stopping and starting. I had to go watch it with her before realizing she was talking about advertisements. She had never seen advertisements before (having only ever watched shows like paw patrol on DVDs checked out from the library) and didn't understand what was going on. It was really eye opening for me.
  - arthurjj 7y ago
    This exact situation happened with my 4 year old. He only gets "TV" time from streaming services. When we tried to let him watch cartoons at an Airbnb he told us the "channel was changing" whenver ads came on.
  - yellowapple 7y ago
    This does give me some hope that future generations will start to see video-interrupting ads (like traditional commercial breaks) as absurd, unusual, disruptive, and annoying.
    - t34543 7y ago
      Can you speculate on what that generation perceives as normal ads?
      - irrational 7y ago
        This is a good question. All I can speak from is the experience of my own family. We don't watch TV that includes ads. We don't really watch any TV shows that would include product placements. All of our browsers have multiple ad blockers running (First Party Isolation, Change Geolocation, AdNaseum, Ghostery, and Ad Block Plus), so very few ads in browsers. We don't have any magazine subscriptions. Where we live there are very few billboards or other road side advertisements. I'm sure they are exposed to ads, I'm just not sure from where.
dudul 7y ago
When I moved from Europe to the US I just couldn't believe it. In my home country there is one commercial break during a 2 hour movie. It's a little longer than the breaks in the US, but there is only one. There is also one during a 45minute TV show, and none during a 20minute show. I can't tell you the shock when I started watching American TV. I couldn't believe people were putting up with this.
- jerf 7y ago
  "I can't tell you the shock when I started watching American TV. I couldn't believe people were putting up with this." A lot of us aren't. I suspect that causes the TV companies to try to squeeze more out of who is left, which is a slow-motion death spiral. Even if you were raised with it, as I basically was, it's gotten a lot worse. I sometimes buy shows that air on prime time on the legacy networks (ABC, CBS, etc.), and over the last few years I've been watching their run times creep steadily downwards. My current record so far is 19min of runtime for a 30min show with a popular 2019 release that I don't want to name to derail the conversation, plus of course the networks tend to shave off the front & back 30 seconds nowadays. If somebody told me they found a 16 I wouldn't be that shocked. By contrast, looking at MASH season 1 (1972) on Amazon, the runtimes are all 26 minutes. Syndication usually ran some cut versions for a bit more time, but, still. That's over 25% less time for a "half hour" timeslot.
- mental1896 7y ago
  A lot of people don't anymore.
- archy_ 7y ago
  I wish America would group TV ads together, it would make them much easier to skip and would remove the need for forced cutoffs (you really notice them when watching on non-cable sources)
  - magduf 7y ago
    Why would American advertisers want to do such a thing?
  - 7y ago
stronglikedan 7y ago
I used to just ignore them. Now I click the shit out of the ones with pretty women modelling skimpy clothing. More and more, those types of ads dominate my targeted ad stream and it's beautiful.
- dwaltrip 7y ago
  Did you drop the "/s"?
  - stronglikedan 7y ago
    Lol! What man in his right mind would say that sarcastically?
    - dwaltrip 7y ago
      One who doesn't constantly walk around slackjawed and drooling at the female form?
      - stronglikedan 7y ago
        Exactly my point!
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]

If you stop watching ads for awhile and go back to it you’ll see how mind numbing it all really is. I aggressively block ads - no exceptions.

by t34543 7y ago

If you stop watching ads for awhile and go back to it you’ll see how mind numbing it all really is. I aggressively block ads - no exceptions.

gatherhunterer 7y ago

Many of the blog posts found on Hacker News are ads in disguise. They are targeting people who block ads.

buboard 7y ago
How else will you grab the attention of people already locked into their networks and very resistant to change? Small startups dont have enormous budgets to pay google for it
- gatherhunterer 7y ago
  Submit it as a “Show HN” or make the intent clear in the title instead of being duplicitous. Throwing money at the problem and being deceptive are not the only solutions.
  - buboard 7y ago
    typically they are not wholly deceptive, or else they wouldnt get upvoted
TeMPOraL 7y ago
Blatant ads get flagged with impunity. There's a standard here - you can promote your stuff as long as it's genuinely useful and relevant in context. If this was the standard for advertising in general, we wouldn't have to have this discussion. See also: https://xkcd.com/810/ https://xkcd.com/810/.

greycol 7y ago

Since I don't generally see ads I honestly don't mind watching them the first time they come on in the rare cases I'm watching TV. Then of course less than 10 minutes later (or 4 when I'm in America and that's just horrendous) the same ad gets shown again. That's the bit that is truly mind numbing and turns me off ads, the share the copious repetition of low information drivel.

magashna 7y ago

I went and visited my parents who still have cable. I sat and watched for a little while and was dumbstruck by the ads every few minutes. It was unbearable. I don't know how anyone can deal with it unless you don't know better

irrational 7y ago
We were at a rented condo and my 6 year old told me that paw patrol was broken, she said it kept stopping and starting. I had to go watch it with her before realizing she was talking about advertisements. She had never seen advertisements before (having only ever watched shows like paw patrol on DVDs checked out from the library) and didn't understand what was going on. It was really eye opening for me.
- arthurjj 7y ago
  This exact situation happened with my 4 year old. He only gets "TV" time from streaming services. When we tried to let him watch cartoons at an Airbnb he told us the "channel was changing" whenver ads came on.
- yellowapple 7y ago
  This does give me some hope that future generations will start to see video-interrupting ads (like traditional commercial breaks) as absurd, unusual, disruptive, and annoying.
  - t34543 7y ago
    Can you speculate on what that generation perceives as normal ads?
    - irrational 7y ago
      This is a good question. All I can speak from is the experience of my own family. We don't watch TV that includes ads. We don't really watch any TV shows that would include product placements. All of our browsers have multiple ad blockers running (First Party Isolation, Change Geolocation, AdNaseum, Ghostery, and Ad Block Plus), so very few ads in browsers. We don't have any magazine subscriptions. Where we live there are very few billboards or other road side advertisements. I'm sure they are exposed to ads, I'm just not sure from where.

dudul 7y ago

When I moved from Europe to the US I just couldn't believe it. In my home country there is one commercial break during a 2 hour movie. It's a little longer than the breaks in the US, but there is only one. There is also one during a 45minute TV show, and none during a 20minute show. I can't tell you the shock when I started watching American TV. I couldn't believe people were putting up with this.

jerf 7y ago
"I can't tell you the shock when I started watching American TV. I couldn't believe people were putting up with this." A lot of us aren't. I suspect that causes the TV companies to try to squeeze more out of who is left, which is a slow-motion death spiral. Even if you were raised with it, as I basically was, it's gotten a lot worse. I sometimes buy shows that air on prime time on the legacy networks (ABC, CBS, etc.), and over the last few years I've been watching their run times creep steadily downwards. My current record so far is 19min of runtime for a 30min show with a popular 2019 release that I don't want to name to derail the conversation, plus of course the networks tend to shave off the front & back 30 seconds nowadays. If somebody told me they found a 16 I wouldn't be that shocked. By contrast, looking at MASH season 1 (1972) on Amazon, the runtimes are all 26 minutes. Syndication usually ran some cut versions for a bit more time, but, still. That's over 25% less time for a "half hour" timeslot.
mental1896 7y ago
A lot of people don't anymore.
archy_ 7y ago
I wish America would group TV ads together, it would make them much easier to skip and would remove the need for forced cutoffs (you really notice them when watching on non-cable sources)
- magduf 7y ago
  Why would American advertisers want to do such a thing?
- 7y ago

stronglikedan 7y ago

I used to just ignore them. Now I click the shit out of the ones with pretty women modelling skimpy clothing. More and more, those types of ads dominate my targeted ad stream and it's beautiful.

dwaltrip 7y ago
Did you drop the "/s"?
- stronglikedan 7y ago
  Lol! What man in his right mind would say that sarcastically?
  - dwaltrip 7y ago
    One who doesn't constantly walk around slackjawed and drooling at the female form?
    - stronglikedan 7y ago
      Exactly my point!
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]