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Is a recipe for my grandma's minestrone soup (which requires you to buy a specific brand of chicken stock) selling you something? Is a blogpost highlighting a

by yifanl 7y ago

Is a recipe for my grandma's minestrone soup (which requires you to buy a specific brand of chicken stock) selling you something? Is a blogpost highlighting a particularly efficient way to write a tight loop selling you something? Is a plain white webpage selling you the benefits of that particular shade of white?

sincerely 7y ago
No, no, no
bostik 7y ago
I'll take your questions at face value. You are likely being downvoted for your use of an aggressive tone, but that's another matter. 1) Recipe for a good minestrone soup, no. Actively endorsing a specific brand of an ingredient, yes. 2) No. (One might argue you're building a brand and advertising yourself. I don't, necessarily. If the efficient loop was possible to create using only a particular compiler, then yes.) 3) Yes. The page is selling a particular idea, and most likely lying by accident. After all, how many screens have been calibrated for colour correction accuracy? Are you, as a reader, getting the correct information?
- yifanl 7y ago
  Apologies for the brash tone. I take the view that making a value judgment on an idea is essentially selling that idea. i.e. "A is better than B" is clearly advocating for A, as is "A is good" I disagree with ads in general, but my problem is that blocking any form of endorsement as you suggested above would mean we can't transmit really any useful information. Obviously that means there's some acceptable level of endorsement... but that goes back to the problem of having a game-able filter.
  - bostik 7y ago
    Don't worry, I am well aware that my answer came off as snarky and brash so a similarly phrased response should not have been unexpected. And I know that my position is extreme. Even with the overall attitude change over the past 6-8 years about advertising[ß] my views are still outside the mainstream. This is a personal opinion, but I believe you can do endorsements without falling into advertising trap. It takes effort, because you need to quantify your reasons of choosing a particular option (or a set of options) over the remaining ones. You need to specify the reasons, be painfully aware of and outline your own biases, and be willing to acknowledge the tradeoffs in your stated choice. Obviously, if you are externally incentivised to make a particular choice before you broadcast about it, that's an ad. As one may imagine, I absolutely detest the entire influencer phenomenon - to the point of treating any product or service using them as bad actors perpetuating a disgusting system. ß: Back in 2011/2012 HN was, in general, very pro-advertising. A lot of the [vocal] posters made their money on it or dealt with large advertising budgets on a daily basis. Ad block users were derided as parasites or thieves. Anyone questioning the common good was pushed away. Compare to the tone shift over the past couple of years and the difference is stark.

by yifanl 7y ago

sincerely 7y ago

No, no, no

bostik 7y ago

I'll take your questions at face value. You are likely being downvoted for your use of an aggressive tone, but that's another matter. 1) Recipe for a good minestrone soup, no. Actively endorsing a specific brand of an ingredient, yes. 2) No. (One might argue you're building a brand and advertising yourself. I don't, necessarily. If the efficient loop was possible to create using only a particular compiler, then yes.) 3) Yes. The page is selling a particular idea, and most likely lying by accident. After all, how many screens have been calibrated for colour correction accuracy? Are you, as a reader, getting the correct information?

yifanl 7y ago
Apologies for the brash tone. I take the view that making a value judgment on an idea is essentially selling that idea. i.e. "A is better than B" is clearly advocating for A, as is "A is good" I disagree with ads in general, but my problem is that blocking any form of endorsement as you suggested above would mean we can't transmit really any useful information. Obviously that means there's some acceptable level of endorsement... but that goes back to the problem of having a game-able filter.
- bostik 7y ago
  Don't worry, I am well aware that my answer came off as snarky and brash so a similarly phrased response should not have been unexpected. And I know that my position is extreme. Even with the overall attitude change over the past 6-8 years about advertising[ß] my views are still outside the mainstream. This is a personal opinion, but I believe you can do endorsements without falling into advertising trap. It takes effort, because you need to quantify your reasons of choosing a particular option (or a set of options) over the remaining ones. You need to specify the reasons, be painfully aware of and outline your own biases, and be willing to acknowledge the tradeoffs in your stated choice. Obviously, if you are externally incentivised to make a particular choice before you broadcast about it, that's an ad. As one may imagine, I absolutely detest the entire influencer phenomenon - to the point of treating any product or service using them as bad actors perpetuating a disgusting system. ß: Back in 2011/2012 HN was, in general, very pro-advertising. A lot of the [vocal] posters made their money on it or dealt with large advertising budgets on a daily basis. Ad block users were derided as parasites or thieves. Anyone questioning the common good was pushed away. Compare to the tone shift over the past couple of years and the difference is stark.