4 ms·

I don't want to be sold products. I don't care how "relevant" it is to the particular subset of people I most resemble. I want precisely the information I asked

I don't want to be sold products. I don't care how "relevant" it is to the particular subset of people I most resemble. I want precisely the information I asked for, and no more. Every bit of information extraneous to that, is another piece of garbage I have to wade through to figure out whatever I actually wanted to know or do. The most frustrating ads are ones that don't make themselves clear that they're trying to sell me something until the end and waste my time, when I have zero intention or desire of ever buying something to solve a particular problem. Or the websites that write content that is almost useful, just to get as many eyeballs on its ads as possible. Ads are the slurry of microplastic on the sea of information, of benefit only to whoever dumped them in the first place. And if I'm enjoying a fictional work, I certainly don't want to be interrupted with another person hocking another piece of junk, or worse, integrating the ads into the story and having Gandalf trying to sell me on Pepsi.

ogre_codes 6y ago
> I want precisely the information I asked for, and no more. Are you willing to pay for access to that information? Because ultimately whoever is providing content wants to be compensated for their time. I agree with your sentiment, but there is also a pragmatism here. (FWIW I am willing to pay for, ad free content and don't believe tracking/ profiling should be part of advertising or even legal without consent.
- tetraca 6y ago
  I'm essentially in the same boat as you -- I'm willing to pay for content as I do for my books, or support free sources of information as I might for Wikipedia. The siren song of the advertiser is hard to fight though, even if many people are willing to pay the price for a quality product. The Faustian bargain that I presume leads to this mess: Any ad-free informational product could probably reach a wider audience and thus pump up revenue, if they traded some of their up front cost in exchange for a few modest ad slots or selling a little customer information here or there (To some degree paid users would put up with these things even without any subsidy to their subscription whatsoever, so it could also be directly pocketed).

ogre_codes 6y ago

> I want precisely the information I asked for, and no more. Are you willing to pay for access to that information? Because ultimately whoever is providing content wants to be compensated for their time. I agree with your sentiment, but there is also a pragmatism here. (FWIW I am willing to pay for, ad free content and don't believe tracking/ profiling should be part of advertising or even legal without consent.

tetraca 6y ago
I'm essentially in the same boat as you -- I'm willing to pay for content as I do for my books, or support free sources of information as I might for Wikipedia. The siren song of the advertiser is hard to fight though, even if many people are willing to pay the price for a quality product. The Faustian bargain that I presume leads to this mess: Any ad-free informational product could probably reach a wider audience and thus pump up revenue, if they traded some of their up front cost in exchange for a few modest ad slots or selling a little customer information here or there (To some degree paid users would put up with these things even without any subsidy to their subscription whatsoever, so it could also be directly pocketed).