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Brave's model fixes very little. Being tracked by advertisers is just part of the problem, the other is ads are a horrible business model. The best case for co

Brave's model fixes very little. Being tracked by advertisers is just part of the problem, the other is ads are a horrible business model. The best case for content creators is that they have to worry about upsetting their advertisers and them pulling their ads. The worst case is that content creators turn into traffic farms with click bait titles and shallow content. The worst case for society is the use of AI to pull people into spending more and more time on websites and redicalising them into conspiracy theorists or worse. This is all due to the advertisement model as opposed to paying directly for the content we consume. Most bad incentives would disappear and creators would focus on the quality of their content. So Brave 'removing' adverisements that track you, if that is even truly possible with regards to fingerprinting, just fixes a small piece of the problem and in a way that thinks like uBlock Origin are already doing anyway. And something that would already be fixed by not having the ad model in the first place.

gogopuppygogo 6y ago
I think Brave is a useful proof of concept for an unproven business model but I agree it's an uphill battle. Consumers need to own the data we create. We should be able to monetize it how we see fit with whatever technology partners make us the best offers. The fact that tech companies own our data is hopefully a very temporary (in the grand scheme of things) mistake we can correct with new laws.
fossuser 6y ago
Yeah this has been my take on them as well. They position themselves as a user focused privacy company, but they’re not really. They’re just trying to insert themselves as the middleman selling attention in place of the ads. It keeps the same problem and bad incentives that the ad model has and still involves tracking behavior. I get that they’re trying to come up with some model that does the same monetizing that ads do without the ads (and of course inserting themselves in the middle of that to capture all that ad revenue). I think a true focus on users would block all ads and tracking. If this leads to the ad supported model collapse causing business failure that’s good - it creates a space for competition in the for pay space again.
admax88q 6y ago
> The worst case is that content creators turn into traffic farms with click bait titles and shallow content. That's basically the case now. Most content by volume on the web is click bait farms littered with Ads. At least Brave and BAT make it more of a transaction between you and the advertiser. The advertiser now pays you for your attention to their ad, rather than paying a third party to do their best to trick you into viewing the Ad. I dislike Ads as much as the next person, I block ads, and when I tried brave I opted out of any Ads. But BAT does seem like a viable answer to the constant complain from "publishers" about how ad block is ruining their businesses.

gogopuppygogo 6y ago

I think Brave is a useful proof of concept for an unproven business model but I agree it's an uphill battle. Consumers need to own the data we create. We should be able to monetize it how we see fit with whatever technology partners make us the best offers. The fact that tech companies own our data is hopefully a very temporary (in the grand scheme of things) mistake we can correct with new laws.

fossuser 6y ago

Yeah this has been my take on them as well. They position themselves as a user focused privacy company, but they’re not really. They’re just trying to insert themselves as the middleman selling attention in place of the ads. It keeps the same problem and bad incentives that the ad model has and still involves tracking behavior. I get that they’re trying to come up with some model that does the same monetizing that ads do without the ads (and of course inserting themselves in the middle of that to capture all that ad revenue). I think a true focus on users would block all ads and tracking. If this leads to the ad supported model collapse causing business failure that’s good - it creates a space for competition in the for pay space again.

admax88q 6y ago

> The worst case is that content creators turn into traffic farms with click bait titles and shallow content. That's basically the case now. Most content by volume on the web is click bait farms littered with Ads. At least Brave and BAT make it more of a transaction between you and the advertiser. The advertiser now pays you for your attention to their ad, rather than paying a third party to do their best to trick you into viewing the Ad. I dislike Ads as much as the next person, I block ads, and when I tried brave I opted out of any Ads. But BAT does seem like a viable answer to the constant complain from "publishers" about how ad block is ruining their businesses.