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Yea, it’s funny how a community that started based on tech startups now advocates totally burning down businesses that rely on advertising for revenue or custom

Yea, it’s funny how a community that started based on tech startups now advocates totally burning down businesses that rely on advertising for revenue or customer growth. I don’t love the optics of this FB ad, but it is a fact that it’s going to: 1. Make targeted advertising significantly more expensive, which affects small businesses 2. Potentially cause those businesses to advertise less, which hurts apps that rely on that ad revenue 3. Give users more privacy control over cross-app tracking All the coverage of this is 100% focused on #3 while assuming 1 and 2 are free or worth burning to the ground.

true_religion 6y ago
Facebook sells us adspace. If we as a community are against personalized ads it gives two things: 1. Cheaper facebook ads as people pull out from advertising on Facebook since they see less effective targetting 2. An opportunity to do better optimization on our end, which currently Facebook offers to everyone including our competitors. From a cynical point of view, the average HN-user at a VC-run startup could benefit from this. The hurt given to regular small businesses is irrelevant because we aren't Mom & Pop firms. It isn't in the nature of business people to care about all businesses anywhere. Rather you care about your business, and aim to bury your competition. Additionally the people who run ad-supported sites outside of Facebook will welcome this change, since it reduces the effectiveness of Facebook's competition.
JKCalhoun 6y ago
Well, perhaps we are reacting to having been inundated with 1 & 2 for decades now and we loathe it, have found no benefit worth sacrificing our privacy for.
Privacy846 6y ago
Burn (1) and (2) to the ground. Is this an attention economy? If so great, get rid of those two things and I will have more time for myself and my kids!

true_religion 6y ago

Facebook sells us adspace. If we as a community are against personalized ads it gives two things: 1. Cheaper facebook ads as people pull out from advertising on Facebook since they see less effective targetting 2. An opportunity to do better optimization on our end, which currently Facebook offers to everyone including our competitors. From a cynical point of view, the average HN-user at a VC-run startup could benefit from this. The hurt given to regular small businesses is irrelevant because we aren't Mom & Pop firms. It isn't in the nature of business people to care about all businesses anywhere. Rather you care about your business, and aim to bury your competition. Additionally the people who run ad-supported sites outside of Facebook will welcome this change, since it reduces the effectiveness of Facebook's competition.

JKCalhoun 6y ago

Well, perhaps we are reacting to having been inundated with 1 & 2 for decades now and we loathe it, have found no benefit worth sacrificing our privacy for.

Privacy846 6y ago

Burn (1) and (2) to the ground. Is this an attention economy? If so great, get rid of those two things and I will have more time for myself and my kids!