> When you use an ad-supported service, you're not "the product," you are the customer. That isn't really true though. The company that uses an ad-supported mo

> When you use an ad-supported service, you're not "the product," you are the customer. That isn't really true though. The company that uses an ad-supported model can't pay its bill with a user's attention, it pays its bill with the revenue it gets from funneling those users into clicking on ads. The author can try to redefine what a customer and a product is, but the bottom line is that they are receiving money in exchange for ad clicks, which means their customers are the ad company, and the product are the clicks. This whole article reads like the author is trying to cope with the fact that they are willing to do the thing that actively makes their product worse, if it means they get more money. I haven't changed my mind about advertising, even if it means my project will always operate at a loss, I'm prepared for that. People that want to support it can subscribe to the Patreon, and they get some extra stuff, but I'm not going to try and monetize bot traffic by stuffing my pages full of ads.