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Let me guess, your "other ways" include Patreon, maybe writing an eBook, or maybe spending 2 years to promote an affiliate product, or maybe spend 3 years build

Let me guess, your "other ways" include Patreon, maybe writing an eBook, or maybe spending 2 years to promote an affiliate product, or maybe spend 3 years building a product? Maybe creators can add a "Buy me a coffee" button to their site, that should surely fix the problems? There's a thing called stability and reliance on something. Ads is something you can rely on. It does not make you produce content and at the back of your mind think, "Am I going to pay my rent this month?". If you think everyone is out there making big bucks just because they opened a website and put some ads on it, you're wrong. Not only does it take time to build reputation and a following, people just don't out of the blue come and throw money at you. A lot of people have this notion that there is too much SEO spam and too many ads, but what I think a lot of people are really saying is that, "All I want is just free content. Give me a raw white background with a slab of text centered in the middle of it and I will be on my way.". That is not how this world works, and trying to argue about it just makes you look selfish.

account42 3y ago
Selfish is profiting from mass psychological manipulation. Advertising makes the world a worse place. > People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you. > You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity. > Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head. > You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.
ravenstine 4y ago
> Ads is something you can rely on Not necessarily, especially in the long term. > If you think everyone is out there making big bucks just because they opened a website and put some ads on it, you're wrong. I never said or implied that. > Not only does it take time to build reputation and a following, people just don't out of the blue come and throw money at you. Not my problem. > what I think a lot of people are really saying is that, "All I want is just free content. Give me a raw white background with a slab of text centered in the middle of it and I will be on my way." No idea what that has to do with anything. > That is not how this world works, and trying to argue about it just makes you look selfish. I don't care if I look selfish.
- judge2020 4y ago
  > Not necessarily, especially in the long term. Last I checked, YouTube is going strong on 17 years with ads.
  - ravenstine 4y ago
    The topic wasn't about YouTube the company. As far as the qualitative statement of "going strong", it really depends on what you mean by that. YouTube is highly relevant today, but nobody actually knows whether it makes a profit. Before you go looking for their revenue statements, remember, revenue != profit. To clarify my precious statement, just because ad revenue helps a creator early on doesn't mean they will get the same payout as time goes on, and YouTube has no qualms about demonetizing creators for any reason they see fit. To top it off, the same number of ads is likely to bring in less revenue as time goes on. Both YouTube ads and Adsense used to pay out a lot more than they do today.
commoner 4y ago
> That is not how this world works, and trying to argue about it just makes you look selfish. Ad blocking is a very common activity that is legal in every jurisdiction that I'm aware of. Since ad blocking is legal and many users consider ads an unnecessary distraction, a time waster, or a privacy-invading scourge, users have strong incentives to block ads. No publisher is obligated to release content with ads, and nobody is entitled to have a sustainable business that runs on ads. The notion that ads should be "something you can rely on" for profit is not consistent with the reality of business, because there is no business model that inherently deserves to be successful. If a publisher wants to ensure that they receive payment for any content they create that is consumed, they can require that payment upfront with a paywall. Trying to characterize ad blocking as immoral because it benefits users over publishers isn't a winning strategy for publishers. Publishers need to create an actual incentive for users to fund their content, directly or indirectly, if they want to get paid. Since advertising is a monetization model that degrades the quality of the publisher's product and users can easily bypass ads with an ad blocker, more and more publishers are finding out over time that advertising isn't "something you can rely on" after all.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
> "All I want is just free content...." Nope. All I want is a viable way to support writers, musicians, videographers and other creatives that doesn't involve some climate killing cryptocurrency and doesn't require a credit card transaction per view. Then I'll be on my way.

account42 3y ago

Selfish is profiting from mass psychological manipulation. Advertising makes the world a worse place. > People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you. > You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity. > Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head. > You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.

ravenstine 4y ago

> Ads is something you can rely on Not necessarily, especially in the long term. > If you think everyone is out there making big bucks just because they opened a website and put some ads on it, you're wrong. I never said or implied that. > Not only does it take time to build reputation and a following, people just don't out of the blue come and throw money at you. Not my problem. > what I think a lot of people are really saying is that, "All I want is just free content. Give me a raw white background with a slab of text centered in the middle of it and I will be on my way." No idea what that has to do with anything. > That is not how this world works, and trying to argue about it just makes you look selfish. I don't care if I look selfish.

judge2020 4y ago
> Not necessarily, especially in the long term. Last I checked, YouTube is going strong on 17 years with ads.
- ravenstine 4y ago
  The topic wasn't about YouTube the company. As far as the qualitative statement of "going strong", it really depends on what you mean by that. YouTube is highly relevant today, but nobody actually knows whether it makes a profit. Before you go looking for their revenue statements, remember, revenue != profit. To clarify my precious statement, just because ad revenue helps a creator early on doesn't mean they will get the same payout as time goes on, and YouTube has no qualms about demonetizing creators for any reason they see fit. To top it off, the same number of ads is likely to bring in less revenue as time goes on. Both YouTube ads and Adsense used to pay out a lot more than they do today.

commoner 4y ago

> That is not how this world works, and trying to argue about it just makes you look selfish. Ad blocking is a very common activity that is legal in every jurisdiction that I'm aware of. Since ad blocking is legal and many users consider ads an unnecessary distraction, a time waster, or a privacy-invading scourge, users have strong incentives to block ads. No publisher is obligated to release content with ads, and nobody is entitled to have a sustainable business that runs on ads. The notion that ads should be "something you can rely on" for profit is not consistent with the reality of business, because there is no business model that inherently deserves to be successful. If a publisher wants to ensure that they receive payment for any content they create that is consumed, they can require that payment upfront with a paywall. Trying to characterize ad blocking as immoral because it benefits users over publishers isn't a winning strategy for publishers. Publishers need to create an actual incentive for users to fund their content, directly or indirectly, if they want to get paid. Since advertising is a monetization model that degrades the quality of the publisher's product and users can easily bypass ads with an ad blocker, more and more publishers are finding out over time that advertising isn't "something you can rely on" after all.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago

> "All I want is just free content...." Nope. All I want is a viable way to support writers, musicians, videographers and other creatives that doesn't involve some climate killing cryptocurrency and doesn't require a credit card transaction per view. Then I'll be on my way.