4 ms·

Companies will serve slop to paying subscribers too.

pixl97 2y ago
Exactly. Slop is like meth for corporations. It costs nearly nothing to produce unlike real content, and for a short period of time can give a real boost to number of viewers/ad impressions/etc, the current board members can get that jump in their stocks and take a golden parachute while their replacements have to deal with a company that can no longer produce anything useful and has to spend a massive amount of money to get everything back in shape.
s1artibartfast 2y ago
If it gets bad enough that people will pay, I think some will pay for exclusively real content. I hope this is the start of walled garden human internet. Web-rings, moderated forums, ect. A common cyberpunk trope is a trashed net and a private net.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  > If it gets bad enough that people will pay, I think some will pay for exclusively real content. People who pay for content demonstrate that they have disposable income and are willing to spend it, which makes them prime population for advertisers to target. By paying, they're distinguishing themselves for the net-near-worthless population of free users. There's a huge pressure for advertisers to tap into that juicy population of paying users; it takes only so long before any given service succumbs to that pressure.
  - s1artibartfast 2y ago
    Real content doesnt necessarily mean advertising free. There are tons of high quality pages and services funded by ads. The problem is with the spam and slop. Any sucessful walled garden will need to keep this crap out. banning adds is just one way. Content review is another.
    - TeMPOraL 2y ago
      > Real content doesnt necessarily mean advertising free. There are tons of high quality pages and services funded by ads. There are some, but it's a rounding error compared to the ad-funded slop. Basing your business model around advertising creates strong perverse incentives, pitting you against your users/customers. Sometimes, a company gets enough return on advertising investment they can fund side ventures off their marketing budget - this creates an UBI-like low pressure space for quality content to grow. But stuff funded directly from ads? It's safe to assume the content there is secondary at best, and exists primarily as a vector to bait you so you can be exposed to ads. > banning adds is just one way. Content review is another. Right, but they're complementary. Content review gets easier when you cut out 99% of crap at the source by fiat, and with a hard line drawn, the reviewers are much harder for marketers to compromise either.
      - s1artibartfast 2y ago
        >Right, but they're complementary. Content review gets easier when you cut out 99% of crap at the source by fiat, and with a hard line drawn, the reviewers are much harder for marketers to compromise either. Agreed. Walled gardens cut out the crap. Invitation only.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
fullshark 2y ago
True, let's get even more cynical actually, companies will serve ads to paying customers too, even those paying for "ad-free" versions of the product.

Exactly. Slop is like meth for corporations. It costs nearly nothing to produce unlike real content, and for a short period of time can give a real boost to number of viewers/ad impressions/etc, the current board members can get that jump in their stocks and take a golden parachute while their replacements have to deal with a company that can no longer produce anything useful and has to spend a massive amount of money to get everything back in shape.

s1artibartfast 2y ago

If it gets bad enough that people will pay, I think some will pay for exclusively real content. I hope this is the start of walled garden human internet. Web-rings, moderated forums, ect. A common cyberpunk trope is a trashed net and a private net.

TeMPOraL 2y ago
> If it gets bad enough that people will pay, I think some will pay for exclusively real content. People who pay for content demonstrate that they have disposable income and are willing to spend it, which makes them prime population for advertisers to target. By paying, they're distinguishing themselves for the net-near-worthless population of free users. There's a huge pressure for advertisers to tap into that juicy population of paying users; it takes only so long before any given service succumbs to that pressure.
- s1artibartfast 2y ago
  Real content doesnt necessarily mean advertising free. There are tons of high quality pages and services funded by ads. The problem is with the spam and slop. Any sucessful walled garden will need to keep this crap out. banning adds is just one way. Content review is another.
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    > Real content doesnt necessarily mean advertising free. There are tons of high quality pages and services funded by ads. There are some, but it's a rounding error compared to the ad-funded slop. Basing your business model around advertising creates strong perverse incentives, pitting you against your users/customers. Sometimes, a company gets enough return on advertising investment they can fund side ventures off their marketing budget - this creates an UBI-like low pressure space for quality content to grow. But stuff funded directly from ads? It's safe to assume the content there is secondary at best, and exists primarily as a vector to bait you so you can be exposed to ads. > banning adds is just one way. Content review is another. Right, but they're complementary. Content review gets easier when you cut out 99% of crap at the source by fiat, and with a hard line drawn, the reviewers are much harder for marketers to compromise either.
    - s1artibartfast 2y ago
      >Right, but they're complementary. Content review gets easier when you cut out 99% of crap at the source by fiat, and with a hard line drawn, the reviewers are much harder for marketers to compromise either. Agreed. Walled gardens cut out the crap. Invitation only.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

fullshark 2y ago

True, let's get even more cynical actually, companies will serve ads to paying customers too, even those paying for "ad-free" versions of the product.