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Though The Chronicle is pretty bad, it is generally what I see when I surf without a Pi-Hole (or choose your fave ad-blocking tool). And, yeah, I honestly don’t

Though The Chronicle is pretty bad, it is generally what I see when I surf without a Pi-Hole (or choose your fave ad-blocking tool). And, yeah, I honestly don’t know why people put up with it. I offered to put a Pi-Hole on my parent’s network. Mom wrote code for 30 years, she can handle the minimal intervention needed. Nope, they turned me down, they’re fine with things the way they are. First thing they did with that new TV was connect it to the Internet, too. For some folks, the slightest inconvenience is apparently enough to sit and look at ads all day. Which reminds me that I need to pull a RPi off the shelf and provision another Pi-Hole for the camper now that there’s a Starlink attached. I’m not paying by the byte to have ads delivered.

hinkley 1y ago
I still believe there must be space in the universe for an ethical ad network that makes you less money but anyone caught fucking with your readership gets banned. There’s a bunch of sites that would appreciate a little supplemental revenue but just don’t use ads at all because it’s so scummy. It just has to be better than selling your nonprofit’s contact list to other nonprofits.
- jedberg 1y ago
  When we first built the reddit ads system, this is exactly what we went for. We ran it ourselves, you could only upload a single static image. Turns out you really can't make a lot of money that way. Especially now. If you don't offer re-targeting and bespoke ads, no one wants to pay you money for ads.
  - hinkley 1y ago
    I suspect you would specifically have to target non profits and b corps with your marketing. But even then the perpetual problem in business is that what people are willing to tell you they want isn’t what they want or need, and they will shift the goalposts on you after they sign up. Cognitive dissonance will become deafening. Years ago we used to talk regularly about firing customers. My read was that was always about ridding yourselves of the ones who pushed you into becoming someone you couldn’t stand to look at in the mirror. Eventually some of your customers will want the same cyberstalking features they see advertised by another vendor and they will forget why they can’t have it. They’ll sign up with someone who lies to them better than you do.

hinkley 1y ago

I still believe there must be space in the universe for an ethical ad network that makes you less money but anyone caught fucking with your readership gets banned. There’s a bunch of sites that would appreciate a little supplemental revenue but just don’t use ads at all because it’s so scummy. It just has to be better than selling your nonprofit’s contact list to other nonprofits.

jedberg 1y ago
When we first built the reddit ads system, this is exactly what we went for. We ran it ourselves, you could only upload a single static image. Turns out you really can't make a lot of money that way. Especially now. If you don't offer re-targeting and bespoke ads, no one wants to pay you money for ads.
- hinkley 1y ago
  I suspect you would specifically have to target non profits and b corps with your marketing. But even then the perpetual problem in business is that what people are willing to tell you they want isn’t what they want or need, and they will shift the goalposts on you after they sign up. Cognitive dissonance will become deafening. Years ago we used to talk regularly about firing customers. My read was that was always about ridding yourselves of the ones who pushed you into becoming someone you couldn’t stand to look at in the mirror. Eventually some of your customers will want the same cyberstalking features they see advertised by another vendor and they will forget why they can’t have it. They’ll sign up with someone who lies to them better than you do.