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I do. I always wondered if others did this as well. I also wonder if that is OK to do... probably not.

mtrimpe 13y ago
It's officially not OK, but it does work. Just never do it multiple times in a row.
tn13 13y ago
As a user we are free to click whatever we want but if you do too many clicks on one site, that site owners account might get suspended.
dangrossman 13y ago
It's not OK. Advertisers don't want you to do this since you're spending their money for no possible gain. They only advertise with the expectation they'll earn more than it costs in new sales. Too many clicks for the purpose of donating to website owners and that won't happen, so they'd have to stop advertising. Networks don't want you to do this because if advertisers can't make a positive return on investment, it doesn't make sense for them to advertise with that company, and they'll go elsewhere or go out of business. Either way, it's a threat to the network's existence. Morally, it's very much not OK, for two reasons: 1) Small businesses have to market themselves to make people aware of what they're selling in order to survive. Simply opting out of advertising because some people are abusing it to give their money to website owners is not an option. Neither is advertising somewhere else for millions of businesses; Google controls too much of the ad space and traffic. There are no substitutes in many situations. 2) If you work a normal job, telling advertisers to accept this situation is the same as telling you that a condition of receiving your paycheck is that random people on the street have permission to reach into your pocket and take some money out whenever they want. That's what clicking on ads just to give money to website owners is. You may or may not have enough left over to pay your bills. Sound good?
- cmars 13y ago
  It's just a click. For it to matter so much whether I am clicking this link or that link with the right intent, that all this supposed meaning and morality hangs in the balance, that it could make all this difference, it all seems so absurd. Almost makes me want to disable ABP, Allow Scripts Globally (dangerous), shut my eyes, and just start clicking. None of it really matters. Eh, I think I'm done with the Internet for today. Might run afoul the click police.
  - lazyjones 13y ago
    > It's just a click [...] that it could make all this difference, it all seems so absurd It makes more of a difference to an advertiser than your vote makes in the presidential elections. Do you vote? Also, keep in mind that the largest part of the money you just "donated" goes to Google and not the web publisher.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]

It's officially not OK, but it does work. Just never do it multiple times in a row.

tn13 13y ago

As a user we are free to click whatever we want but if you do too many clicks on one site, that site owners account might get suspended.

dangrossman 13y ago

It's not OK. Advertisers don't want you to do this since you're spending their money for no possible gain. They only advertise with the expectation they'll earn more than it costs in new sales. Too many clicks for the purpose of donating to website owners and that won't happen, so they'd have to stop advertising. Networks don't want you to do this because if advertisers can't make a positive return on investment, it doesn't make sense for them to advertise with that company, and they'll go elsewhere or go out of business. Either way, it's a threat to the network's existence. Morally, it's very much not OK, for two reasons: 1) Small businesses have to market themselves to make people aware of what they're selling in order to survive. Simply opting out of advertising because some people are abusing it to give their money to website owners is not an option. Neither is advertising somewhere else for millions of businesses; Google controls too much of the ad space and traffic. There are no substitutes in many situations. 2) If you work a normal job, telling advertisers to accept this situation is the same as telling you that a condition of receiving your paycheck is that random people on the street have permission to reach into your pocket and take some money out whenever they want. That's what clicking on ads just to give money to website owners is. You may or may not have enough left over to pay your bills. Sound good?

cmars 13y ago
It's just a click. For it to matter so much whether I am clicking this link or that link with the right intent, that all this supposed meaning and morality hangs in the balance, that it could make all this difference, it all seems so absurd. Almost makes me want to disable ABP, Allow Scripts Globally (dangerous), shut my eyes, and just start clicking. None of it really matters. Eh, I think I'm done with the Internet for today. Might run afoul the click police.
- lazyjones 13y ago
  > It's just a click [...] that it could make all this difference, it all seems so absurd It makes more of a difference to an advertiser than your vote makes in the presidential elections. Do you vote? Also, keep in mind that the largest part of the money you just "donated" goes to Google and not the web publisher.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]