4 ms·

Maybe you were quite careful when making your purchase, I wasn't. I only wanted a relatively cheap starter tablet which I thought was what I was getting. I did

by Edmond 13y ago

Maybe you were quite careful when making your purchase, I wasn't. I only wanted a relatively cheap starter tablet which I thought was what I was getting. I didn't expect to receive a device primarily meant to serve me ads, sorry if this is a naive expectation. As far as what should or not be posted to HN, I believe that is why there is an up/down voting system. Your tone is unnecessarily condescending.

_pius 13y ago
I only wanted a relatively cheap starter tablet which I thought was what I was getting. That is, in fact, exactly what you got. I have the same device, albeit not ad supported. In other words it's exactly the same as yours except there are no ads on the lockscreen. (sidenote: I'm really not a Kindle fanboy of any kind, but responding to your extreme post is making me sound like one!) I didn't expect to receive a device primarily meant to serve me ads, sorry if this is a naive expectation. Come on, you have to know you're wildly exaggerating when you say it's primarily meant to serve you ads. As far as what should or not be posted to HN, I believe that is why there is an up/down voting system. We're in total agreement here, that's why I flagged it. Your tone is unnecessarily condescending. I wrote it that way because you either went to the trouble of writing an alarmist, link-baity post like this without even doing the most cursory research (i.e. reading the product page) or you knew the post was intellectually dishonest and you said, "the hell with it" and tried to score some traffic for your blog with it anyway. I see this type of thing get submitted more and more here, but usually I bite my tongue in the interest of civility. Today, I didn't. Sorry you were the unlucky author I called out; you're far from the only person to do this.
jamesbritt 13y ago
I didn't expect to receive a device primarily meant to serve me ads, sorry if this is a naive expectation. The product page says the ads only appear on the lock screen. They do not (or should not) appear when actively using the device. Is this not true? I'm genuinely curious because it would suck big time if you are shown ads outside of the limitations the product page describes.
- Edmond 13y ago
  They do in fact show ads in the form of other book "recommendations" based on what you've read. Ultimately I think we may be of different minds about what we consider acceptable consumer/merchant relationship. When I bought my kindle, looking for hidden gotchas was simply not part of my calculation. I expected I was buying a device...if there was a popup during the checkout process that said this product is ad support, I absolutely would not have bought it. We haven't even gotten into the insidious implications of this type of intrusive marketing for people (kids especially). This is not about moralizing, I simply consider this unacceptable, others may defer.
  - jamesbritt 13y ago
    When I bought my kindle, looking for hidden gotchas was simply not part of my calculation. I expected I was buying a device...if there was a popup during the checkout process that said this product is ad support, I absolutely would not have bought it. Interesting. I bought mine from Amazon.com and it was quite clear that I had a choice of ad-supported or, for a higher price, ad-free. All of this info was on the product page, and it never felt like anything was hidden. I think this page is pretty typical: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CU0NSCU/ref=kin_comp_dk_so_img http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CU0NSCU/ref=kin_comp_dk_... There's a clear choice of "With Special Offers" and "Without Special Offers" with a link to a popup that explains what this means. If you bough yours from a different site or if the Amazon page did not indicate these options then I can understand feeling cheated. I also had planned on rooting my device (at least to the extent that I could replace the ads with my own images) but I was never able to accomplish that. For me it ended up to be not a big deal, but I knew from the description of the product I was buying an ad-supported device in the first place. Ultimately I think we may be of different minds about what we consider acceptable consumer/merchant relationship. Well, since I agreed to the Kindle deal I'm OK with it. Amazon.com was quite upfront about what they were selling. I would not be OK if there was nothing to indicate I would be seeing ads. This is something that annoys me with Tivo. I don't recall that they were as clear when I ordered the service that in addition to an annual fee I would also have to look at stupid banner ads on assorted screens. Also, as far as I know, there is no way to opt out of this (such as by paying more, as with the Kindle).

by Edmond 13y ago

_pius 13y ago

I only wanted a relatively cheap starter tablet which I thought was what I was getting. That is, in fact, exactly what you got. I have the same device, albeit not ad supported. In other words it's exactly the same as yours except there are no ads on the lockscreen. (sidenote: I'm really not a Kindle fanboy of any kind, but responding to your extreme post is making me sound like one!) I didn't expect to receive a device primarily meant to serve me ads, sorry if this is a naive expectation. Come on, you have to know you're wildly exaggerating when you say it's primarily meant to serve you ads. As far as what should or not be posted to HN, I believe that is why there is an up/down voting system. We're in total agreement here, that's why I flagged it. Your tone is unnecessarily condescending. I wrote it that way because you either went to the trouble of writing an alarmist, link-baity post like this without even doing the most cursory research (i.e. reading the product page) or you knew the post was intellectually dishonest and you said, "the hell with it" and tried to score some traffic for your blog with it anyway. I see this type of thing get submitted more and more here, but usually I bite my tongue in the interest of civility. Today, I didn't. Sorry you were the unlucky author I called out; you're far from the only person to do this.

jamesbritt 13y ago

I didn't expect to receive a device primarily meant to serve me ads, sorry if this is a naive expectation. The product page says the ads only appear on the lock screen. They do not (or should not) appear when actively using the device. Is this not true? I'm genuinely curious because it would suck big time if you are shown ads outside of the limitations the product page describes.

Edmond 13y ago
They do in fact show ads in the form of other book "recommendations" based on what you've read. Ultimately I think we may be of different minds about what we consider acceptable consumer/merchant relationship. When I bought my kindle, looking for hidden gotchas was simply not part of my calculation. I expected I was buying a device...if there was a popup during the checkout process that said this product is ad support, I absolutely would not have bought it. We haven't even gotten into the insidious implications of this type of intrusive marketing for people (kids especially). This is not about moralizing, I simply consider this unacceptable, others may defer.
- jamesbritt 13y ago
  When I bought my kindle, looking for hidden gotchas was simply not part of my calculation. I expected I was buying a device...if there was a popup during the checkout process that said this product is ad support, I absolutely would not have bought it. Interesting. I bought mine from Amazon.com and it was quite clear that I had a choice of ad-supported or, for a higher price, ad-free. All of this info was on the product page, and it never felt like anything was hidden. I think this page is pretty typical: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CU0NSCU/ref=kin_comp_dk_so_img http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CU0NSCU/ref=kin_comp_dk_... There's a clear choice of "With Special Offers" and "Without Special Offers" with a link to a popup that explains what this means. If you bough yours from a different site or if the Amazon page did not indicate these options then I can understand feeling cheated. I also had planned on rooting my device (at least to the extent that I could replace the ads with my own images) but I was never able to accomplish that. For me it ended up to be not a big deal, but I knew from the description of the product I was buying an ad-supported device in the first place. Ultimately I think we may be of different minds about what we consider acceptable consumer/merchant relationship. Well, since I agreed to the Kindle deal I'm OK with it. Amazon.com was quite upfront about what they were selling. I would not be OK if there was nothing to indicate I would be seeing ads. This is something that annoys me with Tivo. I don't recall that they were as clear when I ordered the service that in addition to an annual fee I would also have to look at stupid banner ads on assorted screens. Also, as far as I know, there is no way to opt out of this (such as by paying more, as with the Kindle).