5 ms·

The new thing they're trying is what you could call "gross-bait" ads, one gem that comes to mind is the girl's legs with indentations in them and white things c

The new thing they're trying is what you could call "gross-bait" ads, one gem that comes to mind is the girl's legs with indentations in them and white things coming out. I'm not even sure they're selling anything anymore, most web ads seem more like psychological warfare. How about a subscription service - and it could be a voluntary honor system thing - where you pay something each month and it gets distributed to websites you visit, and in order for a site to register with the service they have to forgo advertising. I'd pay $10 a month to do my part to rid the world of web ads. Somebody steal that idea.

lewisl9029 11y ago
> Somebody steal that idea. Google already did: https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/ https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/
- hellbanTHIS 11y ago
  Well, shit.
antimatter 11y ago
Also, Readability tried something similar. Didn't work. https://gigaom.com/2011/02/01/419-readability-intros-subscriptions-to-pay-publishers-for-focused-readers/ https://gigaom.com/2011/02/01/419-readability-intros-subscri... https://gigaom.com/2012/06/13/readability-ends-publisher-payment-program/ https://gigaom.com/2012/06/13/readability-ends-publisher-pay...
- hellbanTHIS 11y ago
  Sounds like Readability was blocking all ads and then saying "come find us so we can pay you, even though we never told you we were doing this, oops too late". Plus since then there's been the invention of these Taboola and Outbrain type ads which are like the ISIS of advertising. Because of them I'm sensing a lot more people are ready to declare war on web ads.
  - millstone 11y ago
    I didn't know what Taboola or Outbrain was so I searched and found this: https://newthealarmclock.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/screen-shot-2013-02-19-at-10-13-41-am.png https://newthealarmclock.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/screen-... and I recognized them. Very tabloid-style.
    - hellbanTHIS 11y ago
      If they were always pics of nice looking girls in bikinis nobody would have a problem, usually they look like this: http://digiday.com/publishers/is-this-the-worst-page-on-the-internet/attachment/grosscafemom/ http://digiday.com/publishers/is-this-the-worst-page-on-the-...
minthd 11y ago
>>I'd pay $10 a month to do my part to rid the world of web ads. I read somewhere that the number is close to $70/family/month, growing at %10 per year. Would you still pay ? Would this model even fit most people ?
- RodericDay 11y ago
  Those families are indirectly paying that price today, through their ad-influenced purchases. Not only are they paying for the end-product, but they're paying for the arms-race between advertisers as well, and that's a huge industry. The amount of money the ad industry deals out to "content providers" must necessarily be less than the amount they get paid by their clients, which in turn must be less than the amount people paid to those clients. If the distribution is not uniform, and some people benefit from the ad-influenced overspending of others, the business is then predatory.
  - nothis 11y ago
    That's an interesting way to look at it, if I understand it correctly: Advertising itself is a problematic concept. Why should we weep? Everyone would be equally affected by this, it's not like someone is getting an advantage. Maybe this hurting advertising is a net positive for all of us. It forces people to actually pay for stuff directly rather than by being subconsciously tricked into buying more of the stuff advertised, later. The worst case scenario I have seen people come up with is more sponsored articles but I doubt that is a sustainable business model. Honestly, I never understood why I can read the New York Times online for free. I'm not feeling bad about it, but it's fucking strange. Baby steps, but I really hope something like Contributor (https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/ https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/) becomes popular. Preferably not run by google.
  - minthd 11y ago
    I agree - the direct , and especially indirect price[1] people pay for ads is huge. [1]ads have a huge impact on society and on the psych of people.
  - Nursie 11y ago
jndetlefsen 11y ago
basically https://flattr.com/ https://flattr.com/
huehehue 11y ago
Re the service: a while back I had the idea that people could add a TXT record containing their BTC/PayPal/etc address and, as long as there existed a loose formatting standard, users could install an extension that activated when it detected you were on a site that accepted donations. For obvious reasons, it would fall apart for sites like Medium, but I was attached to the idea.
- btown 11y ago
  Why not just a <meta name="payment"> HTML tag?
  - huehehue 11y ago
    That would certainly work, with the added benefit of value changes by page; however, I imagine it would require more work to display on every page. There are too many ways to serve web pages, and having to change your site like that seems like a potential turn-off for an already [negative adjective here] platform.

lewisl9029 11y ago

> Somebody steal that idea. Google already did: https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/ https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/

hellbanTHIS 11y ago
Well, shit.

antimatter 11y ago

Also, Readability tried something similar. Didn't work. https://gigaom.com/2011/02/01/419-readability-intros-subscriptions-to-pay-publishers-for-focused-readers/ https://gigaom.com/2011/02/01/419-readability-intros-subscri... https://gigaom.com/2012/06/13/readability-ends-publisher-payment-program/ https://gigaom.com/2012/06/13/readability-ends-publisher-pay...

hellbanTHIS 11y ago
Sounds like Readability was blocking all ads and then saying "come find us so we can pay you, even though we never told you we were doing this, oops too late". Plus since then there's been the invention of these Taboola and Outbrain type ads which are like the ISIS of advertising. Because of them I'm sensing a lot more people are ready to declare war on web ads.
- millstone 11y ago
  I didn't know what Taboola or Outbrain was so I searched and found this: https://newthealarmclock.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/screen-shot-2013-02-19-at-10-13-41-am.png https://newthealarmclock.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/screen-... and I recognized them. Very tabloid-style.
  - hellbanTHIS 11y ago
    If they were always pics of nice looking girls in bikinis nobody would have a problem, usually they look like this: http://digiday.com/publishers/is-this-the-worst-page-on-the-internet/attachment/grosscafemom/ http://digiday.com/publishers/is-this-the-worst-page-on-the-...

minthd 11y ago

>>I'd pay $10 a month to do my part to rid the world of web ads. I read somewhere that the number is close to $70/family/month, growing at %10 per year. Would you still pay ? Would this model even fit most people ?

RodericDay 11y ago
Those families are indirectly paying that price today, through their ad-influenced purchases. Not only are they paying for the end-product, but they're paying for the arms-race between advertisers as well, and that's a huge industry. The amount of money the ad industry deals out to "content providers" must necessarily be less than the amount they get paid by their clients, which in turn must be less than the amount people paid to those clients. If the distribution is not uniform, and some people benefit from the ad-influenced overspending of others, the business is then predatory.
- nothis 11y ago
  That's an interesting way to look at it, if I understand it correctly: Advertising itself is a problematic concept. Why should we weep? Everyone would be equally affected by this, it's not like someone is getting an advantage. Maybe this hurting advertising is a net positive for all of us. It forces people to actually pay for stuff directly rather than by being subconsciously tricked into buying more of the stuff advertised, later. The worst case scenario I have seen people come up with is more sponsored articles but I doubt that is a sustainable business model. Honestly, I never understood why I can read the New York Times online for free. I'm not feeling bad about it, but it's fucking strange. Baby steps, but I really hope something like Contributor (https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/ https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/) becomes popular. Preferably not run by google.
- minthd 11y ago
  I agree - the direct , and especially indirect price[1] people pay for ads is huge. [1]ads have a huge impact on society and on the psych of people.
- Nursie 11y ago

jndetlefsen 11y ago

basically https://flattr.com/ https://flattr.com/

huehehue 11y ago

Re the service: a while back I had the idea that people could add a TXT record containing their BTC/PayPal/etc address and, as long as there existed a loose formatting standard, users could install an extension that activated when it detected you were on a site that accepted donations. For obvious reasons, it would fall apart for sites like Medium, but I was attached to the idea.

btown 11y ago
Why not just a <meta name="payment"> HTML tag?
- huehehue 11y ago
  That would certainly work, with the added benefit of value changes by page; however, I imagine it would require more work to display on every page. There are too many ways to serve web pages, and having to change your site like that seems like a potential turn-off for an already [negative adjective here] platform.