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Apple refunding all purchases of Peace

marco.org

21–30 of 69 posts

Re: Apple refunding all purchases of Peace

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He explained his decision in a previous post. I think it's more interesting to focus on him as an example of doing something difficult because he felt it was the right thing to do.

His reasoning is unsound. Crippling user experience for some vague, completely unsupported belief that content can't be supported by anything except ads is hugely misguided. Maybe content could be 10x valuable (because much of the noise would be eliminated) if micropayments had a chance to take off. Who knows! Let the market figure it out... For Marco to think he can penetrate the mists of the internet economy single…

You have just constructed a giant straw man that does not in any way reflect his actual stated reasoning for pulling the app.

He is not opposed to ad blocking. He is not opposed to ad blocking apps. He doesn’t think people blocking ads are acting immorally. He doesn’t think overbearing ads aren’t a problem or are definitely needed.

Figuring out the actual reason he states for withdrawing the app is left as an exercise to the reader.

Re: Apple refunding all purchases of Peace

#23
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His reasoning is unsound. Crippling user experience for some vague, completely unsupported belief that content can't be supported by anything except ads is hugely misguided. Maybe content could be 10x valuable (because much of the noise would be eliminated) if micropayments had a chance to take off. Who knows! Let the market figure it out... For Marco to think he can penetrate the mists of the internet economy single…

It is hugely misguided. Obviously, there is strong demand for ad-blocking. Someone else will move into this space and serve that demand. He didn't make a statement, he made a headache for all the people who downloaded his app, and for Apple who now has to refund all their purchases.

There is demand for all sorts of products you personally are capable of building, yet wouldn't for reasons of personal ethics. Should we judge you on your failure to bring these to market? After all, if you don't build it someone else will.

Re: Apple refunding all purchases of Peace

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was a founder in Tumblr. He probably isn't worried about cash.

Yep. Pretty easy to put your money where your mouth is when you have gobs of it.

That's just a pointlessly catty thing to say.

Re: Apple refunding all purchases of Peace

#25
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His reasoning is unsound. Crippling user experience for some vague, completely unsupported belief that content can't be supported by anything except ads is hugely misguided. Maybe content could be 10x valuable (because much of the noise would be eliminated) if micropayments had a chance to take off. Who knows! Let the market figure it out... For Marco to think he can penetrate the mists of the internet economy single…

Please. He went from the position of deciding which ads to block for a handful of people to hundreds of thousands literally overnight and decided that was too much responsibility for himself to handle. Whether or not you agree with his reasoning is immaterial. It made him feel uncomfortable to be in this position, so he made the decision to bow out. Marco is not the first person, nor will he be the last, to regret th…

I thought he was using Ghost's ad lists? I don't think he was making the decisions of which to block at all. He just made the tool that enabled those defined blocks to be made.

Re: Apple refunding all purchases of Peace

#26
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please. He went from the position of deciding which ads to block for a handful of people to hundreds of thousands literally overnight and decided that was too much responsibility for himself to handle. Whether or not you agree with his reasoning is immaterial. It made him feel uncomfortable to be in this position, so he made the decision to bow out. Marco is not the first person, nor will he be the last, to regret th…

I thought he was using Ghost's ad lists? I don't think he was making the decisions of which to block at all. He just made the tool that enabled those defined blocks to be made.

That's a fair point. However, by proxying that list to his users, he's still in the position of choosing which ads to block — even if he's delegating that authority to others (in essence, he's choosing who chooses).

Re: Apple refunding all purchases of Peace

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Pretty easy to put your money where your mouth is when you have gobs of it.

That's just a pointlessly catty thing to say.

Doesn't make it any less true to the point that's a trivial observation: people with more money can more easily afford to give some of it where "their mouth is".

Re: Apple refunding all purchases of Peace

#28
About this guilt for ad-blocking thing: wasn't Marco's entire fortune (pre Tumblr buyout) made by selling a service used to bypass content owners entirely and read their articles without ads, in one page, and in his own templates?

Re: Apple refunding all purchases of Peace

#29

(In general "which charity" has a simple answer: any. In general donating proceeds immediately solves accusations of self-interest, except perhaps for the component that it's reactionary rather than being announced ahead of time.)

>In general donating proceeds immediately solves accusations of self-interest

Well, you still get the tax deducations, don't you?

Plus the goodwill ("here I gave all those to charity") bought with other people's money.

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