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VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

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Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#391
post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not entirely sure what you're saying (or implying), but I'm curious. Could you elaborate?

I perceive the industry to be a waste of very talented people's time and skill sets. The brains doing this stuff could solve some huge problems yet they are just working on ways of serving up more adverts in more distracting ways. Somewhat in conflict with this view of mine is my interest in the stories that come out of the industry and the clever ways hard problems are solved.

Hah, I agree. That's why I developed some degree of depression and vowed never to do this kind of thing again. Not that I'm likely to solve some huge problems, but at the very least I don't want to make the world a worse place.

I don't know if your view and interest are in conflict though. Valuable knowledge can come from bad sources, no?

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#392
post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not entirely sure what you're saying (or implying), but I'm curious. Could you elaborate?

I perceive the industry to be a waste of very talented people's time and skill sets. The brains doing this stuff could solve some huge problems yet they are just working on ways of serving up more adverts in more distracting ways. Somewhat in conflict with this view of mine is my interest in the stories that come out of the industry and the clever ways hard problems are solved.

It takes all kinds of people and jobs to make this world work. There's no such thing as just realigning effort to "solve some huge problems".

Advertising is a massive industry and while it does have some plenty of annoying outputs, it has also powered the commercialization and expansion of the internet to what we have today. The world has definitely benefited from all the rich content, services and companies like Google that are available because of it.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#393
post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I perceive the industry to be a waste of very talented people's time and skill sets. The brains doing this stuff could solve some huge problems yet they are just working on ways of serving up more adverts in more distracting ways. Somewhat in conflict with this view of mine is my interest in the stories that come out of the industry and the clever ways hard problems are solved.

Hah, I agree. That's why I developed some degree of depression and vowed never to do this kind of thing again. Not that I'm likely to solve some huge problems, but at the very least I don't want to make the world a worse place. I don't know if your view and interest are in conflict though. Valuable knowledge can come from bad sources, no?

Thanks for the reply - I was trying to avoid sounding insulting. There are ethical dilemmas with my job so it would be a little rich to go there. Regarding good data, bad source (adding to Godwin's law), Nazi medical experiments and the more recent use of their data. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_human_experimentation

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I perceive the industry to be a waste of very talented people's time and skill sets. The brains doing this stuff could solve some huge problems yet they are just working on ways of serving up more adverts in more distracting ways. Somewhat in conflict with this view of mine is my interest in the stories that come out of the industry and the clever ways hard problems are solved.

It takes all kinds of people and jobs to make this world work. There's no such thing as just realigning effort to "solve some huge problems". Advertising is a massive industry and while it does have some plenty of annoying outputs, it has also powered the commercialization and expansion of the internet to what we have today. The world has definitely benefited from all the rich content, services and companies like Goo…

> There's no such thing as just realigning effort to "solve some huge problems".

There is, it's just very hard to do and usually requires some potential catastrophe and a lot of money to do. Yes, advertising has funded some great things, but many of them I avoid. I want my data to stay where I put it and don't want to be tracked and sold. Pretty sure I'm losing though.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Universal content syndication / income-indexed broadband (or total content) tax. $100/year will cover all Internet ads. $500/year will cover all advertising. Period. That's money you're already paying. Oh, and that's Europe, North America, Japan, and Australia, pretty much. The rest of the world gets awesome content for no charge.

I'm already paying that? I would never opt into advertising like that were it available. Most of the sites on the internet can just die for all I care. I'd still do online banking, buy stuff from amazon, read news on the BBC's sites. I don't mind paying individual sites if they ever wake up and offer that possibility but i'm not holding my breath. But as long as the choice is "streaming video/running javascript/annoy…

Advertising has costs. They're paid by consumers.

My "you" is statistical, but yes, generally, of the $500 billion spent on ads worldwide, the industrialised world, about 1 billion people, pay for it. If my maths check out, that's $500/year.

Amazon is Google's largest single advertiser.

I'll see if I cant find an excellent HN comment made a ways back (and not by me).

Ah, here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#396
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use an ad blocker. I also pay for content. Content creators have the ultimate choice in how they monetise their work.

I use an ad blocker and don't pay for content and really don't feel bad about it. I'm doing everyone a favor by saving them bandwidth and not counting me and lowering their click-through rates. I was never going to click your ad, or buy anything that started from an ad on the banner of a web page in the first place.

Installing an Adblocker is the first thing i do on every browser i come along. Even on computers which are not mine and i have to use for 5 minutes. It is just an automatism for years now. Is that uBlock Button missing? I will install it.

I did not even now that youtube serves adds until someone told me a couple of months ago...

This makes posts like this even more weird. It is like staring into an unknown abyss or standing in front of a lake which glows in the dark because someone dumped a ton of radioactive waste.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#397

Some people, like my elderly father, live in an area where it's dial-up or Verizon LTE MiFi with severe data caps (~14 GB for $100 per month). He's an old-school newspaper & magazine reader, so advertisements don't offend him. He actually looks at them from time to time as he reads ESPN and on-line newspapers. However, page loads that approach 100 MB are leaving him with less money in his pocket to purchase the produ…

page loads that approach 100 MB are leaving him with less money in his pocket

Install Firefox and NoScript for him. Turn off Javascript completely, everywhere, except on a handful of whitelisted sites.

That's what I use, every day, and it's really no problem to surf the Web that way. You miss some of the pictures, you miss 99% of the ads, you're not constantly wallowing in the advertising cesspool.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#398
post #77

Has anyone tweeted this to Matt Cutts (Head of Web Spam at Google) ?

Has anyone tweeted this to Matt Cutts (Head of Web Spam at Google) ?

Yeah, because all that needs to happen to solve this entire mess is for someone, anyone at all to bring it to the attention of the right person at Google.

They'll be just as shocked to hear it as Claude Rains was in Casablanca. And, rest assured, they'll take care of it.

/s

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#399
post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah, I agree. That's why I developed some degree of depression and vowed never to do this kind of thing again. Not that I'm likely to solve some huge problems, but at the very least I don't want to make the world a worse place. I don't know if your view and interest are in conflict though. Valuable knowledge can come from bad sources, no?

Thanks for the reply - I was trying to avoid sounding insulting. There are ethical dilemmas with my job so it would be a little rich to go there. Regarding good data, bad source (adding to Godwin's law), Nazi medical experiments and the more recent use of their data. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_human_experimentation

Hehe, that was exactly what I was thinking of, but I wanted to avoid Godwinning. So I Godlost.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it though? Just because you aren't interested in these other recommendations and connected ads doesn't mean the wide majority who purchases sewing kits aren't as well. If this "blantantly sexist" ads were wrong no one would purchase such ads. Sure they may be stereotypical, but that's what targeted ads are all about, creating data driven stereotypes that later can be used for increasing sales and relativity.

But they are wrong. The GP is not interested on those. Yes, the "blatantly sexist" bias may have happened due to unbiased empiricism. But the ads as still wrong. Id the GP was an exception, that would be an worthless anecdote, but anecdotes of ads being correct are hard to find.

Maybe because noone is noticing them being correct?
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