Advertising is devastating to my well-being • Hacker News Board

Re: Advertising is devastating to my well-being

#41

Post by petercooper » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 4:47 PM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #4

Dupe. This was discussed at length (144 comments!) back in March. I remember because a) I mocked the pathetic "It so happens that advertisements are devastating to my well-being." statement and got voted up, and b) a swarm of pro and anti ad blocker posts hit HN over the following 24 hours. It was almost as fun as the iPad launch. Added: Aha, here it is: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1172302

Does flagging even work on HN? This seems a prime candidate so I'd have assumed it'd have picked up a fair number by now. We're seeing not only a dupe link, but a dupe discussion too!

Re: Advertising is devastating to my well-being

#42

Post by petercooper » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 4:48 PM UTC

ErrantX wrote: post #15

This simply rehashes and old and badly made argument from months ago... I mean, the Ars article was a bit "out there" but he clearly hasn't really read it (e.g. The idea that I have a moral obligation to stare at an advertisment, the thought I have an ethical obligation to voluntarily annoy myself for the sake of a company's profits... it would be hilarious if it wasn't so repugnant. )

You realize this IS months old, dude? :-) It's a dupe, as is this discussion.

Re: Advertising is devastating to my well-being

#43

Post by petercooper » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 4:48 PM UTC

ErrantX wrote: post #15

This simply rehashes and old and badly made argument from months ago... I mean, the Ars article was a bit "out there" but he clearly hasn't really read it (e.g. The idea that I have a moral obligation to stare at an advertisment, the thought I have an ethical obligation to voluntarily annoy myself for the sake of a company's profits... it would be hilarious if it wasn't so repugnant. )

You realize this IS months old, dude? :-) It's a dupe, as is this discussion.

Re: Advertising is devastating to my well-being

#44

Post by ErrantX » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 4:58 PM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #42

ErrantX wrote: post #15

This simply rehashes and old and badly made argument from months ago... I mean, the Ars article was a bit "out there" but he clearly hasn't really read it (e.g. The idea that I have a moral obligation to stare at an advertisment, the thought I have an ethical obligation to voluntarily annoy myself for the sake of a company's profits... it would be hilarious if it wasn't so repugnant. )

You realize this IS months old, dude? :-) It's a dupe, as is this discussion.

Heh, oops.

Oh well; I saw another post from this blog earlier in the day and never really considered that it was an earlier entry :P

Re: Advertising is devastating to my well-being

#45

Post by hernan7 » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 4:59 PM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #9

alexandros wrote: post #7

In a twist that the author certainly did not intend to happen, his description of books as an ad-free medium led me to think of a model where out of copyright books are printed with in-page ads and distributed for free. Would that work? :)

I've actually seen books with ads before, it is not a new concept. Those were rather old books, too (pre-internet). Only very few ads, though, maybe three pages in the whole book. I like your idea with the out of print books!

Lots of paperbacks have ads in the last few pages (other books by the same publisher, order forms, sample chapters for the next book in the series, what have you). The difference is that these ads are after the main portion of the text, not marbled into the text itself.

Anyway, reading a book requires a completely different mindset from reading a magazine/ watching TV/ browsing the web. So I guess that's why ads "work" in one medium and not the other.

Re: Advertising is devastating to my well-being

#46

Post by CapitalistCartr » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 5:40 PM UTC

sbierwagen wrote: post #30

edw519 wrote: post #24

Businesses exist to milk you of as much of your money as possible. How sad. I wonder if OP actually believes this or if it was just part of his rant. Or maybe he didn't get enough hugs from his first boss. I'd like to think that there are still many of us who need to earn enough to insure continuation of business without sacrificing our souls or the original purpose of all our hard work.

Are you perhaps unfamiliar with capitalism? I do not think it is somehow a controversial statement that employees of a corporation have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to maximize profit. He may have stated it in a controversial or misleading way, but it is not untrue. Additionally, it seems you have interpreted it as some sort of polemic regarding work/life balance, an interpretation which I do not believe is…

Capitalism is not about "milk(ing) you of as much of your money as possible." Yes, maximize revenue within the context of the law and ethics. His comment about milking people of all possible is the hallmark of charlatans and con men.

Re: Advertising is devastating to my well-being

#47

Post by mclin » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 6:47 PM UTC

Ardit20 wrote: post #37

Psyonic wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure I pay for my cable television, and for magazines, which are nothing but ads. I'm aware of the business models behind these, but unfortunately I'm not given a choice to pay more for completely ad free media.

Depends what magazine you read. Speaking of the ones I buy occasionally I actually like their advertisement and in some way to me it is as valuable as the content. How else would I find out of what to do on a Saturday night or which firm to send an application to for a job, or which college is better, or about the new cool car that has come on, or the very cool new iphone etc. They do not annoy me. Adverts become ann…

Isn't the price of a magazine more a filter of intent than something to cover costs? That's why if you cancel your subscription they'll offer to renew you at a fraction of the advertised price.

Re: Advertising is devastating to my well-being

#48

Post by kakuri » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 7:11 PM UTC

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #46

sbierwagen wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you perhaps unfamiliar with capitalism? I do not think it is somehow a controversial statement that employees of a corporation have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to maximize profit. He may have stated it in a controversial or misleading way, but it is not untrue. Additionally, it seems you have interpreted it as some sort of polemic regarding work/life balance, an interpretation which I do not believe is…

Capitalism is not about "milk(ing) you of as much of your money as possible." Yes, maximize revenue within the context of the law and ethics . His comment about milking people of all possible is the hallmark of charlatans and con men.

Have you been paying attention to the sorts of people at the top of our capitalistic society? There are precious few who are notable for not being charlatans and con men.

Ethics are for the poor, and laws can be circumvented, re-written, or present only minor speedbumps (profit for law-breaking = $100; fine = $10 => BREAKIN' THE LAW!)

Re: Advertising is devastating to my well-being

#49

Post by r0s » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 7:37 PM UTC

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #46

sbierwagen wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you perhaps unfamiliar with capitalism? I do not think it is somehow a controversial statement that employees of a corporation have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to maximize profit. He may have stated it in a controversial or misleading way, but it is not untrue. Additionally, it seems you have interpreted it as some sort of polemic regarding work/life balance, an interpretation which I do not believe is…

Capitalism is not about "milk(ing) you of as much of your money as possible." Yes, maximize revenue within the context of the law and ethics . His comment about milking people of all possible is the hallmark of charlatans and con men.

Well, "maximize revenue within the context of the law and ethics." leads to a standard of manipulating legal policy however possible and defining subjective values like "ethics" in the a context favorable to an organizations motives.

Any company that can't or won't do these things is at a severe disadvantage to the competition.

Re: Advertising is devastating to my well-being

#50

Post by cma » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 1:12 AM UTC

angelbob wrote: post #40

sbierwagen wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you perhaps unfamiliar with capitalism? I do not think it is somehow a controversial statement that employees of a corporation have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to maximize profit. He may have stated it in a controversial or misleading way, but it is not untrue. Additionally, it seems you have interpreted it as some sort of polemic regarding work/life balance, an interpretation which I do not believe is…

To be fair, there's a difference here between a publicly-traded corporation and, say, a mom-and-pop hardware store. A publicly-traded corporation can be sued for not extracting the most possible money, which is in line with the OP. A smaller store with few or no external investors can run itself as it damn well pleases, assuming it stays solvent.

My understanding is it applies whether the company is private or public so long as there are any external investors involved.