Instagram Has Become SkyMall • Hacker News Board

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#171

Post by chillacy » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 5:00 AM UTC

quest88 wrote: post #60

endisneigh wrote: post #17

Is there anyone else out there who refuses to buy something if they first learned about it from an ad?

I buy things from ads if the things solve problems I have. Sometimes I don't know about the solutions and the advertising works because FB/Insta know what I like. They work well and I'm grateful I get relevant ads.

I do this too but I generally search on google/amazon for the product before buying. Much of the time, the same product is available cheaper from someone else. I think certain companies buy and resell stuff through paid advertising, so they have to pad their margins appropriately.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#172

Post by Tenoke » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 5:02 AM UTC

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #150

My biggest problem with both Facebook and Instagram is that I feel completely out of control over what I see. There is neither a way to avoid what I don't want, nor a way to ensure I see my friends' posts. The timeline shows me the same handful of people in mystery sort order mixed with ads, and then I later find out I haven't seen months' worth of someone's content when I happen to visit their profile. The only half…

>There is neither a way to avoid what I don't want, nor a way to ensure I see my friends' posts

There's both on Facebook. You can set it so you always see a person's posts and you can click on any post to see less of that type of content (or none from the poster).

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#173

Post by FreakyT » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 5:03 AM UTC

agotterer wrote: post #163

If you’re in search of a Skymall alternative, check out Hammacher Schlemmer ( https://www.hammacher.com/ ). The brand has existed for over a hundred years, they have a physical store in NYC, a website, and a catalog (still being sent out). I just looked at a few products for sale on their homepage: make sure not to miss the transparent canoe or the kickball dart board.

IIRC Skymall used to feature Hammacher Schlemmer products pretty often, so it's not surprising that there'd be a lot of overlap.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#174

Post by throwaway2048 » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 5:03 AM UTC

Sebb767 wrote: post #138

beervirus wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not rewarding the awful ad-tech ecosystem is a good principle.

I don't think you can say this in general. I really, really dislike ads, but they _do_ sponsor a lot of content creators which could otherwise not focus on their content creation and they help companies to get their product known to you - which does not need to be a negative. If they sell you a product which genuinely improves your life, it's a win-win-win for you, the producer and the person advertising. The current…

The mafia was also famous for its community outreach and charity, that didn't make it a net positive.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#175

Post by winterchil » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 5:08 AM UTC

gnicholas wrote: post #96

dhosek wrote: post #64

Before I completely dropped social media, I had a f—k the algorithm attitude towards the ads. I made a point of clicking through everything that was completely uninteresting to me. That road led to a non-stop flood of class-action lawyer ads.

I’ve heard that mesothelioma class action lawyer advertisements are among the most expensive on social media. Cynical hypothesis: once the platforms realized you’ll click on anything, they decided to show you their highest-compensated ads.

You're not wrong but it depends on the platform and campaign. If the ads are bought click-optimized then yes... if conversion optimized then the algorithms will learn to avoid zealous clickers.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#176

Post by makeitdouble » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 5:14 AM UTC

avalys wrote: post #144

I get great ads on Instagram. Generally, they’re niche products related to my interests from small companies I’ve never heard of before. Yes, there’s a few misses, but it’s way better than the absolute scum-sucking garbage I see elsewhere on the internet from other ad networks. “Doctor shares one weird trick for emptying your bowels every morning”, “Alan Greenspan tells you what to buy instead of Litecoin”, and simil…

The other side of the coin: people who get easily fished by scams get more and more well targeted scams.

I had to help deal with a scam on a very low profile product (less than 20$ worth) that will just never arrive, the company just vanished away and she was left to deal with her bank to convince for a chargeback. I thought it was just back luck, but I got to look at her timeline later on, and half of the ads could have been same level scams.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#177

Post by makeitdouble » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 5:18 AM UTC

otachack wrote: post #103

Crash0v3rid3 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m using the app on iOS if that makes a difference…

It does! The native apps show a plethora of ads while the web app shows nothing. Crazy interesting but I imagine most users use the app.

Can’t it be because of ad-blocking ?

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#178

Post by B-Con » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 5:22 AM UTC

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #150

My biggest problem with both Facebook and Instagram is that I feel completely out of control over what I see. There is neither a way to avoid what I don't want, nor a way to ensure I see my friends' posts. The timeline shows me the same handful of people in mystery sort order mixed with ads, and then I later find out I haven't seen months' worth of someone's content when I happen to visit their profile. The only half…

> All in all, it feels like Facebook thinks I'm an idiot and treats me accordingly.

This is the way of social media algorithms. I suspect it makes sense be cause the majority of users are indeed "idiots", in the sense of doing a poor job managing their subscription feeds and such. I'm sure they have tons of data showing how they improve user retention in aggregate by treating them like idiots.

But those of us willing to build and curate our own experience, we're the edge case not worth accommodating.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#179

Post by dharmab » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 5:22 AM UTC

quickthrower2 wrote: post #148

barrkel wrote: post #101

The canonical example of SkyMall equivalence for me is wish.com ads. They're odd enough that they're frequently clipped and commented on - https://www.google.com/search?q=wish+ads

What is wish.com? Comes up in a lot of search’s, shows me an absurdly cheap price for a product and then I can’t buy it, it’s out of stock or something went wrong

It's an ecommerce platform with very low quality and anti-counterfeiting standards. It's become a meme with how prevalently products are misrepresented on there.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#180

Post by dharmab » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 5:24 AM UTC

vmlinuz wrote: post #47

Ok, so I'm going to hijack this slightly... I'm an elderly (mid-40s) non-USian techie, and I've never done Instagram. On Facebook I mostly follow people I've largely lost touch with in real life (particular these past couple of years), and on Twitter it's news sources and journalists, plus a selection of 'celebs' from various niche interests like tech, sci-fi, winter sports and comedy. Am I likely to be missing anyth…

I'm a US tech person in my 20s who does not use Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at all.

I do miss out on things because friends and family use Facebook for event planning, so I have to hear about things secondhand from mutual friends. But I never feel like I miss anything from the others.