Live data from Hacker News

Facebook ads told me to become a certified cryptozoologist, so I did

vice.com

81–90 of 115 posts

Re: Facebook ads told me to become a certified cryptozoologist, so I did

#81
post #10

Unrelated to the content, anyone else having trouble reading this article? After three reloads from what seems to be way too many interactive ads, the page crashed entirely. I got about one paragraph in before this: https://postimg.cc/2qQ3qPjy

Yes it was pretty brutal, they have all manner of interstitials, exit-pops, app ads, video ads, and more. Publishers thing they have to do this crap to survive, but they are actually ensuring their demise. I had to try three times to get through the article as my UX was totally disrupted when I scrolled up. Two modals stacked atop each other, hoping to catch me before I left. Yuck.

Re: Facebook ads told me to become a certified cryptozoologist, so I did

#82
post #76

I'm very proud of my history of never clicking a Facebook ad in over 10 years... Most of them are really just shills for capturing targeting data to associate with my profile anyway. This also explains why Facebook shows me wildly random ads for Viagra alternatives, yoga pants, conservative news, and better kitty litter than my current brand... All things which have no relevance to me, yet quite often triggering my u…

Have you considered the possibility that facebook might just not be that good at targeting?

Facebook is probably hiring more human psychologists and marketing specialists than developers now. It explains why they aren't really innovating anything particularly new and useful in anything but their profit funnel.

Many companies get stuck on pleasing investors more than users once they reach that stage of monopoly after they've gone public, and that's why regulation kills them once opportunistic manipulation is exposed.

Unfortunately it takes a really bad/unfortunate consequence of their manipulation to occur before regulation properly steps in.

Re: Facebook ads told me to become a certified cryptozoologist, so I did

#83
post #78

I'm very proud of my history of never clicking a Facebook ad in over 10 years... Most of them are really just shills for capturing targeting data to associate with my profile anyway. This also explains why Facebook shows me wildly random ads for Viagra alternatives, yoga pants, conservative news, and better kitty litter than my current brand... All things which have no relevance to me, yet quite often triggering my u…

I, on the contrary, clicked every relevant ad on facebook. Now they learned my preferences and show me mostly ads about vintage 8-bit computers and tracker music software and groups. And no ads about viagra or yoga pants. I'd say that FB ads generally can target much better than general web ads because they can track and profile you precisely, e.g. from your posts, comments, and other interactions. But at least you s…

I honestly enjoy FB ads much more than the average political content, covid posts, food pictures that I see on my timeline. I find such cool tech and software from the ads that target me.

Re: Facebook ads told me to become a certified cryptozoologist, so I did

#84

I'm very proud of my history of never clicking a Facebook ad in over 10 years... Most of them are really just shills for capturing targeting data to associate with my profile anyway. This also explains why Facebook shows me wildly random ads for Viagra alternatives, yoga pants, conservative news, and better kitty litter than my current brand... All things which have no relevance to me, yet quite often triggering my u…

>This also explains why Facebook shows me wildly random ads for Viagra alternatives, yoga pants, conservative news, and better kitty litter than my current brand... All things which have no relevance to me Well maybe if your cat practiced yoga, he wouldn't need better litter - or viagra. I'm still thinking how to associate a cat on viagra with conservative news... maybe something about Bill O'Riley.

I believe Bob Dole was a Viagra spokesperson.

Re: Facebook ads told me to become a certified cryptozoologist, so I did

#85
Remember that movie about a guy who ate at McDonald's for a month, to observe the effects? [1]

Someone should do the same with Facebook ads. I wonder what somebody would feel and look like after engaging with every ad on the platform.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Size_Me

Re: Facebook ads told me to become a certified cryptozoologist, so I did

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think parent is talking about the mindset or way of thinking that leads to revisionist history/conspiracy theory/etc. And saying that this mindset doesn't have much actually to do with the specific details of any given object/plotline (e.g. the Nazca lines). It's more of a self-reinforcing worldview, that there is a Story, that everything is significant in the story, everything points to everything else, and nothin…

> There are a few non-fiction books, though I'm blanking on the key author's name. I don't know if he is who you had in mind, but Robert Anton Wilson -- who was one of the writers on the Illuminatus! trilogy -- has at least two non-fiction books on it. One is Prometheus Rising , the other is Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World . They are both a series of essays with exercises at the end…

Thank you, not the person I was thinking of but that's an excellent point-out.

I had two books in mind that I was completely misremembering as by the same author. In fact they are by two different journalists. The United States of Paranoia and Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History.

Re: Facebook ads told me to become a certified cryptozoologist, so I did

#87
post #67
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shitballs. Sorry bud - I edited the original post to suggest that people don’t google him. I’m sorry you went through that. :(

Thanx, but I was braced based on your advice ;-) It's still in the same general territory as QAnon and the fact that 1/5 Americans drinks that kool-aid fills me with despair (and fear). https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/study-finds-...

Though Icke predates QAnon by quite a bit, and I would almost say it is derivative of his "material". And the themes of the "Protocols of the Elders..." of course are shamefully evergreen in such discourse.

Re: Facebook ads told me to become a certified cryptozoologist, so I did

#88

I'm very proud of my history of never clicking a Facebook ad in over 10 years... Most of them are really just shills for capturing targeting data to associate with my profile anyway. This also explains why Facebook shows me wildly random ads for Viagra alternatives, yoga pants, conservative news, and better kitty litter than my current brand... All things which have no relevance to me, yet quite often triggering my u…

>All things which have no relevance to me

For the past 6 months, every single ad on Youtube (TV app) for me is about Indians singing something in Hindi... I wonder why that happens. I'm not Indian, I don't understand Hindi, and I'm not interested in Indian pop music. Yet Youtube thinks I'm a huge fan and I have no idea what to do about it.

Re: Facebook ads told me to become a certified cryptozoologist, so I did

#89
post #52
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I googled him. It took 3 seconds to realize I wanted my 3 seconds back.

Shitballs. Sorry bud - I edited the original post to suggest that people don’t google him. I’m sorry you went through that. :(

This is why debunking doesn't work and "pre-bunking" is actively harmful.

Re: Facebook ads told me to become a certified cryptozoologist, so I did

#90
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please please please don’t think I was mocking you or anything you believe. You’re a wickedly smart person and a talented writer. Those are the only opinions I have about you. Okay??? Why do you sound like you just found out motohagiography has high-level connections to the mob? Honestly this entire thread is starting to trigger my schizoid tendencies because I have no idea what half the people in it are talking ab…

The simplest answer is that I was an asshole. Someone posted an idea and someone else asked for clarification. Rather than act like an adult, I put on my dickbag hat and shit all over the idea. My issue is with David Icke yet for some incomprehensible reason, I jumped into a thread that didn’t involve me and added my own personal shit. I injected David Icke rather than give Motohagiography the chance to explain their…

For what it's worth (although I'm not motohagiography) I didn't read your comment upthread as an attack on the commenter. Warnings about this stuff can be appropriate, because it's seductive. You did a bit of conclusion-jumping, but misreading the original comment was an easy mistake to make -- it's pretty dense.
Post reply on HN