Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

You block ads in your browser, why not in your city?

bearbin.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 633 posts

Re: You block ads in your browser, why not in your city?

#471

Post by matheusmoreira »

smarx007 wrote: post #7

But ads in real life do not prevent me from going on about my day. There is no analogy to interstitial pages with ads like in Forbes some time ago with the button Continue to your article: it would be infuriating if you had to view an ad before being able to use the subway ticketing system. You also don’t have ads on at the airport timetable screen. You don’t have pinkertons following you to learn your habits and sho…

Advertising is mind rape. Not a single person who looks at ads has consented to giving corporations their attention, much less have their minds violated when they insert their little brands and offers.

They are not entitled to our attention. Advertising should be illegal no matter what. Disruptiveness just makes this unacceptable practice even worse.

Re: You block ads in your browser, why not in your city?

#472

Post by PopAlongKid »

blackboxlogic wrote: post #394
PopAlongKid wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true if it is a barter exchange (under U.S. tax law at least). However I have a hard time seeing this as a barter - what are you getting in exchange for your attention that has a positive fair market value?

"You can view this content if you also stare at these ads. If you don't want to see the ads then don't visit this webpage." Sounds like an exchange to me. Edit: aren't "donations" received by a for-profit also taxable? Edit2: items of value acquired by theft are taxable.

Yes, you are correct. I was still thinking of the content being "free", but it's not if you provide something to get it.

Of course to actually impose income tax on these transactions would be nearly impossible. For the business, they would at least have expenses to deduct against the barter income, but for the private individual it would hobby income, with no deductions available. Also, how would FMV be established? The attention of a high-wealth person inclined to spend money is obviously worth more than that of someone of more modest means who spends very frugally, yet they both receive the same content in exchange. And if the FMV ends up being on the order of a dollar or two, it's not worth anyone's time to track it and report it.

Re: You block ads in your browser, why not in your city?

#473

Post by grishka »

whiplash451 wrote: post #461
blackhaz wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they do. You have to mentally process the incoming data first, then discard it. It's a waste of attention, especially with mind-catching ads you can't figure out immediately. Sometimes they are as blocking as browser pop-ups, e.g.: logotypes (or even full ads) displayed before a responsive UI is shown to you, duty-free zones in the airports, and so on. I am pretty sure we will soon have real-life targeted billboa…

They definitely do. Ads in the subway carry an outstanding cognitive load. A simple experiment helps understand this: just walk through a super ad-heavy subway (Paris or London) then through a much lighter one (Vienna). The difference is significant. The mental experiment is literally different.

Ads in the subway just shouldn't be a thing, period. You already pay for the ticket.

Re: You block ads in your browser, why not in your city?

#474

Post by AnimalMuppet »

Iowa seems to have a law that forces billboards to be further away from the interstate. They occupy a much smaller slice of your visual field. It makes a difference.

It also makes a difference that they can't put too much text on them, because they're too far away for you to be able to read that. So you have visually smaller billboards with simpler messages on them. Driving across Iowa is more pleasant because of this.

Re: You block ads in your browser, why not in your city?

#475

Post by dionidium »

throwawaycities wrote: post #453
dionidium wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a meta point “whataboutism” is a very stupid concept. We obviously evaluate things by comparison to other things and by their relationship to other related issues. Cars and scooters compete for public space and are directly comparable. If you’re locked in a room with a kitten and a lion and I hear you complaining about the kitten, then it’s not “whataboutism” to explain to you that you’ve got bigger problems. Seco…

> Cars and scooters compete for public space and are directly comparable. You seem to have a very difficult time understanding nuance. I didn’t complain about scooters, I complained about companies dumping their commercial scooters on pedestrian paths specifically for obnoxious marketing purposes. A scooter is fine if you want to own one and you don’t use it to obstruct pedestrian paths for commercial/marketing purpo…

> I complained about companies dumping their commercial scooters on pedestrian paths specifically for obnoxious marketing purposes.

When I think of obnoxious transportation marketing I think first of stuff like this:

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2021/08/16/opinion-muscle-car-ma...

In one Dodge Charger ad they literally show a sign that reads “share the road” impaling a tree as their car blows past at a speed that’s not legal on any road in the country you’d find that sign on.

The fact that their automobiles kill and maim pedestrians and cyclists at a regular clip is a feature of their marketing campaign. It’s so preposterous and brazen that I still sort of can’t believe it exists.

The automakers know their cars are used irresponsibly and they literally feature that in their marketing. I’m sorry I just can’t get upset about a scooter lying on the sidewalk by comparison.

Re: You block ads in your browser, why not in your city?

#477

Post by whiplash451 »

grishka wrote: post #473
whiplash451 wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They definitely do. Ads in the subway carry an outstanding cognitive load. A simple experiment helps understand this: just walk through a super ad-heavy subway (Paris or London) then through a much lighter one (Vienna). The difference is significant. The mental experiment is literally different.

Ads in the subway just shouldn't be a thing, period. You already pay for the ticket.

Unfortunately the ticket covers much less than the infrastructure cost. Then public spending covers some of it but ads are needed to fill the gap. Public money that would be spent to cover the ad revenue would not be spent elsewhere (in a hopefully useful way). I hate subway ads just as much as you, but wanted to make this reality check.

Re: You block ads in your browser, why not in your city?

#478

Post by grishka »

jyu wrote: post #55
smarx007 wrote: post #7

But ads in real life do not prevent me from going on about my day. There is no analogy to interstitial pages with ads like in Forbes some time ago with the button Continue to your article: it would be infuriating if you had to view an ad before being able to use the subway ticketing system. You also don’t have ads on at the airport timetable screen. You don’t have pinkertons following you to learn your habits and sho…

Have you run into the IRL pop up ads? People walking in front of you, interrupting your UX for a quick "5 min conversation" about their chosen cause? These pesky ads get through my blockers no matter how often I update my filters.

Actually yes. There are these "tea promoters" on the main street in my city. They would get in your way, and sometimes even literally grab you, to "ask a question", which is inevitably "do you drink tea?". This is a scam scheme where the next step is to take you to their store nearby, offer you a sample of their tea, and then it surprisingly turns out that this needs to be paid for and costs an exorbitant amount. Of course, this breaks every consumer protection law possible, but way too many people are amenable to guilt-tripping.

I either ignore them and walk around them, or loudly tell them to fuck off. If only the police would act on this as vehemently as on anything even remotely related to opposition politics...

Re: You block ads in your browser, why not in your city?

#479

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

blackhaz wrote: post #192
agumonkey wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something different about streets and web. I'm not sure but on my laptop i kinda expect things to go to the point, fast. A street is not a mean to an end. So a bus stop with some ad.. doesn't really changes everything. Consider web ads more like annoying bus boys trying to get you to order something in their restaurant by stepping in front of you and mirroring every move.

A street is as much a mean to an end as a laptop. I use streets to get from point A to point B, much like you use your laptop to arrive from state A to state B. I never have an intention to see ads when I go outside. Sometimes I use streets for fun, to stroll without aim, but never I go outside to "see some ads," much like you likely never open your laptop with an intention to see an ad.

> I use streets to get from point A to point B

This is an excellent point to make: Streets are for getting from A to B, and ads don't impede that.

The Internet is for getting access to information, and many of the online ad formats do impede that.

Re: You block ads in your browser, why not in your city?

#480

Post by matheusmoreira »

> When you’re reading in the hypothetical yellow pages, that’s advertising.

> Or when you’re walking down the high street, looking in shop windows; advertising again.

The important fact here is in this case we asked for it. I opened the online store app. Go ahead and show me the products. That's what I came for. I wouldn't even call that advertising, to me it's just information.

Totally different from shoving those products in my face every time I try to do anything. Now I don't care about products, I don't want to see them or hear about them. But these advertisers insist on subjecting me to their ads.

Post reply on HN