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Vietnam bans unskippable ads

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Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#221

Post by Zigurd »

_jab wrote: post #13

I've often wondered whether the world would be better without ads. The incentive to create services (especially in social media) that strive to addict their users feels toxic to society. Often, it feels uncertain whether these services are providing actual value, and I suspect that whether a user would pay for a service in lieu of watching ads is incidentally a good barometer for whether real value is present. Don't…

When I first visited Latvia, I thought it was a charming side effect of communism that store names were quite small on the façades. Was there an ethic of abjuring crass commercialism? Then I noticed the shadows left by larger store names above the small Latvian store names. It wasn't that Marxism Leninism called for demure commercial logos. The Latvians had just taken down the Russian signs. Commercial promotion is, I suppose, a condition of life,

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#222

Post by lkramer »

MiddleEndian wrote: post #189
bko wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better from whom? As a user, maybe. But if you're trying to compete, it's incredibly useful to get exposure. For instance, suppose you run a competitor to Salesforce and you want to buy the Salesforce keyword because you provide a better product. I don't know how you would bootstrap that otherwise. If anything the big businesses use advertising as a protection moat. As a small business, I would def prefer to be in a…

If I search for "Salesforce alternative" and something that isn't Salesforce shows up, great! That's what I want! If I search for Salesforce and something that isn't Salesforce shows up above Salesforce, the tool I'm using is wrong and I will assume that the promoted product is a scam. This happened to me yesterday when installing the mobile version of Brotato. Some other game appeared above Brotato in the Google Pla…

It's infuriating, the other day I had to download an app to pay for parking. What the fuck do I need the top choice to be a competing parking app? That won't do me any good when the place I'm parking need the one I searched for and who the hell goes "oh, an exciting new parking app? I'm gonna drive around until I can find a place that uses it so I can park there!"

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#223

Post by amelius »

_jab wrote: post #13

I've often wondered whether the world would be better without ads. The incentive to create services (especially in social media) that strive to addict their users feels toxic to society. Often, it feels uncertain whether these services are providing actual value, and I suspect that whether a user would pay for a service in lieu of watching ads is incidentally a good barometer for whether real value is present. Don't…

> I've often wondered whether the world would be better without ads.

Of course. Ads make us buy more things. Things we don't need most of the time.

Think of the environmental win if we banned ads tomorrow!

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#224

Post by phantasmish »

carlosjobim wrote: post #218
phantasmish wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what a fucking store is for . They have catalogs. You could ask for one. If they think people will want something they will try to sell it and will tell you about it if you go looking . I see this pro-ads argument all the time and it’s so obviously-stupid that I’m truly baffled. Is this the kind of lie ad folks tell themselves so they can sleep at night?

Brands pay stores for shelf space. How would you stop that in practice?

Impossible to solve I’m sure. Probably lower priority than stopping them from putting lead in bread and selling cocaine snake-oil elixirs, or forcing them to list basic nutritional information on food packaging. Alas, we lack the tools to make businesses do or not do things.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#225

Post by echelon »

BigTTYGothGF wrote: post #69
ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too many people think removing ads means they'll still continue to get content for free, they just won't have to watch ads. At best, it's as you said, the platform and creator make less money (Youtube gives 55% of ad revenue to the creator). This would naturally lead to less content eventually. At worst, video content becomes unsustainable without a subscription.

> This would naturally lead to less content eventually I, personally, am drowning in "content".

> I, personally, am drowning in "content".

Until the content is utterly captivating and speaks to your soul in a way even your closest friends and partners can't, we haven't hit peak content.

You know that one movie you see every decade or so that you can't get out of your head? The one that left you flabbergasted, that you've watched at least half a dozen times, and that you frequently and fondly remember? It touched your mind and soul and fit your tastes like a glove.

THAT is peak content, and until we are swimming in it, we're not there yet. Most of what we have today is utterly disposable and ephemeral - transient dopamine activation instead of philosophically world shattering indelible experiences.

We have a long way to go.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#226

Post by amelius »

jonny_eh wrote: post #219
master-lincoln wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would have been a better world without ads. There would be more competition which would improve products and thus outcome for customers. Also most of the demand of goods is artificially created by ads, so there would be less production of crap and thus less resources wasted. It would also mean a whole industry of people would do something else that is potentially not as detrimental to society. The money sp…

> I think it would have been a better world without ads. There would be more competition which would improve products and thus outcome for customers. How would people learn about various choices?

> How would people learn about various choices?

By going to a website where they can learn about various choices.

It could be similar to ads, but with higher truth value to it.

AND most importantly, the user would view the information when THEY want to see the information, not when the marketeer wants to shove it in their face.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#227

Post by elashri »

I hate ads with all my heart. And I go out of my way to religiously block them. I employ DNS blocking (through my own adguard home server) on my whole network (I use this DNS server connected to unbound to act as recursive DNS on all devices even when I am outside home). I use ublock origin on Firefox browser (one of the forks that guts Firefox ads and privacy settings by default) and on my iPhone I use wipr + uBlock Origin lite. I have several userscripts to block ads one some websites (i.e I block HN jobs posts).

I have a mental view that gets disrupted by ads and sometimes even angry. In the rare moments which I use a computer or phone of a friend or family without those, I really can't tolerate the suffering they go through. My single best advice to people about using ublock origin and Firefox resonated with everyone of them. I use it on my parents devices as the best security measure that could be used.

Am I overreacting, maybe but I find my level of tolerance for ads is zero no matter how much I agree that some of them are good or not. Maybe this is the result of decades of self imposing dark patterns and intrusive ads do to some people. I really feel sorry for majority of internet users that do not use adblockers.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#228

Post by tracker1 »

And this is why I run an ad blocker in my browser on top of a pihole for my home. The whole situation sucks, and I'm often willing to pay for an ad-free experience.

I still would never buy an X10 camera or any other of their products given how they abused pop-over/under ads. Same for Sony for other reasons... I can carry a product grudge for decades.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#230

Post by wrsh07 »

oldjim798 wrote: post #134
wrsh07 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah - it seems like this will cause a series of 5 second skippable ads that still sums up to >many seconds of unskippable ads (unless that's banned, in which case they will just see ads more often, as you say) I expect it will make the experience worse rather than better because the publishers will try to maintain their inventory (how many seconds of ads they show per minute watched)

Then a new regulation is needed; one that caps the ratio of seconds of ads to minute watched.

And what do you think the consequence of that new regulation will be?
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