Advertising is fundamentally corrosive to society and should be outlawed with few and carefully tailored exceptions. Any business models that consequently fail, fail because their externalities to collective society are now priced in.
The correct amount of ads is zero
121–130 of 611 posts
Re: The correct amount of ads is zero
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re making a very different point to the article. The article is about how to pay for content, your point is that you don’t want to pay for content at all.
He does pay for prime. The fact that they have done a bait-n-switch and now _still_ show you adverts, despite you paying, is reprehensible.
No, they just raised the price of the ad-free experience. You can pay $3 a month more than last year to remain ad-free.
Re: The correct amount of ads is zero
#123> The correct amount of ads for a publication that’s directly supported is zero. I basically agree with this sentiment, but one place where it can be a tricky balance (not saying that's the case here!) is "native advertising". For example, a new game is being released, the publisher collaborates with TheBrink, a hypothetical popular game news site, and for this they get a huge takeover banner advert for the week, inc…
it's a good point, and if theverge was using the weasel language to still allow paid content to be published to subscribers, that would be one thing.
but that's not it - they're still going to serve you banners, even if you pay. just, fewer of them. and they're going to gate content behind the paywall. it's the "have your cake and eat it too" of paywalls.
>we’ll get rid of all the chumboxes and third-party programmatic ads, cut down the overall number of ad units, and only fill what’s left with high-quality ads directly sold by Vox Media.
Re: The correct amount of ads is zero
#124That the precise reason I won’t even get the paid subscription of any service that also exists with ads - they will still get as much data as possible and sell it even if you pay the subscription.
If there is no way to hide ads completely I won’t use your service full stop
Re: The correct amount of ads is zero
#125Advertising is fundamentally corrosive to society and should be outlawed with few and carefully tailored exceptions. Any business models that consequently fail, fail because their externalities to collective society are now priced in.
You will just get other kinds of advertisement. Ads that are technically not ads. Things like product placements, free promotions, word of mouth campaigns etc.
Re: The correct amount of ads is zero
#126Look, I'm not an ad aficionado either, but if it weren't for ads, the lifestyle of a lot of people on HN would be dramatically different — particularly for those doling out unsolicited advice to publishers on running a sustainable media business in 2024.
> but if it weren't for ads, the lifestyle of a lot of people on HN would be dramatically different
I agree. My browsing experience would be much faster and less annoying.
Re: The correct amount of ads is zero
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
He does pay for prime. The fact that they have done a bait-n-switch and now _still_ show you adverts, despite you paying, is reprehensible.
But here's the thing: the subscription is not being cancelled. Amazon tries it, gets some people grumbling, but their bottom line is not affected and in fact goes up from this move because in addition to subscribers they also get ad revenue. A vocal minority doesn't outweigh hard numbers in this case. But that's one of the causes of enshittification, everything becoming metrics-driven.
Amazon’s downstream impact calculations and Prime attribution model were notoriously bad inside the company. That’s part of what led to the massive Devices cull a few years back — and the 2018 hiring freeze was because Prime overvalued Video, inappropriately routing hundreds of millions a year away from Retail.
I believe the metrics exist; I don’t believe they tell anyone useful information.
Re: The correct amount of ads is zero
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some YouTubers scream in panic that you dare to install ad blocker. Well nobody told them to build their business around such ad-driven solution. There are thousands, and thousand of useful places, each for free. Take a look at awesome lists at github. These provide so much value to the society. It does not require any subscriptions, nor money. There are millions of people who share education, and knowledge for free.…
Did you know that YouTube does not make a profit, but only covers its own expenses? What if it becomes unprofitable because of ad blockers? What will remain? Paid cinemas? Do you want to pay money from your own pocket? And you will remember the times when you could pay by watching ads without money. Think about it! No one will do anything for you for free. Try to take a taxi or a train without money? Try to steal bre…
[deleted]
Re: The correct amount of ads is zero
#129We live in democracies. Some of us don't want ads. So can we have X% of time when there are no ads? We can start with 1 month, e.g. ad-free February.
Re: The correct amount of ads is zero
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some YouTubers scream in panic that you dare to install ad blocker. Well nobody told them to build their business around such ad-driven solution. There are thousands, and thousand of useful places, each for free. Take a look at awesome lists at github. These provide so much value to the society. It does not require any subscriptions, nor money. There are millions of people who share education, and knowledge for free.…
Did you know that YouTube does not make a profit, but only covers its own expenses? What if it becomes unprofitable because of ad blockers? What will remain? Paid cinemas? Do you want to pay money from your own pocket? And you will remember the times when you could pay by watching ads without money. Think about it! No one will do anything for you for free. Try to take a taxi or a train without money? Try to steal bre…
Tiktok, torrents, Flash