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What we break when we fix ad blocking

tonyhaile.com

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Re: What we break when we fix ad blocking

#41

Post by thescriptkiddie »

ISL wrote: post #3

I've been trying out Google Contributor of late. It's not perfect, but it's the first practical micropayment service I've been able to use. If we want good content, we have to be willing to pay for it.

Here's an idea: Send bitcoin addresses in the HTTP headers.

People could voluntarily install a browser plugin that watches for addresses and sends money. Perhaps the donation could vary by time spent on the page (monitoring for activity to accommodate leaving stuff open), or perhaps it could be a fixed sum per pageview (with a cooldown to discourage blogspam). In exchange, servers could withhold ads.

Re: What we break when we fix ad blocking

#42

Post by JulianMorrison »

sbov wrote: post #35
JulianMorrison wrote: post #20

This article assumes that advertisers can get more sophisticated than blockers - I don't agree. With good enough technology, any logo can be snipped out or scribbled over. Any inline, self hosted image can be recognized and removed. Perhaps in future, adblockers will comb through the text of pages and the frames of video and your hero will be drinking "soda" instead of . Heck, one of these days, I want ad blocking gl…

Ads tend to be in private spaces though. You can just see it from public space. Another way to achieve your goal is for the glasses to render giant walls around all private spaces. All cities would look like Manhattan then.

I was thinking more like: detect an advert, draw a grey box over it. Or kittens.

Re: What we break when we fix ad blocking

#43

Post by strayptr »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #34

There is an alternative to adverts. Its real, it's here, it works. That alternative is Patreon. In the Patreon model, you can support the creator directly, and their ability to produce content scales with that support. It's like a subscription, except you allow anyone else to free ride. A Patreon supported site could run no ads at all and still make a stable income. It would no longer be fighting its readers to force…

This might be true for individual creators, but ad revenue powers companies. Can Patreon do that?

(It's still an important point for individuals though.)

Re: What we break when we fix ad blocking

#44

Post by SebastianMerz »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #34

There is an alternative to adverts. Its real, it's here, it works. That alternative is Patreon. In the Patreon model, you can support the creator directly, and their ability to produce content scales with that support. It's like a subscription, except you allow anyone else to free ride. A Patreon supported site could run no ads at all and still make a stable income. It would no longer be fighting its readers to force…

Isn't that just saying "we want all content creators to become charities, and then other people can pay them". It's like saying all software should be free, but the companies should have patreons. Even the open source softwares supported by donations from big companies get their money indirectly from the actual monetization the big company does.

I just don't see a charity economy being long term sustainable on the web...

Re: What we break when we fix ad blocking

#45

Post by ad-hominem »

larrik wrote: post #2

Ad blocking is really a war between regular users and criminals, with ad networks as the battlefield (and sometimes the criminals themselves) and content producers/publishers as the civilians caught in the crossfire. It's not the users' fault that not running ad-blocking is outright dangerous and stupid, and it's not always the website operators fault that their "trusted" ad networks let terrible things through const…

> Ad blocking is really a war between regular users and criminals

Oh, not wanting advertising networks all over the world sharing data about my internet usage makes me a criminal eh? Hyperbole much? It's free content, there's no assumption I am going to actually look at advertisements (or watch a commercial on TV, or listen to one on the radio).

If somebody gets up during commercials to use the bathroom while watching Cheers reruns, are they also a criminal?

Re: What we break when we fix ad blocking

#46

Post by JulianMorrison »

SebastianMerz wrote: post #44
JulianMorrison wrote: post #34

There is an alternative to adverts. Its real, it's here, it works. That alternative is Patreon. In the Patreon model, you can support the creator directly, and their ability to produce content scales with that support. It's like a subscription, except you allow anyone else to free ride. A Patreon supported site could run no ads at all and still make a stable income. It would no longer be fighting its readers to force…

Isn't that just saying "we want all content creators to become charities, and then other people can pay them". It's like saying all software should be free, but the companies should have patreons. Even the open source softwares supported by donations from big companies get their money indirectly from the actual monetization the big company does. I just don't see a charity economy being long term sustainable on the we…

Patreon isn't charity. It's "I spend my money to hire you to do something." You pay to keep the content you care about, or to push them over a milestone goal to a feature you want.

Re: What we break when we fix ad blocking

#47

Post by ISL »

austenallred wrote: post #30
ISL wrote: post #3

I've been trying out Google Contributor of late. It's not perfect, but it's the first practical micropayment service I've been able to use. If we want good content, we have to be willing to pay for it.

Google Contributor is terrible. Not because it doesn't work, but because it still leaves big green gaps where the ads were saying, "Thank you for using contributor!" Not even mentioning the fact that it only works on a minority of ads, the green boxes are even more annoying than the ads were.

You can configure it to render transparent images, so you see the site's background. Hit the 'gear' in the upper right of the Contributor site, and the options are neutral-grey, transparent, cats, and 'soft focus'.

Re: What we break when we fix ad blocking

#48

Post by thephyber »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #34

There is an alternative to adverts. Its real, it's here, it works. That alternative is Patreon. In the Patreon model, you can support the creator directly, and their ability to produce content scales with that support. It's like a subscription, except you allow anyone else to free ride. A Patreon supported site could run no ads at all and still make a stable income. It would no longer be fighting its readers to force…

The author is nostalgic for the days when newspapers commanded high ad rates, something which never really existed in web-based news.

I agree with the idea that there are existing alternative business models, but I don't think a voluntary model will generate enough revenue to sustain current content standards.

Re: What we break when we fix ad blocking

#49

Post by forgottenpass »

Just like if 95% of my cable channels disappeared overnight, I'm actually pretty OK with a bunch of websites going out of business, and I end up paying for the few services I'm not already paying for but would wish to keep. It's sad that people lose their jobs, especially those that can no longer make a living doing what they love, but from a product standpoint: whatever.

I was around before the commercialization of the web exploded, and I might miss all the light entertainment that it provides, but going back wouldn't be the worst. The parts of the internet that are most special to me are some combination of not funded by ads in the first place, a labor of love, open source, or I already pay for anyway.

The increasingly desperate, increasingly gross business models that pop up as publishers go down with the ship is going to suck though.

Re: What we break when we fix ad blocking

#50

Post by amelius »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #34

There is an alternative to adverts. Its real, it's here, it works. That alternative is Patreon. In the Patreon model, you can support the creator directly, and their ability to produce content scales with that support. It's like a subscription, except you allow anyone else to free ride. A Patreon supported site could run no ads at all and still make a stable income. It would no longer be fighting its readers to force…

It seems that in the Patreon model, the creator is the central element, and not the content itself. This seems a bit weird, because it is the content I'm after, not the artist. It may be nice for fans who will buy anything from a particular artist, even if it is worthless when considering just the content.

Also, this seems a lot like "branding & marketing" version 2.0. I don't like branding. And I don't want to like what people write just because of what they have written before. I want to read or listen to work, and then decide if I pay for it.

Do you have a better way of viewing this?

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