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GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

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Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#61
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It certainly won't change with that kind of attitude. Don't you want to live a peaceful life and be free from your baser instincts? I believe most people do, and if they don't, the mission of those who have education and means should be to show the way in that direction, instead of shrugging off the worst things and excusing them on "monkeys", which IMO is insulting to monkeys.

Of course, we all want to live peaceful lives and be free from our baser instincts, but the entire society that allows you to live a "peaceful life" is based on exploitation and war. Just because you don't see it at home doesn't mean you don't profit/benefit from human violence and exploitation. As for my comment on "monkeys": 1. Larger primates like chimpanzees are known predators that hunt and consume smaller monke…

Chimpanzee behaviour is chimpanzee behaviour.

Aspects of that behaviour appear in the behaviour of other primates, but not all primate groups have identical behaviours.

Chimpanzee behaviours also vary by troop and circumstances, just as might be expected from social behaviours.

Such behaviours _exist_, but they may not in fact be optimal, inevitable, etc.

Perhaps chimpanzees behave as they do 'cause the bonobo's didn't invite them to the cool parties.

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#62
post #4

Calling advertisements "product tips" as if everybody is too stupid to understand what that means. They created an amazing technology that oftentimes is indistinguishable from magic and then use it to deliver ads and - sorry about the tangent - kill people. This really is the quote of the century: > The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads What a waste.

I don’t think the quote is particularly fair. You could just as easily see it as the best minds are building huge amounts of amazing, free technology and need a way to pay for it. For every microsecond level ad auction broker there’s a free Android update, cat video platform enhancement, calendar app feature, or type checked scripting language release. HFT on the other hand — now there’s a tech black hole! [edited to…

Doesn't quite roll off the tongue.

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#63

I'm not suprised Raycast is involved in this marketing scheme. They pollute their own product with ads where they shouldn't be. Whoever is running their marketing team needs a lesson in not pissing off your userbase.

Someone, claiming to be from the Raycast team, in the original HN thread said that they were not aware of the advert or were involved with it in any manner.

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#64
post #4

Calling advertisements "product tips" as if everybody is too stupid to understand what that means. They created an amazing technology that oftentimes is indistinguishable from magic and then use it to deliver ads and - sorry about the tangent - kill people. This really is the quote of the century: > The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads What a waste.

I don’t think the quote is particularly fair. You could just as easily see it as the best minds are building huge amounts of amazing, free technology and need a way to pay for it. For every microsecond level ad auction broker there’s a free Android update, cat video platform enhancement, calendar app feature, or type checked scripting language release. HFT on the other hand — now there’s a tech black hole! [edited to…

If you don’t think that LLMs won’t result in an insurmountable volume of spam on all web foru

Oh wait, your post was written by an LLM.

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#65
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relevant thread "Microsoft acquires Github" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17227286

It's funny - many of our greatest concerns back then are things we now accept.

There's that old misconception about how to boil a frog..

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#66
post #4

Calling advertisements "product tips" as if everybody is too stupid to understand what that means. They created an amazing technology that oftentimes is indistinguishable from magic and then use it to deliver ads and - sorry about the tangent - kill people. This really is the quote of the century: > The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads What a waste.

I don’t think the quote is particularly fair. You could just as easily see it as the best minds are building huge amounts of amazing, free technology and need a way to pay for it. For every microsecond level ad auction broker there’s a free Android update, cat video platform enhancement, calendar app feature, or type checked scripting language release. HFT on the other hand — now there’s a tech black hole! [edited to…

Hard disagree.

It brought panhandling to where generosity once prevailed.

It brought us social media engagement metrics and 140-character-limited 'interaction' and cluttered, flashing, distracting, human-psyche hacking interfaces.

It brought all the c*nts who only saw dollar signs.

Agree on HFT.

(Disclaimer: I'm focusing on the negatives to make a point, there probably are some wild benefits, but I'm on the side of preferring to have taken longer to get there without all the examples I've listed - yes, I'm wishing for utopia, it's my comment I can say what I want).

Edited to add: People would share their cats whether or not internet advertising existed. The cats would demand it.

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#67
post #59

> We identified a programming logic issue with a GitHub Copilot coding agent tip that surfaced in the wrong context within a pull request comment. We have removed agent tips from pull request comments moving forward. Why does this read as they are saying it was a mistake ? Because it absolutely wasn't, and it will absolutely happen again, maybe just less obvious next time.

How do you know better if it was a mistake than GitHub themselves? It is possible that the tip was only supposed to show up in some other place and it accidentally started getting added somewhere it shouldn't have been.

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#68
I understand "free services" eventually come to the conclusion of either charging or using ads to finance and even make money out of them.

I believe there are two caveats on it:

1. Approach: to make the experience worth it, so that ads are not very intrusive , done correctly, which, over and over and over, it is proven contrarious to the interest of the user.

2. Relevance: if you are going to put ads onto your product, make sure things are done correctly, curate if possible what will be shown (I believe Microsoft's worse fear would be to see online casinos ads onto something like GitHub, as an example).

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#70
post #4

Calling advertisements "product tips" as if everybody is too stupid to understand what that means. They created an amazing technology that oftentimes is indistinguishable from magic and then use it to deliver ads and - sorry about the tangent - kill people. This really is the quote of the century: > The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads What a waste.

And nobody has ever bought anything just because of an ad.

You either already knew about shit through some other way or you were going to buy it anyway.

Only people downvoting this will be the ones who perpetuate this Emperor With No Clothes racket.

It's just a thin veil for surveillance.

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