As for the whole “ad revenue” reality, even if the websites totally defeat my ad blockers, and ads show up on my screen, I will never buy their crap. So they are wasting their money.
Even more so, for all but the most obtrusive ads, I literally don’t see them. I’ve “trained” (for lack of a better word) myself to not see them. Ad-heavy pages look like content surrounded by “blind spots”.
Pretty much every mainstream media website that’s not a government-owned entity runs advertorial content in some form or another.
I posted multiple links including those from tech sites discussing malware being injected via advertising on reputable sites or through reputable services such as AdSense. That it hasn’t happened to you is irrelevant.
A better question would be, why is anyone getting an ad saying that they have nasty viruses and the ad will fix it in the first place? And people wonder why folks use ad blockers.
Exactly right, 100%, my computer/portable device, my bandwidth that I pay for, I am the only one that decides what is or is not displayed
Don’t like it? Sucks to be you, too frelling bad, need money to pay your family and feed your bills? Try getting a job that doesn’t involve shoving shiny sparkly lies down people’s throats
Advertising needs to die a horrible screaming death
Also, this very board was one place pushing ads that hijacked your browser and gave a “OMG you have a virus! Click here!” message and it took weeks to get it resolved. Why on earth should users have that going on? It’s not a question of “Must be porn sites” or “Just don’t click the link”, it’s basic internet safety to run an ad blocker because, these days where everyone has outsourced their ad hosting, God only knows what you’ll get even from reputable websites.
If you go back to the early days of radio , some people thought ads were a terrible thing. But then they figured out they needed to money to run the stations so ad free radio did not last long. When TV came along ads were accepted because people were used to them from radio.
Not sure why people think that websites can be run without money. Or maybe they all have money trees in the backyards of the businesses that own the sites?
There’s a difference between radio and TV ads sprinkled between the shows and a constant barrage of ads coming at you from all directions leaving no room for any actual content. Many websites nowadays are the TV equivalent of 5 minutes of programming and 25 minutes of commercials, and in those 5 minutes there’s scrolling banners across the bottom, popups, and product placements. Besides, TV and radio aren’t doing so well nowadays either, in no small part because of the ever increasing amount of advertising driving people to the likes of Netflix or BitTorrent. Most producers seem to have gone past the tipping point of intolerability, squeezing those last few drops of monetization out is doing more harm than good.
I’m guessing that scant few people believe that websites can be run without money. The question is what’s an acceptable and effective way to get money? I don’t know that traditional newspaper style ads were ever the answer except that people thought “This looks like a print page on your screen so I guess newspaper ads work”.
Aside from the malware issue, the move to just a couple consolidated ad hosts has made ads increasingly useless for the consumer. SDMB runs ads but I have never once given a shit about why this sweatshirt has been sold out for nine years, what happened after three weeks of Blue Apron or what Tabitha Soren looks like these days. So why are these ads even being run? This is honestly the best the industry can come up with funding their websites?
Again with what you think doesn’t work. What about the requests for what you think will work?
Got anything feasible?
My answer is the same answer as the last umpteen times you asked this: Not my problem because it’s not my industry. I’m an end user; I care about end user stuff.
But go ahead and keep trying to force me to look at ads like it’s 1934 and I’m reading a copy of Harper’s Bazaar. Go ahead and try to force people to accept that a gaping proven security risk is a valid price to pay to view your content. Go ahead and keep paying some company tens of thousands of dollars to compete against a community that literally works for Reddit upvotes. Go ahead and keep saying “Well, do YOU have a better idea!” as the industry circles the drain. Have fun with that.
I refuse to believe any model of the world that tells me that consuming advertising is necessary to have a free and just society.
ETA: Oh, yeah, and I stopped using thesaurus dot com, despite its utility in work, because it started refusing to show me results without advertising. It was a blow, but I’m not putting myself through that just to look up synonyms.
They are trying to endanger my computer and refusing to take any responsibility for their actions. They’re destructive hypocrites; somehow I doubt they’d buy the same “I have no responsibility” argument if *I *somehow loaded a virus into their computers instead of the other way around.
Since when have viruses been an innate part of advertising?
Go ahead and want something for nothing. Good luck with that.
“They”? No, “they” are not.
No luck needed. Content will continue to be created for free and providers that want to be arseholes with their ads will either bend to the will of the consumers or cease to exist and someone will fill their place if the demand is still there. I’m hard pushed to think of a site that I can’t do without.
So content providers across digital distribution will learn or die, they always seem to be behind the curve but they learn eventually and it will always come down to what the consumer will put up with. In a world of discretionary time, money and attention, the consumer is the one with the power.
I recall a few years ago taking part in a debate on here to the effect that people no longer considered music and movies to be worth the prices that the providers wanted to charge. They were now commodities. I suggested that this was the reason why people went through small amount of hassle to download illegally. I made the point that I would be delighted to pay a small amount per month (£5 or so) to have access to a big library for me to stream and download. Lo and behold, netflix now do exactly that and they get my money. As do Spotify, as do Amazon as do the BBC…no ads and a seamless service that I can take anywhere. They would have had many more years of my money had they been a little quicker on the uptake.
You keep equating me not giving you a winning business plan for “wanting something for nothing” despite my repeated statements that I realize it costs money, just that the current model for making money doesn’t work for the website or for the consumer. I’m not sure why you insist that “Not giving me the answer means that you want it for free” but that’s pretty lazy thinking.
I don’t want something for nothing, I’m just not willing to trade my internet security as the price.
“Driving those nails into your feet isn’t a good way to make a headache go away. In fact, it’s a really bad way.”
“Well, what’s a good way?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that the nails ain’t it.”
“You’re saying you want me to have a headache.”
“Not at all.”
“Then tell me what to do.”
“I don’t know.”
And the person kept driving nails into their feet, secure in the knowledge that at least one person wanted them to have a headache.
“Hey, you’re messing with the tires and brakes but the engine is smoking. I think you’re looking in the wrong place.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I know that the problem isn’t the tires”
“You’re just saying you don’t want the car to work or else you’d tell me how to fix it”
“No, I’m saying that the engine is now on fire and you’re changing the tires”
“You must not want a ride”
“…”
“I bet bigger tires and glowing rims would help”
I listen to at least three ad-free radio stations here in the St. Louis area. I do not listen to any commercial radio stations at all. So you’re wrong that “ad free radio did not last long”. It is the only radio worth listening to in this era. The rest is pure ClearChannel garbage.
How large are these stations, and how do they fund their broadcasting?