🐢 Keb
Is adblock stealing? Do you use adblock? Why? Sure, advertisers don't have the right to your attention, but don't the content creators have the right to your financial support?
👨💻 Matthieu V.
For me it's not stealing if you support in an other way, also adtech is toxic for the web..
🗨️ Fui
It's a false dilemma. They're investing in content creation in hopes they'll capture our attention. They're investing upfront, in hopes to recoup that by what advertisers will be paying. It's a gamble. That we're able to consume the content without watching the adverts is just an unlucky side of this kind of business. If I open a bookstore with free coffee in hopes of capturing buyers, and people go there for the coffee and not the books, maybe I have a bad business plan.
🐢 Keb
Maybe you do have a bad business plan doing that. But I have a choice as the consumer to say, "hey, maybe it's not nice to come here only for the coffee. I'll buy a book or a pastry every now and then to show my support."
🐢 Keb
That's a pretty unempathetic and Darwinian way to look at it. Essentially you're saying "it's not my problem" and thus you hold no responsibility to abide by the implied contract that you *will* look at ads.
🗨️ Fui
Ads are a scourge. They are not needed, they are not good. That we are thrown into this model and take it to be normal is a perversion of what is right. I'm not unempathetic with creators. If I really value their work, I contribute to it with what I can. That a lot of content is available and I can consume it without seeing ads is just a reflex of mass production of content. If, for instance, most of the content available was to be paid upfront, I wouldn't consume it anyway.