Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Crotty's Attitude
Author: Bill Humphries Posted: 2/26/1999; 10:28:11 PM Topic: scriptingNews outline for 2/26/99 Msg #: 3283 (In response to 3266) Prev/Next: 3282 / 3284
I found Cam Crotty's dismissal, in his review of iCab, of people like me who actively filter ads rather snarky:"So what's the big deal? People may complain about advertisements, but the truth is most of us have seen them intermingled with traditional media all our lives and as a result don't mind ads very much at all."
So we have ads because: "that's the way we've always done it." Not very creative.
He goes on to say about the alternatives to ads:
"(And we all know what happens when a Web site tries to get surfers to pay for the experience. The unofficial motto of the Web is, "If it ain't free, there better be freaky sex behind that link.")"
I know Dave does not care for sarcasm, but I must ask if Crotty thinks the value of a online subscription to MacWeek has less value than 'freaky sex.' At least the people selling freaky sex have invested in eCommerce development. Maybe they will license the technology to us poor technologists.
"Despite the inevitable questions of conflict of interest and occasional irritation, consumers, after all, are comfortable with the status quo."
I think conflicts of interest are a major problem, not minor stuff.
If you offered people alternative ways to pay for content that were easy to use, they might adopt them. Ads suck. The methodology behind them is intrusive. It encourages people to think of people as these things called consumers (hey, they are people! Not black boxes that eat and excrete.) Let's work on the heavy lifting needed to make it possible to pay for content in a way that respects people's privacy.
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