Hacker News Reader

Comment by kevingadd | Hacker News Reader

It kind of blows my mind that any developer would willingly integrate something like Sellaring. It sounds like the kind of ad network no sane person would ever want anything to do with, and if an app I used integrated it, I would uninstall that app on the spot. I'm not shocked it had such a negative impact; I wonder if he spent any time considering how his users would feel about it?

View on HN

Exactly this. If a form of advertising would actively annoy me if it was on my phone, I do not put it in my apps. Most users understand the need for ads in applications. They're willing to have a 50px banner because they're pretty easily ignored. Most users are not tolerant of apps reaching outside their scope and pushing ads, like this Sellaring and whatever the other one was that put ads in the notifications (AirPush maybe?).

To inspect the addons used by apps there is a brilliant app called "Addons Detector" which you can find out about the analytics, advertising, developer tools, social gaming, push notifications etc libraries used by the apps installed on your Android.

I was really interested when I first ran it! I have no connection to app, just a happy user.

Almost all ads to some degree are something that "no sane person would ever want". The difference is that Sellaring makes ads that are not easily ignored. In contrast, the on-screen ads on Android's AngryBirds are easily ignored even if animated and although I don't run AdBlock I rarely consciously see ads on webpages. The human brain is an amazing filter.

I'd say the advantage to Sellaring is that 1) the person actively listens to the message (it's more difficult to filter out audio ads as they're listening for the call to start) and 2) it's using up "dead time" if the ring was going to go for longer than 10 seconds anyway.

I can see both points of view but if you're not paying for the app... It also provides a strong incentive to upsell to the paid version of the application that loses the advertising as well.

> It also provides a strong incentive to upsell to the paid version of the application that loses the advertising as well.

It provides a much stronger incentive to immediately remove the app and leave a 1-star review.

Hey, sure, I made considerations on how my users feel before integrating this kind of ads. I'm speaking about different monetization strategies on conferences and while the bad impression of notification push ads was proven by many apps, I wanted to check whether the reactions to SellAring were as bad (or, in other words, whether the notification bar is considered as personal as the empty auditive space before a call being accepted). They were and that's what I'm able to tell the other developers now based on a foundation of knowledge.

Bad? _Bad_?

The whole concept of SellAring is completely absurd. Why would anybody tolerate a random app putting ads in their phone calls, when the app isn't even running? Whose insane idea was this?

I cannot imagine ever using an app you've written, knowing that you thought this was a good idea. What other absurd bullshit might you put on my phone without my knowledge?

Hi gwillen, well, it seems like there are people tolerating it, otherwise SellAring wouldn't exist. Same for push notification networks like LeadBolt and Airpush. I totally understand that you're mad though, a cellphone is a very private device. Do you personally feel that the notification bar should be considered equally personal as the space before someone picks up?

Best regards Johannes

For the millionth time:

   If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer;
   you're the product being sold. [1]

This is the inevitable end game of developing for a platform where the majority of users refuse to pay for applications. Also, note from the dude's blog that he offers an ad free version; for the price of $4.16 people refuse to be ad free. The install numbers are instructive: 740k vs 1046. I'll let you guess which is which =P

[1] http://www.metafilter.com/95152/Userdriven-discontent#325604...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com