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Comment by colesantiago | Hacker News Reader

Would seeing this on HN count as advertisement?

I also see HN Jobs that I did not ask for, would this also count as advertisements / marketing?

How would say, Daring Fireball [1] earn income from this cancerous mode of operation? Should this publication stop charging $11K a week to stop shilling products we don't need in your RSS feed?

So then it follows that all of these are 'cancer' by the author's definition.

How do we solve this once and for all to satisfy the author?

The only way to stop this would probably be to "close your eyes?" or perhaps maybe adblock, although we cannot adblock billboards, or this isn't really a big enough problem in the first place.

Solutions to this would be much welcome.

[1] https://daringfireball.net/

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> Solutions to this would be much welcome.

Most forums such as this have a 'mute' button so you can choose not to see certain topics and posts by certain people. Not sure why HN doesnt have this, but it solves your 'problem' of forum posts being 'advertising' whilst at the same time explaining the difference between the two, choice.

EDIT: Oh I see youve edited your post. I wont be changing mine to address your new points. Try to keep a conversation going, stop editing to add points after people have replied.

To be fair I didn't see your reply but to answer your original point.

It would be great for HN to not only "hide" the jobs all the time but an account level "hide ads" or "hide YC ads" function in the account so that I don't have to see the woven job ads on the site that act like HN posts.

This shouldn't be limited to forums, but should also be extended to other sites.

Well you have answered your own question there. Why cant all ads be opt in?

Maybe?

Should newspaper ads be opt-in even though you pay for them?

Yes, and some media outlets in the UK have started doing this.

For example the Daily Mail. When you go to view an article on their site they give you the choice of viewing the article instantly with ads, or subscribing for ad free. I think this is great and all ad funded media should offer the same.

One demonstrable solution would be to treat gambling/betting ads like cigarette ads. We have the same age restriction laws for a reason, why is it open season for gambling then?

> The only way to stop this would probably be to "close your eyes?" or perhaps this isn't really a big enough problem in the first place.

The idea of banning advertisements never struck you? That seems like the obvious way forward.

88x31 banners (ads) on Neocities, or artists I follow mentioning they have new merch (ads), or HN (website whose sole purpose is to let people advertise), don't bother me enough to ban them.

All we have left is a dumpster fire supported by ads.

> HN (website whose sole purpose is to let people advertise)

I don't think anyone comes here to read the advertisements (which is what paid job postings with no comments? I'll pass.). The closest you get are the "who's hiring" threads. Calling that an advertisement when both parties clearly want to engage seems wildly disingenuous. Advertisements are necessarily forced on people. There isn't a single person in human history whose life was improved by an advertisement (except the people hosting the ads, of course).

After seeing all the replies in this thread talking specifically about commercial advertisements, I'm guessing I'm misunderstanding the English word (i.e. somehow, submissions are not considered advertisement for the linked blogs, and only commercial ads are being treated as ads).

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