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Comment by pmontra | Hacker News Reader

We had static ads. We called them banners and websites abused them. Some sites were so bad that it was challenging to find content between horizontal and vertical banners. Animated GIFs followed soon and then everything else we know. Some sites are still as bad as those old ones. I'm can't believe what eyes are seeing any time I look at friends browsing on their computers.

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Good point. My point still stands that it's possible to have ad revenue with unintrusive ads.

For instance, I'm fine with video creators having sponsored sequences because I can skip them if I want. And there's no way for them to know if I watched the ad. In fact, they don't care because they already got paid.

Youtube creators get access to watchtime stats which show a dip for sponsored segments. My understanding is that sponsor contracts typically don't ask to get access to that data though, instead they look at views and refferals

Hey, are you interested in whey powd... <skip> I guess not. And often it is the same sponsor in multiple video/audio. No, I am not interested in Crowdstrike. No, i don't want to become a Lord by owning a small amount of land in Scotland. Yes, I know about Ground News but I won't need it and yes, I know you can cheaply buy whey powder, add some flavor and hype it up.

And yet, HN (a text-based website) has advertising. It is a small headline in the list. Do people block this? I don't, and I am quite an adblocking person.

I actually believe billboards are a net minus for public safety. Just like you wouldn't want all kind of unnecessary traffic signs.

Unintrusive ads are still there to manipulate you into acting against your own interests and therefore unethical.

> I'm fine with video creators having sponsored sequences because I can skip them if I want.

I'm not fine with them because skipping the obvious segments doesn't mean the rest of the content isn't compromised due to the financial incentive to not upset those advertisers.

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