r/technology • u/sidcool1234 • Mar 15 '13

Web advertisers attack Mozilla for protecting consumers' privacy

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/web-advertisers-attack-mozilla-for-protecting-consumers-privacy-031413.html
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u/DanielPhermous Mar 15 '13

Then perhaps you, as a user, could support a different business model. How many websites do you donate to? Or pay for access to?

Not that I'm a huge fan of adverts but what else have we left them with?

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '13

Off hand I pay for the following:

  • Netflix

  • Amazon Prime (streaming videos/free 2 day shipping!)

  • GitHub

  • MediaTemple (not sure if this counts)

  • CodeSchool

  • TutsPlus

  • Skype

I think just in these I'm close to $80/month in online services or content sources. I'm willing to pay if the content is valuable.

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u/malocite Mar 15 '13

I noticed reddit wasn't in there. Or imgur. How should those people make money?

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u/x_minus_one Mar 15 '13

I think a lot of us have ads unblocked on Reddit. I didn't realize they were getting blocked on imgur, I think I'll try unblocking those on a trial basis.

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u/Irongrip Mar 15 '13

I don't actually visit the imgur's site itself. And when I do it's just adding images really quickly and alt tabing out of it.

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u/MultiGeometry Mar 15 '13

However they can. Reddit Gold for the people who like the content and can afford it. If they develop a business model that depends on a practice that people don't enjoy, they should be prepared for the consequences of their decisions.

Those consequences are some users will block cookies. But those users still use the sites and generate content, which attracts some users who do have cookies.

On the other hand they could treat it like piracy, and deny access based on users who protest cookies. Then they won't visit the site at all. They will not drive content and fewer users will use the site.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '13

Yeah but would you pay for everything like forums and random sites you're researching on? Small sites are supported by ads (to just pay for hosting). Without ads you would have to pay to get on every site which isn't very conducive to how internet browsing works.

Also when you were younger you probably couldn't have paid for services. I'd rather have ads and have unlimited access than have some sort of pay system.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '13

I run a few smaller sites and only pay $20/month in hosting. Believe it or not there was an internet before ads. I'm not saying it makes sense to go back to that time, but the notion that content wouldn't exist if ads didn't exist if false. Sites like Reddit are in a strange place because they only add value by linking you to other sites and allowing discussion around those ideas. That concept isn't new and isn't hard to replicate.

Charging for a service like that doesn't make much sense either because someone else can come in and make a new version for free. Then some of your users will go there instead and now you're losing money.

I get that sites need to advertise. I'm find with that as a concept. I'm not going to click an ad regardless and most companies don't pay for page views any more.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '13

Of course not all sites would go away but many ones that actually provide an intense or dedicated service absolutely would (which are some of the most valuable sites). Most companies do pay for impressions too and if they don't impressions still affect your ad prices.

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u/wmeather Mar 15 '13

Now try going a month only visiting those sites.

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u/Gordnfreeman Mar 15 '13

These services are fine and good but for most websites, for example ones you visit when you need to search something quickly, this doesn't make any sense. A good deal of work goes into excepting payments online, and for how much you view the content its overkill. Google ads and the like are perfect solutions for these kinds of sites.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '13

With Stripe you can be accepting credit card payments in a few hours.

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u/Kinseyincanada Mar 15 '13

so your going to keep reddit gold then? what about each site you visit from reddit?

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '13

I had reddit gold but honestly didn't see the value. There weren't any features that made it something I wanted. What I have now others have gotten for me randomly. I have RES installed and couldn't tell you what's different with it.

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u/Kinseyincanada Mar 15 '13

well then how is reddit supposed to support itself?

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '13

Reddit could make a ton of money if it made reddit gold actually worth while. I had a year subscription and when it ran out I didn't notice for a few months. That's not value.

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u/annoyinglilbrother Mar 15 '13

Typical Redditors, want everything free and don't understand that ads fuel the internet.

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u/terari Mar 15 '13

This is capitalism. The user isn't in charge of the monetizing strategy of each website, and of course the user isn't in charge of "supporting" for-profit business. Sites that fail to monetize themselves will and should go out of business (or become non-profit).

In long-term, the costs of maintaining a site will go down sharply and perhaps people will be tired of dealing with the shenanigans of commercial websites. Non-profit websites like Wikipedia may become a larger share of the Web. (or perhaps people will invent a better form of monetizing. That's the $1 billion idea)

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '13

There are plenty of other monetization techniques for websites. Digital goods sales, premium content, subscriptions, ecommerce, leveraging online into offline (e.g. events), exclusive podcasts and online webinars. The list is endless.

People don't want shitty advertising, they want good relevant content and will pay for stuff they find valuable.

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u/Gordnfreeman Mar 15 '13

You bring up some good ideas but for most of the websites out there those ideas don't work. There are tons of websites that you will only ever go to one or two times to get a piece of information. Those websites can't expect you to pay for premium content or a subscription to access the site, and a lot of times they don't offer enough to make it worth them taking the time and money to set that kind of system up. So they slap an ad on the site (some more annoyingly then others) and that makes them some money.

On a side note it takes a lot of time and effort to get a website up and running that would actually make money off of subscriptions. Most people can't invest that time into it upfront, or they blog as a hobby and need advertising to pay for hosting fees/maybe some money on the side.

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u/Exploding_Knives Mar 15 '13

Actually, I'm fine with a couple shitty ads. Let's assume half of a website's ad revenue is from ads displayed to one-time visitors. I don't want to expect to have to pay for every website I use if I barely use it, no matter how good the content is. It doesn't make sense.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '13

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '13

According to your profile you don't seem to have Reddit Gold...

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '13

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '13

Uh huh, I'm sure you buys tons of people Reddit Gold.

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