Post 308172 by lmichet@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by lmichet@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #308172 by lmichet@mastodon.social
       2018-10-01T03:45:11Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       So zam dot com/readyset is shutting down tomorrow. honestly I am not surprised-- zam's management has never been interested in supporting that site or its staff, and this was the biggest reason I left zam. Frankly, I should have left zam in 2016.A lot of people are asking "why do sites like these keep shutting down?" and I feel like I know the answer for zam. but the bigger reason any website shuts down is that ad supported web media is a losing game. it's a toxic industry
       
 (DIR) Post #308173 by lmichet@mastodon.social
       2018-10-01T03:48:52Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       web advertisements are a completely negative experience. tracking sucks. autoplaying sound sucks. they degrade the web experience a lot. and that train has no breaks on it, because the websites where you see bad ads have no control over their own advertisements. they're left holding the bag when you see a bad ad, though.So people use ad blockers! their motivations are honestly pretty sound. Doubly so because the websites they visit have limited ability to police bad ads.
       
 (DIR) Post #308174 by lmichet@mastodon.social
       2018-10-01T03:51:10Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       if a site is big enough and has enough VC money or whatever, they can hire an ad sales person to sell ad space to big spenders who won't create bad ads. These are the kinds of ads you see on big, well-funded web media networks.But most other folks have ads which are randomly placed by an electronic bidding system. The companies that run the ad placement technology are not all awesome. Not all of these companies are closely policing the ad content they serve.
       
 (DIR) Post #308175 by thatcosmonaut@knzk.me
       2018-10-01T03:52:50Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @lmichet the whole thing is fundamentally broken because its based on surveillance, its an arms race between bots and surveillance systems to verify that you are human and not a bot so they dont pay out to bot clicks. no way to fix it, burn it down and salt the earth