

Ask HN: Do you click on ads as a way to say thank you? - tn13

I don't know if I am the only one but whenever I encounter an internet resource that I find very useful I usually click on couple of ads on their webpage.<p>Idea is they will get paid for those clicks.<p>Wonder if others do this as well.
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bediger4000
No. Not only do I run "Ghostery" and "AdBlock" in my browser, I also run
DNSMasq as a DNS aggregator. I then use dnsmasq.conf to alias a lot of ad
sites to 127.0.0.1.

Advertising is so close to lying, that I feel very comfortable in doing this.

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ig1
Would you be ok if AdBlock sent an identifier to the website so the website
could choose to block you if they wanted ?

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bediger4000
Yes. But I don't think I'd run AdBlock at that point, not because I would be
blocked from certain websites, but rather because that would be giving away
too much information to a bunch of known liars, cheats and con men. Like I
said, advertising is so close to lying, and advertisers cross the line from
encouraging to lying so often, that I don't want to give that much real info
away.

If I couldn't block the ads for some legal reason, I'd try to come up with a
way to fake-click on ads, so as to spread disinformation about myself. The
advertisers are almost certainly lying to me, so I'm going to lie to them.

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lazyjones
Never, because it's unfair to the advertisers. "Donating" other people's money
and feeling good about it is a bit ridiculous.

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tn13
Why should I care about being "unfair" to advertisers ?

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dangrossman
Because we're your family, friends, neighbors, local shop owners and other
people you share society with? Most AdWords advertisers are people running
small businesses. "Advertisers" is not a separate class of entities that
doesn't intersect with other people you care about being fair to. It's not
morally OK to purposely spend our money as if it were yours just because
nobody will stop you.

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404error
I do. I always wondered if others did this as well. I also wonder if that is
OK to do... probably not.

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dangrossman
It's not OK.

Advertisers don't want you to do this since you're spending their money for no
possible gain. They only advertise with the expectation they'll earn more than
it costs in new sales. Too many clicks for the purpose of donating to website
owners and that won't happen, so they'd have to stop advertising.

Networks don't want you to do this because if advertisers can't make a
positive return on investment, it doesn't make sense for them to advertise
with that company, and they'll go elsewhere or go out of business. Either way,
it's a threat to the network's existence.

Morally, it's very much not OK, for two reasons:

1) Small businesses have to market themselves to make people aware of what
they're selling in order to survive. Simply opting out of advertising because
some people are abusing it to give their money to website owners is not an
option. Neither is advertising somewhere else for millions of businesses;
Google controls too much of the ad space and traffic. There are no substitutes
in many situations.

2) If you work a normal job, telling advertisers to accept this situation is
the same as telling you that a condition of receiving your paycheck is that
random people on the street have permission to reach into your pocket and take
some money out whenever they want. That's what clicking on ads just to give
money to website owners is. You may or may not have enough left over to pay
your bills. Sound good?

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cmars
It's just a click. For it to matter so much whether I am clicking this link or
that link with the right intent, that all this supposed meaning and morality
hangs in the balance, that it could make all this difference, it all seems so
absurd. Almost makes me want to disable ABP, Allow Scripts Globally
(dangerous), shut my eyes, and just start clicking. None of it really matters.

Eh, I think I'm done with the Internet for today. Might run afoul the click
police.

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lazyjones
> It's just a click [...] that it could make all this difference, it all seems
> so absurd

It makes more of a difference to an advertiser than your vote makes in the
presidential elections. Do you vote?

Also, keep in mind that the largest part of the money you just "donated" goes
to Google and not the web publisher.

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mattchamb
Occasionally I will disable adblock on a website that I like, so that they
atleast have a chance of making money off me. But having said that, I
generally dont click on ads.

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millzlane
I never do because I know people actually pay money for those clicks. Imagine
paying 1.25 per click. You could waste someones entire ad budget for the day
in a few minutes.

I block ad's because I don't want to see them no more than I would want to see
them in a library. But I'm sure advertisers would rather me block their ad's
than to click on ones I wasn't genuinely interested in.

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fredsanford
Never, but after reading some comments here I might start.

I block ads because of the obnoxious practices of some of the ad networks. I
let some ads through from networks or individuals that are not obnoxious to
me.

I also remember the early days when a slow ad server would keep a whole page
from rendering (Hello ESPN)

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greg5green
I do not click on ads, unless it's that 1 in 1 million chance I want to see
their product.

I also don't block ads.

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3a0e8ff4e557
No, that's click fraud, which could cause the very publisher you want to thank
to have his/her ad account blocked.

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tokenadult
Never. If I find an Internet resource that is useful I tell my friends about
it on Facebook. Whether or not they follow ads on the site is up to them. (I
also tell my friends about AdBlock Plus, Ghostery, and Social Fixer, so that
they don't have to view ads if they don't want to.)

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dezinelife
Well,it's good for the blogger but not for the advertisers. It also doesn't
sound ethical.

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rnirnber
I never thought anyone else would do something like this too, but yeah I do it
all the time

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ibudiallo
Ads are just a way of making money. I'm fine with them as long they don't
disturb the user experience(video ads that run load in the background, click
under, and those tricky ones )

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FajitaNachos
I've never done this and was unaware that other people did.

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27182818284
Yes, sometimes. Only if I'm at least 10% interested, though. I won't click an
ad for thanks if I have 0% interest and will immediately bounce.

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joshAg
not unless i'm genuinely interested in the ad.

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hal9k
pretty sure this is click fraud

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Mz
Years ago, I belonged to a forum that added ads at some point. I indulged my
curiosity about those ads in part out of genuine curiosity and in part to
support the forum. I suspect I was not the only one. The forum owner initially
made pretty good monthly money from the ads. As the forum went to hell, his ad
money dropped off in a way that I think reflected lack of support more than it
reflected declining traffic.

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slater
Yup.

