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1. Taek+F1[view] [source] 2025-04-07 01:12:47
>>iambat+(OP)
Advertising is a parasitic force on society. It sucks up your attention with a willful intention to change your purchasing behaviour, often knowing that the new behavior is worse for you.

If ads were merely about being informative, they would be boring. But ads want to manipulate, so they have to be flashy and appeal to your emotions.

They pollute your mental headspace, and have no place in a healthy society.

Let's ban billboards. And then let's follow that up with a general purpose ban on paid advertisement.

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2. Burnin+T6[view] [source] 2025-04-07 01:59:23
>>Taek+F1
I think this is deeply and fundamentally wrong.

Advertising is how small and new companies can reach customers. It's how monopolies are broken. It's how progress reaches the masses.

Yes, it is willfully intended to change people's behavior. So are many of our posts on HN. That is an important purpose for communication!

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3. kelnos+m8[view] [source] 2025-04-07 02:11:37
>>Burnin+T6
I don't really care if companies -- of any size -- can reach me or not. If I want a service they provide, I will actively seek them out.

Large companies already have a huge advantage over small/new companies in that they have much more money to spend on marketing and advertising. If anything, banning paid advertising helps level the playing field.

People will still find out about small and new businesses if paid advertising was banned. In fact I learn about most smaller players through word of mouth and other non-paid sources.

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4. Kerric+Ca[view] [source] 2025-04-07 02:33:51
>>kelnos+m8
When you seek them out, how will you find them?
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5. epidem+se[view] [source] 2025-04-07 03:14:00
>>Kerric+Ca
I really can't believe that someone who frequents Hacker News can ask this question.

If by any chance this is a legit question, i feel the answer would be too obvious: asking people, googling, going to a store you think could sell the thing you want, etc. There are many many pretty obvious ways of finding out about stuff, without needing to have a corporation "reach out" to me and shove their shit everywhere in the form of ads.

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6. sanswo+Xe[view] [source] 2025-04-07 03:20:03
>>epidem+se
Google doesn't exist in this world remember
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7. epidem+Fj[view] [source] 2025-04-07 04:12:20
>>sanswo+Xe
Yes, i remember. I remember Google the search engine being a thing before it became an ad-ridden space.

Search engines are useful things. They can still exist on a world without ads.

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8. sanswo+mk[view] [source] 2025-04-07 04:18:29
>>epidem+Fj
Google existed before ads by losing investor money. Who is paying for it when ads are banned?
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9. epidem+2m[view] [source] 2025-04-07 04:36:16
>>sanswo+mk
This a thread about imagining a world without ads. If we're trying to envision that, it surely is not too hard to imagine how such a useful service for society as a search engine could be funded by other means, right?

There are many many examples of useful services (both private and public) in our own world that manage to exist without the need to get plastered by obnoxious ads.

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10. sanswo+Fm[view] [source] 2025-04-07 04:43:20
>>epidem+2m
People get upset at the idea of using government money to feed the starving. Why do you assume they would be ok with spending billions to create a search engine?

The reality is you can choose to have your dream reality right now. Pay for Kagi, pay for ad free streaming or buy bluerays, stay of social media or subscribe direct to your content providers in patron.

We don't need to remove free access just so a few people can go ad free. Those people can already do it they just choose not to

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