alt Hacker NewsAdvertising and paid promotion in any form has never been ok. It has always been a cancer on society. That is what happens when you ignore a mild symptom until it metastasizes into something horrible. We need to ban it completely.
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You can never get rid of advertising entirely. Ultimately people want to learn about new products and services and new companies that couldn't ever advertise anywhere would die off. It makes sense to support limitations on how and where ads are used though. Banning surveillance capitalism would solve a lot of the problems we have and would mean that a website about cars can still show ads about things people who go to car websites would typically be interested in and that's pretty much the only level of targeting we need.
Much as i hate being advertised to, i do like the existence of trade, and of new products. In the old days, you would take your products to market once a week on a cart, and the market would pass by your stall. That isn't how it works any more.
Generally, how can society discover new products and services?
I would be open to having some kind of directory that i could browse at my own convenience, but that's ultimately going to devolve to paid placement.