[DivisionSol]

Some advertisements are malicious attacks on your attention to build brand recognition and entice you to buy things you don't need.

However, I think advertising in itself isn't inherently evil. If a chess website served non-tracking, static (no-JS) banner ads about relevant products (maybe, specifically, chess products?) to offset costs, I don't see anything wrong with it. Of course the question is: "what is a relevant product to advertise next to chess?" Would... other board game advertisements be acceptable?

[komali2]

Sure but they wouldn't do that, as it doesn't seem to be something that would further their stated goal:

> to promote and encourage the teaching and practice of the game of chess and its variants".

[lame-robot-hoax]

I’d argue ads for chess sets actually would do exactly that.

[mpol]

And in the case of chess books, an advertorial is quite different from a good review. I very much enjoy reading a good review on a chess book, with all the good things and bad things. With an advertorial the language is quite different and it is very hard to get informed well about what you really get when you buy the book. With honest critique, I very much enjoy reading about the bad parts, and if they are not bad for me, or just a nuance, it might be a really good book for me. Only an honest review can give me that.

So no, an advertorial for a book does not do anything for me.

[tovej]

Chess books, maybe. Chess sets? I'm sure most people playing chess on lichess are aware of chess sets and could get a hold of one without an ad.

[why_Mr_Anderson]

That's exactly how Google ads worked in the very beginning. Text only, all in one place, it was great! If we could somehow return that type of ads, I'd consider disabling adblocker.