[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

What I don't understand is that the whole industry seems to be based on...lying?

If I trick the user into clicking on something that looks organic but it's not, I will be paid money.

Showing an ad full screen on youtube, forced, won't guarantee that is has any effect on the viewer, but the advertiser has to pay and on top of that, the user experience is ruined.

So based on lies, we ruin experience.

Isn't there a way to get incentives aligned?

The only ads that seem to work on me are Steam, because I open the platform on purpose to find new games. The other is costco giving free food. I'm hungry, I grab something from them and if it's tasty, I'll buy a bag to test if it's something we would like to buy on a recurring basis.

Everything else seems to just be annoyances

[paulryanrogers]

Lying is too often cheaper and more effective than honestly building something useful and compelling. There is also the background noise of so many competitors and other things, folks feel compelled to exaggerate to build name recognition.

Then there is the fact that we consumers struggle to maintain and communicate a blocklist of bad actors.

And even good actors can sell out or slide into mediocrity.