[Pooge]

Good point. My point still stands that it's possible to have ad revenue with unintrusive ads.

For instance, I'm fine with video creators having sponsored sequences because I can skip them if I want. And there's no way for them to know if I watched the ad. In fact, they don't care because they already got paid.

[pfg_]

Youtube creators get access to watchtime stats which show a dip for sponsored segments. My understanding is that sponsor contracts typically don't ask to get access to that data though, instead they look at views and refferals

[Fnoord]

Hey, are you interested in whey powd... <skip> I guess not. And often it is the same sponsor in multiple video/audio. No, I am not interested in Crowdstrike. No, i don't want to become a Lord by owning a small amount of land in Scotland. Yes, I know about Ground News but I won't need it and yes, I know you can cheaply buy whey powder, add some flavor and hype it up.

And yet, HN (a text-based website) has advertising. It is a small headline in the list. Do people block this? I don't, and I am quite an adblocking person.

I actually believe billboards are a net minus for public safety. Just like you wouldn't want all kind of unnecessary traffic signs.

[account42]

Unintrusive ads are still there to manipulate you into acting against your own interests and therefore unethical.

> I'm fine with video creators having sponsored sequences because I can skip them if I want.

I'm not fine with them because skipping the obvious segments doesn't mean the rest of the content isn't compromised due to the financial incentive to not upset those advertisers.