[justrandomanon]

Why can't I just give you money for a service.

I don't want ads.

I don't want you to give me ad revenue.

Just take my money and respect my privacy. Is that really so much to ask.

I will happily pay someone a yearly subscription for a simple social network that respects users privacy.

[Blahah]

http://app.net

[rmsaksida]

Network effect would kill a paid social network. Very few people would use it when there are so many free alternatives.

[gannoq]

http://weborganizm.org

[eevilspock]

This.

And this:

Ads are a sneaky and dishonest way to get at your end users' money. It's a lie that with ads you give your content for free:

1. The advertisers who pay you get their money from us, added to the prices of the things we buy. There is no free lunch.

2. The overhead cost of advertising is huge and we pay for that too.

3. We pay the opportunity cost of a product that cannot put users first because you live or die by giving advertisers what they want (and what we want indirectly and secondarily). This includes both the cost of lost privacy as well as business, editorial and design decisions that optimize for advertising revenue. As has been said, you are using us as products more than treating us as your paying customers. Let me restate to be extra clear: WE are the paying customer, but we don't look like that to your finance department.

4. We pay for all the collateral damage of advertising, such as the tremendous amount of link-bait and other garbage that advertising perversely incentivizes.

5. We pay the social costs. Democracy and the free market assume people make voting and purchasing decisions based on facts and reason. Advertising undermines democracy[1] and the free market[2]. Advertising is predominantly about manipulation and deceit. I believe this is the most expensive cost of content that relies on advertising revenue.

Added together, we end users are paying a lot more for "free" product than if we could just straight up pay you. And even we non-users are paying the social costs and collateral damage.

-

[This is a condensed version of a more detailed case with reference links that I made here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773]

[1] Do you really need a link for this one? We all know that money often overwhelmingly decides who gets to run in an election, plays a big part in who wins, and influences what legislation they introduce, support or fight.

[2] http://www.chaosisgood.com/2013/03/how-advertising-undermine...