<!DOCTYPE html> <!-- ========================================== kroc camen of camen design ============================================= --> <title>quote · “Imagine Running a Restaurant Where 40% of the People Who Came and Ate Didn’t Pay…”</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/design/design.css" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="/quote/rss" title="Just quote" /> <link rel="canonical" href="/quote/cute_but_wrong" /> <!-- =================================================================================================================== --> <header> <h1><a href="/" rel="index"> Camen Design </a></h1> <nav><ul> <li><a href="/">all</a></li> <li><a href="/projects">projects</a></li> <li><a href="http://forum.camendesign.com">forum</a></li> </ul><ul> <li><a href="/quote/" rel="tag">quote</a></li> <li><a href="/blog/">blog</a></li> <li><a href="/photo/">photo</a></li> <li><a href="/writing/">writing</a></li> <li><a href="/code/">code</a></li> <li><a href="/art/">art</a></li> <li><a href="/link/">link</a></li> <li><a href="/poem/">poem</a></li> <li><a href="/audio/">audio</a></li> </ul><ul> <li><a href="/web-dev/">web-dev</a></li> <li><a href="/annoyances/">annoyances</a></li> <li><a href="/code-is-art/">code-is-art</a></li> <li><a href="/inspiration/">inspiration</a></li> <li><a href="/windows/">windows</a></li> <li><a href="/gaming/">gaming</a></li> <li><a href="/mac/">mac</a></li> <li><a href="/gift/">gift</a></li> <li><a href="/osnews/">osnews</a></li> <li><a href="/c64/">c64</a></li> <li><a href="/linux/">linux</a></li> </ul> <a rel="previous" href="/quote/jailbreaking"> older article → </a><a rel="next" href="/quote/patent_chess"> ← newer article </a></nav> </header> <!-- =================================================================================================================== --> <article><header> <!-- date published or updated --> <time pubdate datetime="2010-03-08T08:26:00+00:00"> <sup>8:26<abbr>am</abbr> • 2010</sup> <abbr title="March">Mar</abbr> 8 </time> <!-- categories --> <ul> <li><a href="/quote/cute_but_wrong" rel="bookmark tag">quote</a></li> <li><a href="/web-dev/cute_but_wrong">web-dev</a></li> <li><a href="/annoyances/cute_but_wrong">annoyances</a></li> </ul> </header> <!-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --> <blockquote> <p> Imagine running a restaurant where 40% of the people who came and ate didn’t pay. In a way, that’s what ad blocking is doing to us. </p> <cite><a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/03/why-ad-blocking-is-devastating-to-the-sites-you-love.ars" rel="external">Ars Technica</a></cite> </blockquote> <p> <em>Wrong</em>. You are running a restaurant where the food is free, and on every table there’s a pot of leaflets advertising other restaurants. You are claiming that when people don’t walk out of your restaurant carrying those leaflets that they are <em>stealing</em> from you. </p><p> You are so, so wrong. </p><p> There is no signed contract I have made with anybody that means that I have to view any ads, otherwise <em><strong>I</strong></em> haven’t paid someone. Your contract is between you and your advertising agencies, there is <em>no</em> contract between me and them, nor you. If you give me your stuff for free, don’t complain if I then take it. </p><p> And don’t blame me if you made crappy decisions on how to run your business. </p> <h2>Update</h2> <p> Because I’m publishing this publicly, it’s only fair that Ars Technica has the right to reply: </p> <blockquote> <p> It’s a real shame that you didn’t comprehend my article and have instead created a strawman. I suggest you ruminate on the meaning of “in a way,” and follow that up by locating where in my argument I say anything about “stealing.” </p><p> And by the way, we’ve not made crappy decisions on how to run our business. We’ve seen more success than 99.99% of other online content entrepreneurs out there. </p> <cite>Ken</cite> </blockquote> <p> What I can’t understand is that if they are so successful, why is the article so riddled with <em>blame</em>? Your advertising is based on page-views, and those page-views are being cut off industry-wide. Don’t blame users, that’s one step short of the music industry blaming piracy, when they themselves created the need for piracy. Change your advertising model. Innovate. <em>Never</em> blame your customers. </p><p> For perspective, OSnews <a href="http://osnews.com/story/18352/OSNews_Advertisement_Problem" rel="external">ran a story about its advertising problem</a> in 2007. The <a href="http://osnews.com/comments/18352" rel="external">comments</a> make for interesting reading. My opinions have definitely changed and strengthened since then (because of the worsening of bad advertising tactics), and I believe that OSnews is, like Ars Technica, making the mistake of thinking that the current advertising model is worth defending—it’s not. I am working with OSnews to revamp their advertising. </p> <!-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --> </article> <footer> <nav><a href="http://forum.camendesign.com">‹ Discuss this in the Forum ›</a></nav> <a href="mailto:kroc@camendesign.com">kroc@camendesign.com</a> <nav>view-source: <a href="/quote/cute_but_wrong.rem">Rem</a> • <a href="/quote/cute_but_wrong.html">HTML</a> • <a href="/design/">CSS</a> • <a href="/.system/">PHP</a> • <a href="/.htaccess">.htaccess</a> </nav> <form method="get" action="https://duckduckgo.com"> <input type="hidden" name="sites" value="camendesign.com" /> <input type="search" name="q" placeholder="search…" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> </form> </footer> <!-- =================================================================================================== code is art === -->