Comments on: A Brief Note on Political Ads

By: fivecentnickel.com

fivecentnickel.com — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:32:06 +0000

I’m curious as to how many complainers have taken me up on my suggestion to offer to pay for a subscription to GRS…

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By: Lazy Man and Money

Lazy Man and Money — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:45:39 +0000

Amen… I’ve seen too many Proposition 8 ads to last me a lifetime. I guess that’s the problem of living in a state where there’s more money on both sides than any other proposition in history

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By: deepali

deepali — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:23:44 +0000

Not to play armchair psychologist, JD, but my boyfriend also hates conflict. And finds himself in the middle of it constantly. They say aversion and desire are flip sides of the same coin…

I don’t even notice the ads. I watched a lot of TV this election cycle – it’s a fascinating look at the psychology of America.

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By: mark

mark — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:54:50 +0000

Or just stop complaining…ads aren’t exactly a new concept.

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By: jim

jim — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:57:19 +0000

Or wait a day…

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By: plonkee

plonkee — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:31:32 +0000

Well, since ads are location specific I’m not seeing them at all from the UK. Perhaps you guys should just move continents?

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By: Lily

Lily — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:55:20 +0000

Jeez, people, are you new to the web?

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By: Dana

Dana — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:11:15 +0000

That’s weird, I had never even noticed any political ads until this post. There was one at the bottom.

What’s the big deal? Its just an ad, ignore it. Anyway, I am with you JD, bringing up politics is a sure way to ruffle feathers. I avoid it at all costs!

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By: fivecentnickel.com

fivecentnickel.com — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:32:03 +0000

Here’s a suggestion to all who enjoy JD’s content for FREE but still see fit to complain about the ads (which make the FREE content model possible)… Shoot JD an e-mail with an offer to become a paid subscriber. If you guys are willing to fully replace the income that he makes from running ads, then I’m sure he’d be happy to take down the ads. Any takers?

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By: Abbott

Abbott — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 02:43:17 +0000

This is why I love adblock plugin.

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By: Calvin Froedge

Calvin Froedge — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 02:20:46 +0000

People don’t understand that google just takes keywords from each page to create their ads, so if you write anything about politics or an election, those types of ads will show up. People should stop fighting over what side is cooler and start doing things to actually make changes. It’s ridiculous how defensive some people are, or how they refuse to tell you who they voted for, I mean, if your too ashamed to tell, them maybe you shouldn’t be voting for that guy in the first place.

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By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:17:31 +0000

A lot has been made of political ads on sites lately. What most don’t understand is that if you take money from one side, you’re obligated to take it and run ads from the other side of the coin too. Hopefully that doesn’t offend too many people.

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By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:14:19 +0000

I’m entertaining myself right now by clicking on the political ad on this very page, which I am strongly against. I figure that way they will have to pay Google (and hopefully GRS!) some of their money, but I’m still not voting for it!

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By: J.D.

J.D. — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:40:15 +0000

Haha. Here’s something completely unrelated. After posting this, I altered the time setting on my site to account for the end of daylight savings. This bumped the timecode on new comments back an hour, which has made a mess of the continuity above.

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By: Susy

Susy — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:38:34 +0000

I never even noticed the ads (I never click on them so I don’t even see them anymore).

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By: Katrina R.

Katrina R. — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:00:34 +0000

I’ll say what J.D. cannot to his readers: Lighten up.

I agree election issues are huge, but assigning a blogger responsibility over something so irrelevant is absolutely ludicrous. Not to mention a complete waste of his and your time.

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By: Alan Cordle

Alan Cordle — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:56:20 +0000

I read GRS via your RSS feed, and I just got served a “Defend Oregon” ad in my reader. And I was smart enough to figure out that I could look at it or not. And click on it or not.

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By: Steward

Steward — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:11:42 +0000

I think that the upsurge of political adds is actually very, very interesting. With my understanding of how Adsense works, it means that they had to outbid all the other competitors for placement. These adds could be very profitable – but I guess there could be an ethical dilemma for some individuals (and maybe even me, but it has never happened to me yet so I don’t know for certain!).

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By: BenC

BenC — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:59:55 +0000

For the other Ben poster above, I have two words for you, Firefox and Adblocker. Get them and quit yer complaining ya lamer!

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By: Dan Ray

Dan Ray — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:55:09 +0000

That’s rich, Curtis. Boing Boing noticed a much more recent juxtaposition: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/10/14/todays-la-times-cove.html

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By: Keith

Keith — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:53:24 +0000

While I’d agree you have some responsibility for the ads displayed on your site, I’d argue the bigger issue is people who are unable to look past political bias to read the message J.D. is delivering.

Good advice is good advice, regardless of political persuasion.

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By: another view

another view — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:40:13 +0000

I have a future weather forecast “gadget” posted on a website of my own….does that make me responsible for the weather?

And for the record…I am voting for the candidates who had the least amount of campaign ads [aka propaganda].

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By: Donna

Donna — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:33:57 +0000

I’m not worried.

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By: Cathy

Cathy — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:33:39 +0000

I didn’t even notice the ads until this was pointed out.

I’m rather amazed people would be that upset about it.

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By: That One Caveman

That One Caveman — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:33:23 +0000

I half-agree with Ben. Google Ads are a great source of revenue that’s hard to drop just because of a few ads. I hope in later revisions that it will be easier to opt out of certain categories of ads – even if that means earning a bit less. That’s at least a better option than dropping it altogether.

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By: Miss M

Miss M — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:29:57 +0000

Yep, I’m getting the same thing, ads that I personally don’t support. That being said, your readership is probably a diverse bunch and not everyone will agree with everything. I think censorship is unnecessary, we can all make up our own minds. If you don’t like the ad, don’t click on it.

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By: Curtis

Curtis — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:26:26 +0000

Dan Ray, I wish someone would have done that when I graduated HS. Instead, my commencement photo as valedictorian was right beside a large headline that read “Murder Suspect Arrested.” How’s that for a family Heirloom?

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By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:23:53 +0000

What really cracked me up when I read this post was that sure enough, down at the bottom there was a political ad with which I strongly disagree!

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By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:23:19 +0000

Sorry but you’re responsible for what is displayed on your website, whether you like it or not. If you don’t want that responsibility, switch to a system where you will approve manually the ads before they appear on the site.

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By: the girl @ love God, not money

the girl @ love God, not money — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:22:39 +0000

I don’t like conflict either, but even if I did, I’ll be glad when tomorrow’s over. I just hope that it really is over tomorrow and it’s not a rerun of the 2000 election.

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