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Date:      Mon, 4 May 1998 12:44:48 +0200
From:      Eivind Eklund <eivind@yes.no>
To:        sos@FreeBSD.ORG
Cc:        chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: cvs commit: ports/www/ijb - Imported sources
Message-ID:  <19980504124448.41478@follo.net>
In-Reply-To: <199805040655.XAA03662@hub.freebsd.org>; from sos@FreeBSD.ORG on Sun, May 03, 1998 at 11:55:29PM -0700
References:  <19980503230438.48318@follo.net> <199805040655.XAA03662@hub.freebsd.org>

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On Sun, May 03, 1998 at 11:55:29PM -0700, sos@FreeBSD.ORG wrote:
> In reply to Eivind Eklund who wrote:
> > On Sun, May 03, 1998 at 01:51:41PM -0700, Matthew Hunt wrote:
> > Refusing to download ads from the WWW is very bad practice.  Those ads are
> > paying for the service you're using.  I'm not even certain we should have
> > the above program as a port - I don't think we'd have a 'automated
> > crack-on-download' tool, for instance, and this is actually fairly similar.
> 
> I beg your pardon ?? What planet are you from ??

The same as you - otherwise you wouldn't get my e-mail.

> I think that those that put adds on the pages are the bad guys, they
> STEAL my bandwith and MY money form the extra connection time it takes to
> download, so it should be under AATT ('Automated Anti Theft Tool!)

They're also providing the content of the page.  If you consider the ads
bothersome - then don't view pages containing ads!

I'll say it again:  The ads are paying for the service.  If you drop
watching the ads, then you provide less payback to those that develop free
services, and thus less opportunity (and possibly less incentive).  If you
use this kind of software, you're asking for more services to go for
membership only.

BTW: I don't know if you noticed the smiley after that suggestion for name.

> I welcome this exiting new piece of very usefull software, and its going
> to be installed here as soon as I get the time to do it.

Sure, it is useful.   It makes things easier for the consumers at the cost
of the producers - giving the producers nothing back, while cutting the
costs of the consumers by perhaps 1/3.  It is useful the same way as getting
free phone service and not paying your tickets on the bus is useful - it
gives you a better service at the cost of the provider.  This is contrary to
long-term survival of the medium (buses get shut down, websites get
advertisement-protection, force people to use Java/ActiveX, or switch to a
pay-for-access model).

That's why it is bad practice.  

> I'm pretty sure this will be a hit amongst alot of our users...
> In fact I think that alot of ISP's will take this as a gift
> from heaven :)

Sure.  Is that _the_ criterion for something being right?  (I could come up
with a lot of examples of how doing things marketingwise right would be
technically wrong, and counter to long-term strategy.  I'm certain you can,
too, so I won't.)

Eivind.

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