Hacker News Reader

Because reddit sometimes does show real ads in that space. And I think this feature was designed with 'fun' in mind -- it's lighthearted!

What you consider "fun" and "lighthearted" I consider a waste of space and attention. Tell me how it is logically not.

Clearly you aren't their target market. The "instead of an ad, here's x" pictures have proven to be fairly popular.

Because having something "fun" and "lighthearted" in the space occasionally might drive higher cpm's when they actually sell ads for the space.