Hacker News Reader

>Advertising on the net is just extra data you can choose to take advantage of, or ignore.

Huh?

When I'm reading an article and there's big flashing graphics on either side of the text, that's an annoyance.

You might find it an annoyance, but it doesn't stop you reading the article. If you're one of those people that can't just ignore it if it doesn't interest you, you can block it pretty easily - small minority do.

I obviously disagree with the article, I find interesting things from adverts all the time - competitors, services I didn't know about, products I might think about buying some day. I want to see adverts. Unobtrusive, targeted adverts that show me stuff I want.

Obtrusive flashing banner advertising makes up a tiny proportion of advertising, and isn't that effective at all.

That is true. Most users (at least me) install ad-blocking software because of moving advertisements (flash/gif). Why do every site want to give you an epilepsy attack?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com