Why Are Ads So Hated?

Ash sent me a link to his theoretical valuation of Wikipedia and I forwarded it to Jason who then wrote this post suggesting that Wikipedia run one leaderboard per page and give all the money it generates to charity.

I run ads on this blog so I can give the money to charity. It will be about $30,000 this year. That’s money that would not otherwise go to charity. I think its a good thing and I hate leaving money on the table that could otherwise go to a good cause.

Jason is suggesting the exact same thing for Wikipedia. He thinks one leaderboard could generate $100mm annually. That is a lot of money to be leaving on the table. I like the idea.

But if you read the comments to Jason’s post, the disgust is literally dripping off the page. It seems that there are a lot of people who hate ads (or hate Jason or both).

I just don’t get that. Ads are content just like everything else. Good ones that are relevant (and wikipedia being a search/keyword driven site could target the ads so easily) and attractive are additive in my opinion. But clearly not everyone feels that way.

#VC & Technology