Why Expect to Win A Crooked Game? (Score 1)

The reason that ads don't raise money for Web sites is that advertisers want to hold the Net to a whole new standard: proven ad readership. They don't do this for any other medium. Know what I do with the 15 full glossy/frequently stinky pages that appear in my favorite rags before the table of contents? I rip them out and trash 'em without a glance. Know how long it takes to watch the typical Fox hour show if you zap the commercials? About 45 minutes. Those advertisers paid for my eyeballs, and I never even know their names, much less their pitches.

So what is it with the Web? There are enough click counts that we know people go through the sites; that's at least as good as a Neilsen or Arbitron rating. Why does anyone give a rat's ass when most of us skip the commercials just like we do in any other medium? If they just ASSUMED that everyone reads the ads on Slashdot like they assume for the ads in Rolling Stone, they would happily shovel the same cash at the Web.

But if it happens, it might make things a whole lot worse. Maybe all of this wiseass punditry is just going to have to be a labor of love instead of a career. I doubt that will decrease the supply of wiseass pundits (look around). After all, there's still more poetry than anyone can hope to read, and it has never offered anyone a living. Maybe the reason the boutique zines are good is because they will never make it commercially. If volunteer labor can build Linux, we might just be able to have good Open Source commentary/literature/critique.