We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderI think the problem is, I feel like most ads are so empty,hollow & fraudful on the internet... I am okay with ads, if they aren't all the above. But I don't know what the Algorithm overlord serves me as an Ad, so I use Ublock Origin. I actually think ads should probably be changed from paid promotion to actually use that money on such a good level of ad that even if you release it as a standalone video…
Isn't this just a natural evolution following the fact that we're optimizing how to make money instead of optimizing how to make ... "good"? As long as we fight over the resources we want and need we're going to have technology applied by people in ways to optimize their own share. In a global market with little regulation, ethics very quickly gets thrown aside unless that said ethics is important to the consumers. Since in this case it's even difficult…
New ads same as the old ads.
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 428
- Total comments
- 280
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-10-27 | We're Building a Dystopia Just to Make People Click on AdsFirst breakout | Jill_the_Pill | 117 | 11 |
| 2021-10-28 | Zeynep Tufekci: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads | ColinWright | 19 | 2 |
| 2024-09-02 | We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads (2017) [video] | dotcoma | 3 | 0 |
| 2025-04-27 | We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]Best thread · Latest 20+ point return | ColinWright | 289 | 267 |