this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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The issue with your first point is that in order to be served ads you actually want to see, the provider (instance admin) needs to know what you like and that way leads to tracking scripts.
That's not "the issue" with my first point, that IS my first point.
In a perfect world, a "reasonable ad" shows you exactly what you're looking for, without leaking any information about yourself. I understand that it's tempting to say that's not possible, but "proof by not being able to think of a solution" isn't a proof, that's why I'm hesitant to make such a strong claim.
Zero Knowledge proofs were thought of as impossible until it turned out they weren't. Can someone serve "Zero Knowledge ads"? Maybe one day, idk.
Even if you don't like ads, you can't deny that they're a powerful means of funding projects that otherwise can't be sustainably monetized. We learned this lesson 20 years ago when the first federated internet platform hit the mainstream: the world wide web. So imo there's no reason to think the fediverse isn't about to relearn the same lesson.
It's entirely possible, I agree, but as of right now, there's only really two ways to show a person ads - targeted or not targeted. And that applies to all forms of advertising really, not just online. I don't know enough about marketing to say how long it might take to develop zero knowledge ads but in terms of funding development and hosting we're very long way away from that being a possibility.
And the ethos of the Fediverse was, in part, formed around the idea of not being served ads that were either utterly irrelevant and thus irritating or scarily relevant and thus unsettling. The Fediverse is pretty closely aligned with open source and privacy philosophy. I think any instance that runs ads is going to see either no revenue as they'll be adblocked or the instance will see a sharp drop off in users.