I suspect people dislike ads because ads have usually a very low information to noise ratio. This may be untrue for this particular ad, but always there are slippery-slope concerns. No ads rule is much easier to enforce and harder to game than a "no ads except those which have something common with LW and are honest and contain no misleading information". Just keep this in mind when doing the consequentialist analysis.
A product listing page on Amazon isn't an ad, because you expected market norms on Amazon. Put the same information on a billboard and it becomes an ad.
You don't expect market norms on a billboard? I think a product listing page on Amazon isn't an ad because its purpose is not advertising, it just informs you what can you find on a site you have already chosen to visit. Advertising is usually not requested - if you enter a restaurant and ask for the menu, receiving it is not advertising. If you find the menu in your mailbox, it is.
I suspect people dislike ads because ads have usually a very low information to noise ratio. This may be untrue for this particular ad, but always there are slippery-slope concerns.
"I suspect people dislike blog posts because blog posts have usually a very low information to noise ratio. This may be untrue for this particular blog post, but there are slippery-slope concerns."
All I'm suggesting is that we treat ads like any other post--vote up the ones we recommend and vote down the ones we disrecommend. I don't see any "slippery slope c...
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