@kev @Matter @resist1984 yeah i mostly agree. the only ads i'm okay with are basically just a step above word-of-mouth: Alice reaches out to Bob asking to try a thing she made and write about it if he likes it; Bob tries it out, likes it, and mentions it in his next blog post. Since this was a big help to Alice, she pays Bob more attention when he has an issue/feature request. it's not an "ad" as much as an "endorsement" and it only works when Alice makes something that Bob actually thinks is worth sharing.
@resist1984 @Matter @kev you can judge an ad by imagining what a perfectly honest disclosure would look like (hopefully you shouldn't have to imagine it since it should already be there). disclosures like "SPONSORED CONTENT" or "disclosure: i received a free copy for my review" sound fishy, but a disclosure like "Alice made a thing and invited me to try it out; here are my thoughts" seem fine, especially since the content that follows could backfire if Alice made something crappy. you're more likely to take this pseudo-ad seriously if you know Alice took a risk with skin in the game.
