Reverse Hypocrisy?

I read a very thought-provoking article on this blog. The main question the author posed was how people who suddenly "find God", then become majorly hypocritical by turning on those who used to do what they did, and condemn them for those things. After all, wouldn't hypocrisy be offensive to God?

Of course, the way my mind works is, I wondered something of a less-religious nature. What about those times in our lives when we grow to accept something we long shunned, and in some cases, embrace it entirely? I remember my parents banning such things as The Beatles, long hair and bell-bottom pants. Over the years, their stances softened. They danced to Beatles music, praised my kid brother's long ponytail, and I even saw my Mom wear bell-bottoms.

Some time ago, I was part of a Blogging exodus. A large group of us had a nice community over in AOL's J-Land. After a long, peaceful existence, The AOL Overlords decided that the best, newest place for ad-placement was right atop the Journals of all the J-Landers. We went nuts!

That Ad Exodus was what brought me to Blogger in the first place. We were upset because, at the time, we were paid AOL subscribers. AOL has a way of doing what it wants to, always has and until it goes out of business, it always will.

For me, it was more the "too bad if you don't like it" attitude shown us by AOL, and the flat-out lies told to us by the AOL staff. That company is most certainly not one to care too much about customer goodwill. And so I did a "sick-out" for a while, and began writing here.

Over the last couple of years, I have gained a good understanding of just how this whole advertiser-driven market works. I mean, think about it...we get Blogger for free. We can pretty much do with it what we will, and not be obligated to pay for that service.

I have also learned that a lot of free services didn't last because, well, how the heck do they pay for it? Advertising has become a necessary evil. I don't like web ads any more than I like TV commercials, but, without the commercials, how would the networks survive?

I struck the indignant artist pose for a while. "How dare they mess with my creative integrity?!" And then I started to pay attention. Business always has rules, and some of them aren't too palatable, but that doesn't mean they're not in place.

So, I have embraced the advertising. The big difference between Blogger and AOL is, well over there, all the advertising fills their coffers, while it does keep the service afloat. At least with Google (who owns Blogger, in case you didn't already know that) they take their advertising fees, but they throw us a bone in the process. If you agree to place Google ads on your site, they give you a cut (although a very tiny cut) But from our point of view, it's a means by which to continue enjoying this otherwise "free" service.

So, I guess I'm a reverse hypocrite. I hated those ads, and went to great pains to keep them off my computer. (there's a way to almost completely eliminate ads from appearing on your computer...if there's enough interest, I'll share what I know :) )Until I realized...who pays for this stuff?

Truth is, I'd rather place a few ads than pay a monthly fee, no?

Let's face it, if we want this to be "free" for our use, someone has to pay for it, right? A thing as big as Blogger comes with a pretty healthy price tag. So I'll embrace the ads.

The only thing I will ask is, concerning those online videos we can watch? Please stop attaching ad-videos to them that are longer than the video we want to watch!!!

Ok that's all for now!