Blogads on DailyKos

Democratic blog giant DailyKos is now running blogads. He took a poll a couple of weeks ago: Should DailyKos run blogads? 417 of his readers voted yes, 143 voted no and 175 voted “don’t care.” And there were 195 comments. A sampling below.

Pro:

Since there are ads in nearly every opinion journal in print now, having ads in an online journal that reflect your editorial point of view should neither be unexpected nor unwelcome.
(Saying that confident that none of us will see publisher ads referring to the latest from knuckleheads like Coulter, Cavuto, O’Reilly et al. except as a matter of hilarious biting satire…)

Go for it as far as I am concerned, for what that’s worth.
Superskepticalman

Go for it. Far be it from me to let some namby-pamby librul thinkin stand in the way of American Entrepreneurship creating millions of jobs. Just don’t outsource your comments to New Delhi.

See if you can get some Bush ads that pay by the click. I’ll sit here clicking for two hour a day, just helping you suck up as much of his $200 million as possible.
TX Dem in TX

Do it bro
ten nights

A blogad on Atrios led me to a terrific site on preserving our oceans. I was able to alert some friends to pending legislation nonsense from that bastard, Ted Stevens. I vote yes and hope that the ads are topical like that.
opus

Very Dean-esque to ask us, Kos. I say go for it, because I’ve always wanted you to devote more of the site to fundraising for worthy causes anyway.
leftist

Hm. I voted No, and I was going to go drop another donation in the jar. But after reading what people have to say here, I think if I could change my vote, I would. It’s not really practical for Kos to depend on forgetful people like me, when the expenses of running the blog are constant. He needs some sort of slow and steady income stream, and I’m afraid I’m not it.
So, Kos — when you’re looking at the votes, could you please mentally add one to Yes, subtract one from No?
Canadian reader

There is a white space running down the entire left margin of the page. It’s crazy not to use it for everyone’s benefit. Kos, I say go for it if you need to.
FLDoubleBushed

You would also be helping out the guys/gals who are coming up with the imaginative products like the BushCards and “Bush-Orwell 2004” bumper sticker I have.
BobNJ

Take advertising. Use it for any use you deem appropriate (ie rent, food, lavish vacations, etc) Blogsphere is our answer to Rush Limbaugh and the yahoos on the radio. You have played a critical role in helping build something important. We need to blogsphere into a mechanism that can help us combat the Fox News orgs of the world. In that effort, the idea that you should not take easy money seems really silly to me. This is a marketplace of ideas. To win in this marketplace, we need capital – don’t be shy about taking it.
fladem

Kos, please change my ‘I don’t care’ to a ‘Yes’.
Thanks!
mwjeepster

Tongue in cheek:

Are you kidding me? Do what you have to do! Atrios has already opted out, and he’ll kick your ass if you don’t do the same!
Frankly, when I see such a vast array of fine products and services being made available to me, I feel immeasureably empowered as a consumer.

Let me tell you, I grew up in a household of deeply committed shoppers, but I’ve never seen an advertising medium quite so powerful, so capable of reaching new consumers with new sources of disposable income as the ‘net. It’s flat out revolutionary. …
Kagro X

This is just a cover! You already decided in a boiler room 2 weeks ago that you would forgo ads, and now you’re just trying to get cover for your decision! What kind of image does it portray to ask for your supporters opinion on something? What’s next, a poll on whether you should support abortion or your stance on our relationship with Israel?
You and Howard Dean both suck for asking your supporters whether they’re actually willing to give you money! Blablabla!

[End anti-dean parody]
Asak

Can you get that “Friendsurfer” ad that atrios had?
mmmmmmmm…. friendsurfergirl
mdhatter

Ambivalent:

I’ll take the polution in order to be sure that this site does not take food of the plate of the new addition to the Kos family.

Hate blogads, personally, but let’s be realistic:
It ain’t THAT big of a deal if he runs some ads down the left side of the page. If it helps keep this site going, which is one of about 3 sites I can’t do without, then I’m all for it.

Not to mention the fact that Kos is a new dad…any time-saver is a bonus.

In other words, Kos, do it and get some sleep.
Malthus

Because I see advertising as part of the cancer in general, I would vote no, but born and raised into ad culture, I tune them all out anyway. So if you can scam them into paying you to show their stuff, in some deluded belief that they are going to profit by it, go for it, dude.
OTOH, I have no problem giving to my local NPR station, and I’m sure your operation costs less than a radio station to operate. I’d feel inclined to help you if you needed, and you shouldn’t feel ashamed to ask. What does it cost you, anyway? You got some kind of budget you try to follow?
claude

Competitive:

I’m a bit biased here, as I work for Google, specifically on their AdSense contextual advertising product….
Maxwell

No:

Can’t you get some of that Soros money instead? Just ask him nice. I’m sure after he checked out the fine work you do he’d put up some loot. MoveOn.org should set up a blog fund to support independent progressive bloggers. No ads. They’s ugggggly. I like you a lot more than Atrios, Kos. And it’s not because I’m all that fond of orange.
Jumbo

I’d give $10 month….
cat

I feel pretty strongly that you should avoid ads. The problem is you need to make some money. I think ads should be a last resort and you haven’t begun to exhaust other ideas that would probably generate more revenue anyways. …
Tropicana

I agree 100% with Tropicana. I would most likely spend less time here if there were ads. It starts out with just a few and next thing you know it’s Salon (which is used to read religiously each morning until the ad pollution completely overwhelmed the content).
However, since prevailing sentiment seems to favor ads, please consider an ad free subscription option if at all possible.

Sigh, I hate change…
Valkyrie

A few posts mentioned that blogads look ugly on Atrios. We’ve looked into this and concluded that Atrios’ HTML is a little tangled. When we have a spare moment, we will help him fix it.