Since I have a lot of libertarian friends it’s no surprise that I see a lot of articles posted on a websites called the Libertarian Republic on my news feed. Personally I have avoided linking to the site with one exception. This is because the site has the atrocious practice of creating top 10 (or whatever arbitrary number they choose) lists where each item is on a separate page. That means you have to click 10 fucking buttons to get through the entire list. I always knew this tactic was to artificially raise the number of page clicks to game advertisers but I never though I’d see one of the administrators of the site so brazenly admit to it. The site recently posted a bullshit top 10 list of reasons why Rand Paul should be elected president (when the site says libertarian it means statist libertarian, which is why I don’t read it). On the site’s Facebook page somebody asked why these top 10 lists always require 10 goddamn clicks to get through and one of the admins chimed in:
So the site is planning on charging readers to see top 10 lists on a single page. I don’t fault the admins of the site for wanting money and see nothing wrong with charging for a service. However the admin’s followup lead me to ask another question:
Aren’t the Libertarian Republic’s advertisers customers? Isn’t artificially raising the number of page clicks by requiring readers to click 10 times to read a single article defrauding those customers? When you think about it the Libertarian Republic is selling its customers a lot of clicks without providing as many potential readers. Since a site admin claims they care so deeply about customers wouldn’t you think the site would not try to artificially increase the number of clicks by shamefully cutting up top 10 lists into 10 separate pages?
If I were an advertiser on that site I would be a bit miffed that clicks were being inflated through this practice. I might even consider it an act of fraud if sale units of ads were purchased on a per click basis.
Again, I don’t fault the site administrators for trying to make a buck. I do find their claim of being interested in customers a bit dubious when they split top 10 lists up like this specifically to sell more ads though. And if they treat their advertiser customers like this then what incentive do I have to buy a subscription (not that I would since I’m not interested in paying for another statist rag)?