> might as well use the terrible option with the highest ROI, right?

No, thanks. Does The Deck serve spammy, malicious ads? I know they're tightly targeted at the techy/designy crowd, but they're also a great example of high ROI ads that aren't terrible.

You can't just use The Deck, you have to be invited.

Valid point. But I still reject the notion of "that sucks but might as well get mine". Sounds like there's a lot of space for ad networks that don't suck. Or monetization models that don't rely on spammy, useless ads.

> Or monetization models that don't rely on spammy, useless ads.

I'm struggling to find one, any idea?

Build something so good, people will pay for it? It seems to work for companies like Netflix and Toyota.

But not companies like Google, or Facebook, or Twitter...

Nobody suggested there's one solution for everybody. I was just responding to the comment that advertising is the only monetization strategy and that's ridiculous.

> If all your options are terrible, you might as well use the terrible option with the largest ROI, right?

One of the options is "stop running ads". Why is a "site for public safety communications" running ads at all?

Public safety announcement: block all ads to make your browsing much safer. Use Adblock Plus (with so-called "acceptable ads" turned off) or uBlock Origin.

He's not running a public safety institution, he runs a site that has live audio streams from police / emergency scanners.

(incidentally, Lindsay, I've used http://www.radioreference.com to learn a great deal about Software Defined Radio, and I occasionally listen to various Illinois streams on http://www.broadcastify.com - thanks for running these sites!)

> He's not running a public safety institution, he runs a site that has live audio streams from police / emergency scanners.

Thanks for the clarification; that makes more sense.

I'd still echo the comments from elsewhere in the thread about not doing business with a vendor with shady practices just because other vendors do no better.

I don't think I'd be comfortable doing that.