You sure that wasn’t me?
https://steemit.com/steemit/@ats-david/advertising-revenue-and-distributions-on-the-steem-blockchain
At that time, in private chat discussions, Ned made it very clear that he had no intentions of working on anything to do with advertising at either the blockchain or interface level. And he certainly was not in favor of sharing any ad revenue with users.
I'm pretty sure I heard him talking about it during a podcast or video somewhere. I'll see if I can find it and shoot you a link.
Here's one video where he's talking about adding advertising that I have cued for you where he touches on it. There's also another video interview somewhere where he goes into it in more detail.
Keep in mind though, that he never said he or Steemit Inc. was going to work on this specifically, but only alludes to the possibility of it being a revenue generating business model for some unspecified application. At least that's how I understood it.
Regardless of what he said publicly, in his private conversations with me, he explicitly stated that relying on speculation was the much better bet rather than attempting to create revenue streams via his interface or attempting anything at the blockchain protocol level.
Three main points taken away from that conversation were:
Steem was in a unique position to truly innovate in both the blockchain and social media space. Our “leadership” - the people who assumed control of blockchain development and its messaging - not only failed to acknowledge their assumption of leadership, but also failed to produce anything attractive for users and investors while assuming that role.
Advertising was always an obvious option for any social media business (which is what Steemit was supposed to be) that wanted to be healthy. Other blockchains have developed these capabilities at the protocol level. But it was mercilessly shot down for a variety of piss-poor reasons and other nonsensical ideas were focused on instead...most of which will never be delivered.
Meanwhile, Ned is claiming that speculative profits have failed for his company (I told him that it was not a good strategy) and now he is claiming that advertising is on the table. It may be a little too late for his failed company, but there may still be hope for the blockchain if anyone is willing to actually work on these kind of worthwhile concepts, as opposed to SMTs, which will either never be delivered or will just end up creating a bigger infrastructural and legal mess.
I can share the conversation with you, if you’d like to read it yourself.
I do remember and have read many of the debates you had and posts you have made about your thoughts on SMT's and remained silent on the subject mainly because I don't have enough knowlege about them to voice an opinion.
Plus, I recall your points about monetizing with ads which I thought were good points. In any case, just wanted to send you this link as promised. I'm not doing it to piss you off or spark a debate.