I always assumed that acting as publisher for a website in this era of the internet was going to be an extraordinarily challenging job, and I probably underestimated the difficulty by about 300%. The vast majority of online advertising has moved to programmatic, which is just computers selling ads to other computers and hoping you’ll see them. In reaction to this, we’ve turned more to membership and partnership for growth, and have had success at both.
As the person who sees the incoming partnership requests, I try to follow up on the ones I think will be valuable, and politely decline the ones that would either not work for our readers or would not work for our partners. If we get money, but our readers aren’t served in any way, that’s bad for the reader, a waste of money for the partner, and reflects poorly on us.
A representative of cryptocurrency-based prediction market, Polymarket, reached out a few weeks ago to see if they could advertise in our newsletter. I raised it with David and Jason because I had the sense that would get a big thumbs down, but also sent them our media kit and some basic info as I usually do in these situations. There was no response, and I totally forgot about it.
Earlier this week, this representative reached out again, this time offering us $100 per person we turned onto their product. Again, I sensed this wasn’t going to go over well, so we discussed it internally to make sure we all agreed it was probably not a great idea. Just to see if we were off-base, I put it to our special member area in our Discord, and asked a pretty simple question:
The thumbs down was the least of it. One member said “The general consensus is they are unregulated gambling and causing a hell of a lot of problems.” Another chimed in “If you take prediction market or gambling money I will absolutely cancel my membership.” One simply said “Hate them.”
A member pointed to a recent story about how a prediction market had taken (and then removed) a contract that allowed users to “predict” the fate of the alleged perpetrators of the sexual assault at Cornell.
And then, much to my surprise, a member said this:
How much is RCL again? Half a mind to trade RCL sub for proof of response telling them to ask Kim Jong Un for money since all of their bullshit is underpinned by “stablecoin” crypto nonsense
A Rich Corinthian Leather-level membership at The Autopian is $1,000, and given their current Cloth-level membership, that’s a $964 delta. I sort of assumed it was a joke until, lo and behold, I got an alert that the member had indeed upgraded. While we were already pretty decided that we wouldn’t do it, this certainly showed the community shared our feelings.
While it’s possible that some programmatic ads for gambling sites have shown up on the site (and that me writing the words might invite them), we’ve never directly or even indirectly solicited such ads. Doing a partnership like this would be an implicit endorsement of the product.
One of the perks of membership is a behind-the-scenes look at these kind of conversations. If you’re a logged in member, you can keep reading and see more of this story. If you’re not, click here to become a member and you’ll be able to see the initial offer, the reader reaction, and our response to Polymarket.
Top photo: Warner Bros.
Wait, David Tracy is a huge Lebron James fan? For real?
Way to burry the lead there.
Bravo! You continue to show us members and readers that The Autopian has a soul.
I would love to share my opinion of Polymarket with them directly, but I promised I wouldn’t fuckn swear on the fuckn internet to tell fuckfaces to their fuckn faces what a fuckface I think they are and what kind of fuckn damage they’re doing to the rest of us.
Dammit.
I agree. As mentioned, it’s almost impossible to find a perfect company, but there are some that are exclusively in the dirtbag category with really no redeemable value except to their shareholders. While I never got the appeal of gambling, I don’t think betting on sports or numbers isn’t inherently bad for people who have some sense about it. It can make watching a sport more engaging and the fantasy of what one might do with lottery winnings when buying a ticket is probably worth the $1 (or whatever a ticket costs) to many. While there’s certainly an argument about how all gambling takes advantage of desperate people or those with addiction issues, the kinds of things these guys have bets on is psychopathic exploitation. Had they been around in the 14th Century, I have little doubt that Dante Alighieri would have had a circle of hell just for them (though greed circle 4 would work, that must be awfully crowded).
You made the right call. The respect of your readers is far more valuable than what any of these buzzards would have paid you.
(Puts PR hat on): Two thumbs up from a PR guy. You gathered all the facts, you understood what kind of reaction your readership would have, you polled them directly (giving them some ownership), you listened to the response, which confirmed your instincts were correct, and you followed through.
That, my friends, is how it’s done. Yes, this was an advertising question, but at its core this was a PR consideration and it’s the kind of crisis management I get paid to do: make sure there’s no crisis in the first place. It’s super easy if you have a tendency to do the right thing.
You were right. This would have negatively impacted your reputation with your most important public. You’re also being super transparent, which is cool – and not even required in this situation.
So high-fives all around. You passed this test.
Y’know for the longest time I thought Polymarket was a dating app for the polyamorous and Lifestyle™ folks…
TIL.
I thought it was a dating app for parrots.
Either way, you’re getting screwed in new and exciting ways.
Integrity is much appreciated, especially in an economy that’s driven by selling out to the highest bidder no matter who that bidder is.
Thank you for being good humans.
Well then, this makes me very happy. I’m not necessarily opposed to gambling, although I do not partake beyond the very very occasional Powerball ticket. It does bother me quite a bit how inundated our society is with gambling all over the place. It’s gross. I’m glad The Autopian is not going to be a part of it. As I often tell my kids and my students, be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
I hate the “prediction” markets in particular because their ads are incredibly disingenuous, pretending that you can have an edge by having an informed opinion. It’s actually been proven that many of the “no brainer” or “huge win” trades they use in influencer generated ads are actually fake. Poly market used a fake URL that was spelled “poiymarket” but with a capital i to make it look real, and influencers were given logins to place fake bets on a duplicate of the website. It was proven because Polymarket loudly proclaims that all bets are placed on the blockchain and auditable, yet none of the ones in ads could be found. True scum all the way down that company.
Member here, but not on the discord… so didn’t know this was a thing until now.
But yeah.. I don’t see prediction markets as being a good advertiser fit for y’all. Serving up relevant ads for gearheads? Okay – I can get behind that because it’s a good fit. Wanna partner with Lucas Oil to keep the site well lubricated? Go for it! (Torch mentioned a squeak coming from his Apple ][ the other day, so probably needs it). Wanna hawk some Chicago Electric stuff? Sure, we all worship Harbor Freight.
Seeing the main site’s banner as sponsored by a rotating list of non-adjacent businesses? Nope? We don’t want The Autopian, proudly powered by Depend® Disposable Undergarments!
Kalshi and Polymarket are literally running the corporate playbook from the movie Idiocracy at this point.
Yeah if they want to partner for ads with some non-scammy auto part manufacture or auto fluids sure go for it. And like you said even tools cool go for it. But yeah scammy crypto crap like this yeah no.
Does rock auto do sponsorships? Maybe you guys can do one with them and can send a bunch of their magnets out to members haha.
I’d read The Taco Bell Mug Root Beer Mountain Dew Diet Mug Root Beer Pepsi Stuff Szechuan Dynasty Autopian, but I’m a weirdo.
I think “The Autopian, proudly powered by Depend® Disposable Undergarments!” Is hilarious and more on brand for this site than it should be. At least I could see it as a section of Torch’s author footnote.
If anything, next Autopian roadtrip should be sponsored by adult diapers. “We had one driver with Depends and one without, here’s how our times differed” is a 10/10 article idea and I will die on this hill.
It probably wouldn’t take that much R&D for Depend to pivot into a quality oil absorbing product. They could make a large pad that you put down before changing your oil (or other fluid), and then just throw it away when you’re done.
Yeah, my first thought was that I could really see a place for Depends undergarments here.
In hindsight, its a miracle DT didn’t use them during his spaghetti shower fueled wrenching marathons up in Michigan. Just think of the time savings!
I could see Torch trying that product out to make sure it was quality enough to be featured.
This is why I happily subscribe!
Support what you love, folks.
Support what you love.