content: Advertisers understand plenty.  The majority of people will tolerate (way too much) advertising to not pay for anything.  You're in the minority.  If ads didn't work then they wouldn't do them it's pure and simple.  They generate leads and revenue and because (the majority of) people aren't willing to pay for every site they visit, they will stick around. I'm open to ideas on how to get rid of advertising, but a paid-for version of facebook has been tried before and failed.