Lemmy, how would you feel about a law that bans radio stations from playing commercials with honking/beeping/siren noises in them?

FightMilk@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 292 points –
59

Here in the Netherlands we already have such law. I can't imagine how bad commercials can be with it. There is no reason except creating shock of confusion for such sound in a commercial and those things are not something you want in a car.

In America it’s more likely that we ban the use of radios in cars

No, they'll make you pay a subscription for it.

😂A scant $8.99/month for siren free radio 😆

That is, for about 2 years until they add the sirens back in and offer a $21.99/month ultra premium service with no siren sounds.

Free radio is now nothing but sirens and commercials 24/7

It's called SiriusXM and I hate it

I got SiriusXM for Opie and Anthony, then Ant was fired like 8 months later. I kept the subscription for another year or so. Now I just have a USB stick with all my music on it, but much to my wife's displeasure i only listen to one band.

On the handful of stations my wife listens to, they play the same handful of songs over and over again. It wouldn't take a large USB stick to get better content.

It's already illegal in the US.

Lemmy: how do you feel about people taking the most popular posts from reddit and reposting them as new stuff?

Which were already stupid questions anyway...

I know we all hate reddit for the obvious reasons but gawd did I want to get away from the constant reposts...

I've never really had a problem with re-posts of good quality content.

It's re-posting trash that grinds my gears.

Reddit was 90% reposts of other posts from Reddit and elsewhere. People content farm for karma. But if you haven’t seen the content before, it’s good stuff, let’s be having it.

Doesn't really matter since people upvote it anyway. Complaining about reposts and stuff is as much spitting into the wind on lemmy as it was on reddit. People hate that their one downvote can't bring down a post, so they comment instead, get a few upvotes there, feel better, and then return to the same site they constantly complain about anyway.

YES, please god oh yes. :( Also doorbells in TV ads. I have 3 dogs and it always sets them off. I don't even know how the fuck they know what a doorbell is because almost no one uses ours, lol.

I think dogs experience bells as a kind of sonic assault and will naturally react to them even when they don't yet associate the sound with anything. Also, bells tend to be very unexpected from a dog perspective and surprises are a great reason for barking.

Why on earth would anyone oppose this? The only people who gain are companies who are ok with distracting you so that you pay attention to their commercial.

It is my god given right as a free American to have a heart attack because I heard a loud honk, die at the wheel, take out a family in a minivan, careen off a cliff, and land through the roof of the Walmart off the interstate.

I think the challenge would be to come up with the definition of "siren"- or "car horn"-sound. While some are obvious, there are a ton of songs that feature air horns, sirens or other light disturbing noises. Would it have to match a spectrogram of siren noises to be illegal? Does the decibel gauge the legality?

I think there is a ton that's going to fall within the gray area, and it will ensue a lot of lawsuits.

Not that I disagree that it should be illegal, but I think the law would be complicated to define.

Illegal where I'm at. That would irritate me to no end.

Tbh though I've quit radio shows for the most part, it's easily 30-40% commercials now. Can't be bothered with that annoyance, I'll rather stream some music or podcasts.

I don't know, how do you feel about pandering for upvotes on a website that doesn't have karma?

Literally just taking top questions from reddit and posting them here to help drive engagement and get the platform going. Like you said no karma here so not sure what the aggressive tone is about. Glad the post police are migrating from reddit too though lmao that’s a good sign I guess

Meh... A good question is worth re-asking from time to time. Example:

What are some positive things happening in the world right now?

Also, some questions have answers that don't make sense anymore or have completely new answers/perspectives due to the changing world so they're worth re-asking. Example:

What are some dark secrets about social media companies?

Then there's questions that just always solicit hilarity so why shouldn't we re-ask them?

What was your worst job interview?

AskLemmy could probably have that question once a quarter and it'd be worth our upvotes 😁

Yeah, but this isn't one of them. The answers it's going to get this time around are the same answers we got last time around and will probably get next time around.

So what? This isn’t stack overflow, it’s a community for discussion.

I'm really hoping we can come up with more original questions on Lemmy. This is what I hated about AskReddit the most.

I'd give it a solid 25% probability of being one of those issues where the public is nearly universally in support of it when polled in isolation, but which nonetheless gets gridlocked by partisan shenanigans and fearmongering about the "nanny state". At least in my town.

I don't see how this is any different. Adverts in audio form are an abomination and intolerable. The absence of adverts from the BBC is and always will be it's unique selling point. Spotify has begun trying the patience of its userbase lately by targeting adverts and that's a mistake.

“This episode is brought to you by Roka …”

Actually, JOE, this episode is brought to me by the money I pay to Spotify each month. Roka is just giving you more money over the $200 million you get from subscribers like me.

How will they afford the luxury yachts and private jets without those delicious advertising receipts?

I'd prefer that law be implemented really. Its obnoxious and puts more risk to the driver than if it wasn't there.

Yes I honestly can’t believe it’s legal.

I’m all for more content on lemmy, but this is just the same stuff as on Reddit. Questions to which any sane person will have the same reaction. Sorry.

Absolutely, also laws that regulate volume in all ads across all platforms. Also laws that forbid campaign ads.

I remember the days before the ban. I hated looking in the mirrors checking for the emergency services to let pass only to realize it was an add. It's a good van imo. You don't gain anything from including them, but there are demerits so just get them out of there.

I have always hated songs/ ads/ commercials that has any of that in it. Nothing worse than a mid vibe heart attack while driving

I’ve never heard a commercial like that, but I do live in the UK. Most people listen to the BBC radio stations, none of which have commercials. There are independent stations, but I’ve never heard one broadcast anything with noises like that.

Now, to answer the actual question: of course it should be banned. The idea is fucking insane.

I’m down for that. We should also ban electronic billboards because they are asking us to stare at a screen while driving.

Television too if you don't mind. (Commercials)

No commercials with the sound of the toilet overflowing? What kind of danger do sounds pose at home?

Haven't bothered with commercial radio in a lot of years, so go for it.

Wait, radio is still a thing?

A law seems like too much, since it’s free expression. I hate songs like that, but nobody’s making me listen. There’s plenty of things I hate, but I don’t expect them to be outlawed. Maybe in the 70s when we had limited options, but now it seems a bit much.

I'd love that. Can't count the number of times I've frantically scanned my rear view to see if I need to make room for an emergency vehicle and it's just a sound effect.