This is interesting - but a little complex. One of the issues is that there are basically two ways that people buy ads right now - via word choices (e.g. ad words) and banners. If you are something new - then none of the regular ad rep companies will be able to work with you.
The issue becomes - sure - it sounds compelling from a new idea standpoint - but nobody will be able to “buy” the ads - because its a non-standard way to implement ads. Fundamentally - I don’t think Discourse is going to be the one to redefine a new ad format for the world.
This may be true - but we’re not going to be the ones that define it. I get a few hundred thousand views on my forums and here is my priority as a way to monetize it:
https://meta.discourse.org/t/advertising-specifications-list-plugin-request/11673
The idea I do think is most interesting here is the idea of what I would call “sponsored posts” - similar to what they do in Twitter or Facebook. I haven’t really investigated this - so don’t know the full set of pros and cons - but it seems like it could be interesting - if adword ads could be put into the forums in a format that tends to look similar to the regular forum posts.