[alwaysdownvoted]

I'll bet a lot of folks would keep paying those prices even if all they did was use email. I'll bet further that is still the main reason many people have a home internet connection. That and internet banking, etc.

Things subsidized by ads like YouTube and myriad other distractions are a bonus. If they were to disappear no one would be dropping their internet connection. Trust me, with bandwdth as it is, free video is not going to disappear.

All things considered I think non-commercial websites like Wikipedia or Internet Archive are actually the most valuable ones. And even without ads they will not disappear because passionate dedicated people create them for non-commercial reasons. And the cost for the individual to store data and publish online keeps decreasing.

The internet has heaps of inherent value that has nothing to do with advertising. Especially with today's computing power and bandwidth. It's like long distance calling anywhere in the world for a set monthly fee. And anyone can write software to send and receive over the network. Sign me up. For life.

Anyone who used the internet in the late 80's early 90's before commercial activity was permitted, when bandwidth was limited and expensive, knows this.

By all means argue for ads if it's your cash cow - try you best to save your golden goose, but spare us the absurd arguments that ads are what give the internet value.

[ktRolster]

but spare us the absurd arguments that ads are what give the internet value.

Indeed. Some would argue they reduce the value of the internet.

[bad_user]

The Internet Archive would be nothing without actual content to archive. There are of course hundreds of thousands of valuable blogs (millions? tens of millions?), along with forums where people gather, discuss and share, such as this one. Such things won't disappear, because the act of publishing, talking to people, sharing has value even when done for free.

That said I do worry about the future of the Internet.

I think for example the game industry has been ruined by in-app payments, because of the "free to play, pay to win" model. It's only natural that this evolved of course, as the attraction towards "free" stuff is irresistible. We are so irrational in our decision making process, that we'd rather try out something free that will frustrate us endlessly until we pay. I also think the music industry is ruined by streaming services. Yeah, we had radio stations before these, but those were valuable for discovering music, after which you ended up buying vinyl records, magnetic tapes, cassettes, CDs, etc. And people owned those after buying them. The concept of collecting music is fading away. Even once respectable software is moving in that direction. My favorite subject being 1Password, which is moving to a subscription based model, managing to be both rentware and expensive.

It's just evolution on one hand, but right now the pendulum is not swinging towards freedom. The main problem is that people will pirate if given the opportunity. This says something about how unfair the copyright law is of course, but the response of the industry isn't to make stuff free as in freedom, but to rob people of the opportunity to pirate, punishing and locking-in honest customers in the process. And how are they doing that? Well, they cheat and they lobby and they play mind tricks and they push hostile software and devices on us, etc. And we gladly accept all of that, with a smile on our faces, in the name of grandmas everywhere that need handholding.

And going back to ads, you might hate ads, you might not think they provide value, but alternative business models are coming and I believe they'll be far worse. And that's because, judging by recent industry trends, there's no reason to suspect otherwise.