[tannhaeuser]

Personally I have no problems with ads per se, it's the tracking, privacy, and security aspect I'm concerned about (and also the unbelievable bloatedness of ad-financed sites lately as ad prices race to the bottom). Personally I'd be fine with ads if we could go back to a content-oriented model where first-party static assets are served as ads rather than the targeted advertising we have now. I know others here who have zero tolerance for any kind of ads, though. Trying to grasp what a feasible business model for content creation could be, including paywalled content/micropayments as almost anything seems better than the clickbait and brainwash crap we have now.

[mikestew]

it's the tracking, privacy, and security aspect I'm concerned about

And that's what ads are, per se, in the 21st century. "Ads", as the current implementation defines it from my perspective, are no longer general-purpose and static. No, they chase you around the web and then for weeks will try to sell you the thing you just purchased. They'll load random executable code onto your machine. I, too, have no problem with a static JPG at the top of the screen, but that hasn't been what ads are in over a decade.

Now the counter-argument would be, "but TV and print ads are not like that, so not all ads." Okay, fair argument though that might be, it's only because TV and print can't, and it's not for lack of trying. Print had the CueCat[0], TV has tried (and mostly failed), but those Samsung TVs are looking pretty creepy from what I'm reading.

So to me, it's like saying, "I don't have a problem with authoritarian governments per se, it's all of the spying, control of the citizenry, and propaganda I have a problem with." Well, that kind of defines an authoritarian government, ergo...

Anyway, I'm just being pedantic. Load up those ad blockers, and get Pi-hole running.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat

[tannhaeuser]

Yes, and that's why I'm using an ad blocker, too. But the questions remains what is the Web going to look like as a mass medium when taking this to the extreme and there are only ads and propaganda left as rational incentives to publish content.

Btw, you know you're on a site which occasionally does "native" advertising/promotions, if with decency? Also, think of tech coverage in the last decade or so; it's dominated by big media pushing their agenda aka the "consumerization of IT" (cloud stuff, Fb and Google web frameworks).

[ggg9990]

And websites can sell static JPG ads that are impossible to block.

[dredmorbius]

s/impossible/harder/

One of the first adblock tools I used relied on thevstandard sizes of banner ads to blok them.

Names of selectors, XPATH, explicit element whitelisting, denying all image content, etc, all are possible options.

On desktop I apply a pretty rigorous set of CSS customisations against numerous sites.

Plus the usual adblocking.

[bscphil]

Are you thinking of Privoxy? I have good memories of using it - it was perhaps the second open source program I ever used after Firefox and really got me into coding in general because of how configurable it was.

[dredmorbius]

Ads, per se, are harmful and dangerous, individually and collectively.

There's an ample literature, in media studies and elsewheere, to this effect.

Mentioned in TFA:

Among other things, the online advertising business model has incentivized clickbait—and worse—at enormous scale. Facebook Inc. and YouTube LLC figure out how to make people spend more time on their sites to maximize ad inventory. This has abetted the spread of fake news, violent children’s content, and Logan Paul.