[randomb_1979]

Too bad there is no way to make a blocklist to block all freeloaders from visiting websites.

The person who actually owns anything at all (the website owner) is somehow expected to give everything for free to someone who doesn't own anything at all (the website visitor). Plus I have found that the same people who complain loudly on internet forums about chat widgets (and many similar marketing tools) don't stop using the website itself for the sake of their principles. Hilarious.

[xnyan]

I don’t understand what you are saying. There has always existed straightforward methods of preventing “freeloaders” as you call them from accessing your content. If you don’t believe me, go to wsj.com and report back.

TV Broadcasters don’t get to force you to watch their ads, in fact skipping ads on broadcast tv is a big and legal market.

Furthermore, today’s ad blocking detection can be very good at detention, so there you go - you have your script. When sites detect my adblocking and nag me, I am more than happy to leave their shitty website and never come back.

[randomb_1979]

>>I am more than happy to leave their shitty website and never come back.

Unfortunately, if this is actually true, then you are the exception which proves the rule. That's precisely why I call these people "freeloaders". If they actually stopped visiting my website and wasting my site's resources based on such principles, I would be ecstatic to see them leave.

>>TV Broadcasters don’t get to force you to watch their ads, in fact skipping ads on broadcast tv is a big and legal market.

That's because you already paid for it, and the payment was what allowed the content to even get created.

>>I don’t understand what you are saying. There has always existed straightforward methods of preventing “freeloaders” as you call them from accessing your content. If you don’t believe me, go to wsj.com and report back.

That's an interesting example, considering the number of times you see non-paywalled links here on HN.

Freeloaders exist only because they are being subsidized by those who actually pay. That's exactly why paywalled articles also have non-paywalled versions. If you don't believe me (that non-paywalled versions are subsidized by people who pay), just ask someone who produces the content and report back. Or better yet, ask the same person who produced the content how long they will keep producing content if no one paid for access. As the old saying goes, at some point, you run out of other people's money.

[codegladiator]

> Freeloaders exist only because they are being subsidized by those who actually pay

Freeloaders exist because someone wanted to give something for free.

If someone put something online to be viewed freely and then expects some kind of return on it is hypocritical in my opinion. Just trying to make freeloaders look bad for their own lack of action to put it behind a paywall.

>>TV Broadcasters don’t get to force you to watch their ads, in fact skipping ads on broadcast tv is a big and legal market.

> That's because you already paid for it

Freeloaders already paid for the internet connection.

[Seirdy]

> That's because you already paid for it

This is not true for free over-the-air television.

[robotmay]

I don't see how it's freeloading to not want to interact with a stupid popup chat robot. I will never, ever, use your stupid chat popup. Ever. So if I'm blocking it, you are losing nothing. Nothing changes for you when I block all your marketing tools, because I will not engage. In fact I actively disengage if I see any of them, so by blocking them, you actually stand a chance of me sticking around on whatever your service is, and unless your service is providing chat robot popups, you probably then stand a better chance of me actually making you money.

[Seirdy]

> the same people who complain...don't stop using the website itself

We do stop using the website. Instead of using the website, we use tools like https://archive.is/ and the Wayback Machine to view less user-hostile snapshots of the website.

[austhrow743]

There is. It's called a paywall. More websites should use them.