[gfxgirl]

I'm just as upset by bloat and tracking as well but the criticism seem a little off for some reason I can't quite put my finger on.

I go to a restaurant and I can't just walk into the kitchen and grab a plate of food. Nor can I walk into the refrigerator, grab some supplied, and then walk over to the stations and start cooking. Instead I have wait to be seated, order indirectly via a waiter, wait for the chef and staff to prepare more order, etc...

It seems to me visiting a website is similar. The user choose to visit the site. That includes the 3rd parties and less controls. Just like I don't get to pick what sources the restaurant used for their food, nor do I have any say in their hiring or management practices. Nor do I have any choice in the music they play or the TVs they have on (bar like restaurants often have TVs). If I don't like their choices my choice is to be or not be a customer. I don't get to hack around that, walking in the back door and taking the food.

I know the analogy isn't perfect. It's my computer and I have no obligation to let them use it as they please vs as I please. But still, there's some middle ground IMO between the 2 extremes.

[dahauns]

>the criticism seem a little off for some reason I can't quite put my finger on.

IMO the reason is quite easy to put the finger on:

It's because it is framing the problem squarely as one of the user, culminating in the phrase that one is "voluntarily choosing".

If you don't want to do research and customize scripts for every friggin' domain/website (and having to do it again when the site structure changes), there is no "voluntary choice".

If you don't want to accept that this "solution" has to forgo a lot of essential characteristics of hypermedia, there is no "voluntary choice".

If you're not technically versed in these things, there never was a "voluntary choice" to begin with.

In general, if you want to use the World Wide Web remotely as it is intended, there is no "voluntary choice".

[TeMPOraL]

> I'm just as upset by bloat and tracking as well but the criticism seem a little off for some reason I can't quite put my finger on.

I think you're unclear in your mind about the relationship between you and the website you visit.

To use your restaurant analogy, browsing the web is more like ordering delivery. You send a request for food from the menu and money to cover it, and a while later, a driver with a bag arrives at your doorstep. That bag contains the food you order, some packaging, often plastic cutlery, and some advertising. The transaction between you and the restaurant involved exchanging money for food, and the restaurant doesn't get to have any further say about what you do with that food. You're free to throw away the box, the cultery and the advertising leaflets into the bin, and give half of the food to your cat. They cannot, technically or ethically, make you eat the food out of the box it came from, while reading the advertising leaflets.

It's like that with web browsers. You ask for content (via HTTP), you get a response that includes links to other things you're invited to request. You're free to cut the response up and render it the way you like, you're free to request or not request the other linked resources. That was how the web was designed to work, that's how HTTP protocol is meant to be used. Now plenty of websites will try to insist they're more like dining in than delivery, but that's just them trying to guilt-trip you into making them more money. It's not something they're entitled to.

[advertiser]

Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge all include the ability to block certain requests.

https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/netw...

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Network_Monit...

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safariservices/cre...

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/devtools-gui...

The web's first browser, working in line mode, could probably request the text, and only the text, of an article from nytimes.com. It has no capability to automatically follow links to ads and trackers.

https://www.w3.org/INSTALL.html