[michaelt]

> Let's be honest, ads and ad tracking is not going anywhere

Sure they are - just install ublock origin.

Even if you're OK with the snooping and the attention hijacking and the slow pageloads and the pictures of rotting teeth, plenty of malware has been delivered by inept ad networks. Frankly, I find it strange when someone doesn't block ads.

[cjpearson]

Ads as a revenue model is not going anywhere even if you personally block them.

I'm also a ublock origin user. But it only works because most people in the world are not ublock origin users. I view no ads and am subsidized by the users who do.

[lopis]

When you close your blinds, the sun doesn't go away.

[JW_00000]

To play the devil's advocate: if everyone did that, there would be almost no more free websites. So much of the internet is paid for through ads.

[account42]

> if everyone did that, there would be almost no more free websites

Wrong.

Let's ignore for the moment that ad-funded websites are not free but only pretend to be free (the average user pays eventually, otherwise ads would not make sense for the advertiser), non-commercial websites have existed longer than ad-funded ones. If anything, making "free" profitable invites profiteers that produce mediocre content but know how to out-SEO genuine free websites.

> So much of the internet is paid for through ads.

And the best thing for the Internet is if that part came crashing down. But even for the ad-supported part of the web, almost all of the actual content is generated by unpaid users.

[KevinGlass]

You have no idea how I LONG for a return to that. I DEEPLY wish every single person would install an ad blocker. If ad supported slop went under that would leave us with just paid and passion projects, and we would be far better off for it.

[haileys]

> So much of the internet is paid for through ads.

And look where it's gotten us.

[madeofpalk]

The devil doensn't need an advocate. If this is your opinion, stand behind it. If you don't believe it, then why say it?

[shadowgovt]

ublock is a tiny fraction of users.

If it became ubiquitous, online advertising would respond with something more embedded in the content and harder to block out.

[account42]

> online advertising would respond with something more embedded in the content and harder to block out

And less profitable, otherwise they would already be doing that now. In other words: a step in the right direction.

[shadowgovt]

Is it a step in the right direction? What are the consequences of pulling money out of the advertising industry?