[ge96]

I wonder how the world would change if ads just disappeared

I get things have to be sold but damn it's out of control

[lostlogin]

Life without Pihole and a blocker is just grim.

Every so often I get exposed to that world. It’s awful.

[BlueTemplar]

I would use PiHole, but them using Github is just a nonstarter (notably because that might be one of the websites I'm considering blocking, catch22 for blocklist updates). Or have they finally moved somewhere else less morally bankrupt ?

[drivingmenuts]

A lot of free services would disappear if they were unable to make some sort of ad-based income. Some people would be unable to do anything except whatever was provided by their government without ad-supported services (thinking Google products, YouTube, etc.) It would eventually go back to the way it was in the old days - a few actually-useful-but-struggling sites, a few paid-for services that might or might not survive, a passel of vanity sites and some incoherent cranks and weirdos (Time Cube, etc.).

Heaven for some, but mostly boring for everyone else after an hour.

[ge96]

that is fair, it's amazing how YouTube can eat a big file for free so you can have other people watch it, no storage cost concern

edit: I'm more talking about the influence on people's minds whatever the ad is in particular the bad ones/narrative

[BlueTemplar]

It's not like storage is particularly expensive unless you start to have hundreds of hour-long videos...

Speaking of, one of the things that the 2012 Twitter APIpocalypse killed off, was Flattr 1.0 (with its buttons on websites to Flattr stuff so at the end of the month the sum of money you set away would be spread over all the Flattrs you made).