[sarahj]

I have run an ad blocker for at least the last 6 years, probably longer - it has been a staple in my browser setup for so long I cannot stand browsing without one.

The author linked to a tweet which I think requires further examination "ad blocking is shoplifting for the Web".

This argument fails on several fronts, the main one is consent - by loading a website, I am not required to load any or all resources that the server presents to me - certainly in many cases e.g. text-based browsers there is no point to loading these resources - they simply cannot be displayed to the user.

An adblocker is the same, it is a consent mechanism - the server presents my browser with resources that it thinks would be worth rendering with the content, I am free to allow or not allow these resources to be loaded as I choose - and this includes offloading the decision making to other code on my machine.

I don't have a solution for the content creators, I wish I did - I regularly buy books from authors I first discover online. I would be open to micro-payments - however I am skeptical surrounding current implementations as it requires me to submit my browsing history and likes to a third party which is one of the other reasons I run an adblocker in the first place.

[segf4ult]

I wish bitcoin could enable micro-payments like this. I would love to donate small (or large) amounts of money to websites that I found a useful answer on. Unfortunately, for this to be possible every website has to enable or provide a way for me to pay them (be it bitcoin or something else) and all of the end users also must have this same payment system set up, which will just never happen. I just wish there were a better way for content creators to make money than ads. A ubiquitous bitcoin type solution would definitely be a step in the right direction.