4 ms·

I remember the web before ads became so prolific, and before it became so commercial. There was still content, people still cared about topics and put up web p

I remember the web before ads became so prolific, and before it became so commercial. There was still content, people still cared about topics and put up web pages devoted to them. Without ads, it would still make sense for an individual to write a blog or a company to put up a page that allows others to search or purchase their products. IMDB started as a place to put information related to a usenet group (rec.arts.movies?), iirc. Without ads, there would be a lot less "get rich quick" schemes and search engine fiddling. Websites that exist only to point to information scraped from other websites and wrap them in ads would disappear. If a web site created by some lone coder started to explode in audience size and bandwidth costs, they could go the donation route. I already donate to some sites that provide content I like. I think we would end up with quality over quantity when it came to finding information, and that's probably a good thing. So I'm right there with you. I don't care how someone's business model is going for them. I block ads because they've been out of control since before the "punch the monkey" stage came around years ago.

seanp2k2 11y ago
This. I still generally find that the really excellent deep content on the Internet is written by people doing it out of passion, not out of trying to make a living from it. Are there exceptions? Of course! Stuff like Rock Paper Shotgun exists and I really enjoy reading that, or TopGear magazine on iOS gets my digital subscription e-dollars, but most of the articles that I really spend time on are small personal hobby blogs or forums. Content that exists to make profit for the authors is rarely worth the cost of ads IMO. Let them die.
true_religion 11y ago
I remember before the proliferation of ad-supported content, people used to just charge for content. Back during the late 90s, early 2000s, many forums used to have paid membership programs. If content is desired, even if its user created, you can charge for the platform users interact on.

seanp2k2 11y ago

This. I still generally find that the really excellent deep content on the Internet is written by people doing it out of passion, not out of trying to make a living from it. Are there exceptions? Of course! Stuff like Rock Paper Shotgun exists and I really enjoy reading that, or TopGear magazine on iOS gets my digital subscription e-dollars, but most of the articles that I really spend time on are small personal hobby blogs or forums. Content that exists to make profit for the authors is rarely worth the cost of ads IMO. Let them die.

true_religion 11y ago

I remember before the proliferation of ad-supported content, people used to just charge for content. Back during the late 90s, early 2000s, many forums used to have paid membership programs. If content is desired, even if its user created, you can charge for the platform users interact on.