3 ms·

Before ads on the web, we had tons of non-state-sponsored sites without pay-walls. I see no reason it would deteriorate into that.

manigandham 11y ago
When exactly was this "before ads on the web" period of history? I hear this a lot but there was just a very small early period where a few enthusiasts were on bulletin boards (and definitely not "tons of sites"). As soon as the web was mainstream and had any appreciable amount of content, there were ads right alongside.
- DanBC 11y ago
  1996 and earlier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercialization_of_the_Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercialization_of_the_Inter... > Prior to the disestablishment 1995 commercial traffic on the Internet in the United States was limited by law, and prior to 1988 for the most part strictly forbidden, with the exception of traffic with research and defense aims.
  - manigandham 11y ago
    There were ads on the internet before 1996. Most ISPs had them in their portals and directories. Also the first cross-network banner ad ran in October 1994: https://hbr.org/2013/02/stop-selling-ads-and-do-someth https://hbr.org/2013/02/stop-selling-ads-and-do-someth
morgante 11y ago
Yes, there were and will always be amateurs and forums. Plenty of content is produced by people whose job is not to produce content. Nobody was getting their news from the web in that era though. People still subscribed to print newspapers and magazines. Content has moved online. Of course revenue had to move online as well (including advertising).
- CaptSpify 11y ago
  > Nobody was getting their news from the web in that era though ummm.... Actually a lot of people were. It just ended up being blogs, forums and other methods. Personally, most of the news I read comes from "non-news" sources. I find the vast majority of news-sites to be terrible in quality.

3 ms·

Before ads on the web, we had tons of non-state-sponsored sites without pay-walls. I see no reason it would deteriorate into that.

by CaptSpify 11y ago

manigandham 11y ago
When exactly was this "before ads on the web" period of history? I hear this a lot but there was just a very small early period where a few enthusiasts were on bulletin boards (and definitely not "tons of sites"). As soon as the web was mainstream and had any appreciable amount of content, there were ads right alongside.
- DanBC 11y ago
  1996 and earlier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercialization_of_the_Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercialization_of_the_Inter... > Prior to the disestablishment 1995 commercial traffic on the Internet in the United States was limited by law, and prior to 1988 for the most part strictly forbidden, with the exception of traffic with research and defense aims.
  - manigandham 11y ago
    There were ads on the internet before 1996. Most ISPs had them in their portals and directories. Also the first cross-network banner ad ran in October 1994: https://hbr.org/2013/02/stop-selling-ads-and-do-someth https://hbr.org/2013/02/stop-selling-ads-and-do-someth
morgante 11y ago
Yes, there were and will always be amateurs and forums. Plenty of content is produced by people whose job is not to produce content. Nobody was getting their news from the web in that era though. People still subscribed to print newspapers and magazines. Content has moved online. Of course revenue had to move online as well (including advertising).
- CaptSpify 11y ago
  > Nobody was getting their news from the web in that era though ummm.... Actually a lot of people were. It just ended up being blogs, forums and other methods. Personally, most of the news I read comes from "non-news" sources. I find the vast majority of news-sites to be terrible in quality.