3 ms·

15 years ago regular site used to have a nice banner ad that was related to the topic of the site, maybe some small logo here and there on the right side and th

15 years ago regular site used to have a nice banner ad that was related to the topic of the site, maybe some small logo here and there on the right side and that was about it I did not think about blocking it, did not mind, did not care. That's how ads should have stayed instead of this giant annoying/spyware/loud/popup/... mess. Nowadays I would not use anything without ublock and i am considering storing everything locally so I dont have to visit most websites and only scrape the news. It's especially sad since back in the day making a website, having a webserver etc. was vastly more expensive and difficult while these days it costs literally less than 10$ / month for something that can handle millions of views. How is it possible that something was sustainable 20 years ago is not sustainable now?

freeAgent 2y ago
There were absolutely obnoxious ads, including pop-ups and pop-unders 15 years ago, but at least they were generally contextual rather than targeted to your ad profile.
- izacus 2y ago
  I'm not sure if "Punch the Monkey" was ever really contextual tbh :)
  - freeAgent 2y ago
    But it also certainly wasn’t targeted!
- lousken 2y ago
  maybe something existed in the US already, but internet in Czech republic used to be pretty good with no popups and just a few ads e.g. https://web.archive.org/web/20090302032443/http://web.volny.cz/ https://web.archive.org/web/20090302032443/http://web.volny....
account42 2y ago
15 years ago the battle against popup ads was already fought and won and the ad industry was trying out all kinds of other crap.
oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
> a nice banner ad It's amusing to hear this phrase, but I totally agree with you! Probably the best ads I've ever come across are on Daring Fireball [0]. They're so unobtrusive and privacy-respecting, they're in the source of the page! [0] https://daringfireball.net/ https://daringfireball.net/

freeAgent 2y ago

There were absolutely obnoxious ads, including pop-ups and pop-unders 15 years ago, but at least they were generally contextual rather than targeted to your ad profile.

izacus 2y ago
I'm not sure if "Punch the Monkey" was ever really contextual tbh :)
- freeAgent 2y ago
  But it also certainly wasn’t targeted!
lousken 2y ago
maybe something existed in the US already, but internet in Czech republic used to be pretty good with no popups and just a few ads e.g. https://web.archive.org/web/20090302032443/http://web.volny.cz/ https://web.archive.org/web/20090302032443/http://web.volny....

account42 2y ago

15 years ago the battle against popup ads was already fought and won and the ad industry was trying out all kinds of other crap.

oneeyedpigeon 2y ago

> a nice banner ad It's amusing to hear this phrase, but I totally agree with you! Probably the best ads I've ever come across are on Daring Fireball [0]. They're so unobtrusive and privacy-respecting, they're in the source of the page! [0] https://daringfireball.net/ https://daringfireball.net/