This is wrong on so many levels. The author assumes direct monetization strategies are viable for 100% of target demographics on the web. Not everyone has the

This is wrong on so many levels. The author assumes direct monetization strategies are viable for 100% of target demographics on the web. Not everyone has the ability or desire to pay for information. Take Google for example: the overwhelming majority of their income comes from ad revenue. While I don't dispute the horribleness of some ad implementations out there, ads represent a way to monetize off one's entire audience — an infinite increase in accessibility as compared to a paywall. Freedom of information is one of the core tenets of the web. I'd rather pay with my time than see a popup asking me to pay up. Although it might not be immoral to block ads (depending on your worldview,) the reverse is true as well. Webmasters aren't obligated to spend server resources on people who block ads. If the author is so adamant about all services having equal or better alternatives, I'd love to see his reaction if Google suddenly stopped serving requests to clients with ad blockers.