I was about the peace out of this thread and agree to disagree, but your thoughtful reply deserves a response. Then I’m outta here because everyone (including me) is pretty dug in at this point, and it’s Friday FFS.
There’s no avoiding the fact that most sites depend on ad revenue to pay their bills. If I block ads, I’m taking all the good they have they have to offer, increasing their costs, and giving nothing in return. If there were a better way right now, people would be doing it. Based on the general politics of the publishers of this site, I’m pretty sure they’re not exactly psyched to run ads, but they’ve decided it’s the best method for them. I’m sure the merch store does OK, but I bet the vast majority of their revenue comes from ads.
BTW, I totally agree: modern ads are broken for the reasons you and others have outlined. It seems like most of us are cool with sites making money, we just disagree on the method. And then there’s the separate issue of the ethics of circumventing ads. Setting all that aside, I hope someday we figure out something better that addresses the security/privacy concerns you and others have but still get the creators some $ for their work.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do.
