[0] - rightly so, but that's a feature of capitalism, isn't it?

Demanding that I execute all these instructions without exception is like a subscription service sending me a newsletter in the mail and demanding that if I pick it up, I've somehow agreed to read the whole thing, beginning to end, out loud. Absurdity.

This is an out-and-out lie. They are willing to serve me pages without ads, because they do it every time I browse there with an ad-blocker. I make an HTTP request, their site responds. The HTML code asks me to download an ad, and I, through my ad-blocker, decline. That doesn't stop their server from sending me the content.

If they don't like that, they're perfectly free to design their site to force me to download ads in order to view the content. They have every right to, for instance, show me a video ad, and then have me take a quiz to demonstrate that I viewed the ad and remember it, before continuing on to the rest of the site. If they don't want to do this, that's their problem, not mine.

>No ads = they don't exist = no content.

It's not my job to worry about their business model.

>My bet is that companies just find a way around ad-blocking

Well, they could just embed the ads into the page, such as by serving them from the same domain and making it non-obvious which images are ads and which are not. People have been proposing this for ages. But the ad companies don't like it because they don't trust their own clients to accurately report ad-servings. Again, not my problem. They need to fix their own business model. If they can't do that, and go out of business, that's their problem. They should have done a better job coming up with a viable business model.

This may sound greedy to you, but for you to have the absolute gall of telling people that they need to expose their computers to malware is purely asinine.

You people are naively deluded.

" No ads = they don't exist = no content. It's not my job to worry about their business model."

You don't seem to grasp the realpolitik here.

No ads = no content - in the long run.

Get it?

You don't seem to grasp the math here.

If there are no ads, they, and all their peers cease to exist.

Or else they go full paywall.

I'm not even making an ideological statement - although I could very well do that, I don't need to.

Do you know the reason that there are maybe 1/3 the number of foreign correspondents for major news networks - and why there is so little coverage of Middle East etc? Because CNN now competes with click-farms like Buzzfeed. Less revenue = less product.

So it's the 'choice' consumers make.

These things don't exist in a vacuum they are real.

You don't want ads, you don't want to pay - they you are 'de facto' saying you don't want the content in the long run.

There is no argument against this - you can rant and rave as much as you want about side issues such as 'the http stream belongs to me' yada yada yada - it's totally irrelevant.

No ads (or pay, or donations) = no content.

It's as simple as that.

"This may sound greedy to you, but for you to have the absolute gall of telling people that they need to expose their computers to malware is purely asinine."

No - I am not exposing people to malware by suggesting that they 'not use ad blockers'. Because 99.9% of the world does not use adblockers and don't face such malware problems. I'm not even suggesting they 'not use ad blockers'. I'm merely pointing out the reality of the situation.

Denying reality is the only 'asinine' thing going on here.

You didn't mention the other options -- publishers could get together and come up with a micropayment standard so users can pay the few cents for each view that the advertiser would have earned from ads.

I use an ad blocker, not because I am opposed to paying for content I view, but because ads are annoying and distracting, and I'd be happy to pay them the money they are earning from ads.

But what I'm not willing to do is pay "just $3.99 for unlimited access to our site!". I'm not going to pay $50/year for access to a site that I might only visit a couple times a month or less.

But let me fund $10 a month into a micropayment account, and then dole out payment for each page view, and I'll gladly sign up -- as long as it's an open standard so with one funding account I can visit pretty much any micropayment site.

https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/

They show cat pictures instead of ads, while still letting you pay a couple pennies to the publishers.

It still fails the 'open standard' test.

It allows you to do what you described as wanting for most sites, and you're not going to use it because it's not perfect? You should try it.

"Here’s how it works: when Contributor users visit a site in Google’s network, their monthly contribution is used to bid on their behalf in the ad auction—so they, rather than an advertiser, end up buying the ad slot."

> It allows you to do what you described as wanting for most sites, and you're not going to use it because it's not perfect? You should try it.

Someone being able to pay extra to get past my ad blocking is not what I want. Nor do I like the way money is allocated from such a system. But beyond that, being adsense-only means it doesn't affect the worst quarter of ads, and I can't even lobby those sites or ad networks to join the micropayment system. Also the system I want has a "this site tricked me, don't give them money" button.

If it could merge with flattr and invite other companies, then it would have a real path forward toward an ad-free landscape and I would be much more willing to use it.

Patreon has a lot going for it in the sense that if you support stuff you like, you will see more of it.

Who's naively deluded now?

No ads = not much for you to download.

Realpolitik will very quickly trump any ideological arguments.

Waiting for it. Because I predict that with ads gone, the content that will be gone is the worthless kind. People are fine with sharing stuff for free out of the goodness of their heart, and they're also fine with asking for money for their services.

The problem with ads is that ad-driven sites serve content created only to support their ad-driven business model.

No they won't. The entire way the web works gives far more control to the client with regards to what they do and don't see. There will never be a way around ad blocking.