Since this is a "free service shows you ads in exchange for not paying" it seems to me like detecting the ad blocking and returning no content should be ok?

I feel like detecting ad blocking is a slippery slope that would allow all kinds of abuse bordering on stalking, bad performance, etc.

If ads followed the model I'm suggesting there would be much less reasons to block them. I don't hate ads per se, I just hate scams, annoyances and stalking. If I can actually choose which ads I see and have some guarantee that they aren't scams I would actually engage with the ads.

I hate all ads. I will go to any length to block all ads. I will avoid buying any products by any company that serves web ads. I can’t stand folks who shill for the good of advertising.

I somewhat disagree. Online ads in their current form are cancer, but that isn’t the entire advertising market.

Print ads aren’t bad and in fact people are happy to buy magazines with the idea that there are ads in there. In fact, ads are IMO part of the magazine experience and allow you to discover new products.

I personally would like to see ads as long as the points I outlined above are met.

Detecting ad blocking is very simple unless the ad blocker tries to work around it. You find some url pattern that the blocker matches (ex: "/ads.js"), and test whether it's blocked. No stalking, bad performance, etc, required.

My point is that it'll be worked around by blockers, which means they'll then implement more robust methods (which as a side-effect might break accessibility, see how Facebook splits the "sponsored" subtitle in lots of spans) and so on and so forth.

Instead, the ads should be done in such a way that most people don't have any incentive in blocking them (I personally would like to see ads provided that 1) they are vetted and 2) they are for products I'm interested in, based on the choices I make in my profile). Given that, the few outliers that would still end up blocking them wouldn't be a problem worth solving (you can always offer a paid tier to remove ads for the people that truly don't want any ads).

Well no one is obligated to give me content, but I wouldn't call that ethical.