phpmal

Mozilla have been doing odd things in recent years, almost like they are transitioning into an authoritarian movement. Want to use unsanctioned extensions? No, go away. Want to use non-secure HTTP? Sure, but we will take away your features. Want to work for them but have unapproved views? Fired. All this is from viewing them as an outsider, so you never know, but something is different.

Agreed. It's a subconscious power test by members of a group. Once they decide that you are stronger than them then they will leave it alone - and respect you for sticking with your principles. If they don't then, yeah, the group is toxic.

One of the goals of ad networks is to fill as much capacity as possible before relinquishing control to the website owner. The website owner then passes that unused capacity to a chain of competing networks. The last in the chain is usually a poor quality remnant network with junk ads.

The way an ad network fills capacity is by allowing other ad networks to be their advertisers. Those ad networks buy the crappy traffic and fill it with junk ads.

It's those crappy ads that look bad and may have scams attached to them - they get passed around so much that they can get lost in the system.

That said, premium campaigns can also have bad ads. Like advertisers pretending to be premium clients but under the right conditions (like geolocation, date, time, viewing host) the ads will turn bad. It's a game of cat and mouse, and those ad networks are more geared for sales.

You are viewing it as a business that's flush with VC cash and assuming it will continue.

When cable TV was installed in the UK - thanks to US investment - they dug up almost every pavement in towns and cities nationwide, call centres were local to their customers, the technicians were actual skilled employees who worked in teams of several people.

Jump forward a decade or two. They are deeply in debt. Call centres are outsourced and often abroad. Technicians work for contractors and have nothing invested in the business they represent. If you live a few meters away from a cabled street then there's virtually no chance that they will hook you up.