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I'm increasingly of the mind that:

1. Advertising is the problem.

It's creating technical problems. It's creating UI/UX problems. It's creating gobs of crap content. It's creating massive privacy intrusions and security risks. And for what? Buzzfeed?

2. Ultimately, the problem is the business model for compensating informational goods. Absent some alternative mechanism (broadband tax, federal income tax applied to creative works), I don't see this changing much.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/search?q=broadband+tax&...

3. Micropayments aren't the solution.

http://szabo.best.vwh.net/micropayments.html



Is it not an option to just stop visiting these sites?


Think of the children. I mean authors.

I'd like a system under which creators of quality content would be equitably and fairly compensated. The present system fails this.


What if they already are? I can think of a handful of newsletters that command a three-figure annual subscription price. The people who buy them must regard them as useful and of sufficient quality. It could be that the rabble of news sites drowning in ads are mostly schlock, and that their business model is one of attempting to monetize some of your least-attentive moments.




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