• GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 day ago

    I don’t believe a web browser should be designed specifically for one business model, period.

    There are plenty of free sites. Truly free, with no ads.

    There are plenty of paid sites, supported by subscribers.

    There are plenty of sites funded by educational institutions, nonprofits, or similar.

    There used to be plenty of sites that were supported by non-invasive ads.

    I don’t give a damn if everyone uses Facebook and Google. That doesn’t mean we need to cater to their business model at the technical level.

    • refalo@programming.dev
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      1 day ago

      That doesn’t mean we need to cater to their business model at the technical level.

      From what I have seen, it does… if you want to have a popular site that stays running well, and don’t charge your users for access.

        • refalo@programming.dev
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          1 day ago

          You might be right, but I don’t think that’s a problem they’re going to solve all on their own, meanwhile the rest of users will suffer.

            • refalo@programming.dev
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              3 hours ago

              that is the only current accepted alternative to paying for website access, yes

              if you have better ideas though, we’d all love to hear them

              • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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                3 hours ago

                Your stance appears to be roughly “we’ve tried nothing and are all out of ideas, so let’s keep doing objectively harmful things”.

                The simplest idea is not to accept the premise that an objectively harmful business model that only brings value to a shrinking minority is acceptable. Maybe commercialism of every part of the web isn’t something that humanity needs. As for paying for access, there are plenty of extant models that have never been attempted with any seriousness.

                Then again, the whole Linux ecosystem is able to thrive without bending the knee to the ad industry. There’s no reason that a web browser cannot also thrive without ads except for a lack of desire to do so.