• dan@upvote.au
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    1 month ago

    I’m probably going to be downvoted for saying this, but since the ad supported internet is here to stay, wouldn’t you rather see ads that at least somewhat match your interests, if they use a technique that moves some of the attribution logic that used to run on third-party servers to instead be done in your web browser?

    There’s a few models that have worked well online:

    • You pay for the content/service directly
    • Paid users subsidise the free users (“freemium” services)
    • Someone else covers the cost (which is how a lot of Lemmy servers operate for example)
    • You don’t pay anything and it’s ad-supported

    The last is very common. People expect to get high quality content and services, but don’t want to pay anything for it (or can’t afford it), which is why the ad supported model is so prevalent. It’s not going away any time soon, and advertisers are already tracking you. Wouldn’t you want to use a system that involves less tracking?

    • makeasnek@lemmy.mlOP
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      1 month ago

      I’d rather not have ads at all and just pay $5 a month and have all the websites I visit get a portion of that $5. Some people tried this years ago, but the payment infrastructure wasn’t ready for it. Nostr can do it now though, their users “zapped” (tipped) nearly 1M USD (950k) over the past two months alone to content creators on their platform (twitter clone). And there’s a feature to automatically split a set donation among all the posts you’ve liked. No reason that can’t be done for the entire web. All instant, all with incredibly low fees, all payments made directly from you to the site you visited, no middlemen having to manage custody risk.

      Browser extension tracks what sites I visit and then at the end of the month send them all tips. Sites could detect such an extension and automatically not show ads if you have it installed.

      • dan@upvote.au
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        1 month ago

        I like the idea. I used Flattr for a while maybe 10 years ago, which was a similar concept.

        Having said that, for many sites, a portion of $5/month wouldn’t be enough to cover all their expenses, and in some cases they’d make more money via advertising.

    • palordrolap@kbin.run
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      1 month ago

      can’t afford it

      Here’s a thicket of weeds: Why would you want to show ads to someone who can’t afford your product?

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      wouldn’t you rather see ads that at least somewhat match your interests

      No, that means they’re tracking me.

      if they use a technique that moves some of the attribution logic that used to run on third-party servers to instead be done in your web browser?

      The more of my data that stays on my system, the better. I’m not against ads or necessarily relevant ads, I’m against tracking.

      Wouldn’t you want to use a system that involves less tracking?

      Yes. I’m willing to disable my ad blocker if they don’t track me. If the browser places the ads and the only data that leaves my machine is deanonymized and can’t reasonably be used to identify me, that’s enough.

      However, I’d much prefer to just pay whatever the revenue from the ads I see is. Unfortunately, most services are either $5-10/month to remove ads, and there’s no way they make that much from me (it’s probably <$1/month, if not per year). I wish Firefox would do something like GNU Taler where I can load up a fund and websites take a faction of a cent for each page view or something.

      • MightyCuriosity@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        Exactly this. I know a very good local tech website (Tweakers.net) which offers antonymous ads but they are still relevant because they’re tech related being on a tech related web site. That’s a way I could support!