Maybe I’m getting too philosophical here, but “be the change you want to see in the world” is really a valuable mentality. If all we do is complain about what others are doing while being unwilling to change our own behavior, it’s not just counterproductive, it’s hypocritical.
[edit] after reading through again, I believe the author is just naive (ignorant, not hypocritical)
[1] - https://neocities.org/
Maybe us software engineers with our awesome salaries can afford the $15/month for an ad-free web, but:
1. Many either can't afford this or won't see this as a need, because
2. Many people don't care about ads being there (see also: YouTube Red), so
3. Content generators will continue to post ads, which
4. Are easy to block if you're even mildly technically savvy
There is only minimal competition as it seems to be nearly impossible for other companies to lay fiber or cable, DSL is too slow, cellular coverage is spotty, and satellite suffers from excessive latency.
The problem doesn't seem to be lack of money paid by internet users, but where it goes.
The is what I call graceful enhancement, or progressive degradation.
What we need are better protocols, file formats, and software. Don't lock into using your software, into complicated file formats, etc.
I set up Gopher, NNTP, etc on my computer, and you can do same if you like to do so.
Maybe we need to bring back human-curated directories and webrings.
And extensions that fix unusable web sites like Medium.
Also sounds like the author should use an ad blocker.
> We need platforms, tools, and legislation that help guide the web to a future that isn’t complete shit.
Legislation to fix UX? Or to resolve the aforementioned cookie issue? I'm skeptical that legislation is going to make any changes to UX in the direction that the author is wanting.
Brave (or at least the idea of it) seems to satisfy the author's requirements around ads. Then again, so does an ad blocker.
Bad technology like this exists in part because people are using it.
We don't need legislation we need public awareness to translate into public action.
But can't find it/remember the name!
