🐢 Keb Is adblock stealing? Do you use adblock? Why? Sure, advertisers don't have the right to your attention, but don't the content creators have the right to your financial support?

👨‍💻 Matthieu V. For me it's not stealing if you support in an other way, also adtech is toxic for the web..

🗨️ Fui It's a false dilemma. They're investing in content creation in hopes they'll capture our attention. They're investing upfront, in hopes to recoup that by what advertisers will be paying. It's a gamble. That we're able to consume the content without watching the adverts is just an unlucky side of this kind of business. If I open a bookstore with free coffee in hopes of capturing buyers, and people go there for the coffee and not the books, maybe I have a bad business plan.

🐢 Keb Maybe you do have a bad business plan doing that. But I have a choice as the consumer to say, "hey, maybe it's not nice to come here only for the coffee. I'll buy a book or a pastry every now and then to show my support."

🗨️ Fui Again, the burden is not on the consumers, but on the producers. In my example, if my bookshop's only worth is the free coffee, no wonder it's doomed to fail. And shaming you onto thinking you're just a bad freeloader does not make my bookshop any better or viable.

🐢 Keb That's a pretty unempathetic and Darwinian way to look at it. Essentially you're saying "it's not my problem" and thus you hold no responsibility to abide by the implied contract that you *will* look at ads.

🗨️ Fui Ads are a scourge. They are not needed, they are not good. That we are thrown into this model and take it to be normal is a perversion of what is right. I'm not unempathetic with creators. If I really value their work, I contribute to it with what I can. That a lot of content is available and I can consume it without seeing ads is just a reflex of mass production of content. If, for instance, most of the content available was to be paid upfront, I wouldn't consume it anyway.