Morality: I realize I want the content and it's paid for by ads. Viewing the content and not the ads might be seen as not fulfilling my end of that silent agreement. I realize it's not my decision how the site is financed, and I don't pay the bills or worry about click fraud or conversion rate issues with dumb non-tracking ads, but that's not my problem, neither legally or morally.
> What's the alternative most feel comfortable with? Google contributor? Patreon? Something that I'm not aware of?
I feel comfortable with dumb (non-tracking, non-targeted, non-animated) ads. I could go as far as allowing third party ads from a whitelisted ad network with a VERY strong integrity policy (uses ADSafe, states explicitly what limited information is given to advertisers, what information is used for targeting etc.).
If a site can't work without using dubious ad networks then by all means just kill the site. I'm choosing how to consume your site and I have moral quandries about helping kill ANY site that uses todays "normal" ad networks to finance their operation.
I don't CARE whether sites can prevent fraudulent clicks. I don't CARE whether the advertisers can actually be charged per impression or even get stats from their advertising.
I wouldn't lose any sleep if 90% of the content on the internet just disappeared tomorrow because all the browser vendors suddenly added on-by-default watertight ad blocking.
> What's the alternative most feel comfortable with? Google contributor? Patreon? Something that I'm not aware of?
I feel comfortable with dumb (non-tracking, non-targeted, non-animated) ads. I could go as far as allowing third party ads from a whitelisted ad network with a VERY strong integrity policy (uses ADSafe, states explicitly what limited information is given to advertisers, what information is used for targeting etc.).
If a site can't work without using dubious ad networks then by all means just kill the site. I'm choosing how to consume your site and I have moral quandries about helping kill ANY site that uses todays "normal" ad networks to finance their operation.
I don't CARE whether sites can prevent fraudulent clicks. I don't CARE whether the advertisers can actually be charged per impression or even get stats from their advertising.
I wouldn't lose any sleep if 90% of the content on the internet just disappeared tomorrow because all the browser vendors suddenly added on-by-default watertight ad blocking.