The Internet worked before advertising.

It was different, but it was great. I would absolutely go back.

The Internet has had ads since the advent of the world wide web, arguably longer.

I loved Usenet, but I also appreciated being able to have a personal webpage for free as a kid, and that was ad-supported.

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ajs1998 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I would not go back. YouTube is a wonderful thing that I can't afford to pay for, and I don't want to live without. There are so many creators I love that would not be able to create and share beautiful things if they didn't get ad money. It's not all bad.

	▲	quesera 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I agree that it's not all bad. But if I had to choose one or the other, I'd choose no ads. And that's only comparing "then" to "now". I'm confident that "now" will get worse in the future, making "then" all the more appealing! I'm all for the idea of small content creators being able to afford to create their work. I wish content creation did not attract so many people who only do it for money, though. Maybe this would be achievable if the rewards were lower. Advertising sucks all the air out of the room for alternative funding mechanisms. If ads were eliminated, there would be other mechanisms. However, back in reality, I'll concede that (e.g.) Google's massive ad revenue has given them the ability to try a thousand other things, a handful of which will be long-term valuable to the world. But the cost is immense.
	▲	adamwong246 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		yeah but what if (just hear me out) we just SELL our content. Money exchanged for goods rendered. Why subsidize this exchange with ads?

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mhinze 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I would too. Society would not.