Tag: Rant

For years, I’ve resisted installing AdBlock or any other type of ad-blocking software. Not because I love ads, but because so much content is ad-supported (including content I used to write) and there wasn’t a clear way to support “free” content otherwise.

What finally drove me over the edge wasn’t an actual “ad” at all, but the affiliate network run by Taboola. You know the ones, you can’t visit many popular sites without seeing something like this:

Ads are annoying enough, but the Taboola stuff is linkbait too far. I’m not shocked to see it on sites like Newsmax, but when it started popping up on Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo, I decided I’d had my fill. (That, and the “one weird trick” ads had also just gotten too damn annoying as well.)

I keep wondering when, or if, we’ll hit the point when people are willing to pay for quality content online and obviate the need for these crap-festooned banners.

(Post rescued from the dustbin of history courtesy of Archive.org. Originally posted on zonker.net.)