So there’s this big mess about ads and iOS9 and how Apple is going to make money and screw so many people etc.
Web 1.0 was full of pop up ads, it was terrible. Web 2.0 was supposed to be the clean web for which we subscribe to (Flickr being the poster child). But Google happened and people wanted everything for free, and everything for free has a price: the web we have today, full of scripts, tracking, hidden ads etc.
It doesn’t matter so much to me. I have always found that most of the best content online is not from websites running ads and in need of revenue. It’s from people writing good stuff, for free. Because they are real.
It is a constant to me.
So many articles trying to make it like they are real, deep reflections on subjects but they just look like so scholar and empty in the end. It makes sense, those writers are getting paid. Headlines are all about money.
Full RSS subscription has been the absolute best to me. Pure content, nothing else. It’s probably the best thing that ever happened to the web.
Back in 2011 I made this and it’s still fucking relevant.
People just gave up choice and privacy completely to brands like Google and Apple, and I’m not talking just about devices and services but also ads (basically Google distributes all the ads on the internet) and hosting (Apple’s 30% cut on anything, all the time, forever). That’s gallons of Kool-aid.
People don’t realize that for example they go to Gamasutra to read an article from Warren Spector on a page serving ads, when the article has been available on that dude’s blog through RSS without ads, a day or two prior.
For the big news, they are everywhere for free outside the web! Yes, paid by ads but their nature is different: ads in a magazine or on TV are not making my hands or TV choke, nor do they track me all around.
People are forgetting that we actually can have a fast, clean, relatively private internet. You just need to fight for it. Never stop to create either. Your think piece/rant might be far more influential than you think.
The last technology we need is super easy micropayment to bypass tech and news giants, then we’ll be good.