Aside: If you are writing stuff this good (and this niche) I would say ditch the ads. They really will turn off the audience you want to attract. Or at least use one of the developer-focused ad networks that just inline ads not pop them up.
I disagree. The vast majority of the internet doesn’t care, because it’s the internet and this is normal.
The types of readers who will read a blog post and critique the author for things unrelated to the content of the blog (such as the presence of ads) are generally not a great audience to cultivate, and definitely not a great vocal minority to cater to.
There are numerous examples of YouTubers being hesitant to turn on ads in their early days because they think it will drive away potential subscribers and drive down view counts. Then they turn them on eventually, growth continues exactly as before, and their only regret is not turning them on sooner.
Be careful not to mistake the vocal minority’s complaints as a common concern.
1. Either they block the ad, in which case no revenue anyway.
2. Or they don't block it and it looks like an ad ridden site at first glance, so makes some people kneejerk close it.
It's less about the content creators and more about supporting a system / business model that isn't really sustainable and reliant on business practices that distract and in many cases actively harm consumers. Most content creators have Patreon profiles or some similar service for taking donations in a structured and community-driven way, why don't you use an adblocker and donate there?
I use 1Blocker. It’s made of several extensions, only one or two non-essential ones that are not pure content blockers (and so can read the site), and which I have turned off, with still very good results.
Clearly some portion of the HN audience might be unaware, as they are in this thread complaining about ads.
Unless you were about to donate a few pennies to the author, I'm not sure "freeloaders" is the audience they were aiming for.
Similarly, not having https properly configured is a huge turnoff - it literally takes 5 minutes with LetsEncrypt
>even being able to tell that a website has ads
Wew