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Comment by paxys | Hacker News Reader

YouTube and every other site on the internet can trivially block all users with an ad blocker but choose not to. Why is that?

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Well they want you to pay obviously, they don't want you to disappear. Setting an expectation that things should be free on the internet is what killed the internet. We all want good things until we have to pay up.

> Setting an expectation that things should be free on the internet is what killed the internet

You must be very young if you actually think that. In reality the internet was infinitely better when there was no commercialization at all.

I’d love to go back to a completely non-commercial internet that only contains things people put there with no expectation or possibility of profit.

I may or may not be younger than you, that is of no relevance other than a vague appeal to defer to your experience about it.

I find plenty of valuable things on the current internet that wouldn't exist without commercialization, the possibility of a career as an individual YouTuber or streamer, for example.

And I'd like to see them continue and be actually paid for their efforts in a sustainable way instead of pining for a return to "all content is just passion side projects".

Because absolutely nothing about the current internet stops people from posting passionately as a side project.

The Internet was infinitely more fun but also infinitely less useful.

I have the rosey glasses too. The reality is that it was just a bunch of edgy kids messing around with no adults in the room.

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