But actually it's not the web, not really. It's the big tech platforms that most people seem to think is the internet now. It's sad to watch how people log on to "Facebook" and not the general web anymore. And then Google in front of everything, like a big cancer growth.

Lemmy is not the new internet either I believe. But it's here to show people that something else can exist. As soon as we let advertising in here though, it's over.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 7 points 5 months ago

The beautiful thing about decentralisation is that if an instance tries to as ads, then you can go to a different instance and see the same content.

If an instance creates as posts, your instance admin can block the whole instance.

Interestingly, the big instances seem to easily get enough donations to cover costs. I think that's the great thing about this model, people are willing to donate when they know it's not some big corporate making profit for shareholders.

[–] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I think the answer is not to gatekeep against advertising actively, but to have a platform that is resilient to that kind of thing. Like, if there were advertising on an instance people would fucking BOUNCE I think. And if it got somehow baked into the platform itself there would be a new fork with the advertising excised before the sun went down.

[–] mrmanager@lemmy.today 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure about that. What if advertising were used to cover server costs, just like donations right now? Then the community may be fine with it.

But I think it's very dangerous to go down that route. Because it's going to become about higher profits, not just covering costs, in the long run.

[–] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I don't know either, but so far not a single instance has even tried to my knowledge. I have a very hard time imagining people being okay with it.

[–] Moorshou@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 months ago

As long as the ads are good ads, I'm using Adnauseaum to block most though.

[–] gwen@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

adding to the old internet thing, using mojeek reminds me of the old search results! searched for something mildly obscure, actually got good results and also a porn site lmfao.

[–] Mojeek@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

there's a safe mode if it's of use: nested in the settings gear menu but also on /preferences (to turn it on for all searches)

[–] gwen@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 months ago

thanks peakjeek