I might be a little crazy, but I like to browse news sites in a virtual machine, without a script or ad blocker.

Michael Tomasek

@briankrebs <Subtly pulls scorecard back out> So are we talking Mint/Fedora/Ubuntu-like or Qubes?

blhue

@briankrebs My home network is ad-free (mostly) due to a pi-hole. This itself is sublime. I also use @littlesnitch and various other measures to counter intrusive junk. The moment I get on my work VPN I get bombarded with ads and it's so glaringly bad. I think, "this is what normal people see" and am grateful I do not. Thankfully, while on the work VPN the vast majority of the sites I interact with are not those laden with ads (AWS console, tech related sites, etc.), but it's still obvious.

x8b0a1a

@briankrebs do you mean tor-browser in a disposable VM?

rthonpm

@briankrebs At this point ice used an ad blocker for so long I've forgotten just how bad it is out there (though your site is one I have unblocked).

Taggart :donor:

@briankrebs I seem to recall a supply chain attack that impacted a bunch of news sites a few years ago?

Robert [KJ5ELX] :donor:

@briankrebs this is not crazy.

Don Holloway

@briankrebs It is bad.

It begs the question who is paying for that thinking they are reaching people?

Bob K Mertz

@briankrebs
The most frustrating thing to me is the news sites say it's because no one wants to pay for news but the reality is they don't provide a fair option for us to pay them. If I want to read about something in a small town 5 states away I'm not about to get an annual subscription to read just 1 or 2 articles. I suspect if all of these outlets worked together to provide reciprocal memberships/subscriptions we would see a lot more people subscribing. If subscribing to my local paper would give me access to local papers across the nation I would absolutely subscribe.

And to anyone that points out that some papers provide an option to pay per article I hear you but most don't and considering the logistics of breaking out my credit card every time I want to read an article is just not practical. Perhaps a service that you pay into a bank and then all news sites accept payment from that bank?

SpaceLifeForm

@briankrebs

I do not even bother anymore. They either want me to disable my ad blocker or sign-in.

I get most of my news here.

#Fediverse

BrianKrebs

@bobkmertz I agree. I bet a lot of people would pay a subscription if they thought it would be like an Eagle Pass that gets you into all the parks for the year. I seem to recall reading about a few experiments in this, but I can't place that rn.