I also think a lot of people who grew up on the internet have completely and totally forgotten about how bad it really was. They had ads that would take over your computer, ads that would download viruses, ads that would use your modem to dial 1-900 numbers, ads that would open 800 uncloseable web pages full of porn and start playing loud screaming music and moaning sounds to gather the interest of every other person in the house just a shame you for using the internet.

And dear Jesus don't forget about the fucking toolbars. Dozens upon dozens of toolbars installed in every browser, everything from bonzi buddy to AOL email, detecting that a picture would be loaded on your screen and replacing it with one of theirs as an ad link.

Ad blockers have been necessary to use the internet for the last 20 freaking years.

If you're not the kind of person who would go to the STD clinic and fuck every person there without a condom, you should never use the internet without an ad block.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Going to my parents house to help fix why their computer was "running slow" and like 6 inches of their browser was all toolbars that they had no idea how they got there nor knew what they did.