
The Cowardice of Brave - dervj
https://practicaltypography.com/the-cowardice-of-brave.html
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arwineap
It seems like you have to opt into their ad network.

If you are already planning on blocking ads, I don't see an ethics issue with
allowing people to volunteer to watch ads in exchange for fake internet
points.

I also don't see why they would bother to opt into it.

~~~
lonelappde
Many users want to financially support the sites they visit, but don't trust
those sites' ad networks.

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sgentle
I can only aspire to build something worthy of such a waffling, incoherent
takedown.

The author seems confused about what Brave does (it doesn't inject ads into
websites), confused about how its ads are different (private because the
targeting happens on your device), and confused about the point of the
attention token (combining ad-supported and patreon/tipping models). I love to
get mad about things I don't understand as much as the next guy, but even so
this is a remarkable display of weaponised long-form ignorance.

I'm not even sure they actually disagree with Brave's model. One of the linked
posts on the same site advocates for "voting with your wallet" by blocking
ads, but contributing to the sites you visit monetarily. Gee, I wish someone
could find a way to systematically do that and build it into a browser.

I'd like to end with this quote, from the same author: "But as often happens
on the web, most of the energy so far has been focused on griping about the
bad thing, rather than making productive steps toward replacing it with
something better. The only thing that can really put a dent in web advertising
is a better economic model."

Perhaps the truly brave thing to do would be to put down the boxing gloves and
learn to read.

~~~
threepio
The author is correct that Brave is substituting one set of ads for another.
The details of how Brave introduces these ads aren't relevant to the author's
main argument, which is economic not technological. He does address problems
with the hybrid ad/tipping model.

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noxer
Not sure if the author reads this but I would really really like if he would
write such an article about Coil.com. IMO they try to actually fix the problem
but with a completely different approach. Would be great to read about that
and about possible flaws in their system.

