Everyone, including Irreal, is always yap, yap, yapping about adtech and tracking ads but few actually do anything about it. To be fair, there’s little most of us can do other than post screeds and write letters to our congressional representatives about it. Techdirt, however, is an actual Website that serves ads and has chosen to do something.
Techdirt tired of the crappy ads that (apparently) all the ad brokers provide and most of all tired of dealing with Google, who, at the end of the day, is behind all the ads and their abuses. Even more disturbing, Google constantly complains about any content that disparages Google and threatens to retaliate by withholding the ads that sites depend on to fund their operations.
Techdirt tried switching ad providers but it didn’t help because they all depend on Google. Finally, they just stopped serving ads. That’s a big deal because it leaves them with no income other than what their grateful users are willing to contribute. They could, of course, put up a paywall, but they didn’t want to restrict access to their site so they fell back to—effectively—providing a tip jar and offering to deal one-on-one with advertisers who want to provide quality, non-tracking ads that don’t annoy and abuse their readers.
This is literally putting your money where your mouth is and I wish them success. In the end, change will come only if more sites take a stand like this. John Gruber agrees and celebrates Techdirt’s actions. If you use and enjoy Techdirt, consider giving them a few dollars.