&gt; Alternatives like donations or PWYW have been tried and they almost always fail.<p>1. Most businesses fail, period. I think you would be hard-pressed to prove they failed because they doesn&#x27;t have ads.<p>2. You conveniently ignored half the alternatives to ads that I listed, probably because there are numerous examples of successful subscription-based content providers.<p>&gt; In a world complying with your rules, most of the modern web doesn&#x27;t exist, because no-one would &quot;ethically&quot; be allowed to contribute to it without falling short of your standards.<p>This is true, but I&#x27;m not sure why you see this as a bad thing. Most of the modern web is noise that makes it harder to find signals I care about. Sites that get their money from me are more likely to give me content I want than sites that get their money from ads and malware.