Hacker News Reader

I think people have a unique edge here to counter your argument because most of the work that goes into fandom wikis are from unpaid volunteers, and they have every right to move somewhere esle.

"Paying" with ads and having the experience utterly ruined, highjacked in fact, by those ads, are distinct things. You already understand this unless you're an adtech executive, but you're picking nits because you don't want to engage with the point.

It is simple concept - just because part of your business plan is to give out some stuff for free and then lock the users, it does not make you uncriticizable.

There is no reason to be thankful to Fandom in particular.

So what you are saying is it is not actually a free service but a commercial venture that you are paying for with your attention if you don't use an ad blocker? Doesn't that contradict your original comment?

The problem here isn't necessarily being a free service and being run on a few ads, the problem is loading 15 to 20 advertisements, as well as the path of enshittification.