I lived through the early internet, and by and large you didn’t come across much page-view monetization or engagement-maximization tactics.

What do you call banner ads?

Banner ads back then were more obnoxious. Today they are deceptive.

The point being made here is that it wasn’t perfect before but for many it was better.

You do remember the punch the monkey ads that were just an animated gif that you could click anywhere and “win”. They were an early form of engagement bait.

There were unscrupulous people posting on Usenet for monetary gain before the web

Oh man. Pop under ads. Those sucked. I’d still take the old Internet with pop under ads over what we have today.