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I don’t think comparisons to native compiled code for old low resolution computers are all that valid for multimedia websites.

I can take a single photo with my iPhone that is larger than a Windows 95 installation depending on my output settings.

by edoloughlin22 hours ago|

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And that’s fine because that photo (probably) has some utility to you.

The 39.99MB of ads accompanying the 2KB of text you want to read possibly has less utility to you.

by jojobas22 hours ago|

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As you might be aware, you're not the one paying for it so your utility is not really on the table.

Also consider the utility of an ad blocker.

by toast021 hours ago|

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A lot of people are paying for their data. If a web page uses 40 mb and you have 4GB of data quota per month, you can only load 100 pages per month. Apparently the article text describes the page actually using 500 MB over 5 minutes, which means a 4GB quota can be used for less than an hour of reading.

Maybe it's different if advertisers or publishers are paying viewer's data costs. But some amount of restraint might be nice. Personally, I don't use a lot on my phone when I'm out and about, other than chat apps, hn, text NPR and lite CNN, cause I used to be on a plan with a hard cutoff. But then, I have unmetered networking at home.

by jojobas21 hours ago|

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I mean, the utility that matters is the utility for PC Gamer of showing everyone the ads vs some people refusing to read them over data concerns.

You might be paying for data, but you're not paying PC Gamer for reading them, so your opinion only starts to matter when you quit reading them over how much data they use.

by applfanboysbgon17 hours ago|

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A reader who hits their mobile data cap after thirty minutes on your site will not be viewing any more of your ads for the next month. But if businesses were capable of thinking more than exactly one step ahead for any action they take, the tech industry wouldn't be such a shithole in the first place, of course.

by jojobas16 hours ago|

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I don't think what these websites are doing is "good", but I can't see them stopping any time soon.

by toast015 hours ago|

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I imagine people remember what site they were on when the data usage warnings came up, and they don't come back.

The question I guess is really if PC Gamer earns more by sending 100 mb / minute and chasing some eyeballs away faster, than by using a reasonable amount of data and losing eyeballs at the normal rate of attrition for written word outlets.

by PunchyHamster13 hours ago|

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If anything ads on page built like that will make sure I won't buy that particular product ever

by hedora17 hours ago|

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Careful what you call "low resolution": Windows 3.11 runs beautifully at 1600x1200 in dosbox in HIDPI mode.

1600x1200 is limited to 256 colors. However, you can still get up to 16-24bit at higher resolutions than many modern Win11 laptops support.

by gertop15 hours ago|

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Fair enough, let's use dvd rips as a metric instead. They tend to begin at 700MB.

So by reading this article on PC gamer you've now downloaded the equivalent of a full-length movie worth of low quality code and ads.

by dxdm12 hours ago|

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700MB, that's a CD. ~70 minutes of music, uncompressed.

A DVD (single layer) holds about 4.7GB of data.

by qwery6 hours ago|

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Yes, as I understand it, the ~700 MiB "standard" was derived from the capacity of a CD. A rip is definitionally a copy that lacks some of the original data of the source media.

by My_Name12 hours ago|

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You can easily get compressed episodes of a TV show that are 250MB, so it's like watching a TV series at the rate of 2 episodes every 5 minutes. Obviously better quality is in the range 500MB-1.5GB for a 45-minute episode, so even being generous it's 20 minutes of compressed TV or 70 minutes of uncompressed music every 5 minutes.

Just for ads on a website.

by Aurornis8 hours ago|

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DVDs were in the 4-5GB range.

700MB “rips” are heavily compressed with modern codecs.

by dehrmann1 days ago|

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That's not a fair comparison. A desktop wallpaper could be 8 MB for a modern OS just because of screen resolution. A 4-minute music video would probably be 100 MB.

by abustamam23 hours ago|

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But PC gamer isn't downloading 8mb wallpapers or 100mb 4k music videos. They're downloading ads and and other nonsense.

Plus, if I decide to download a music video, that's on me. I chose to download a 100mb file.

If I just want to read what amounts to a few paragraphs of text with some branding, I don't think it's fair to say that I'm also choosing to download 40+mb of nonsense that isn't text. Maybe in this new modern web, that is a conscious decision I make by clicking on any link anywhere, but I think the point of the article is that it shouldn't be the case.

by joquarky23 hours ago|

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They need to have more ads so that they can afford to pay for the bandwidth used by all of the ads.

by pas23 hours ago|

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not using an adblocker is also on the user

yes, it would be better if all ads were text only, so there wouldn't be this adtech fucking warfare for people's attention

by abustamam21 hours ago|

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The casual user likely doesn't know what an ad blocker is, and many who do likely have one of those ad blockers that may reduce the number of ads displayed but collect everything about your browsing habits.

It's very likely that ad providers expect that.

by userbinator23 hours ago|

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I don't mind small non-animated banners either, but anything animated or even audio is a hard DO NOT WANT.

by 15 hours ago|

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deleted

by userbinator23 hours ago|