Goodbye Disqus - Your injected ads are horrible Posted by ryansouthgate on 30 Sep 2025 --- Intro This post is a brief farewell to Disqus. Disqus began injecting ads in their free comments system years ago. Initial communication from Disqus about ads was casual and reassuring. The author expected ads to be sleek and unobtrusive, but was disappointed. The Problem with Disqus Ads The ads are described as horrific and poorly formatted. The author blocks ads at home using Pi-hole and uses a Wireguard VPN outside that routes through the home network for ad blocking. Due to this setup, the author had forgotten how intrusive typical internet ads can be. After disabling the ad blocker briefly to check on comments, the author encountered scammy, badly designed Disqus ads. The ads degrade user experience, violate blog design minimalist goals, and invade privacy. A screenshot shows a concerning number of tracking requests triggered by these ads. Action Taken The author has removed Disqus from the blog. Disqus was worsening the blog experience and profiting from the author's content and visitors' data. The blog aims to be a clean, privacy-respecting resource for developers and technologists, free from ads and invasive tracking. Alternatives and Discussion The author questions whether comments are necessary on the blog. Alternative contact methods include GitHub (ryansouthgate) and Twitter/X (ryansouthgate). However, a comments section can be valuable. The author invites recommendations for alternative commenting systems, especially those that respect privacy or are self-hosted. Readers are encouraged to share any effective solutions. --- Thanks for reading, and apologies for the disrupted experience caused by Disqus ads.* --- Related post Previous post: A secure & efficient Node/npm in Docker setup for frontend development