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Mozilla’s newest app perfectly captures the ethical dilemma of ad-blocking

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Mozilla’s newest app perfectly captures the ethical dilemma of ad-blocking

#81

Post by dragonwriter »

cromwellian wrote: post #80
dragonwriter wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not a choice between a world of paywalls and a world of ads -- closed, for-paying-users services are going to exist whether or not ad-based services also exist. And, open services without distinct ads (which may themselves be ads, on some level) that are paid for by someone other than the direct user are going to exist. The real question is in what circumstances, and to what extent, are services with intrusive ad…

Yes, there's an opportunity cost for content, but different people have different marginal utility for their dollars vs their time. For children, or the unemployed, the marginal utility of a dollar is quite high, but free time is cheap. Likewise, the unauthenticated, un-paid-for Web has permitted frictionless composition and repurpose of content without the need to 'do deals'. Beyond just the consumer issue, a non-Ad…

> Likewise, the unauthenticated, un-paid-for Web has permitted frictionless composition and repurpose of content without the need to 'do deals'.

Yes, but...

> Beyond just the consumer issue, a non-Ad supported web would have severely limited its evolution, by forcing content to require authentication.

Having no ads would have eliminated one of the several means of funding content that doesn't require authentication -- but ads aren't the only mechanism that doesn't require authentication -- and, yes, any limitation in available models would have limited the ways in which the web could evolve, by changing the opportunity space.

Re: Mozilla’s newest app perfectly captures the ethical dilemma of ad-blocking

#82

Post by frik »

frik wrote: post #5

WashingtonPost.com serves many ads and consumes too much memory resources - thanks for crashing my Safari (iPad) while reading the article, a very unnerving moment. I still have no Safari adblocker installed, as I believe in ads. But such bad ads citizens needs a disruption ala Google text-based Ads 10 years ago that changed the ads landscape.

Ghostery found:

  Amazon Associates (Advertising, Affiliate Marketing)
  ChartBeat (Analytics)
  Criteo (Advertising, Search)
  DoubleClick (Advertising)
  Effective Measure (Analytics, Analytics)
  Krux Digital (Beacons)
  MediaMath (Advertising)
  Moat (Advertising)
  Omniture - Adobe Analytics (Beacons)
  OpenX (Advertising)
  Outbrain (Widgets)
  Polar Mobile (Advertising)
  Sailthru Horizon (Beacons)
  ScoreCard Research Beacon (Beacons, Analytics)
  Twitter Button (Widgets, Social)
Way too much "Analytics" in the list.

116 requests; onload: 7.77s

Chrome DevTools timing said:

2.71s Scripting; 636ms Rendering; 210ms Painting

Dozens of reflows are visible in the flame graph! Poor mobile devices, such websites eat battery like there's no tomorrow. Summary: One hell of a page.

Re: Mozilla’s newest app perfectly captures the ethical dilemma of ad-blocking

#83

Post by draw_down »

ksk wrote: post #77
neves wrote: post #31

I really love to be called anti-ethical by advertisers. Last time I watched TV I saw ads that told me: to drink unhealthy sugar beverages, that my son would be ashamed if I have an old and cheap car, that I should use a financial service that would give a terrible return on investment, that happiness is the same than buying things, alcohol is to only way to have fun. Sure, I have no ethics because I want to control w…

OK, hyperbole aside, if you really want or care enough to solve this problem, you should refuse to visit/watch content with ads. Support people who use alternate business models. Content creators are people who want to get paid; if you show them an alternate way to succeed, they're going to want it.

Indeed, it's quite easy to shake one's head at the message of ads and stop there. Where does the demand come from? Where does the money go? Why does this system have this outcome? It's too hard to think about that, let's just condemn the ads and move on.

Re: Mozilla’s newest app perfectly captures the ethical dilemma of ad-blocking

#85

Post by gherkin0 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #49
Splines wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be that guy, but I cut the cord, and it's seriously like a breath of fresh air. It's like discovering ad-blockers in the era of incessant pop-ups and flash ads.

It's always a good advice, but you're ignoring GP's point that I believe the discussion around ads should be focused on: that a lot of advertisers are malicious actors. They are bunch of liars who want to profit by hurting people, and this is somehow not only totally legal, but a respectable occupation.

I wouldn't say advertisers are malicious actors: they are amoral ones. They want maximum short-term profit, and they don't care if they hurt people or not in the process.

Re: Mozilla’s newest app perfectly captures the ethical dilemma of ad-blocking

#87

Post by gherkin0 »

muddi900 wrote: post #67
justaman wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm reminded of the ads that had audio. These were the worst! Imagine an adblocker that blocks what we know are the worst. Then, implement an upvote/downvote overlay system to the ads and if downvoted, dynamically remove them from the page and future requests on a per user basis. The votes are tallied and if beyond a certain threshold, global block. Then, sell this information back to the advertisement agencies.

Autoplaying videos. They are the worst. Especially of you have metered internet, which a sizable population does.

They're annoying even if they're legitimate, like CNN having an auto-play video (even on mobile) at the top of every news article.

I use firefox, so I disabled them all using media.autoplay.enabled = false. That solved it, but it made Youtube embeds and a few other things work a little funny.

Re: Mozilla’s newest app perfectly captures the ethical dilemma of ad-blocking

#89

Post by scotty79 »

There's no social contract between me and people who put up things on the internet. I never entered any. They put up there some stuff for consumption and I will consume it or not whatever they serve in whole or in part solely on my terms. I have my own set of terms and conditions and any site I visit automatically agrees to it because it's no more stupid wishful thinking as the other way around.

Re: Mozilla’s newest app perfectly captures the ethical dilemma of ad-blocking

#90

Post by scotty79 »

What's up with the recent onslaught of ads for scams like "One easy trick to ...'?

Why would any ads publishing network destroy its own value by publishing such criminal crap?

It's like you have a forest and you burn it because somebody paid you to make a lot of smoke. You are destroying your business and helping poison the environment at the same time.

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