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Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

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Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#121

Post by ssharp »

fucking_tragedy wrote: post #101
ssharp wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to think content creators sit in some evil dungeon, plotting out ways to screw their readers with ads. That's not really it at all. There are a limited number of ad networks out there and publishers attach themselves to one or more of them. At that point, the publisher is largely clear of the process, unless they're negotiating custom deals of some sort, which happens with larger sites but is far less common…

I'm under no such impression. Thanks for the image, though. I am under the impression that they are okay with or ambivalent towards tactics used by the ad-networks, because they'll block you for using an adblocker.

What's the reasonable alternative?

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#122

Post by tremon »

team_doom wrote: post #120
yoo1I wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's the difference: you seem to be getting something out of the ads. For me it's 100% irrelevant. If I need something I will go look for it. If what I need is so special that it can't be found by an internet search, rest assured no-one would make an ad for it. I am not sure why you use the term "cognitive dissonance" for referring to a situation where I consume without paying for something, and I don't feel entit…

It's pretty simple. The great content is created because the site can afford to pay for it. The "something else" I'm forcing you to look at is keeping the servers on. They HAVE figured out how to make it profitable, and you've figured out how to avoid paying for it. Just because you feel that the moral obligation is manufactured doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Paywalls are not the answer in all cases, and I do think t…

you are hurting a business by consuming content that costs them money to create and host without paying for it

And if I chose not to consume their content, how much money would it save them?

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#123

Post by forrestthewoods »

Even legit sites serve malware. It's beyond their control. Ghostery makes money by telling sites what shit they're serving. Because they don't know. It's too many layers of dependency.

There I block all ads all the time. No exceptions. Not even for "good" sites.

The sooner everyone blocks ads the better. If sites go out of business then so be it. They'll evolve once forced; but not a moment sooner.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3044588/security/malvertisi...

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#124

Post by pdkl95 »

cm2187 wrote: post #60
iand wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget Google's free hosting of Javascript libraries and webfonts. The cost of serving those is recouped by dropping a cookie on you. Also Google DNS can give them great insight into domain popularity.

Yeah but there are no cookie in DNS queries. Tracking by IP is a lot more toothless than tracking by cookies / super-cookies.

IP based tracking still works most of the time. Dynamic IPs change very infrequently, and NAT combines IPs in physically (and often socially) close groups. It isn't perfect, but a lot of those requests can probably be mapped back to those cookies.

Google's entire business is based on building large database of tracking (and other) information; obviously their DNS is just another data source.

Just skip the recursive resolvers and run a local caching DNS server that starts from the root zones.

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#125

Post by sokoloff »

saetaes wrote: post #84
cm2187 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like akamai needs to be added to my blockers list.

Akamai sold that business a few years ago: https://www.akamai.com/us/en/about/news/press/2013-press/med...

That may be, but it seems that Akamai CDN is still giving them a data feed. From that press release:

"As a result of the pixel-free technology partnership, MediaMath's clients will gain access to more data for audience segmentation, retargeting, and optimization, with quick and easy activation."

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#126

Post by yoo1I »

team_doom wrote: post #120
yoo1I wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's the difference: you seem to be getting something out of the ads. For me it's 100% irrelevant. If I need something I will go look for it. If what I need is so special that it can't be found by an internet search, rest assured no-one would make an ad for it. I am not sure why you use the term "cognitive dissonance" for referring to a situation where I consume without paying for something, and I don't feel entit…

It's pretty simple. The great content is created because the site can afford to pay for it. The "something else" I'm forcing you to look at is keeping the servers on. They HAVE figured out how to make it profitable, and you've figured out how to avoid paying for it. Just because you feel that the moral obligation is manufactured doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Paywalls are not the answer in all cases, and I do think t…

I would submit they have not figured out how to make it profitable, lest we would not be in the situation that we're in.

Clearly there is a dissonance between the product your consumers want, your content, and the product you're willing to offer them: your content mixed with advertisement. That's an unfortunate situation.

Why does the advertisement make you money in the first place though ?

Someone out there with an actual product or service, want's to sell their product. To increase sales, they pay you an amount of money that they think represents the amount of sale they will generate from the buyers that buy based on the advertisement run on your site. Whether it's through the proxy of some ad network or not.

If I am not willing to buy any products in the first place, I don't have to be factored into the amount the company is willing to pay to advertisers, as it will not increase their sales. If, based on just viewing the advertisement, I still am, that price is slightly inflated.

All what I am doing by blocking ads is bringing that price closer to it's actual value. Now, that's not in your interest as a content producer, but you don't have to be all moralistic about it and try to make me feel bad.

You might argue that that's incorrect, and after viewing enough advertisement I might be persuaded to buy a product that I would not have wanted to by before, but I am not willing to give you that power over my mind for mundane stuff like deodorants and beverages.

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#127

Post by tunap »

sveri wrote: post #62

I started blocking ads when adblock plus was not even a thing. Not sure when that was exactly, 10 years ago or more? However, I did it when they started to add moving ads. There was a site that I regularly consumed (multiple times a day) and that I wanted to support. But, I was not able to focus on the content, everytime that blinking ad just distracted me. So I had the choice, stop using that site or blocking the ad…

I am of the same mind. I make payments/donations to sites I enjoy regularly and block ads wholesale. If Forbes will not let me read their content w/ an AdBlocker, then I will just not read, nor cite, their content. Simple as that. I have weened myself off of much infotainment over the years and as sites bork/discontinue their RSS feeds I will read even less web content. My life is more enjoyable with less noise on the ine, anyway.

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#128

Post by freehunter »

jamespo wrote: post #74
freehunter wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they didn't exactly say "do we have your permission to run your CPU up to 100%, hog all of your memory, and install trackers on your computer? And occasionally, can we install malware on your machine?"

Reminds me of the arguments about not letting in any refugees as some of them may commit a crime.

Once advertisements become sentient creatures and can be considered human, then they should be granted human rights. As it stands though, what you're doing is saying that refugees (who, I remind you, are humans) are basically worth as much as a banner ad on a website. It shouldn't need to be said, but I'll say it anyway: blocking ads is not comparable to genocide. In any way. At all.

Fucking disgusting.

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#129

Post by CuriouslyC »

burkaman wrote: post #111
CuriouslyC wrote: post #100

People question how we'll support content without ads, but I have to take a step back and wonder - is content that needs to be supported really that valuable? Might the world be a better place without it? People who are passionate about the subject they are writing on are going to publish regardless of ad revenue, assuming they get hits (writing stuff nobody reads is a fast track to burnout). Right now, in many cases…

No, it will not be filled by people with "passion", it will be filled by people with free time and economic security. We don't yet live in a world where passion is enough to motivate free content.

Nobody is going to go through the trouble of writing content they aren't passionate about if there isn't a financial incentive.

As for the free time argument, people who are passionate about a subject make time for it. These people you claim are too busy just surviving to write content still find time for several hours of television/video games/other worthless use of time a day.

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#130

Post by freehunter »

thirdsun wrote: post #72
freehunter wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adblock Plus does that. Ad networks can in some fashion request their ads be unblocked, and ABP does some sort of review (I'm not sure how it all works, I don't use it).

I'm not sure, but isn't that review process basically a transaction of money? As in buying your way out of being blocked? That's probably the last thing I'd want.

Fair enough. I know I had heard something about them unblocking "non-intrusive ads" but didn't really pay attention to the details.
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