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Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

wsj.com

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Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#171

Post by corysama »

beagle3 wrote: post #152
epmatsw wrote: post #132

It's really interesting to me how strongly people dislike actions like this and the "Please turn off your adblock" thing. If this were a physical store, it's the equivalent of you taking something and the owner saying "hey man, that's not free, this is how I make a living". It seems like the right response would be "Oh wow, sorry, I won't take that any more", not "Go away, you're bothering me, and I'm going to keep t…

It's more like "don't come in to use the AC and shade in the store if you're not going to buy anything". I am not making an opinion on the practice, only on your analogy.

That's not bad actually. Hanging out on FB with and ad blocker is literally loitering in their servers. You are racking up costs for them and actively refusing to provide value in return.

IHMO, it would be very reasonable for FB to deny service to ad-block users. But, I understand they'd rather attempt to keep you around first.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#172

Post by [deleted] »

denzil_correa wrote: post #150
deanCommie wrote: post #7

They are welcome to try. And I am welcome to try harder to block them. As long as they don't try to force some sort of legislation on how people can use their internet connection, and their internet browser to fetch and display content, there's no problem. The real problem is Facebook is already full of advertising disguised as content. From sponsored posts to content from things you "like". So I'm kind of surprised…

> They are welcome to try. And I am welcome to try harder to block them. Technically, Facebook could insert news feed ads like a post from one of your friend (assume that the friend has liked some page or organization). It could be tough to distinguish between ads and posts much like native advertising.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#173

Post by colmvp »

johndavidback wrote: post #164
natrius wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you allow targeted ads into your life, you're putting changes in your behavior on the market each time you touch a device. Those behavior changes are intended to make you give the buyer more money than they paid. The market will find every flaw in your psychology that can be used to take money from your pocket. These flaws exist: Las Vegas is built on them. Targeted ads are the Las Vegas of the mind.

That's all well and good, but a key distinction here is that you are using Facebook for absolutely no out-of-pocket expenditure. Going to Vegas costs actual dollars. I suppose a stark, diametric alternative to being forced to view targeted ads would be Facebook as a paid subscription service. It's the age old issue of 'Someone has to pay for this party.'

I'm honestly surprised Facebook cares. They make billions per year. Are adblock users really a significant amount of users on the social network (I can't view the article at work)? Furthermore, it's not as if adblock users don't already help FB by using the platform, which increases content generation for other social network users to view.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#174

Post by forgetsusername »

epmatsw wrote: post #132

It's really interesting to me how strongly people dislike actions like this and the "Please turn off your adblock" thing. If this were a physical store, it's the equivalent of you taking something and the owner saying "hey man, that's not free, this is how I make a living". It seems like the right response would be "Oh wow, sorry, I won't take that any more", not "Go away, you're bothering me, and I'm going to keep t…

>but it's sometimes hard to reconcile blocking ad-blocker-blockers ethically

There is nothing unethical about it. If you want to be paid for your content, charge me for it and let me decide, voluntarily, to pay and receive it, or not.

This argument comes up every time there's discussion about ad-blockers: if your writing, music, poetry, punditry or photography is good, people will pay you for it. You don't "deserve" income merely by throwing something up on the web and having a user stumble onto it.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#175

Post by blahi »

hodder wrote: post #89
lopatin wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: Why do you block FB ads? I wouldn't say that FB ads are any more disguised as content as, say, newspaper ads. And follow up: If FB decided to shut down some features to ad-blocking users, do you think that would be unfair?

"Serious question: Why do you block FB ads?" Because I dont like looking at ads.

Why do you feel entitled to use facebook's resources?

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#176

Post by orbifold »

curiousgal wrote: post #19

It's really saddening how the world's finest minds are only working on ways to push ads down our throats.

I'm pretty sure the majority of the worlds finest minds work on other things. The majority of people at Facebook will most likely be above average craftsmen, but not geniuses.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#177

Post by TheOneTrueKyle »

epmatsw wrote: post #132

It's really interesting to me how strongly people dislike actions like this and the "Please turn off your adblock" thing. If this were a physical store, it's the equivalent of you taking something and the owner saying "hey man, that's not free, this is how I make a living". It seems like the right response would be "Oh wow, sorry, I won't take that any more", not "Go away, you're bothering me, and I'm going to keep t…

It is fascinating that people believe an equal transaction is occurring in this situation and using an ad block is the same as theft in an age of abundance and mechanical reproduction.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#178

Post by MarkMc »

amyjess wrote: post #131
Leynos wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

uBlock can already do this (I use it for hiding the Twitter "while you were away" nonsense), although I suspect that the next step is Facebook scrambling DOM classes and ids with no discernable pattern.

The next step then is for uBlock to use a machine learning algorithm to analyze the rendered page and hide anything that resembles an ad.

You wouldn't need machine learning, just allow the image to be seen by a hundred users and see how many mark it as an ad.

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#179

Post by blahi »

douche wrote: post #157
epmatsw wrote: post #132

It's really interesting to me how strongly people dislike actions like this and the "Please turn off your adblock" thing. If this were a physical store, it's the equivalent of you taking something and the owner saying "hey man, that's not free, this is how I make a living". It seems like the right response would be "Oh wow, sorry, I won't take that any more", not "Go away, you're bothering me, and I'm going to keep t…

No, it's more like those terrible flyers you get in the mail and shoved under your door, except you have to pay the postage on them. Don't suck up my bandwidth on your crappy ads.

Don't suck up my bandwidth on your crappy attitude. You know facebook is ad supported. If you don't want to look at ads, why do you keep going there?

Re: Facebook will force advertising on ad-blocking users

#180

Post by bitmapbrother »

This was an inevitable outcome because it was only a matter of time before large companies started foiling ad blockers and their rule sets. We're now entering the cat and mouse stage on a grand scale. A lot of people seem to think ad blockers are impervious and can quickly be updated to get around any countermeasures. Unfortunately, it's very easy to get around the rule sets for ad blockers and I suspect the method Facebook is going to use will be unblockable unless of course you want to turn off all images on the site and degrade the experience.
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