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Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking measures

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Re: Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking measures

#351

Post by distances »

hanbura wrote: post #313
distances wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not actually sure how we ended up living in a world where those terms and conditions are legally meaningful IANAL, but as an European I'm pretty sure they aren't legally meaningful. To be honest, I don't consider any online T&C's to actually affect me, and only pay attention to explicitly mentioned licenses for content. I have no idea how far from actual reality this is.

According to German law those T&C are meaningless for just browsing the website (they neither ask you to agree nor offer the possibility of reading the terms in advance). And as long as you aren't acting as a business, those "I agree" checkmarks don't bind you to any "surprising" terms (in other words: not even the law expects you to read them) (IANAL)

Cool, thanks for the confirmation!

Re: Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking measures

#352

Post by Johnny555 »

donatj wrote: post #345
saguro wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about by manipulating your facebook news feed and exposing you to a carefully selected series of images and headlines to sway your opinion on political topics without you even realizing. How about identifying which youtubers your children are impressionable to, and then approaching them to push unhealthy food products? How about using your porn browsing habits and location history to figure out when you start che…

I don’t believe people are as easily manipulated as you do. I don’t buy things I don’t have a pre existing need for based on advertising, or really in general. If anything ads make me less likely to buy something based on the associated irritation. My political beliefs have not been swayed by my Facebook feed. I think if anything Facebook has made people more hardline to their existing beliefs by feeding them that th…

I don’t buy things I don’t have a pre existing need for based on advertising, or really in general. If anything ads make me less likely to buy something based on the associated irritation.

How do you know if you're being silently manipulated? That's kind of the point of silent manipulation - you don't know it's happening.

Maybe you think you wanted that product, but in reality subtle ad exposure made you desire it.

Re: Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking measures

#353

Post by Buge »

gaius wrote: post #208
Buge wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How will search engines make money if not by ads? How will free webmail providers exist? Ad supported content provides a wealth of information for people who otherwise wouldn't have access to it.

How will search engines make money if not by ads? How will free webmail providers exist? How do other businesses do it? By providing goods and services the customer wants at a fair price. Radical I know, it’s only worked for like, thousands of years...

Yes. But locking everything behind a paywall will have significant negative effects for people who can't afford to get past the wall.

Ads provide wealth redistribution. Resources are given to poor people subsidized by rich people.

Re: Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking measures

#354

Post by IronKettle »

executesorder66 wrote: post #309
IronKettle wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So as soon as they shut down, someone else will make an alternative. They exist already. They're mostly horrible. I pretty religiously use DDG, but even then I probably use the !g operator every third search or so. Reddit's already almost entirely open-source IIRC. People have used it to make alternatives. Check out Voat, you can see the alternative in action (you might not like what you find, though).

They're horrible becuase not a lot of effort goes into them. If there's no alternative, then they will drastically improve. Voat is bad becuase of the users. Not becuase it is an alternative to Reddit. If all Reddit users switched to coat, it would have a pretty similar culture and content, becuase it will have the same users. I also use ddg but I haven't used a !g in over a year.

> They're horrible becuase not a lot of effort goes into them.

And not a lot of effort goes into them because there's no money to be made off e.g. a Reddit clone without doing the same things Reddit is doing. A vicious cycle.

> If there's no alternative, then they will drastically improve.

Ah yes, monopolies (virtual or otherwise) are well-known for drastically improving their products.

> Voat is bad becuase of the users. Not becuase it is an alternative to Reddit.

Alternatives are often created by people with strong viewpoints, e.g. Voat.

> If all Reddit users switched to coat, it would have a pretty similar culture and content

This makes a lot of assumptions, namely that the admins of Voat wouldn't quash that (and there's little reason to believe they wouldn't).

Re: Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking measures

#355

Post by FlyingLawnmower »

programbreeding wrote: post #343
dreen wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brave! Chrome engine, built in Adblock, some interesting ideas about paying content creators

I've tried countless browsers on Android, as well as various adblocking plugins and services. I always found myself going back to Chrome because it just worked. I started using Brave about a year ago and I love it. The only thing I'm missing is syncing my bookmarks between Brave on my phone and Chrome on my computer, but a year later and it hasn't bothered me enough to find a fix.

Why not try Brave for desktop? Note: I am not a Brave user, genuinely curious about your experience!

Re: Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking measures

#356

Post by testestx »

AlexMax wrote: post #350
nickjj wrote: post #283

I've been using uBlock since it came out and I just immediately leave those sites that don't function unless I disable it. Whatever content they have, someone else likely has a "good enough" alternative. I also happen to run a blog (no where near a major website) but my thought process is, you should write because you want to spread what you've learned with others, not create a platform for the sole purpose of making…

> I just immediately leave those sites that don't function unless I disable it "Your terms are acceptable." I think that is precisely what those sites want. They would probably prefer not to waste bandwidth on a user they can't monetize.

I doubt bandwidth is their concern. They already wasted bandwidth by showing the anti-ad block wall.

Re: Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking measures

#357

Post by gaius »

Buge wrote: post #353
gaius wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How will search engines make money if not by ads? How will free webmail providers exist? How do other businesses do it? By providing goods and services the customer wants at a fair price. Radical I know, it’s only worked for like, thousands of years...

Yes. But locking everything behind a paywall will have significant negative effects for people who can't afford to get past the wall. Ads provide wealth redistribution. Resources are given to poor people subsidized by rich people.

Ads provide wealth redistribution. Resources are given to poor people subsidized by rich people.

Don’t kid yourself. If the major platforms could exclude those who aren’t in their advertisers demographics they wouldn’t waste a single server on them.

Re: Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking measures

#359

Post by themistocle »

BoorishBears wrote: post #149
themistocle wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Individual choices are insignificant. The future of advertising is being planned by Facebook and Google. Blocking advertisments is a workaround for a broken web. Surfing the web has always been about discovery. Are we supposed to intuit whether or not to visit a site for the first time based on how we predict it will align to some kind of ad rubric? The fact that many websites have bad business models is noone’s faul…

I think you’re playing up a false dichotomy here. Block all the ads? That’s robbing sites of needed dollars. Click all the ads? That’s robbing advertisers of needed dollars. The end game in both cases is ads become worth less, or worthless. It doesn’t matter which side of the scale you tip to cause that. It’s so easy to understand what’s wrong with AdNauseam if you look into the spirit of the tool. The problem isn’t…

You seem intelligent and I don’t mean this as an insult, but I think you’re missing the point.

To use an inexact metaphor, if I am selling gas no one is obligated to fill up at my station. Fuel efficient cars are not “robbing” me. People who take public transit are not ripping me off. My job as a businessman is to make money. Consumers owe nothing to me. If the gas I sell is leaded and no one wants to buy it, I have no right to complain.

If I cut out every ad from my copy of the yellow pages no one has a right to complain. Adblocking is no different.

Advertising has to wake up.

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