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Is it worth supporting Firefox?

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91–100 of 224 posts

Re: Is it worth supporting Firefox?

#91
When ads stop tracking me, serving malware, and showing fake download buttons, I'll turn off my ad-blocker. Usually if there's a site I visit frequently, I try turning it off to support them. But if the ads are abrasive or misleading, I turn it right back on.

Here's an example of a non-skeezy ad provider which would not cause me to turn my ad-blocker back on. https://www.buysellads.com

Re: Is it worth supporting Firefox?

#92
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you "discourage" my browser, I go away and don't come back. If the site is supported by ad revenue and you actively refuse to permitany ad revenue is it really a loss to the publisher if you leave?

Depends on whether you share the links to others who run without ad blocking in place.

So the site's owners and employees should work for you for free because you're giving them exposure.

https://www.reddit.com/r/choosingbeggars would enjoy discussing that proposition.

Re: Is it worth supporting Firefox?

#93

> I work for a major publisher. Ad-blockers are starting to hurt our revenue big time. No. What's hurting your edit:employer's revenue is years of blinking GIFs, auto-play videos and misleading links thrown between paragraphs. That's the first reason why I started using ad-blockers 15 years ago. The privacy issue is a recent thing. > We're doing a redesign now. Manager says that we should just discourage the users of…

> And a DRM for website instead of only video DRM that exists, so that user cannot view source code, and no extension can block the ads. Other publishers are doing the same thing. Expect new DRM for HTML5 too. I mean noone, absolutely -noone-, foresaw this coming nor warned about the slippery slopes of letting stuff like this into the standard in the first place. Nope. Absolutely noone. This was a genuine surprise to…

I still don't see it happening, outside of silos. There's no precedent for DRM'd content outside of silos (like much of the digital publishing ecosystem, especially with ADEPT and whatever Amazon use), unlike with video and audio (through plugins like Flash).

Unlike EME, there's a far stronger argument of "the web has survived without this for 25 years" (and yes, for better or for worse, I consider a plugin with over 99% market penetration as part of the web), and I think that still holds weight.

Re: Is it worth supporting Firefox?

#94
The Web works because no single vendor has absolute control over the platform, and the competing browsers can keep each other in check. Hell of a thing to watch people in such a hurry to throw that all away. No one would ever abuse a platform monopoly, would they?

(For disclosure, I work for Mozilla. But I wouldn't want us to control the Web, either: competition and open standards are key.)

Re: Is it worth supporting Firefox?

#95
post #66
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a datapoint: if you "discourage" my browser, I go away and don't come back. Same with EME - I will not need your efforts in my life. I've yet to find a site so great that I'll disable security or switch browsers to use them. (Work is an exception; somehow there's always some crappy site with needy requirements. But that's my employer's browser/computer, and the sites aren't major publishers.) So I hope your mana…

> if you "discourage" my browser, I go away and don't come back. If the site is supported by ad revenue and you actively refuse to permitany ad revenue is it really a loss to the publisher if you leave?

OP (on Reddit) also mentioned that their site sells content/subscriptions.

Re: Is it worth supporting Firefox?

#96
post #65
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the bug reports on uMatrix for this?

Don't really know what's going on with this. Now when I just disable uMatrix and ublock origin, I still get that redirect loop and I'm just not able to use Jira/Confluence. Luckily I don't need to use these products that often, so when I read something I just use our Slack bot to see the ticket.

I guess this may happen if browser doesn't accept third-party cookies.

Re: Is it worth supporting Firefox?

#97
post #60

How hard is it to sell a fixed tag or any block of text within an article? Sell it as "this content will stay there for as long as the page is published". The problem is that every major publisher has bought into centralized ad brokers. Google and Facebooks of the world sell the idea that they can personalize ads better than content producers and so everyone relies on their trackers and javascripts to build content b…

>Google and Facebooks of the world sell the idea that they can personalize ads better than content producers and so everyone relies on their trackers and javascripts to build content business online. Publishers should know their audience better than ad servers. Part of the problem is that Google and Facebook actually can know the audience better than the content creator. A content creator only knows that the reader i…

Is there research on how effective the Google/FB model is compared to content based? I wonder if fine grained tracking is even all that more powerful. Regardless, there must be diminishing returns and I wouldn't be surprised if we're there now.

Re: Is it worth supporting Firefox?

#98
> And a DRM for website instead of only video DRM that exists, so that user cannot view source code, and no extension can block the ads

Good luck with that. You could render an article into a DRM'd video, and utterly destroy SEO, accessibility, readability, and the website's whole reputation.

"DRM for news articles" makes zero sense. Movie DRM works because HDCP decrypts the video on the display. ("works" - pirates got the private keys anyway :D) You can't DRM software on a general purpose computer. You can try, and it would be cracked soon. Even the best attempts (Denuvo) get cracked.

Re: Is it worth supporting Firefox?

#99
post #79
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But that'd just bring chrome users who use ad-block. There is no ad-block on _mobile_ chrome. Maybe they talk about mobile clients here?

Every time I read something on Chrome for Android I cringe. The web on my laptop and the web on my cellphone are completely different universes. One is enjoyable and usable. The other is a nightmare of blinking GIFs and misleading layout-breaking ads. I'm reminded of this fact every time I try to read something while commuting to/from work. If I ever felt any guilt about using ad blockers (hint: I don't), this would…

This is why I use Firefox on mobile. You can install Ublock Origin, just as on the desktop. Plus it has reader mode, which is a godsend for some websites who don't optimize for mobile.

Re: Is it worth supporting Firefox?

#100
post #47
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a datapoint: if you "discourage" my browser, I go away and don't come back. Same with EME - I will not need your efforts in my life. I've yet to find a site so great that I'll disable security or switch browsers to use them. (Work is an exception; somehow there's always some crappy site with needy requirements. But that's my employer's browser/computer, and the sites aren't major publishers.) So I hope your mana…

Atlassian products such as Confluence and Jira are some of those tools where I need to disable uMatrix completely to not get a crazy redirect loop when I try to login. Luckily we're leaving Atlassian quite soon, their sites have been such a pain to use for many reasons.

I've also seen this behavior when trying to use Jira in Firefox. It's been a few months, but I was pretty certain it was because I had third-party cookies disabled.
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