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The Brave browser is brilliant, but probably not for the reasons you think

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Re: The Brave browser is brilliant, but probably not for the reasons you think

#181

Post by graeme »

divbzero wrote: post #178

> The idea that a single user browsing the web could have earned Brave anywhere near $25 in ad revenue is (coming from someone who worked in the ad industry for a couple years) completely absurd. Wait, is that what my attention is worth to the online ad industry? I would gladly pay <$25/month to not be tracked for ads. (Or, even better, enjoy that as a consumer right protected by law.)

I think they're talking about an average user. Someone willing to pay not to get ads is probably worth more than $25.

Re: The Brave browser is brilliant, but probably not for the reasons you think

#182

Post by tomstockmail »

anoncake wrote: post #118
solnyshok wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fx preview has uBlock

Yes, it's the only supported "add-on", it's preinstalled and cannot be removed. It's like the people in charge don't even know what an add-on is.

Click on it, click remove.

I'm not 100% if I had to specifically install it from the add ons menu, but I believe I had to.

Also this is Firefox Preview we're talking about - even if it wasn't able to be uninstalled it's software that's in testing!

Re: The Brave browser is brilliant, but probably not for the reasons you think

#183

Post by divbzero »

graeme wrote: post #181
divbzero wrote: post #178

> The idea that a single user browsing the web could have earned Brave anywhere near $25 in ad revenue is (coming from someone who worked in the ad industry for a couple years) completely absurd. Wait, is that what my attention is worth to the online ad industry? I would gladly pay <$25/month to not be tracked for ads. (Or, even better, enjoy that as a consumer right protected by law.)

I think they're talking about an average user. Someone willing to pay not to get ads is probably worth more than $25.

Fair point.

I currently pay $0 for a decent ad blocker but my DNS is still unencrypted. I would not be surprised if my former ISP (Big Cable Co) found a way to track me that way, hopefully my current ISP (local utility) would not. Also suspect that data can leak through the ad blocker anyway via first-party requests.

Re: The Brave browser is brilliant, but probably not for the reasons you think

#184

Post by [deleted] »

fastball wrote: post #157
surround wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure how decentralized BAT is when a single entity, Brave, controls it. Like the blog said, if you donate to a website that isn’t signed up on Brave’a program, Brave keeps the donation for itself.

I can send you BAT right now, which you can then immediately sell for fiat currency, without the involvement of anything related to Brave. Brave does not control BAT – it is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain. Do they still own much of the BAT in circulation? Yes. But other than tanking the value of the BAT you own by selling all of theirs at once (a silly thing for them to do), there isn't much power they ca…

[deleted]

Re: The Brave browser is brilliant, but probably not for the reasons you think

#185

Post by thekyle »

fastball wrote: post #131
surround wrote: post #113

The reason why “the internet is broken” is because of ads. Ads incentivize tracking and clickbait. In the end, ad companies, such as Google and Faceboook, act in the interests of advertisers, not users. Brave is an ad company. On the other hand, companies which are supported by user donations act in the best interests of users. This includes websites such as Wikipedia and the Internet Archive. Brave does offer the op…

You, uh, don't need Brave to be the middleman for all user donations. That's exactly why they built the whole thing on top of decentralized cryptocurrency.

Maybe Brave doesn't technically control BAT, but last time I checked I couldn't even withdraw my BAT from the Brave Browser wallet without verifying my identity to Uphold (a crypto exchange that Brave partnered with). It also appeared to me that Brave Rewards (which uses BAT but is separate) is just a centralized website which people need to register on in order to get the money donated by Brave users.

Re: The Brave browser is brilliant, but probably not for the reasons you think

#186

Post by monadic2 »

xixixao wrote: post #173
surround wrote: post #113

The reason why “the internet is broken” is because of ads. Ads incentivize tracking and clickbait. In the end, ad companies, such as Google and Faceboook, act in the interests of advertisers, not users. Brave is an ad company. On the other hand, companies which are supported by user donations act in the best interests of users. This includes websites such as Wikipedia and the Internet Archive. Brave does offer the op…

I'd like to remind everyone that we enjoy this conversation on a FREE forum, which is basically one big AD for a startup incubator company. Which I personally have no gripes with.

I would be more sympathetic to your worldview if the quality of the free services online weren't clearly lowered to service ad views.

Just think how useful google could be if you could filter out commercial results, or import a domain blocklist, or control the ranking algorithm.

Think how usable social media would be if it weren't a way to turn money into "engagement".

Think how much better news sites would be if journalists weren't dependent on wealthy patrons who have the power to withdraw their funding when they perceive bad or unfair coverage.

The illusion of a service being "free", without giving the user any power to actually dictate what makes a service high or low quality, is ultimately just lowering the bar on what the role of technology should be—it's not just a machine for a small portion of society to have "passive income".

Re: The Brave browser is brilliant, but probably not for the reasons you think

#187

Post by latchkey »

ac29 wrote: post #130
fullstop wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've apparently earned 103 BAT since last September. Something is up, though, because I earn way more than estimated at the end of the month.

To save folks a search: that's worth about $24 at current market price (less whatever fees it would take to convert in to your currency of choice). $4/month.

Amazing that a web browser actually pays you to use it.

Re: The Brave browser is brilliant, but probably not for the reasons you think

#188

Post by ohbleek »

ljm wrote: post #179
bsanr2 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do. This is one of the few places where a tech outsider can be exposed to some of the topics that are on the minds of insiders. The caveat is that criticism of any of the conceptual bodies orbiting the starry notion of "tech startup" (social ramifications, diversity and discrimination, wealth and income, etc.) are heavily frowned upon. Now, are mods going through and sweeping away every comment that proclaims, "Tec…

I think HN attracts a certain political/socio-economic bias (for better or worse) but as far as public internet forums go, it is definitely one of the better ones for high quality discussion, whether you agree with what's being said or not. I'm not sure HN would benefit from requiring a paid subscription. I think that aversion to the aforementioned criticism would be avoided even more, or otherwise replaced with shee…

Are you aware of any other forums with high quality discussion? The quality of discussion here can be found occasionally in a few subreddits but they are even more niche and users have less decorum overall.

Re: The Brave browser is brilliant, but probably not for the reasons you think

#189

Post by ljm »

ohbleek wrote: post #188
ljm wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think HN attracts a certain political/socio-economic bias (for better or worse) but as far as public internet forums go, it is definitely one of the better ones for high quality discussion, whether you agree with what's being said or not. I'm not sure HN would benefit from requiring a paid subscription. I think that aversion to the aforementioned criticism would be avoided even more, or otherwise replaced with shee…

Are you aware of any other forums with high quality discussion? The quality of discussion here can be found occasionally in a few subreddits but they are even more niche and users have less decorum overall.

To be honest, I used to frequent a few forums that were high quality because of the established community. RLLMUK was my old go-to for gaming chat and, at least back then, was frequented by gaming/games journalism industry insiders too. It was fantastic and most of the people I chatted with back then found careers as journos and game devs.

That was back in the early 2000s where if people wanted to protest against a forum's new policy, or a decline in quality, they'd just boot up a fresh instance of phpBB and essentially 'fork' the community. I don't know anyone back then who hadn't had experience setting up and modding a phpBB board, or dealing with vBulletin and Invision Power Board. I kind of miss that because now we just have various SaaS that run managed communities through apps...

There are likely plenty out there, but you're probably looking at niche forums that require some time and investment to become a part of. HN is one of those. Reddit will only offer you so much.

Re: The Brave browser is brilliant, but probably not for the reasons you think

#190

Post by onyva »

fastball wrote: post #139
onyva wrote: post #120

“...its built-in advertising network and Ethereum-based crypto token exchange system.” I really don’t think that that’s a selling point. I really think most would think this is not a browser’s job. Also, not our job to help Eich displace Google. As users, this is not our concern at all.

Integrating those things into the browser is for: 1. user privacy – the data for ads is processed in your browser and then only meta is sent to the ad network. Rather than the current system, where Google's/Facebook's ad network fingerprints your browser and then tries to track everything you do on the web. 2. convenience – you can have the browser automatically donate money to the people/websites you visit most with…

1.) I’m not gonna trust a company like Brave with anything personal. Why would I?

2.) We’ve got Mozilla doing a great job.

Monetizing the internet is not a priority I care about and ads are not what I need my browser to optimize.

Also there will always be the problem of Bernden Eich who gave money to take away people’s most basic right in California. I can’t support that.

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