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Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

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Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#61

Post by Navarr »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #44

Hang on: The Tee Spring code checks if GA is there and works without it, the website breaks because Ad block replaces GA with a fake object that doesn't have the same API. Perhaps some companies have the resources to check if their websites run with different ad blockers, but expecting websites to work when plugins are replacing and breaking running code is a big ask.

Yeah this is very clearly on the ad-blocker.

I think TeeSpring has the right idea - they're checking that GA is loaded, if it is, then do stuff with it, if it's not, then don't.

I don't understand how a website can and should be expected to adapt to a browser plugin changing the APIs they depend on out from underneath them.

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#62

Post by Moru »

sparker72678 wrote: post #10

I’ve been running into this sort of thing more and more and more. It’s crazy how many page rely on some kind of google tag manager event before they’ll load the real content or perform the main function of the page. Don’t all developers have ad blockers (clearly not)? I understand managers not testing for this, but for my own work it’d never load for me as a Dev, even.

I have this problem too. Every time I want to order something from a new place I have to work out what out of 50 domains actually needs to load in uMatrix. The funniest one is the garage. When I book a time for service I get a confirmation but when I show up at the garage on the date/time booked, they can't find a thing in the system. Or sometimes they just find an empty booking that doesn't even have my cars registration number. I bet it's connected to uMatrix blocking some part of the transaction.

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#63

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

mikelward wrote: post #43

British Airways does this. It's been broken for years.

Yes. And British Airways is renowned for fractally bad IT.

e.g.

outage, 2017

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/31/ba-it-shutd...

https://www.cloudpro.co.uk/it-infrastructure/7800/british-ai...

outage, 2019

https://www.itpro.co.uk/disaster-recovery-dr/34162/british-a...

Supply chain hack, 2018:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45446529

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#64

Post by ignoramous »

Navarr wrote: post #61
helsinkiandrew wrote: post #44

Hang on: The Tee Spring code checks if GA is there and works without it, the website breaks because Ad block replaces GA with a fake object that doesn't have the same API. Perhaps some companies have the resources to check if their websites run with different ad blockers, but expecting websites to work when plugins are replacing and breaking running code is a big ask.

Yeah this is very clearly on the ad-blocker. I think TeeSpring has the right idea - they're checking that GA is loaded, if it is, then do stuff with it, if it's not, then don't. I don't understand how a website can and should be expected to adapt to a browser plugin changing the APIs they depend on out from underneath them.

> I think TeeSpring has the right idea - they're checking that GA is loaded, if it is, then do stuff with it, if it's not, then don't.

I think they could go one step further and may be try...catch (sandbox) all access to third-party services that aren't critical.

User-agents, which browsers are, expectedly do put a lot of control in the hands of the end-users. Such breakages should be factored in and worked around (provided there are enough engineering resources to throw at the problem, of course).

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#65

Post by sofixa »

wai1234 wrote: post #30

Your checkout shouldn't trigger ad block. Stop slavishly bowing to GA everywhere. I'm about to give you money. That's the only 'analytic' you should care about. I'm tired of being treated as little more than a data cow, always ready for milking. Just. Stop. To the person who ignores people who complain because their 'non-standard' browsers fail on their site, why do you have a site if you don't care about your users…

> I'm about to give you money. That's the only 'analytic' you should care about

Yeah, but who are you? Are you an impulse buyer? Returning? Did you spend an hour on the product page? Did you jump between 20 different product pages?

You can't deny that this kind of analytics can be very useful for user conversion and website design. And the site in question tries to do the proper thing, checking if GA works before trying to do stuff with it, so it wouldn't just fail if GA was blocked by the user.

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#66

Post by mrweasel »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #44

Hang on: The Tee Spring code checks if GA is there and works without it, the website breaks because Ad block replaces GA with a fake object that doesn't have the same API. Perhaps some companies have the resources to check if their websites run with different ad blockers, but expecting websites to work when plugins are replacing and breaking running code is a big ask.

I believe that Firefox is replacing some Facebook JavaScript with a stub, to avoid that sites break because some tracking bits are missing.

So the reason why the GA object is replaced, rather than removed, is because removing it would break other sites. Tee Spring is trying to do the right thing, but fail because other sites don’t do the same.

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#68

Post by zentiggr »

IvanK_net wrote: post #17

I am an author of a photo editor https://www.Photopea.com . Whenever someone reports a bug to me, I ask them if they use any site-modifying extensions. If they do, I ignore them completely, even if they wrote a long, detailed report. Web authors make websites for standard web browsers. I do not consider a browser with site-modifying extensions to be a standard web browser, and it is not my job to test my website with…

div id="ad" but not containing an actual ad, seems like a pretty obvious unintentional overlap, and one that's not going to go away.

How difficult would it be for you to change the div name to not coincide with the characters most closely involved with one of the most contentious technologies around? And never have to deal with that potential conflict again?

> What kind of a mental process should a brain perform to conclude, that it is a bug in a website, and not in their extension, which is supposed to remove ads.

Well, if the extension looks for obvious ad-related layout, and your site just happened to use that name, then yes, you have a bug related to common usage patterns.

Even if you used the name before anything ad related, when the world changes around you, you can choose to adapt, or you can get offended and obstinate and fall further and further into a niche of your own creation.

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#69

Post by waynesonfire »

barrkel wrote: post #22
IvanK_net wrote: post #17

I am an author of a photo editor https://www.Photopea.com . Whenever someone reports a bug to me, I ask them if they use any site-modifying extensions. If they do, I ignore them completely, even if they wrote a long, detailed report. Web authors make websites for standard web browsers. I do not consider a browser with site-modifying extensions to be a standard web browser, and it is not my job to test my website with…

We're talking about a checkout. We're at the end of the sales funnel, where the monetary exchange is finalized, the deal is sealed, the value delivered. Breaking this based on an ad blocker just loses you money.

> Breaking this based on an ad blocker just loses you money.

That's false. Similar thinking to how the MPAA said that downloading a MP3 is a lost sale. There was never a sale to begin with, the user is not interested in a purchase regardless of whether the pirated content is available.

Here, the user will just go through the checkout again in a browser without ab-block or disable it. Why would they suddenly not need a power washer because they're running ad-block?

In fact, if anything, it'll train the user to disable ad-block when they're ready to checkout--from _ANY_ site since most of them are broken under ad-block.

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#70

Post by ookware »

sofixa wrote: post #65
wai1234 wrote: post #30

Your checkout shouldn't trigger ad block. Stop slavishly bowing to GA everywhere. I'm about to give you money. That's the only 'analytic' you should care about. I'm tired of being treated as little more than a data cow, always ready for milking. Just. Stop. To the person who ignores people who complain because their 'non-standard' browsers fail on their site, why do you have a site if you don't care about your users…

> I'm about to give you money. That's the only 'analytic' you should care about Yeah, but who are you? Are you an impulse buyer? Returning? Did you spend an hour on the product page? Did you jump between 20 different product pages? You can't deny that this kind of analytics can be very useful for user conversion and website design. And the site in question tries to do the proper thing, checking if GA works before try…

That's great, but all of that tracking is pointless if I can't actually complete the sale
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