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Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

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Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#121

Post by jrockway »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #109
Navarr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The ad blocker is probably trying to do the right thing for their users, to. Too many websites check that GA is loaded, if it is, then do stuff with it, if it's not, then redirect to a "Please disable your ad-blocker" page.

I think the key point is that the only way to do this right is to have a quirks list and both implementations, and pick the implementation based on that list.

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#122

Post by bruce343434 »

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…

> this kind of analytics can be very useful for user conversion and website design

Excuse my ignorance on web development, but why? How?

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#123

Post by ehutch79 »

al2o3cr wrote: post #6

TBH I don't see this as a TeeSpring problem - the code on their page guards against a realistic scenario (the GA script fails to load), but the "break" is caused by uBlock's changes. The article's title is correct: ad block shouldn't break checkout. Injecting a bogus value into a global breaks checkout, so ad block shouldn't do that.

It's both.

as mention other places though, missing window.ga at all on other sites can cause worse problems. I'm not sure mimicing the whole api is useful, but maybe not adding the stub on teespring will be.

On teesprings side, it's not their fault, but adding '&& window.ga.getAll' will fix the issue

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#124

Post by ehutch79 »

rallemoose wrote: post #20

I’ve reported this to Teespring and all they reply with is to try another browser and clear my cookies. They won’t listen. They’re basically making Teespring unusable for the technical crowd.

You've hit tier 1 tech support, that's likely their first answer to EVERY issue

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#125

Post by matheusmoreira »

rchaud wrote: post #91
ookware wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's not on TeeSpring, that's on Ublock Origin, which replaces the GA object with a dummy. The user is running code on their local machine that breaks his/her own ability to complete the sale.

> that's on Ublock Origin, which replaces the GA object with a dummy

There's absolutely nothing wrong with this. The blocker does it because just deleting the object would let obnoxious websites to detect its presence and punish users for it.

The better question is why their checkout completely breaks because of this. Their reliance on Google spyware is 100% on them and they are losing sales because of it.

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#126

Post by gpvos »

mrweasel wrote: post #66
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.

Both uBlock Origin and TeeSpring are trying to do the right thing, but in incompatible ways. I would say in this case the onus is on uBlock Origin to provide a stub that is as transparent as possible.

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#127

Post by vinceguidry »

LaGrange wrote: post #105
vinceguidry wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked for an e-commerce outfit for several years. Let me tell you they don't have massive budgets to use for R&D. Every last one of them uses off-the-shelf solutions, they have to, because they can't afford to pay a programmer to customize one for them. Their marketing teams work around the limitations of the software. And they'd be absolutely blind without GA. There's no magic window into customer behavior. If yo…

> And they'd be absolutely blind without GA. Good. > If you were actually in a physical store then they could look at you through the cameras. That's a gross idea to have.

You must think a store is just a place managed by genies or something.

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#128

Post by gpvos »

bruce343434 wrote: post #122
sofixa wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> this kind of analytics can be very useful for user conversion and website design Excuse my ignorance on web development, but why? How?

It provides work for your marketing and sales people.

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#129

Post by randompwd »

shadowgovt wrote: post #98

As a web developer, ad blockers are maddening. The problem is that they're part of an arms race that even if you don't use ads, you have to be aware of. Early in my career, I worked on a site that displayed images, each of which was given a GUID and loaded from a server in thumbnail form. Fortunately, one of our developers used an ad blocker, because she realized two (of a couple hundered) thumbnails didn't show up.…

> atop the code you do own and control

It's a web browser. Look at it as if you're giving people the option to run your code in their browser. Your code is not entitled to be there - it's just a suggestion.

Your server side endpoints are what you own and control.

That's (thankfully) a fundamental part of the web. The days of proprietary blobs running opaque code are done(java applets and flash etc.)

Re: Ad block shouldn't break your checkout

#130

Post by waynesonfire »

detaro wrote: post #101
waynesonfire wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

The sales people are always on about how easily people "abandon carts" due to small friction. Lots of things people buy they a) don't need that urgently or b) can buy somewhere else. Some fan shirt off TeeSpring is very strongly in the "not urgently needed" category, your powerwasher example might very well be too and can be bought from tons of places.

This is probably true. I guess my buying impulses are tapered compared to others.
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