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Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

imlefthanded.com

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Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#51

In FireFox I have my ad blockers disabled in Private Mode so nothing is getting in the way if I'm testing or some site is being weird. Sometimes it's SHOCKINGLY different how a page looks with the blockers in place. I really can't believe anyone would user a browser without an ad blocker if they knew how things would look while using one. The web is a much better place with a blocker in place. (Yes, I know, we get a…

I feel zero guilt about ad blocking. There was some period of discussion on the subject back in like 2003 but the ad companies went to war against human civilization and there's been no going back. It corrupts and twists everything it touches into a constant hustle for eyeball-cash and an entire generation has now reached adulthood knowing nothing but that hustle touching every bit of media they ever interact with. W…

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Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#52
post #13

I have this moment when I have to use Youtube on my phone for some reason (such as a tutorial for how to fix something), and get blasted with 3 ads for a 1 minute video. I would never use it for long periods without an ad blocker.

If you're on Android, try out https://vancedapp.com/ - it's an "Advanced" YouTube player, but they removed the "Ad"s (get it?)

Also, there's an option to enable SponsorBlock, which can automatically skip over ads, introductions, etc. that are part of the original video.

Vanced and Firefox's addons are two of the main things keeping me off of iOS.

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#53

In FireFox I have my ad blockers disabled in Private Mode so nothing is getting in the way if I'm testing or some site is being weird. Sometimes it's SHOCKINGLY different how a page looks with the blockers in place. I really can't believe anyone would user a browser without an ad blocker if they knew how things would look while using one. The web is a much better place with a blocker in place. (Yes, I know, we get a…

I run Firefox with uBlock Origin, and spend most of my time on pages like HN and other old-school forums that are mostly just text. My wife runs Chrome with all defaults and spends a lot more time in the mainstream web. Whenever she wants to show me something on her laptop, I think to myself, "how can she subject herself to this all day?!" For me, the experience in her browser is like being assaulted.

She doesn't want an ad-blocker because they do break things at times and she actually likes seeing some ads and especially getting coupon or discount offers, using things like Rakuten. I know that you can fine-tune the settings of uBlock Origin, but she doesn't want to be bothered with that.

I'm the weird one.

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#54

>autoplaying videos I'm still looking for a block list that simply removes all video content from various franchise and local news sites. It is rarely actually relevant to the article, and is often vastly less information dense.

you can update your own block list, can't you?

Yeah, it's more that I will run into an article on some local news site I've never visited before far more frequently than I'll end up on one I looked at previously.

They all seem to implement an ever-so-slightly different player, which means manually blocking the unique element (s) each time.

Definitely a use case for a standard community sourced list.

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#55
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adblock Plus, uOrigin, and ghostery lite don't require basically any configuration. Just install the browser extension and enable it.

Just a reminder that Adblock Plus has a pretty shady business model.

Yeah, they let some ads pass through. That is quite okay as compared to full on storm of ads.

If there was no way to block ads Id probably be happy to downsize my internet usage.

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#56

In FireFox I have my ad blockers disabled in Private Mode so nothing is getting in the way if I'm testing or some site is being weird. Sometimes it's SHOCKINGLY different how a page looks with the blockers in place. I really can't believe anyone would user a browser without an ad blocker if they knew how things would look while using one. The web is a much better place with a blocker in place. (Yes, I know, we get a…

> I really can't believe anyone would user a browser without an ad blocker if they knew how things would look while using one. I don't use an advert blocker but I know what they look like. Why? The adverts don't really bother me and I also think they're dubiously moral.

Do you also read all the spam flyers and emails you get?

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#57

In FireFox I have my ad blockers disabled in Private Mode so nothing is getting in the way if I'm testing or some site is being weird. Sometimes it's SHOCKINGLY different how a page looks with the blockers in place. I really can't believe anyone would user a browser without an ad blocker if they knew how things would look while using one. The web is a much better place with a blocker in place. (Yes, I know, we get a…

It depends on what you do on the internet. I rarely use an AdBlock on my phone, browse a lot from it and I don't find my experience hindered all that much. If AdBlock didn't exist on desktop my biggest gripe would be YouTube and then I'd just pay for it and call it a day.

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#58
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using my own simplistic adblock at home (mostly because youtube ads driving me nuts) and I don't use any adblock at work (mostly because I'm too lazy to configure it). I'm not a fan of using browser extensions, especially those which require full access to every webpage, that's too much of attack surface in my opinion and ads are not that bad on websites I visit.

Adblock Plus, uOrigin, and ghostery lite don't require basically any configuration. Just install the browser extension and enable it.

Adblock plus disables the blocking if you pay them protection money.

Re: Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web

#60

In FireFox I have my ad blockers disabled in Private Mode so nothing is getting in the way if I'm testing or some site is being weird. Sometimes it's SHOCKINGLY different how a page looks with the blockers in place. I really can't believe anyone would user a browser without an ad blocker if they knew how things would look while using one. The web is a much better place with a blocker in place. (Yes, I know, we get a…

I feel zero guilt about ad blocking. There was some period of discussion on the subject back in like 2003 but the ad companies went to war against human civilization and there's been no going back. It corrupts and twists everything it touches into a constant hustle for eyeball-cash and an entire generation has now reached adulthood knowing nothing but that hustle touching every bit of media they ever interact with. W…

> It corrupts and twists everything it touches into a constant hustle for eyeball-cash

This cannot be overstated. Everything today is a battle for eye-balls and ad money. The corruption is insane. You can't even buy appliances designed perform their function well. Instead you can buy cheap junk for less than cogs because they make money selling your data to ad companies instead of making money by making products that are actually good.

The concept of "value" for consumers has been completely twisted and I am not looking forward to seeing where this race to the bottom will end up.

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