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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

#171

Post by frameset »

danShumway wrote: post #73

It's almost unbelievable how big the gap is. Sometimes I try to turn it off and check links before I share them to find out if they're actually good reading experiences. I've got a couple of sites that I used to reflexively share on social media that I've since learned not to because without an adblocker they auto-play videos at the top of the page - but I never ran into that behavior when I was using them, so I thou…

SponsorBlock is one of the coolest extensions of recent times. It's also a great example of crowdsourcing actually working for the benefit of the commons.

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

#172

Post by TheIronMark »

bun_at_work wrote: post #157
TheIronMark wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why don't I get paid for my HN posts? That's between you and HN and has nothing to do with my consumption of your comment. > Ads were tried, and it's been an absolute fucking disaster. No one likes ads, but expecting free content is silly.

Who is saying they expect free content? I'd pay a monthly fee for unmolested search results. I pay for Youtube Premium. I only watch ad-free content that I pay for. I don't want the content for free - the free stuff is usually worse in quality anyway. I just want to be left alone by advertisers. I don't need what they are selling and the reduce my ability to think. The sheer amount of noise they add to the world make…

> Who is saying they expect free content?

Anyone using an adblocker is expecting free content.

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

#174

Post by camgunz »

TheIronMark wrote: post #102
reincarnate0x14 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't I get paid for my HN posts? Do I owe you for your reply? Do you owe me for this reply? You work out how we commoditize every interaction into tiny micropayments so MBAs are happy with our time allocations and let me know. Ads were tried, and it's been an absolute fucking disaster.

> Why don't I get paid for my HN posts? That's between you and HN and has nothing to do with my consumption of your comment. > Ads were tried, and it's been an absolute fucking disaster. No one likes ads, but expecting free content is silly.

> No one likes ads, but expecting free content is silly.

It's not always possible to buy out of advertising. One of my fave sites anandtech.com has (I guess relatively reasonable) ads, and I can't subscribe or whatever to get rid of them.

I'm also generally OK with Adwords v1.0 ads, which had virtually no chance of autoplaying a super loud video, running malware on my machine, breaking the layout of a page as I'm trying to click on something, or masquerading as genuine content.

Ad blockers respond to the fact that users have very little ability to control their ad experiences, even in ways we probably think are appropriate like buying out of them. What you're implying here (ads vs. free content) is a false dichotomy.

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

#175

Post by demindiro »

Tenoke wrote: post #63
zuminator wrote: post #7

I've had YouTube Premium since its inception. Whenever I'm around someone else who puts on a free-tier version of YouTube its rather shocking how frequent and intrusive the commercial ads are.

In all fairness, if the rest of us didn't run adblockers, they probably wouldn't need to be so aggressive with the ads for those that currently don't.

I doubt that. Even if adblockers weren't a thing they'd push more ads since it generates more revenue. It's probably also effective at annoying users into buying a subscription to avoid (most) ads.

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

#176

Post by whoibrar »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #89
Tenoke wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all fairness, if the rest of us didn't run adblockers, they probably wouldn't need to be so aggressive with the ads for those that currently don't.

This is exactly the case. Every time someone starts ad-blocking, someone else has to assume that ad watch for them. Of course this isn't 1:1 parity in reality, but the ultimate manifestation of ad blocking is that. Google had a good system a few years ago that I was probably the only sucker who paid them for it (and probably why they stopped it). You could pay a chosen amount monthly, and they would not show you ads…

Which year was this ? Can you share more information regarding this ?

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

#177

Post by giaour »

TheIronMark wrote: post #102
reincarnate0x14 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't I get paid for my HN posts? Do I owe you for your reply? Do you owe me for this reply? You work out how we commoditize every interaction into tiny micropayments so MBAs are happy with our time allocations and let me know. Ads were tried, and it's been an absolute fucking disaster.

> Why don't I get paid for my HN posts? That's between you and HN and has nothing to do with my consumption of your comment. > Ads were tried, and it's been an absolute fucking disaster. No one likes ads, but expecting free content is silly.

I don't mind ads on broadcast TV or radio because they fund the content and don't insist on tracking me.

The privacy invasion that accompanies web ads leads me to treat them as malware and prevent their execution on my devices. I don't care about non-personalized ads (e.g. the 1P-hosted display ads on Ravelry).

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

#178

Post by jb1991 »

parsd wrote: post #130

I've started to think about it differently. I no longer use any ad blockers. I actually want to experience the web (and its decline) the way it is, to take it all in, feel the pain and strengthen my patience in the process. Also, when I visit a website that is truly obnoxious with its ads, I simply leave immediately and never go there. You build your own filter of bad actors, behaviors, and concrete sites. You don't…

I have a similar perspective when dealing with cookie popups, since such a perspective is necessary for something you cannot block even if you wanted to. Those with enough annoying popup hoops just get the Back button from me.

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

#180

Post by Workaccount2 »

onemoresoop wrote: post #135
Workaccount2 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suspect the opposite, once you start paying you go from being a product to being a customer. If youtube was 90% premium members, it would likely be an unrecognizably better platform, since users instead of advertisers would be the core profit center.

In a normal world that would make sense but we're dealing with businesses and MBAs who need to incessantly increase their revenue. As a paying customer they could squeeze more, you're willing to pay. Non-paying customers are used as a product themselves but it's extremely hard to extract more.

That's just normal business though, and my statement is intrinsically correcting for that.

Netflix has the same MBAs and bean counters, but their product has no ads and orders of magnitude less clickbait. Its clear they make content geared for their users, not for their advertisers. Youtube is very heavy with advertiser friendly content, and both creators and users pay heavily for that (but its *quote* Free! *unquote*)

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