Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web • Hacker News Board

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

#481

Post by sjy » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 8:16 PM UTC

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #433

reincarnate0x14 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> There was some period of discussion on the subject back in like 1963 but the 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. Who even knows what they'll do with tha…

> “It is inconceivable,” said Herbert Hoover, secretary of commerce, at the first national radio conference in 1922, “that we should allow so great a possibility for service, for news, for entertainment, for education, and for vital commercial purposes to be drowned in advertising chatter.” Hoover’s remarks reflected the accepted wisdom of the times: that advertising on radio was unacceptable … According to a report of the first conference, all agreed that “direct advertising in radio broadcasting service [should] be absolutely prohibited.”

Tim Wu, The Master Switch (2011), chapter 5

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

#482

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 8:16 PM UTC

pwython wrote: post #473

marcodiego wrote: post #278

I wanted to show a video on YouTube to a friend. He passed me his cellphone. I searched and found the video and then something very strange happened: a completely unrelated something started playing. I said "Sorry I don't know what is this. This has nothing to do with what I wanted to show you." He then explained me that was just an advertisement and the video would play soon. People are used to abuse. My internet is…

Just curious, if you owned YouTube with an overhead of tens of millions of dollars per year, how would you monetize it without ads/commercials, just to even keep up with operational costs?

[deleted]

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

#483

Post by Atlas667 » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 8:16 PM UTC

pwython wrote: post #473

marcodiego wrote: post #278

I wanted to show a video on YouTube to a friend. He passed me his cellphone. I searched and found the video and then something very strange happened: a completely unrelated something started playing. I said "Sorry I don't know what is this. This has nothing to do with what I wanted to show you." He then explained me that was just an advertisement and the video would play soon. People are used to abuse. My internet is…

Just curious, if you owned YouTube with an overhead of tens of millions of dollars per year, how would you monetize it without ads/commercials, just to even keep up with operational costs?

Alas! Your question reveals how capitalist production is both for the consumers but at the same time must contradict the interests of the consumers.

I'm waiting for the day when we can solve these ills of private property with technology.

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

#484

Post by foxfluff » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 8:17 PM UTC

benlumen wrote: post #475

I've used adblockers since they were invented and rarely experience the unfiltered internet. In recent years, though, I've wondered if it might actually be better to turn that all off. Are we adblockers just getting a more purified stream of clickbait "news" and enraging social media posts, without the ads there to remind us that it's all trash? I suspect so.

Yep. Most of the things you find with a Google search are obvious SEO trash even if you don't see the ads. The quality of the content reminds you that it's all trash.

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

#485

Post by Vrondi » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 8:17 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #386

mrweasel wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the services I happily pay for is Youtube Premium, though I could do without also having to pay for Youtube Music at the same time. I have same experience as you, when I somehow not logged in to Youtube. It’s a surreal mess and it’s the same 5 - 10 ads, if it’s that many, on repeat. It’s unusable. Technically I don’t use and ad block, I just run DuckDuckGo’s privacy plugin. You can show me ads, but not track m…

I feel that there is a generational gap between Youtube users that correlates with whether they will pay for premium or not. People in their late 20s and 30s who remember Youtube as a catch-all location for lo-fi homemmade videos with few ads may not feel that YT premium is worth it, particularly if they already use adblockers, and don't use it much on mobile (where adblocking isn't possible without modded APKs). Thi…

No. Stupidity knows no age limit, and a fool and his money are soon parted.

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

#486

Post by kstrauser » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 8:20 PM UTC

robomartin wrote: post #441

discardedrefuse wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The belief that advertisers are owed my attention is absurd. Since forever, you could opt of viewing ads. Ad in a magazine? Next page. TV commercial? Great time for a bathroom break. But now advertisers have decided that you MUST watch their ad. There's a countdown timer for. If the browser loses focus, the timer stops. How long before they're tracking eyeballs for enforcement? Oh wait, not long at all. https://futur…

> The belief that advertisers are owed my attention is absurd. You are trying to rationalize theft through self-righteous nonsense. If you don't want the ads, don't use the site/service/content. Simple as that. Anything else is you stealing it. You don't get to decide how a site pays for the cost of running their operation. They do. If they decide ads is the way and you don't like it, don't use their site. Stealing t…

Who's stealing it? I asked for an article through the customary channels and they served it to me. Inside that article, they offered a whole set of embedded resources for me to choose to load, and I opted out of a lot of them.

None of that remotely resembles theft.

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

#487

Post by simion314 » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 8:21 PM UTC

detaro wrote: post #436

simion314 wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are those recommendation based on user ratings only? The issue with extensions is they can get hijacked and get malicious. A Mozilla created extension or endorsed would offer the warranty that there is no intentional malicious code in it. After your comment I checked the extensions page, seems there is something claimed about "security" but is too vague IMO. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-on-badges?utm_cont…

... no, as the page you link says, the extensions are reviewed by Mozilla employees.

>no, as the page you link says, the extensions are reviewed by Mozilla employees.

What this review means? Do you have a link? Is it reviewed by a security developer hired by Mozilla or some community person?

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

#488

Post by wyre » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 8:21 PM UTC

bbarn wrote: post #317

idiotsecant wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes the cost for a quality piece of gear is incremental though, so you buy a harbor freight thingamajig then it breaks so you buy the Milwaukee thingamajigfor twice the price, for a total of 300% of the cost of the original thing. You could have saved 30% in that case by just buying the good thing in the first place.

I'd argue then that the level of usage dictated a better one. Most people don't actually use tools to failure. I've owned edging tools, routers, sanders, even a small metal lathe from Harbor freight that have handled 10+ years of very occasional use just fine. If you're using things so much that they fail, yes, buy a more quality version. If it fails on the first use, Harbor freight happens to have a very generous re…

Harbor Freight also has lifetime warranties on many of their products.

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

#489

Post by rsync » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 8:22 PM UTC

patrickk wrote: post #126

skummetmaelk wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> You can't even buy appliances designed perform their function well You can't research good appliances either online, because the SERPs are stuffed with SEO-ed blogs and sometimes industry magazines, monetized with Amazon affiliates or other networks, with titles like "5 best dishwashers in 2022". Unless you know someone in the industry or offline with knowledge you don't know what to buy. This is noticeable in many…

"This is noticeable in many other consumer goods verticals, e.g. good luck researching decent home gym equipment that is durable and not overpriced with fat margins."

I agree with you but there's a simple shortcut you can employ: purchase commercial/industrial models that you see being used in industry.

Gym equipment is a good example: your local, serious weightlifting gym is probably using Hammer Strength plate-loaded machines and Rogue frames/racks.

Cooking: Look in the commercial kitchen of a high end restaurant - that's where I first saw my commercial microwave being used.[1]

TV: NEC P461 commercial display - I found the model number by climbing behind the arrivals/departures board at the airport.

[1] https://shop.panasonic.com/kitchen-and-home/microwaves-and-m...

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

#490

Post by jordanpg » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 8:22 PM UTC

Ads are such a strange cancer on the internet. So ugly, so without value, such a waste of time, such a sinkhole of precious attention.

And yet -- would the modern internet even exist but for ads? I'm not so sure.

It seems there is a bifurcation, even among those of us with the technical know-how and resources to live ad-free lives: those who tolerate ads, and those who do not.

I count myself in the latter group. I will be happiest if I go the rest of my life and never see another ad, in any form, again. I will go to great lengths and expense to avoid them. It is self-evident to me that they are toxic, to my own psychology, at least.

The dichotomy brings to mind the "edit streams" in Neal Stephenson's latest, Fall: an internet essentially stratified by class. Who has the money and resources to filter the shit out and who doesn't.