Earlier quoted context omitted.
it is no more theft than smelling the cooking of a restaurant.
Obligatory: http://www.marilynkinsella.org/Fabulous%20Folktales/theft_of...
Nice website/stories.
uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox
241–250 of 416 posts
Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox
#242just installed it today on my father's partner's laptop.
in my opinion ublock origin is by now an integral part of the internet infrastructure.
it's also the only piece of software which I consistently install on every platform I use (Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS).
Raymond deserves some sort of Nobel prize or something for this. The internet is not usable for me without it.
Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox
#243What kills me is even paid subscription sites like WSJ, Bloomberg, Seeking Alpha, show you ads even when you're a paying member. Why is it a war on our attention?
This annoys me too, because I dislike ads, but to be fair, newspapers and magazines have always had ads as their primary revenue source, and also almost always charged for the print copy as well. About 30 years ago, when physical newspapers were still more popular than virtual newspapers, you'd pay about 50 cents for the daily edition and $1.50 for the Sunday edition. That adds up to more than the current monthly fees for the online versions. In fact, way back in 1990, the New York Times cost $5/week for home delivery[1]. It's $17/mo now for the digital-only version[2]. Granted, if you want both digital and daily home delivery now, it's $40/mo. If you look at old free print papers (like the Village Voice), the volume of ads is enormous compared to something like the Times.
In any event, paying for a product with ads has always been part of the print media/news business. I'm far more annoyed by paying for cable TV (or streaming services) and still getting ads.
[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/21/business/the-times-raises...
Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Appreciate marketing. It seems like bullshit, but it’s bullshit I don’t want to have to do. Bullshit? To me it seems more like mind rape when a bunch of corporate ideas and brands are suddenly and forcibly injected into my mind. I didn't ask for it, I didn't consent to it. We don't tolerate it when people violate our bodies, so why is it okay to violate our minds? They "need" it to make money, so it's okay? If I wa…
I agree 100%. If your company can't survive without exploiting human psychology and contributing to a surveillance infrastructure and monetization scheme, good. Companies survived for centuries without internet ads, tracking, targeting, etc. Just because you can take advantage of technological methods and mental vulnerabilities to pimp your product without the consent of the target, doesn't mean you should.
> “Companies survived for centuries without internet ads, tracking, targeting, etc.”
As far back as ancient Rome, vendors still used advertising and marketing. This included word-of-mouth advertisements and billboards (such as in Pompeii before the volcanic eruption). [0]
In the 1900s, newspaper advertising was a major source of advertising. Now that fewer people read print newspapers, advertising has shifted to internet ads and email newsletter ads.
Technology evolves, and marketing evolves to keep up. Even non-profits have significant marketing investments today. I encourage you to actually try to run an organization, for-profit or non-profit, and try to sustainably achieve the mission while rigidly adhering to the ideal that companies shouldn’t use marketing.
Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have always assumed our future fascist overlords will use the curated ad profiles to bootstrap a social credit system. So instead of clicking on any ad I need one that only clicks on regime supporting, pro-social, good citizen ads.
They probably don't have the data. Unless they started monitoring people for jaywalking, driving through crosswalks, smoking on trains, not cleaning up after dogs, buying junk food at 711, etc.
An efficient government could figure it out from proxy data, I’m sure I could do it. A corrupt and inefficient government wouldn’t care so much about getting it wrong.
I suspect it’ll be the inefficient one. I can’t convince Google ads that I’m not 60 and not single and absolutely not into mature age dating. My non-ad blocked internet browsing experience is marred by pictures of leering grandmas. I expect my future in the fascist dictatorship will be an unpleasant one.
Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox
#246How do people reach technical audiences on Google search when the said technical audience has Adblock installed? Do any founders or tech startups use Google Ads? I don't know any tech person that doesn't use uBlock Origin. I've seen people recommending StackOverflow ads to reach exact people that might be interested in your product, but I've never ever seen ads on StackOverflow - thanks to uBlock Origin.
If you want to get the attention of technical audiences, create great technical content. Blogs, YouTube videos, conference talks, etc. If it's good, your audience will spread it among themselves using their existing social connections. If you don't have good content, then you don't get access to technical users who do everything in their power to avoid useless noise on the internet.
Youtube thing is being eroded. I just searched "Django tutorials" on YouTube and being spammed by boot-campish videos that show horrible coding practices.
Blogs, especially the ones that upvoted here on HN, are very very good. Thanks for the info.
Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox
#247The bottom line is that the web is completely unusable without some sort of ad blocker. That's a pathological condition which speaks ill of the long term viability of the internet. When ublock breaks as it inevitably will, so does the internet (in terms of usability, not in terms of sending packets around).
Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox
#248I prefer Ad Nauseum ( https://adnauseam.io/ ) because I don't want to just block the ads I want to ruin the profile ad companies have on me by having all the ads clicked as well.
Automated clicks on ads don't change anything. Even if everybody did this, over time the prices for ads would adjust and find a new equilibrium. Everything else would stay the same. If an advertiser pays $100 for 100 clicks today then he will pay $100 for 1000000 clicks in an ad click inflated world. Maybe slightly more for the additional energy burned to power all this madness.
Actually, this happens in close to real-time: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2459326?hl=en
Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
What happens when the people who grew up without the internet die and all that's left is the people that have been watching youtube since they were 3. Won't the vast majority of people be using adblockers?
Anecdotally, I feel like half the people in my immediate circle of friends/family still don't use adblockers unless I help them set it up . And then that only holds until the next time they get a new device and I'm not there to help them do it again.
How old is your immediate circle? The truly internet first generation is only like 15-20 at this point.
Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox
#250just installed it today on my father's partner's laptop. in my opinion ublock origin is by now an integral part of the internet infrastructure. it's also the only piece of software which I consistently install on every platform I use (Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS). Raymond deserves some sort of Nobel prize or something for this. The internet is not usable for me without it.
How do you install uBlock Origin on iOS?