I Block Ads • Hacker News Board

Re: I Block Ads

#91

Post by judge2020 » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:24 PM UTC

mgbmtl wrote: post #70

judge2020 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/firefox-private-safe-browser/i... ? Or is it not "can't use Firefox on iOS" but "doesn't have x feature from Firefox on Desktop"?

Last time I checked, it was just a Safari webview, and missed a lot of features compared to Firefox on Android. Has that changed recently? Other nice thing of Firefox on Android: being able to listen to Youtube videos even when the screen is turned off. (I'm sure there are solutions, but many seemed sketchy or didn't work well)

What are the features missing then? The main one I can see is edit PDFs directly[0], but I'd bet money that Mozilla wouldn't implement that on iOS anyways.

FF can largely do exactly the same thing they do on Desktop to attract people: create a privacy-focused browser (if that's even what they're doing) and things like syncing your bookmarks, passwords, using Firefox VPN, and blocking ads.

0: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Re: I Block Ads

#92

Post by mikestew » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:24 PM UTC

omginternets wrote: post #69

jurassicfoxy wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find highway billboards and store signage to be a particularly awful display, and I'd be overjoyed for them to be banned entirely. I have often thought about cutting down highway billboards, although I'm not quite intense enough for that.

Quite. Also, here in the US, gas stations have begun to play particularly loud/obnoxious video advertisements at the pump. I cannot stress how angry I am about this. One of the last places where I could just day-dream has now been deemed "up for grabs" by the lowest form of shit-peddler in the modern world. Pause for a second to consider the absurdity of being blasted with advertisements while paying for a product. T…

gas stations have begun to play particularly loud/obnoxious video advertisements at the pump

Just one more of the many reasons to drive electric. It's when I make the rare drive to a gas station in the ol' fossil burner that I'm reminded of what shit holes some gas stations have become. Half the pumps don't work, the card readers are full of skimmers, but by golly the video and audio work!

Re: I Block Ads

#93

Post by dheera » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:24 PM UTC

omginternets wrote: post #79

dheera wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you aesthetically, though if it was a privately-owned, publicly-accessible space, I wouldn't go as far as to commit vandalism, as bad as it may look. (If it was placed by a member of the public without consent of the owner I'd agree with taking it down.) That said, I've been waiting for a good set of widely popular AR glasses to come out so I can write a real-life ad blocker for them.

>I agree with you aesthetically, though if the ad was placed by the owner of the space I wouldn't go as far as to commit vandalism. (If it was placed by a member of the public without consent of the owner I'd agree with taking it down I get what you're saying, but I'm sort of beyond this now. The invasion of personal space has reached a point where I'm prepared to fight dirty, too. Here's a novel idea: advertisers mi…

> Here's a novel idea: advertisers might put a modicum of care into selecting the time, place, and manner in which to present products to the world.

Yeah I totally agree. Bombarding peoples' senses isn't even effective advertising, IMO. They can do better.

Here's another novel idea: How about make products actually good, and let third parties review them? Most of the time I choose products based on reviews, not ads. If I'm in the market for something I probably will watch reviews about the various choices.

Re: I Block Ads

#94

Post by shortformblog » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:24 PM UTC

As someone who has worked in marketing … I think adtech created stances like this.

If advertising worked like it did before about 1994 or so, I think we’d see fewer complaints of this nature. Adtech overplayed its hand for a quarter-century.

The thing that sucks about this, IMHO, is that it makes no room for above-board players. Doesn’t matter that it supports millions of jobs. Doesn’t matter that there are lots of well-intentioned people out there who just happen to work in advertising.

This guy is 100% within his right. And honestly, the sector deserves it. Bad actors destroyed a lot of goodwill in the name of performance and better numbers.

But I wish it didn’t.

Re: I Block Ads

#95

Post by bee_rider » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:25 PM UTC

omginternets wrote: post #83

bombcar wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got good news for you! Currently, four states—Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine—have prohibited billboards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard

That is excellent news. I wonder what it would take to propose this in Massachusetts.

I think either MA must have some laws limiting the density of billboards and their content? We definitely haven’t gotten rid of them enough, but it is not as bad as the stuff you get outside of New England.

Re: I Block Ads

#96

Post by metalliqaz » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:25 PM UTC

submeta wrote: post #43

Whenever I'm sitting in front of a computer that isn't using ad blockers, I'm shocked to see how polluted websites are, practically yelling at me, vying for my attention. How can folks concentrate on an article without ad blockers? Then there are those ads in YouTube videos and blog articles purporting to offer the reader something valuable when, in fact, they're packed with falsehoods ("xyz changed my life, and if y…

Mobile news sites are so bad I have a hard time believing that it was done on purpose. The actual content of the article is actually hard to find among (or beneath!) the mess of advertisements and clickbait.

Re: I Block Ads

#97

Post by inetknght » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:25 PM UTC

mikestew wrote: post #92

omginternets wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite. Also, here in the US, gas stations have begun to play particularly loud/obnoxious video advertisements at the pump. I cannot stress how angry I am about this. One of the last places where I could just day-dream has now been deemed "up for grabs" by the lowest form of shit-peddler in the modern world. Pause for a second to consider the absurdity of being blasted with advertisements while paying for a product. T…

gas stations have begun to play particularly loud/obnoxious video advertisements at the pump Just one more of the many reasons to drive electric. It's when I make the rare drive to a gas station in the ol' fossil burner that I'm reminded of what shit holes some gas stations have become. Half the pumps don't work, the card readers are full of skimmers, but by golly the video and audio work!

> Just one more of the many reasons to drive electric

Oh yeah, just wait until your charging station installs ads. Then you're stuck watching an ad while your vehicle charges. That, of course, takes longer than inserting fuel into a tank. So more advertisements and more money for the charger!

Re: I Block Ads

#98

Post by elwell » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:25 PM UTC

As much as I hate ads, as a thought experiment I wonder how much less or more the world would have progressed without that form of information dissemination (paid advertising specifically).

Re: I Block Ads

#99

Post by omginternets » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:25 PM UTC

mikestew wrote: post #92

omginternets wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite. Also, here in the US, gas stations have begun to play particularly loud/obnoxious video advertisements at the pump. I cannot stress how angry I am about this. One of the last places where I could just day-dream has now been deemed "up for grabs" by the lowest form of shit-peddler in the modern world. Pause for a second to consider the absurdity of being blasted with advertisements while paying for a product. T…

gas stations have begun to play particularly loud/obnoxious video advertisements at the pump Just one more of the many reasons to drive electric. It's when I make the rare drive to a gas station in the ol' fossil burner that I'm reminded of what shit holes some gas stations have become. Half the pumps don't work, the card readers are full of skimmers, but by golly the video and audio work!

I promise you, this is coming to charge stations too.

Re: I Block Ads

#100

Post by dheera » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:25 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #87

dheera wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you aesthetically, though if it was a privately-owned, publicly-accessible space, I wouldn't go as far as to commit vandalism, as bad as it may look. (If it was placed by a member of the public without consent of the owner I'd agree with taking it down.) That said, I've been waiting for a good set of widely popular AR glasses to come out so I can write a real-life ad blocker for them.

That could be really interesting. Layer some art over it? I wonder how hard it would be to distinguish between various things while driving. Billboards are mostly useless. Traffic signs of course can’t be covered up. Then in between we have cases like signs for gas stations and fast food (which are technically ads I guess but they are actually useful). Of course this is for version 2.

Traffic signs and signs for gas stations and fast food are largely standard (color/fonts/symbols/etc.), they can be easily recognized as such by a neural net and whitelisted.

That said, when I'm a pedestrian, I wouldn't mind traffic signs being covered up as well. They completely destroy the look of the surrounding architecture and flora, but I understand they are a necessity for the cars. As a pedestrian I don't really care what the speed limit is.