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I Block Ads

coryd.dev

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Re: I Block Ads

#131

Post by greenyoda »

jraph wrote: post #116
thorwagoog wrote: post #106

Am I the only person who thought that list was a poem? :) Here is how my mind read it: I block ads in the browser, I block their DNS I block beacons and the ping attribute in their URLs I block analytics, reporting, and diagnostic logging I block programmatic pleas to disable ad-blocking I strip query strings from UTM campaign tags I unshorten URLs to avoid tracking hacks I stop autoplay for the videos on my feed I b…

Someone needs to write a melody for this

The words, as grouped above, somewhat match the cadence of the "Major-General's Song": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major-General%27s_Song#Lyrics

Just needs a few more syllables to make it fit, e.g.,

  I block ads in the browser, and I also block their DNS
  I block the beacons and the ping attribute in their URLs
  ...

Re: I Block Ads

#132

Post by 31337Logic »

ollien wrote: post #63
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…

I haven't used an ad blocker in years. The short answer: you get used to it. Banner blindness is a real thing

Anyone who claims they are unaffected by advertising likely just understand how the human brain works. You aren't immune. No one is.

Re: I Block Ads

#133

Post by bombcar »

mgbmtl wrote: post #42
chasebank wrote: post #3

Advertising is so completely intertwined with everyday life, it’s impossible to block them. The worst kind of ads, IMO, are the non-intrusive, organic looking articles / news stories placed there by PR. The ultimate brainwash. Most of HN and Reddit content is advertisement whether you realize or not. Front page CNN, outside of weather events and sports, it’s closing in on 100%.

Legislation can be surprisingly efficient, even if not 100% efficient. There's a borough in my city that decided to ban big billboards. Everyone hated them, they were ugly and everywhere. The advertising lobby sued, it went all the way to the supreme court of Canada, and the city won: advertising was declared a form of visual pollution and therefore banning them was an acceptable infringement to free speech ( https:/…

You can also sidestep 90% of the advertising problem without infringing on actual speech by doing something like saying that "billboard-like things on a property can only be erected by the property owner, and cannot receive remuneration for said erection".

Then the local guy can print "SHERIFF JOE SUCKS" on his fence without repercussions but large billboards are mostly banned.

You still have the gas station sign issue, but that's separate.

Re: I Block Ads

#134

Post by stragies »

Nextgrid wrote: post #78
judge2020 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UTM tags in that sense are collected on the client side by tag manager or google analytics, which would be blocked by an ad-blocking extension anyways. UTM tags can/often are collected by the website themselves to do first-party near-100% confidence campaign analytics.

So what you're saying is that there is plenty of other spyware (some of it server-side) that freeloads off those UTM query params? Sounds like another good reason to strip them?

I wonder what would happen, if a significant number of internet users starts faking these. Either with random data, or "poisoned" data/referrers.

Re: I Block Ads

#136

Post by EvanAnderson »

shortformblog wrote: post #94

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 w…

I received material from Adbusters[0] in the early 90s, and they started-up in '89. Anti-advertisement sentiment isn't new, though it may be growing.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adbusters

Re: I Block Ads

#137

Post by sunshadow »

thorwagoog wrote: post #106

Am I the only person who thought that list was a poem? :) Here is how my mind read it: I block ads in the browser, I block their DNS I block beacons and the ping attribute in their URLs I block analytics, reporting, and diagnostic logging I block programmatic pleas to disable ad-blocking I strip query strings from UTM campaign tags I unshorten URLs to avoid tracking hacks I stop autoplay for the videos on my feed I b…

I find it amusing that you felt you had to write "written organically" to claim authorship.

Re: I Block Ads

#138

Post by shortformblog »

deepspace wrote: post #111
shortformblog wrote: post #94

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 w…

For me, specifically, Forbes destroyed the line between bad actors and above board players. Back when sites started to detect ad-blockers, Forbes asked users to disable their blockers, for the usual reasons. Trusting them, beings respectable breed source, I and others whitelisted Forbes, and promptly got hit by malware distributed by ads on their site. Because Forbes could not be bothered to screen the ads on their s…

I should note that Forbes is probably the traditional media outlet that has been most willing to mix advertising and editorial in questionable ways. It has gotten better about its approach in recent years, but it is certainly not perfect.

Re: I Block Ads

#139

Post by shortformblog »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #136
shortformblog wrote: post #94

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 w…

I received material from Adbusters[0] in the early 90s, and they started-up in '89. Anti-advertisement sentiment isn't new, though it may be growing. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adbusters

I remember Adbusters well. I do think that it was a (useful) minority point of view back then. Now, it is increasingly common.

Re: I Block Ads

#140

Post by matthewmcg »

jurassicfoxy wrote: post #57
omginternets wrote: post #53

I occasionally tear down ads in public spaces. I'm sure many will disagree with me, but I do think we should be able to move through public spaces without the incessant assault on one's attention and head space. I haven't been caught yet, though I'm sure I someday will, at which point I'll pay the fine and keep doing it anyway.

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.

This is the amusing hobby of some of the characters in Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang.
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