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Ask HN: Does anybody not use an adblocker?

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Re: Ask HN: Does anybody not use an adblocker?

#11

Post by ravenstine »

AdamN wrote: post #5
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #3

I don't. Some sites are unusable. I don't visit them, or if I do, I'm gone almost immediately. Some sites are hard. I will persist if I really want to read the article; otherwise, I'm gone. Most of the sites I visit are still functional. But I mainly just go to HN, some technical sites when I need to, some news sites, actual company sites. I don't go to entertainment sites (they are mostly unusable without an ad bloc…

Do you have a search engine or other mechanism to make it easier to find these sites or is it just hunt and peck?

Not the OP, but if I didn't have uBlock Origin installed, I would refer to the number of ads/trackers detected for pages by the Kagi search engine (which I use and highly recommend).

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody not use an adblocker?

#12

Post by illwrks »

Justsignedup wrote: post #10

I do use adblockers, so much so that I basically only use android because of all the system-wide adblocking capabilities, including youtube ads. I occasionally switch off adblockers to see what the rest of the world sees. Within seconds I am shocked every single time. Some sites I use are unusable without adblockers. The youtube experience is attrocious without adblockers. Amazon products are impossible to find witho…

Can you outline how you're doing system-wide as blocking? That's news to me!

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody not use an adblocker?

#14

Post by xhkkffbf »

Why? Because I believe they're wrong. I think it's just wrong to engage with any business and disable, sidestep or circumvent their way to make money. It's like shoplifting. It reminds of people who open up a box at the supermarket, eat the food, and then claim that the barcode was on the box so that must be what's for sale.

I want the Internet to have ad supported content. I want the people who create this content to have a chance of making a fair, market-determined income instead of relying upon things like Patreon.

The saddest part for me is that I'm going to get voted down here because the support for this kind of behavior is strong here. Some day all of you will experience a business being undermined by freeloaders and thieves. This is the kind of low-trust world that you're building and it will come for your livelihood too.

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody not use an adblocker?

#15

Post by kwar13 »

illwrks wrote: post #12
Justsignedup wrote: post #10

I do use adblockers, so much so that I basically only use android because of all the system-wide adblocking capabilities, including youtube ads. I occasionally switch off adblockers to see what the rest of the world sees. Within seconds I am shocked every single time. Some sites I use are unusable without adblockers. The youtube experience is attrocious without adblockers. Amazon products are impossible to find witho…

Can you outline how you're doing system-wide as blocking? That's news to me!

I don't know about the OP but pi-hole gives you amazing url-based ad blocking that works for all your connected devices!

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody not use an adblocker?

#16

Post by syncbehind »

illwrks wrote: post #12
Justsignedup wrote: post #10

I do use adblockers, so much so that I basically only use android because of all the system-wide adblocking capabilities, including youtube ads. I occasionally switch off adblockers to see what the rest of the world sees. Within seconds I am shocked every single time. Some sites I use are unusable without adblockers. The youtube experience is attrocious without adblockers. Amazon products are impossible to find witho…

Can you outline how you're doing system-wide as blocking? That's news to me!

Unless rooted, you're basically relegated to two options. 1. You can set your dns to a custom dns (adguard's dns is commonly used) to block ads systemwide. 2. You can use a vpn proxy style adblocker via Blockada, Adaway, or Adguard.

If you're rooted, you can just modify your hosts file manually or use something like adaway to do it for you.

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody not use an adblocker?

#17

Post by Krssst »

illwrks wrote: post #12
Justsignedup wrote: post #10

I do use adblockers, so much so that I basically only use android because of all the system-wide adblocking capabilities, including youtube ads. I occasionally switch off adblockers to see what the rest of the world sees. Within seconds I am shocked every single time. Some sites I use are unusable without adblockers. The youtube experience is attrocious without adblockers. Amazon products are impossible to find witho…

Can you outline how you're doing system-wide as blocking? That's news to me!

I think adguard works by running a local VPN on your phone. This way it can filter unencrypted connections while integrating properly in Android. Can also filter HTTPS by installing an (app-generated I assume) root certificate but I don't feel very good about doing that.

One issue is that it cannot work when using another VPN.

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody not use an adblocker?

#18

Post by garciasn »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #13

Never used an adblocker. Advertising doesn't bother me in principle, only if it gets irritating (like those excruciatingly annoying BK commercials!). If advertising gets to be too annoying, well that's what the back button is for.

I work in digital media and I utterly and entirely recommend EVERYONE use ad/analytics/tracking blockers and browsers which limit user-level data collection and tracking.

As someone who works in the field and actively builds end-arounds to systems that thwart our ability to easily track your behaviors online, it's in your best interest to do so.

Sure, you don't have to do any of this, but seeing any particular ad is the least of your problems when one loads.

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody not use an adblocker?

#19

Post by JohnFen »

xhkkffbf wrote: post #14

Why? Because I believe they're wrong. I think it's just wrong to engage with any business and disable, sidestep or circumvent their way to make money. It's like shoplifting. It reminds of people who open up a box at the supermarket, eat the food, and then claim that the barcode was on the box so that must be what's for sale. I want the Internet to have ad supported content. I want the people who create this content t…

While I strongly disagree that using an ad-blocker is a kind of theft, I have sympathy with your underlying point.

The problem is that ads come with so much spying. That's what kills the trust.

I don't use an adblocker per-se, but I do stop JS and various trackers, which have the side-effect of stopping most ads. It's purely a self-defense thing on my part. I'll still see any ads which are just ads and not spying platforms.

If the use of ad blockers threatens the livelihood of web sites, perhaps that would encourage the websites to stop abusing their readers.

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