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Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

lichess.org

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Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#81

Post by solardev »

johndhi wrote: post #19
SeanAnderson wrote: post #6

Lichess is so fucking cool. It's easily one of my top inspirations for building a company "right." My favorite part of Lichess is their open financials. Check it out: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Si3PMUJGR9KrpE5lngSk... If you want to know the exact amount to donate to offset your gameplay - you can actually do that.

why are the developers' salaries so low? $60k a year??

That's how much I was paid as a dev in Chicago. I loved that job and would do it again in a heartbeat. It was for a midsized educational nonprofit, and I was one of the highest paid workers there already (excluding the C suite). We got so much shit done every day, and I learned and grew so much. Amazing coworkers too.

My next job paid $100k and had me working way way less, barely utilizing my skills. It was a bigger company that was very poorly managed. I spent more time there arguing about Jira points than actually developing anything. My skills and mental health deteoriated. It wasn't worth it.

Seems like Lichess hit that sweet spot of paying a livable wage (in a country where social services are actually a thing) while providing meaningful work on a passion project. Most developers aren't so lucky!

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#82

Post by jstummbillig »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #6

Lichess is so fucking cool. It's easily one of my top inspirations for building a company "right." My favorite part of Lichess is their open financials. Check it out: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Si3PMUJGR9KrpE5lngSk... If you want to know the exact amount to donate to offset your gameplay - you can actually do that.

I think "company" is the word that belongs in quotation marks. Not in any demeaning way, but, amongst coders, building something like Lichess is about as idolized and likely as becoming a YouTuber is for kids.

Also, the reality of trying is probably gonna suck super hard and require work and focus beyond what most people would ever be willing to do.

But it sure is easy to imagine how great it could be.

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#83

Post by lotsofpulp »

robomartin wrote: post #61

I wish there was legislation to prevent TV manufacturers from turning TV's into ad-spewing digital signage in your home. It's completely out of control. Yes, sure, you can, in some cases, plug in an external streaming device and, depending on the system, side step their incredibly abusive home screens full of ads and tracking. This might not be 100% possible on all devices. More importantly, you paid good money for a…

>More importantly, you paid good money for a TV.

I doubt it. The profit margins on TVs are tiny, with some even negative with the hopes that the advertising revenues put them in the positive in the long run.

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/VZIO/vizio-holding...

Maybe the high end OLED TVs from Sony/Samsung/LG that sell for $1,500+ earn some money, but otherwise, it is a pretty cutthroat business that is not likely to earn you any money. As evidenced by the fact that only a few companies even bother being in the business, with no new entrants.

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#84

Post by dylan604 »

digging wrote: post #68
paulryanrogers wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visiting sites consume resources. If you walk into a store and take a gift card you're still consuming resources meant to be paid for, even if they're mostly digital resources. Regardless of the car or shoes you used to do it. I don't welcome a world of paid products that also include ads. Yet ads do make some paid products cheaper, like say a Kindle or a TV. Folks blocking ads from a premium product probably have a…

> Visiting sites consume resources. Less if you block their ads and JS.

but are ads actually served using resources of the site? i just assumed that the ad was served from the ad provider. the only resources used of the site was the initial JS code. redirecting through the host seems very inefficient.

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#85

Post by rollcat »

charcircuit wrote: post #46
kibwen wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've got the analogy right in that the internet is like a public park. Where your analogy goes wrong is in the fact that these service providers have set up a bakery in the park, and are trying to charge anyone who merely smells the bread, and then accuse people of stealing when they refuse to pay for the act of inhaling while walking through the public park. The internet is a public resource . Your website is a gu…

Sites don't require advertisements around links to their sites. Once you follow a link (scent) to the destination that is when advertisements are shown in exchange for allowing you to access something of value. >Once you have served it to me, you don't get to dictate how I use it. If you do not have a license to modify the site that is copyright infringement.

> If you do not have a license to modify the site that is copyright infringement.

It is fair use.

If I buy a physical copy of a poster, and draw on it before I hang it on my wall, it's fair use.

If I buy a CD and it includes an instrumental version of a track and I badly sing to it, it's fair use.

If I buy a designer brand table and decide it's too tall, I can saw off 5cm from its legs, and it's fair use.

If I download a freely distributed document from the Internet, to display on my computer's screen, and decide not to look at a part of it - it is fair use.

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#86

Post by darepublic »

jstummbillig wrote: post #82
SeanAnderson wrote: post #6

Lichess is so fucking cool. It's easily one of my top inspirations for building a company "right." My favorite part of Lichess is their open financials. Check it out: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Si3PMUJGR9KrpE5lngSk... If you want to know the exact amount to donate to offset your gameplay - you can actually do that.

I think "company" is the word that belongs in quotation marks. Not in any demeaning way, but, amongst coders, building something like Lichess is about as idolized and likely as becoming a YouTuber is for kids. Also, the reality of trying is probably gonna suck super hard and require work and focus beyond what most people would ever be willing to do. But it sure is easy to imagine how great it could be.

Creating something good and open source is not a delusional dream imo. Whether it catches on is another matter. But even a relatively modest following is a very fine result. I first learned of lichess some years ago when I was looking to make my own chess UI and discovered their high quality open source chess library

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#87

Post by timetraveller26 »

ar_lan wrote: post #20
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #3

Interesting to contrast this with their main competitor at Chess.com, which uses AdSense and tracks users with googletagmanager.com, sentry.io, kaxsdc.com, facebook-sdk, and other third-party data sources. uBlock is cutting off lichess.org's Fastly CDN resources without loss of function, but is otherwise silent. Conversely, uBlock, Ghostery, and PrivacyBadger light up my browser like a Christmas tree when I visit Che…

I agree with this, but I think the impressive part about Lichess is that it's actually full of competitive users. Chess.com is, by all measures, the "default" chess application. But you still see active GMs and a huge playerbase surrounding Lichess, which enables them to actually have their very open structure + lack of annoying trackers as features worth peering into.

And many GM's prefer Lichess, like Hikaru in this clip casually roasting Chess.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWvfOR9MFyc

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#88

Post by iamacyborg »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #50
bilekas wrote: post #48

> It's important to note that blocking ads is NOT theft. Don't fall for this creepy idea, which is the criminalisation of the inalienable right to privacy. This is something I've never actually focused on but it's wild the amount of people I've installed AdBlock and ublock for who think it's something nefarious.

[flagged]

> Because it is? Ad blocking is arguably at least unethical.

If all an ad was was a static image, I might agree.

As it stands though, with RTB being what it is, ad blocking is the only means to protect yourself from a massive unethical, unconsensual breach of privacy.

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#89

Post by spiderice »

Tmpod wrote: post #44
johndhi wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why are the developers' salaries so low? $60k a year??

That's a very high salary in a lot of places, perhaps the developers don't feel the need to get 100k+/year...? .-.

That’s.. one way to look at it. Should read “perhaps the company doesn’t feel the need to give developers 100k+/year”.

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#90

Post by jstummbillig »

darepublic wrote: post #86
jstummbillig wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "company" is the word that belongs in quotation marks. Not in any demeaning way, but, amongst coders, building something like Lichess is about as idolized and likely as becoming a YouTuber is for kids. Also, the reality of trying is probably gonna suck super hard and require work and focus beyond what most people would ever be willing to do. But it sure is easy to imagine how great it could be.

Creating something good and open source is not a delusional dream imo. Whether it catches on is another matter. But even a relatively modest following is a very fine result. I first learned of lichess some years ago when I was looking to make my own chess UI and discovered their high quality open source chess library

The special thing about Lichess is not that it's good and open source, but that it actually pays an okay-ish salary to work on fulltime, while upholding all those lofty goals. It's an actual job. Without the whole thing being paid for by FAANG.
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