Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers • Hacker News Board

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#101

Post by nottorp » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:08 PM UTC

ThePyCoder wrote: post #47

marcrosoft wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except if you look at their financials they are paying a huge tax being a French company. Their resources would go further if they left.

Not really. Taxes are so high because people get a lot of things for cheap/free like Healthcare and education. In countries where this isn't the case (USA for example) you'd easily pay 2 to 3 times the salary to get the same developer. In this case even only paying the main dev a US wage would be more than the taxes on everything.

To be snarky:

How many US people who run non profits end up with a “major health event” and have to beg for donations for surgery or something?

While the EU people running non profits just… go to the doctor when they’re sick…

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#102

Post by Tao3300 » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:11 PM UTC

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]

Do you sometimes have trouble identifying traffic lights in photographs? Or perceiving character gestalts from distorted images?

After you confirm your humanity to the best extent you can, proceed to reexamine your ethics.

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#103

Post by Tao3300 » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:13 PM UTC

ziyao_w wrote: post #30

Thibault (the creator of lichess) is a really impressive human being. I don’t idolize people but he is quite inspiring. There’s an old perpetual chess podcast episode where he said he has never seen a single ad that was useful :-) Which is somewhat extreme and probably hyperbole but still his philosophy is loud and clear.

Not once did I win an iPod for punching the monkey.

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#104

Post by rahkiin » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:13 PM UTC

marcrosoft wrote: post #35

rahkiin wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because in ither countries you would not pay taxes at all…

No they are a non profit.

If you have employees you still need to pay employee taxes

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#105

Post by PUSH_AX » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:17 PM UTC

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 can't seem to find the income. Is this listed anywhere or is just the outgoing "open"?

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#106

Post by PUSH_AX » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:20 PM UTC

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…

What's the issue with sentry?

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#107

Post by matsemann » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:21 PM UTC

marcrosoft wrote: post #15

treme wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

props to founders & gov of France that has special funding for such institutions.

Except if you look at their financials they are paying a huge tax being a French company. Their resources would go further if they left.

If they lived in the US, they probably would have needed to draw a double or triple salary? So not sure if they really are paying that much more for being in France in the end.

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#108

Post by jehb » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:22 PM UTC

Karunamon wrote: post #49

spinningslate wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

which is what enables the French government to fund companies like lichess in the first place. >Their resources would go further if they left. So, what, say "thanks for the funding that got us started, we're off to fill our pockets somewhere else now"?

… Absolutely yes? Governments are amoral entities, and this particular relationship is based entirely on power (pay us or else), not mutual respect or any of the other things that characterize human social relationships. If we must anthropomorphize them anyways, then they have paid back in taxes many times more than they were given to start. Any such "implicit" debt was long since paid, so they could move with a clea…

Not to take this conversation too far off track, but the reverse argument could just as easily be made. Companies are amoral entities, existing only to deliver whatever value their owners wish to extract. Governments, meanwhile, are just the manifestation of the will of the people who live in a place. Even currency itself is just a creation of the people by way of the government; no business has any particular right to it.

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#109

Post by patrickdavey » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:34 PM UTC

wirrbel wrote: post #29

ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of fascinating that their biggest cost is site moderation! This seems... odd for a site whose main mechanic really isn't social networking.

I play regularly on lichess. I got insulted a couple of times in the game chat. Looking at the scale of lichess, I am sure it adds up.

Have you looked at "Zen mode"? It removes the chat while you're playing ... you'll still see any insults after the game though ;)

Re: Lichess: Block Ads and Trackers

#110

Post by Eduard » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:36 PM UTC

ziyao_w wrote: post #30

Thibault (the creator of lichess) is a really impressive human being. I don’t idolize people but he is quite inspiring. There’s an old perpetual chess podcast episode where he said he has never seen a single ad that was useful :-) Which is somewhat extreme and probably hyperbole but still his philosophy is loud and clear.

> Which is somewhat extreme and probably hyperbole but still his philosophy is loud and clear.

Is it? I wish online ads that make it through would target me well.

yes, I use adblockers and I opt out of data collection. But any old-school advertisement such as print, TV, billboard, and prospect ads feel more targeted / relevant to me and guide me to a sales funnel than online ads.