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Users are massively giving their 1-star reviews to AdBlocker

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Re: Users are massively giving their 1-star reviews to AdBlocker

#21

Post by desertrider12 »

mikpanko wrote: post #14
zlg_codes wrote: post #11

Why is anyone not using uBlock Origin? Raymond's proven so far he won't be shady, and has made a tool that's incredibly resilient to anything the server side can do. The adblocker wars cannot be won by the serving side. There will always be a way to browse the Web without ads, or there will simply be fewer people using the Web; they will move onto other protocols where they can avoid ads.. at least until the marketer…

Does it work with the new Youtube ad blocker wall?

It doesn't for me - first I got warning popups, and eventually videos wouldn't load at all.

I found a different extension called Ad Speedup that basically plays ads at infinite speed, so the ad's first frame loads, but then the video resumes. This is working reliably so far. I would also be interested to know if it still gives revenue to the channel because technically, the whole ad plays (just not at 1x speed).

Re: Users are massively giving their 1-star reviews to AdBlocker

#22

Post by goalonetwo »

zlg_codes wrote: post #11

Why is anyone not using uBlock Origin? Raymond's proven so far he won't be shady, and has made a tool that's incredibly resilient to anything the server side can do. The adblocker wars cannot be won by the serving side. There will always be a way to browse the Web without ads, or there will simply be fewer people using the Web; they will move onto other protocols where they can avoid ads.. at least until the marketer…

Installing ublock origin is the first thing I do whenever I get a new computer.

It is wild to me that 99% of people are just browsing internet without knowing that this simple trick would make their life so much better.

Re: Users are massively giving their 1-star reviews to AdBlocker

#23

Post by goalonetwo »

globalnode wrote: post #12

im guessing there are many forces at work trying to get rid of ad blockers. not sure what this is all about but my bet is on sabotage or greed.

This is one of the biggest threads to all those adtechs. We only start to recently see Google starting to attempt to crackdown on all of those. Youtube is now playing a cat and mouse game.

The single best thing we can all do to prevent this is to stop using Chrome.

Re: Users are massively giving their 1-star reviews to AdBlocker

#24

Post by goalonetwo »

desertrider12 wrote: post #21
mikpanko wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it work with the new Youtube ad blocker wall?

It doesn't for me - first I got warning popups, and eventually videos wouldn't load at all. I found a different extension called Ad Speedup that basically plays ads at infinite speed, so the ad's first frame loads, but then the video resumes. This is working reliably so far. I would also be interested to know if it still gives revenue to the channel because technically, the whole ad plays (just not at 1x speed).

are you using Firefox? I have issues with Chrome (to be expected), but not with Firefox.

Re: Users are massively giving their 1-star reviews to AdBlocker

#25

Post by safety1st »

zlg_codes wrote: post #11

Why is anyone not using uBlock Origin? Raymond's proven so far he won't be shady, and has made a tool that's incredibly resilient to anything the server side can do. The adblocker wars cannot be won by the serving side. There will always be a way to browse the Web without ads, or there will simply be fewer people using the Web; they will move onto other protocols where they can avoid ads.. at least until the marketer…

> Is there nowhere in society considered sacred enough to not litter it with advertising filth?

Yes, there is still a last bastion of focus, productivity and anti-distraction. It's the terminal, which is why I find myself using TUI apps more and more as time goes on.

There are specifically a few principles we need to preserve to prevent the marketers from ever getting a foothold in the terminal. They are: general computing, text-based UI, and composability.

What that means is we need control over which programs we can run, we need to work with programs that view/input/output primarily text, and with programs that are modular (so that if a marketer injects their filth we can run it through grep and strip the filth out).

In other words, our modern needs are not much different from the old UNIX philosophy.

That is the technical remedy. From a sociocultural standpoint, though, the best way to avoid advertising is simply to be esoteric. Be interested in weird stuff which is too small to attract the interest of marketers and their filth.

Re: Users are massively giving their 1-star reviews to AdBlocker

#26

Post by grogenaut »

zlg_codes wrote: post #11

Why is anyone not using uBlock Origin? Raymond's proven so far he won't be shady, and has made a tool that's incredibly resilient to anything the server side can do. The adblocker wars cannot be won by the serving side. There will always be a way to browse the Web without ads, or there will simply be fewer people using the Web; they will move onto other protocols where they can avoid ads.. at least until the marketer…

I would actually argue that "can't be won from the server side" is completely untrue. However ad companies don't trust websites to serve ads and report and so there are obvious to block setups because of that distinction, which is what makes ublock work. If there was trust between ad networks and sites it'd be a lot harder to block. I find it pretty ironic. and I continue to be surprised how completely terrible ad networks are from a tech standpoint. All of this makes sites spam the average user with more and more ads while tech savvy users continue to not see ads. Its fun.

Re: Users are massively giving their 1-star reviews to AdBlocker

#28

Post by zlg_codes »

mikpanko wrote: post #14
zlg_codes wrote: post #11

Why is anyone not using uBlock Origin? Raymond's proven so far he won't be shady, and has made a tool that's incredibly resilient to anything the server side can do. The adblocker wars cannot be won by the serving side. There will always be a way to browse the Web without ads, or there will simply be fewer people using the Web; they will move onto other protocols where they can avoid ads.. at least until the marketer…

Does it work with the new Youtube ad blocker wall?

Yes. There were a few days where they were using odd hueristics that managed to detect uBlock, but after following instructions to clear my cache and update my lists, I re-enabled other lists one-by-one, realizing I needed fewer than I had to begin with, and Youtube's worked ad-free since.

Some people are coming up with one-liner Javascript functions to fool scripts on the page as well, but I have to question the durability of that approach. It should work until their JS code changes, in theory.

Re: Users are massively giving their 1-star reviews to AdBlocker

#29

Post by diego_sandoval »

whynotmaybe wrote: post #20
zlg_codes wrote: post #11

Why is anyone not using uBlock Origin? Raymond's proven so far he won't be shady, and has made a tool that's incredibly resilient to anything the server side can do. The adblocker wars cannot be won by the serving side. There will always be a way to browse the Web without ads, or there will simply be fewer people using the Web; they will move onto other protocols where they can avoid ads.. at least until the marketer…

The name. Because when non techies hear about "ad blocker" they install the product that has a similar name. I'm never even sure about the "ublock" or "youblock" or "μBlock" so when I install it, I search "origin".

uBlock Origin is a terrible name, specially when you consider that there is a different extension simply called "uBlock", that at this point has little to do with uBO.

Re: Users are massively giving their 1-star reviews to AdBlocker

#30

Post by zlg_codes »

grogenaut wrote: post #26
zlg_codes wrote: post #11

Why is anyone not using uBlock Origin? Raymond's proven so far he won't be shady, and has made a tool that's incredibly resilient to anything the server side can do. The adblocker wars cannot be won by the serving side. There will always be a way to browse the Web without ads, or there will simply be fewer people using the Web; they will move onto other protocols where they can avoid ads.. at least until the marketer…

I would actually argue that "can't be won from the server side" is completely untrue. However ad companies don't trust websites to serve ads and report and so there are obvious to block setups because of that distinction, which is what makes ublock work. If there was trust between ad networks and sites it'd be a lot harder to block. I find it pretty ironic. and I continue to be surprised how completely terrible ad ne…

That's a good point, but you also explained why it's not too much of a concern.

There are ways to fully control it, but it's all server side. The best protected content is the content never served.

They're stuck in a situation where the business model is pissing off (some of) their users, and they want to turn ad blocking users into either ad viewers (not going to happen) or paying customers (limited but possible success).

Paywalling is the ultimate solution, but if Youtube does that, its status as the place to host video disappears within 6 months.

This is why it's a pointless war; every effective solution to force ads or control content to restrict revenue loss will result in lower exposure and/or popularity.

Ad companies can do a lot to build trust by no longer shipping Javascript-enabled bullshit, and stop selling scams. None of the bytes coming down the wire from an ad company are trustable, or do they contain anything actually useful. Why should we enable these designs or accept connections from those servers? All arguments boil down to half-assed moralizing about how we owe it to companies to help them profit. I'm not convinced.

Markets are simple: provide value and you will find customers.

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