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Welcome to the ad-free internet

economist.com

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Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#191

Post by RugnirViking »

robertlagrant wrote: post #188

> Privacy campaigners say that the price is so high as to be prohibitive; expect more legal battles in the new year. I struggle with this: you have three options: ad-supported, paid, or don't use it. What's the legal challenge?

the option being discussed at that part, the meta offering, only came into existence because europe mandated that users must be able to use the full functionality of a site without tracking/personalized ads. The paid option was facebooks attempt to do that - the question is over whether a paid option follows the intent of the law.

Note the mandate is not "no ads" but rather "no personalised ads"

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#192

Post by oarfish »

figassis wrote: post #108
zerbinxx wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution, at least for me, is finding things/places, both on and off the computer, where you can avoid having your attention stolen and just focus on something you like. I think the ad-saturated parts of the world are one of those things that you don’t really need, you just get trapped by them if you open yourself up to being swayed by them. Nobody is in my kitchen trying to sell me shit when I’m cooking, nobody…

Eventually those places will be premium real estate for ads. Some one will find a way to bring ads to our kitchen or to mount fiji. Maybe they will fly planes overhead, or do crop circles, put put them in hiking trails.

> Maybe they will fly planes overhead

I once was at Miami Beach and there was a boat mounted with giant-ass LED screens riding by. Where I live, there's new electric "bikes" with large boxes mounted to them and 3 sides of the box display ads. People get paid to just ride this through everyone's field of view, or park it for a while at conspicous locations. I feel impotent rage at this increasing terrorization of the populace.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#193

Post by jacooper »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #148
_pvxk wrote: post #113

https://www.datatilsynet.no/en/news/aktuelle-nyheter-2023/th... > the Norwegian Data Protection Authority strongly doubts that Meta's proposed ‘consent’ mechanism, often dubbed ‘pay or okay’, complies with the GDPR. The EDPB’s decision is therefore important to avoid Meta's infringement continuing while the company is exploring its options. https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/28/metas_eu_privacy_fee_... > noyb (None…

Is it illegal to charge money for a service in europe, or is it only illegal if you also offer an ad-supported free version?

It's illegal to force people to pay to exercise their legal right to privacy.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#194

Post by jacooper »

brutal_chaos_ wrote: post #100

Welcome to a niche of the web, which is a niche of the Internet, of which wants all of your money pls. Oh? The fight (ad-free or ad-ridden) alone makes more money, because, "ad money or subscription money pls", which in turn equals more clicks for them. You can argue, "yeah, but what about ublock origin (or another ad blocker)?" To you, they'd (speculatively) say, "ye are few, why bother."

> You can argue, "yeah, but what about ublock origin (or another ad blocker)?" To you, they'd (speculatively) say, "ye are few, why bother."

Well clearly YouTube thinks it's worth it to go after AdBlock users now.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#195

Post by avgcorrection »

zerbinxx wrote: post #24
Keegs wrote: post #6

This is nothing new but the article hits hard. I don’t want to live in a world where everyone is after my attention but a good chunk of the economy seems to depend on it. There has to be a better future than this?

The solution, at least for me, is finding things/places, both on and off the computer, where you can avoid having your attention stolen and just focus on something you like. I think the ad-saturated parts of the world are one of those things that you don’t really need, you just get trapped by them if you open yourself up to being swayed by them. Nobody is in my kitchen trying to sell me shit when I’m cooking, nobody…

The Ted Kaczynski approach works until you want to engage with the world outside your kitchen and you step outside and realize that the dynamic (personalized?) billboards are now across from your apartment complex. And the local park.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#196

Post by 0x0203 »

shiroiuma wrote: post #158
avgcorrection wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sigh What? I just described two scenarios where I’m on a paid plan and I still get ads. > For journalism, this has become an existential threat as web-users generate nowhere near as much revenue than selling printed paper. Printed, paid-for newspapers also have ads.

Not only that, but back in those days, the ads probably generated the lion's share of their revenues, along with the "classified ads" section (which is also ads, just not so commercial). That $0.10 you paid for the paper only really covered the cost of printing and distribution, if that. Unlike today, though, the ads in newspapers weren't annoying: they were just print, and didn't pop up dynamically in front of the a…

Nor did they monitor what you looked at on the page, track how you "interacted" with them, and sell all that data about you to anyone who would give them a couple of bucks.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#197

Post by 0x0203 »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #48

Doesn't this end up spiralling, though? As we've seen with Netflix, nothing stops the service from adding ads to a subscription feed. Sooner or later the pressure to grow revenues is going to force Meta to do ads on their subscription accounts (especially since they can charge a premium on those ads). Then they introduce "premium" subscription accounts with no ads, then those get ads, then there's the "excelsior" sub…

Not showing the user ads is also only half the problem. As the article said, those who pay not to view them are the more valuable advertising targets. There's nothing about those plans, as far as I've seen, that says they're not still tracking usage patterns, viewing habits, etc... and selling that info on to others who don't have a paid ad-free option.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#198

Post by somethingreen »

ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #168
wrasee wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm amazed that ad-blockers are not more popular. They do require a certain degree of technical understanding, but the extension system on most browsers is fairly mainstream so I don't think it's for this reason alone. Can it be as simple as the idea that almost all of media is universally disincentivized from talking about them? Of course there is a lot of content on ad-blockers out there, but the pressure may still…

If ad blockers were more popular the internet would be a much different place. Those who use ad blockers are subsidized by those who don't.

Modern internet is not in business of producing content and using ads as means of paying for said content production and delivery. Modern internet is in business of selling ads and is using content producers as means of keeping users in front of screens while ads are being shoved into their faces.

So, yeah, internet would be different, but to me it isn't obvious how it would be any worse or less in value.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#199

Post by voidnap »

avgcorrection wrote: post #116

There’s this local newspaper. While I’m on a logged in account (EDIT: paid) the ads seem to take up at least 25% screen real estate at all times. The best ones are the ones that graciously show up while scrolling, dynamically—it’s like wathing TV (again)! My favorite place though is the gym. Which costs a lot when you just go there to use frickin’ weights and cardio equipment. LCD screens with ads running (for local…

> your peripheral vision gets distracted by irrelevant stimuli (for some reason I automatically have to look when it seems like something is “happening” all of a sudden, an urge I have to repress)

If you figure out how to do this, please let everyone know. I don't think it's possible. I think humans have it baked in to them to pay attention to, for lack of a better word, information.

I used to have a long commute driving along a highway with trees and mountains along the side and, some mornings, the sky would light up from the brilliance of sunrise. Billboards tracked the highway for kilometres. Billboards were always in view and somehow they were louder than everything else. Like, if you looked at an entire landscape and the billboard, with its clickbaity text, was an absolutely small area of your vision -- it would disproportionately occupy your attention and space in your mind. Just like how you can hear your heartbeat when it's very quiet. It's not gone when you can't hear it -- the quiet things are still there and unchanged but you can't experience them when something else is being loud. In the very same way you can no longer travel down that road and experience the joy of not being sold anything,

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#200

Post by Propelloni »

sigio wrote: post #180
zigman1 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd even argue that internet, while it was seen as a counter-balance to the ad infected tv and radio space, has become WORST than watching a TV. If I want to show something on YT to my friend, and I don't know exactly which video is correct, well lots of luck to me to find it in first few tries, as EACH video I click on will first show me a two unskippable ads, no matter how short the video is

While the internet may have gotten worse then TV with ads, the internet being on-demand and interactive, and being mostly on computers instead of appliances, means you can skip/bypass 99% of the ads by using adblockers. I refuse to use the modern web without adblockers, and have a very friendly media usage experience without ads. Every time I listen to radio in the car, or see TV at frieds or parents I'm amazed by th…

I'm in the same boat, but even worse than radio and TV is using a non-adblocked browser. I'd rather not use the internet than like that. I don't know how others do it.
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