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Welcome to the ad-free internet

economist.com

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Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#251

Post by loughnane »

travoc wrote: post #249
loughnane wrote: post #217

I treasure my attention and so I've spent some time to opt out of ads. 5 years ago I couldn't tell what DNS was, now I've got an OPNsense router at home running ZenArmor/Unbound and I can can link to it from my phone over wireguard. Using ublock I've made a point to prune the pages I visit, so classes like "header" "breadcrumbs" "recommended" "sponsor" &c. are hidden. I self-host my media collection so I avoid spotif…

My children are fascinated with the ads they occasionally see at their friends' homes. Due to their self-hosted media collection and prolific ad-blocking tech at home, they are rarely influenced by manipulative advertisers or inappropriate content suggestions. I consider it my duty as a good parent to keep up the fight.

My kids feel the same way. I feel like I've done something good that they see ads for what they are since they haven't "always been there" for them.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#253

Post by theNJR »

loughnane wrote: post #217

I treasure my attention and so I've spent some time to opt out of ads. 5 years ago I couldn't tell what DNS was, now I've got an OPNsense router at home running ZenArmor/Unbound and I can can link to it from my phone over wireguard. Using ublock I've made a point to prune the pages I visit, so classes like "header" "breadcrumbs" "recommended" "sponsor" &c. are hidden. I self-host my media collection so I avoid spotif…

I need to get back on this. I ran PiHole for years which worked really well. Something broke with my network which messed up IP provisioning and the PiHole got permanently disabled.

Is there a particular guide you followed or did you put this strategy together over time?

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#254

Post by jdpedrie »

ActionHank wrote: post #231
loughnane wrote: post #217

I treasure my attention and so I've spent some time to opt out of ads. 5 years ago I couldn't tell what DNS was, now I've got an OPNsense router at home running ZenArmor/Unbound and I can can link to it from my phone over wireguard. Using ublock I've made a point to prune the pages I visit, so classes like "header" "breadcrumbs" "recommended" "sponsor" &c. are hidden. I self-host my media collection so I avoid spotif…

Missing some Invidious and Yattee for youtube there friend. Adfree and crowd-sourced sponsor segment skipping is a glorious experience.

I'm interested in running Invidious on my NAS. The docs make it seem relatively resource-intensive. Any experience with that?

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#255

Post by bee_rider »

DarkNova6 wrote: post #121
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…

But is this not a fundamental problem if you expect everything to be available for free? For journalism, this has become an existential threat as web-users generate nowhere near as much revenue than selling printed paper.

Hard to say, nobody has managed to replicate the old IRL newspaper business model. You used to be able to get a subscription, or just buy a single paper from a store or a box. The latter is much more convenient, but the former was the only one implemented for the web.

For example, I don’t care to have a subscription to the economist, so I didn’t read this article. If I could pay like $1 for it, I probably would. But it would require a new service, I’m not going to make an account to pay $1, a good number of newspapers would have to work out a shared system before this sort of thing would be interesting.

Unfortunately the ad-net has sucked all the oxygen out of the room for this kind of business model.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#256

Post by JohnFen »

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…

> nothing stops the service from adding ads to a subscription feed.

True, but that's when you leave the service.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#257

Post by JohnFen »

wildrhythms wrote: post #169
DevX101 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lyft started doing the same thing. It's slightly annoying. Jet Blue is also showing mandatory ads on the video display in front of you. They last for around 5 minutes and you cannot turn off the display while these ads are showing. This is highly annoying.

Now taxi cabs play ads on a screen directly in front of you during the ride, I've seen TVs playing ads in hospital waiting rooms... talk about a captive audience.

Every time I've been in a cab that does that, I've asked the driver to turn it off, and they have.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#258

Post by totallywrong »

stef25 wrote: post #223
filipezf wrote: post #207

That's funny, because I'm a PAID subscriber to The Economist, and on opening the page, there is a big ad banner on the top and other on the right, filling more than half the space. (I don't bother using adblockers,though). Newspapers have always shown ads even for paying consumers. As the very article ends with: "Users who pay to block ads in some areas are still likely to find them popping up in new ones."

> I don't bother using adblockers,though Do yourself a favor. That's really the end of this discussion.

For real, that comment made me sad. Whenever I see the web in someone else's computer without adblockers I wonder how they didn't get off the internet altogether.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#259

Post by beej71 »

avgcorrection wrote: post #124
DarkNova6 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But is this not a fundamental problem if you expect everything to be available for free? For journalism, this has become an existential threat as web-users generate nowhere near as much revenue than selling printed paper.

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.

As a side note, I figure I wouldn't mind web ads if they were non-animated black and white. Some super forward thinking ad agency should do this and set a trend!! ;)

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#260

Post by gosub100 »

rambambram wrote: post #128
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…

Slightly off-topic, but a home gym pays back in no-time (if you only use weights and some simple equipment like a bench and a pullup rack, that is).

On a 1-10 scale of "difficulty to workout", I'm an 8 or 9. Most of my problems are psychological, motivational, ADHD/executive function related. Buying home gym equipment would do absolutely nothing for me because I would just stare at it and procrastinate.

I just started doing personal training, which is terribly expensive but it's one of the only things that motivates me to go. The other thing that helps is being around other people who are exercising, and in a brightly-lit space.

Finally, I wanted to share that doing personal training, we spend 70% of the time doing calisthenic-type exercises that require basically no equipment at all. So if someone has the motivation, do your squats, stair-steps, stretches, running, and maybe all you need to buy is a set or 2 of free weights (by "set" I mean literally two weights of specific values, not a set of all possible weights). Other cheap and small accessories are rubber bands that go around your legs, a mat so you can crawl on the floor and not get dirty, plastic frisbee-like plates so you can do leg stretches on the carpet. I know this is all "no shit" type information for people who work out a lot, I just want to share that for someone who wants to exercise for cheap, you do NOT need a towering multi-gym set to get started. There's TONS of exercises you can do right now if you just have the motivation.

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