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We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]

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Re: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]

#171

Post by anal_reactor »

ryandrake wrote: post #150
Buttons840 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember how wild pop-ups on the early web could be: https://youtu.be/LSgk7ctw1HY

Computing history is rife with examples of APIs that would never have existed, had the API designer stepped back for a few seconds and asked himself "Why am I letting developers do this?" Someone deliberately added the ability to move the browser window around and pop up other browser windows, yet somehow never imagined this use case???

Social dynamics in the digital world are completely different from anything known to man before the internet. Imagine someone from 2090 coming over and saying "aren't you afraid that your friend will literally take a knife and stab you in the back during your birthday party". Technically he's not wrong, but come on, it doesn't happen really. And then you learn that in 2080's something similar was a major societal problem.

Re: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]

#172

Post by Scarblac »

sssilver wrote: post #51

Am I right that the only truly systemic solution to the problem of ads is government regulation, with communism as its final degree?

Or let all browsers track users, sell the info, shows ads over web sites, and so on. While blocking on page ads.

The market for ads shown on web pages and user info tracked by pages will crash, so companies will have to find more direct ways to make money again.

Re: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]

#173

Post by _cenw »

Nursie wrote: post #111
Jalad wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But only on Android as far as I know

Firefox on iOS is a safari wrapper. They do what they can, but they can’t support extensions the same way the Android browser does. It’s a real shame Apple continues to block it from being full-fat.

Orion can. My guess is that it's just not a priority.

Re: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]

#174

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

ryandrake wrote: post #150
Buttons840 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember how wild pop-ups on the early web could be: https://youtu.be/LSgk7ctw1HY

Computing history is rife with examples of APIs that would never have existed, had the API designer stepped back for a few seconds and asked himself "Why am I letting developers do this?" Someone deliberately added the ability to move the browser window around and pop up other browser windows, yet somehow never imagined this use case???

Computing history is rife with examples of API designers who get attacked for building walled gardens and denying user power when they ask such questions. There was a time, for example, when "data portability" was widely understood to mean that Facebook should let Google programmatically extract your data and forward it to fourth parties (https://techcrunch.com/2008/05/15/he-said-she-said-in-google...).

Today we know that there's no genuine question of user control here, because virtually every user has a mental model that a "webpage" is something different and much more scope-limited than a "program". I don't expect that steampowered.com should be able to launch the game I just bought, even though that capability is easily available from a similar-looking interface by the same developers I have installed on my computer. In 1995 it wasn't so obvious that people in 2025 would think this way.

Re: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]

#175

Post by sumeno »

tastyfreeze wrote: post #73
gonzo41 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just propaganda. Our society is more like kings and serfs that capitalist these days.

This is absurdly false. The serfs can become kings as evidenced by newly minted millionaires every year. However, the reverse is also true as there are plenty of fortunes lost as well.

Being a millionaire is table stakes for a minimal retirement, not being fabulously wealthy. Not something particularly impressive

Re: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]

#176

Post by rambambram »

sssilver wrote: post #64
sdoering wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would communism be the end of the spectrum? I actually don’t understand the thinking process behind that inevitability. Mind to elaborate?

Because when you're the sole owner and provider of goods, advertisement loses all meaning. I grew up in the Soviet Union. There was one type of milk on the shelf, it was called "Milk", and I don't remember the label saying anything else. Compare with "HORIZON ORGANIC DHA Omega-3 Supports the Brain Health organic Whole Milk" dressed in bright red and contrasting yellow, with typography that begs "please look at me, I'…

> There was one type of milk on the shelf, it was called "Milk"

I love this. And for me - as a 40 year old western european - it's so unthinkable, so unreal. I usually don't look at the milk packaging at home, but I remember reading on the packaging all kinds of stupid sh!te like names of the farmers where the cow grazes (which might be true, but I guess it's b0ll0cks) with some feel-good illustrations, all kinds of childish texts on the packaging as well. It's just 'milk', I don't need a fake story around how good your milk selling company is.

Maybe your soviet milk was unhealthy or not tasteful, I don't know. Maybe it's just the same kind of milk we have here. My milk is pretty good, but jeezz... that marketing on the packaging over here.

Re: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]

#177

Post by TeMPOraL »

ryandrake wrote: post #150
Buttons840 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember how wild pop-ups on the early web could be: https://youtu.be/LSgk7ctw1HY

Computing history is rife with examples of APIs that would never have existed, had the API designer stepped back for a few seconds and asked himself "Why am I letting developers do this?" Someone deliberately added the ability to move the browser window around and pop up other browser windows, yet somehow never imagined this use case???

Thinking of all the possible ways some assholes could abuse a new functionality is an acquired skill, and one I believe eventually makes you stop coming up with any ideas.

After all, entrepreneurs can and will abuse anything and everything in this world.

Re: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]

#178

Post by kilburn »

knome wrote: post #48
_cenw wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are using the inferior way to block ads, which will continue to degrade as advertisers take advantage of Google killing synchronous blocking of web requests with Manifest v2. https://ublockorigin.com/#manifest-v3-section

Only for chrome. I finally went back to firefox, recently. I needed to update some of the flag defaults to turn on tab changing with mouse scroll and similar, but they are unlikely to break things like ublock any time soon. I was a frequent profiles user under chrome, and still don't like firefoxes UI there, but just made a bookmark to the profile launching screen. It's good enough.

You may have reasons to require separate profiles. However, keep in mind that firefox multi-account containers [1] address many of the use cases for separate profiles in chrome with an IMHO better UX.

[1] https://support.mozilla.org/ca/kb/how-use-firefox-containers

Re: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]

#179

Post by chneu »

antfarm wrote: post #28

My way to circumvent most of this: I am using Safari with AdBlock Pro and AdBlock and see zero ads when browsing the web. I spend more time on YouTube than I care to admit, so I got a Premium subscription, bought an extension called UnTrap for YouTube to hide most recommendations and turned off all YouTube history etc. I regularly visit BlueSky, Hacker News and YouTube, but not X, TikTok, Instagram or Facebook. The h…

Checkout:

Enhancer For YouTube.

Sponsorblock.

Dearrow.

I can't use YouTube without them anymore. It's so horrible.

Re: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]

#180

Post by PaulRobinson »

sssilver wrote: post #51

Am I right that the only truly systemic solution to the problem of ads is government regulation, with communism as its final degree?

Marx actually had stuff to say here.

He expected the end state of capitalism to be business owners just constantly fighting the markets to stay still. On the one hand, they'd be constantly trying to figure out how to make sure they were paying bottom prices for goods and services on which they relied, and on the other they'd constantly be fighting to try and sell in a saturated market. Eventually, collapse would ensue.

This was one of the foundations for his thinking.

He couldn't have predicted information technology, or ad tech, but the premise seems to hold up.

Of course, where he ended up was workers owning the means of production and every business basically being a "lifestyle business", with no need - or ability - to scale. This, as you know, became corrupted into government ownership, central planning of the economy, and all the other nightmares of a non-free market.

The ideal state - and I think this is where Marx would have wanted it - is that you might not have had a gazillion milk brands all screaming for attention (and the consumer ultimately paying for that, as it being priced into the amount they pay), but there being a free market of worked-owned businesses.

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