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Vietnam bans unskippable ads

saigoneer.com

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Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#251

Post by mmh0000 »

I am shaken to my core (sorry, wife hates that phrase, so I have to use it everywhere) at how many posters here see ads.

I'm of the opinion that if you're seeing ads on your hardware, which you paid for, your computer is broken. That advertisements are always evil, always wrong, and never morally just. And everything possible should be done to avoid, remove, or deface them.

To that end:

Andriod:

  - Root your damn phone! And install AdAway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdAway)
  - Firefox + uBlock
  - Don't install malware/spyware (Arguably, Android is spyware, but custom ROMs fix it.)
iOS:

  - AdGuard (free, works well, but not perfect, enable the "extra" filters)
  - Don't install malware/spyware (Arguably, iOS is spyware, but Apple thinks you're a simp, so Good Luck.)
Windows (note, I don't actively use Windows, so these are the things I've collected and used in the past, no idea of their current state):

  - Seriously, you probably shouldn't be using Windows, but I "get it" sometimes you have to.
  - Don't install malware/spyware
  - https://christitus.com/windows-tool/
  - https://old.reddit.com/r/WindowsLTSC/wiki/index
  - https://windhawk.net/
  - https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
  - https://wpd.app/
  - https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
Linux:

  - Firefox + uBlock and done.
  - OpenSnitch if you run random executables from the Internet.
Firefox as a whole:

  - https://github.com/arkenfox

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#252

Post by lm28469 »

al_borland wrote: post #90
iammjm wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world would definitely be better without ads. All ads are poisonous. All of them first convince you that you and your life as it is is not good enough, and that in order to be happy again you need to spend money to buy a $product.

As much as I hate ads, I don’t know that it’s so simple. There are products that do solve legitimate problems people have. Maybe there is less of that now, but in this past this was very true, and advertising helped make people aware that solutions to their problems have been developed. The first washing machine, for example. The problem comes when the advertisement manufacturers problems that didn’t previously exist…

If you waited for an ad to solve your "legitimate problem" you didn't have a problem to begin with imho

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#253

Post by thenewnewguy »

iammjm wrote: post #24
_jab wrote: post #13

I've often wondered whether the world would be better without ads. The incentive to create services (especially in social media) that strive to addict their users feels toxic to society. Often, it feels uncertain whether these services are providing actual value, and I suspect that whether a user would pay for a service in lieu of watching ads is incidentally a good barometer for whether real value is present. Don't…

The world would definitely be better without ads. All ads are poisonous. All of them first convince you that you and your life as it is is not good enough, and that in order to be happy again you need to spend money to buy a $product.

Obviously, if you could just delete the ads without changing anything else the world would be better, but that's not how it works.

Lots of businesses sustain themselves on ad revenue - would the world be a better place if we had no ads, but

- TV was twice the cost

- Google, YouTube, etc. (insert your favorite ad-supported website here) didn't exist or cost a monthly subscription

- All news was paywalled

- Any ad-supported website providing basic information (e.g. the weather) was paywalled or didn't exist

- etc etc

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#255

Post by kelnos »

Auracle wrote: post #167
phantasmish wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what a fucking store is for . They have catalogs. You could ask for one. If they think people will want something they will try to sell it and will tell you about it if you go looking . I see this pro-ads argument all the time and it’s so obviously-stupid that I’m truly baffled. Is this the kind of lie ad folks tell themselves so they can sleep at night?

There are also ads for services. I used to be a photographer, and without my little Facebook/Instagram ads people would have had to largely rely on word of mouth, meaning the more established photographers would absolutely dominate my little rural market even when their photography was worse. Also, I'm not sure we want a world where only the largest corporations get to sell things. That's what would happen if people…

If I need a photographer, I'm going to go and search for one. If no one is allowed to advertise to me, then both the small and large players in the space are on an even playing field. Your photography website or Facebook page will be just as searchable or indexable as before, as will business directory sites that can help people find services they need, along with reviews and testimonials.

Banning advertising could actually make it easier for new entrants.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#256

Post by suriya-ganesh »

mmh0000 wrote: post #251

I am shaken to my core (sorry, wife hates that phrase, so I have to use it everywhere) at how many posters here see ads. I'm of the opinion that if you're seeing ads on your hardware, which you paid for, your computer is broken. That advertisements are always evil, always wrong, and never morally just. And everything possible should be done to avoid, remove, or deface them. To that end: Andriod: - Root your damn phon…

I used to think this. and I do run some of your suggestions.

But how is the internet economy supposed to function without these micro transactions, in the form of ads. A lot of the abundance in software and technology we've seen in the past decade is possible only through this mechanism.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#257

Post by strogonoff »

thfuran wrote: post #191
squigz wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem isn't fundamentally advertising - it's stuff like toxic and anti-user advertisements, and the ad industry not knowing what the word "privacy" means.

I think there is a fundamental problem with an ad-subsidized service. Even ignoring the privacy issues inherent to the way modern advertising works in practice (which you probably shouldn’t ignore), the mere presence of an advertiser as a third party whose interests the service provider must consider creates malign incentives. I also think providing a service for free is fundamentally anti-competitive. It’s like the…

Arguably, the advertiser is not merely a third party whose interests the service provider must consider, but rather the actual paying customer (and much more of the second party) whose interests the service provider must satisfy to make revenue. That to me puts into perspective the absurdity of this business model: the user is not the customer, the product or service itself is not the product but only a means to keep offering the actual product to the paying customer.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#258

Post by kelnos »

tracker1 wrote: post #238
phantasmish wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I go looking for a directory of [service, in my area] that’s hardly an ad! If those include, say, reviews and pricing info, great! Yes, please! I definitely don’t want that directory to be skewed with ads in favor of those with the most money, or who have decided to burn the most of their limited resources on ads instead of improving their services, lowering their prices, or hell, just taking more profit. The ads…

Even in the phone books of old, you had ads as part of the directories... Businesses paid for those listings... Even today's equivalent, yelp, etc. are trying to sell add-on services to the businesses and can harm your businss if you don't pay up for the features.

Right, and in this new ad-free world, those things works not be allowed, and all businesses would be on a level playing field, with none privileged over the others simply because they have a larger advertising budget.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#259

Post by gretch »

Zanfa wrote: post #242

About a decade ago, a mobile gaming company I was at, accidentally shipped a full-screen ad without the art asset for the close button, so the button was invisible. The ad basically forced users to visit the in-app store for a moment before they could close it. The sad part is that day we broke all previous daily revenue records.

Pretty sure this is a form of ad fraud and the people who paid for those ads would be really mad at you e.g. if it were a CPC campaign

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#260

Post by cruffle_duffle »

rhdunn wrote: post #200
titzer wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have fallen asleep watching youtube many times. Interesting new opportunity for YouTube here. Detect your usage patterns and near bed time show you increasingly boring content until you fall asleep, then fill your head with subliminal messages in these long ads.

I suspect that they are already doing that (or something like it) as I've seen certain content appear at specific times/days.

One of the smarter product decisions they made was to tweak the algorithm to show different types of content based on time (and device). If it’s past 9:30pm and it’s the bedroom tv it suggests vastly different stuff than 6:30am on the living room tv. And for good reason! I’m not watching some slow “adventures through the milky way at light speed” video when I’m waking up!

It’s very smart about that stuff!

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