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uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

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Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#761

Eventually, this arms race ends with a computer vision model that looks at the screen, classifies visual elements as ads, and draws a rectangle over anything that looks like an ad. I am significantly less tolerant of ads than average people seem to be. (I think average people are making a horrible mistake about this, and are badly cognitively damaged by ads in ways they don't realize). If my choices are to look at ad…

> Eventually, this arms race ends with a computer vision model that looks at the screen, classifies visual elements as ads, and draws a rectangle over anything that looks like an ad. That would be a killer feature for AR glasses. Imagine no billboards, no political posters, no neon storefront clutter.

They Live (1988)

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#762

Eventually, this arms race ends with a computer vision model that looks at the screen, classifies visual elements as ads, and draws a rectangle over anything that looks like an ad. I am significantly less tolerant of ads than average people seem to be. (I think average people are making a horrible mistake about this, and are badly cognitively damaged by ads in ways they don't realize). If my choices are to look at ad…

Yeah we've got two years tops before local LLMs are proficient at this and ads are dead. Google, Apple et al. will drag their feet but they won't be able to stop it.

Traditional internet banner style ads are dead. "Paid promotion" influencer ads are going to take over (they already are).

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#764

Why are we still using Facebook? That's the real question here.

I still use it because over the years, all my IRL clubs and hobbies moved away from forums and sites to it.

Using it has very little impact on me, and allows to continue participating in IRL activities and clubs I’ve been a member of for years.

If they all pack up and move somewhere else, I’ll move as well, if not, I won’t.

I don’t use it for any purpose outside of engaging with those communities and I’m not going to give up my social life to make a statement, I don’t care enough.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#765

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skill issue? Some people are clearly more vulnerable than others. You can occasionally get useful information from ads.

Just because some people are more resilient to opium, and some people can have a good time on it, doesn't mean you should get an opium injection when you're going for a regularly scheduled doctor's appointment. Ads are being forced on you when you're trying to do something else, like you go to facebook to see your actual friend's pictures of their kids, you're not looking for ads, and yet you get some micro-brainwash…

Those apps where you share pics or whatever would not exist without ads if people had to pay for them.

So I am not sure if all is bad in that sense. Bc it lets the apps for sharing without people having to pay to exist in the first place.

I am not doing any assessment regarding to the toxicity of ads. I am just trying to objectively say that this also spreads "horizontally" software for free in some sense.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#766
post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I propose a sane rule for all humans: if you see an ad somewhere, or if you suspect a hidden ad ('influencers' trying to promote something), close the tab immediately and never return to that site. But this very site has lots of ads on it. Up until a few days ago, there was an "Apply to YC Fall 2026" link at the bottom of every page, and the front page usually has ads on it too [0]. So it seems tricky to strictly f…

The difficult thing is people don't want to pay for things. Ads are a way to mitigate that so that people/companies can capture some value that they create.

Even when you want to pay for things, the companies will find ways to extract more money from you.

Plex lifetime pass is now over $700 dollars

My dashcam that used to let me use the app to locally pull down videos now requires an account to view the files on my camera that is putting out it's own password protected wifi network, just so the company can harvest more data and track me easier. This device cost several hundred dollars.

Streaming services introduce ads anyway and increase the cost.

You used to be able to buy complete functional software like Microsoft Office and the Adobe suite.

All this is because companies cannot be statically profitable unless they're entirely privately owned. All companies need to constantly increase profit, which means even if you're happy to pay for something, eventually the company will squeeze you hard enough that you no longer want to pay for it anymore.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#767

Eventually, this arms race ends with a computer vision model that looks at the screen, classifies visual elements as ads, and draws a rectangle over anything that looks like an ad. I am significantly less tolerant of ads than average people seem to be. (I think average people are making a horrible mistake about this, and are badly cognitively damaged by ads in ways they don't realize). If my choices are to look at ad…

No the arms race ends with everything on meta being an ad and computer models inserting ads into every piece of content.

Eg A bottle of Coca Cola subtly inserted on the countertop, a video where someone in the background is wearing a particular watch.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#768

Eventually, this arms race ends with a computer vision model that looks at the screen, classifies visual elements as ads, and draws a rectangle over anything that looks like an ad. I am significantly less tolerant of ads than average people seem to be. (I think average people are making a horrible mistake about this, and are badly cognitively damaged by ads in ways they don't realize). If my choices are to look at ad…

This is an interesting direction. I wonder if Open LLM models can help with this sort of thing.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#769
post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difficult thing is people don't want to pay for things. Ads are a way to mitigate that so that people/companies can capture some value that they create.

Even when you want to pay for things, the companies will find ways to extract more money from you. Plex lifetime pass is now over $700 dollars My dashcam that used to let me use the app to locally pull down videos now requires an account to view the files on my camera that is putting out it's own password protected wifi network, just so the company can harvest more data and track me easier. This device cost several h…

Plex is just a nice UI and a DB wrapping lots of open source libraries and tools, you could replace it with a few days of AI assisted coding.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#770

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying twice now “you didn’t engage with my premise” when someone points out a flaw in your premise or otherwise exposes the weakness in your premise.

Edit: removed. Wasn't worth it.

Well, in this case I will "leave it" as a clear refutation of all your previous points. :)
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