This is just shown once after a browser upgrade right? And not even baked into the browser? And for a first party product?
Are we really complaining about something as little invasive as that?
Why am I seeing this adorable red panda?
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Re: Why am I seeing this adorable red panda?
#12This is just shown once after a browser upgrade right? And not even baked into the browser? And for a first party product? Are we really complaining about something as little invasive as that?
Yes. It’s obnoxious, shabby, and needs to be shut down—swift and hard—before Mozilla gets the idea that turning its browser into a billboard is an acceptable method of making money. Because believe me, if this kind of thing turns out to be profitable for them, that garbage will not be limited to a mere static image shown just once.
Given Mozilla’s current financial problems, and who their core users tend to be, this was a very stupid experiment on their part. Genuinely sad to see this grubby crap from them.
Re: Why am I seeing this adorable red panda?
#13I put enormous effort into blocking as much advertising and marketing from my life as is humanly possible. I have written my own browser plugins and scripts, I have created network-wide blockers, I do not listen to the radio, I do not watch television, I do not look at billboards. I use Firefox to protect my privacy from advertisers and to block ads. So you may be able to imaging my rage when Firefox updated and auto…
Can you open that page, hit F12 and look for the trackers, analytic scripts etc?
I hate this "We forced you to update, also we are the privacy, also we absolutely can fingerprint you because we forced you to see this page you didn't asked to look".
Re: Why am I seeing this adorable red panda?
#14This is just shown once after a browser upgrade right? And not even baked into the browser? And for a first party product? Are we really complaining about something as little invasive as that?
Yes. I'm sure a similar conversation happened during the first radio show, or the first magazine. Now the slippery slope has given us ads on billboards, on the radio, every three minutes on television, each inch of public space including right in your face at the urinal, on blimps, pulled behind airplanes, written in the sky, on the inside and outside of taxis and buses and trucks, in every store on every shelf, you are barraged while trapped at the gas pump, before a movie you already paid to see, they hire people to wave signs in your face while waiting at stoplights, and advertising is baked in to every electron of the Internet... you get the point; it's extremely bad for your personal mental health and that of society in general.
If we don't complain and let them know that subjecting us to sleazy ads is intolerable, where will it end?
A browser is a tool that we have to use for work. It is impossible to block bait-and-switch ads built in like this. It's bait-and-switch because the expected behavior is to display the changelog, not an advertisement for Disney.
Re: Why am I seeing this adorable red panda?
#15This is just shown once after a browser upgrade right? And not even baked into the browser? And for a first party product? Are we really complaining about something as little invasive as that?
Yes. It’s obnoxious, shabby, and needs to be shut down—swift and hard—before Mozilla gets the idea that turning its browser into a billboard is an acceptable method of making money. Because believe me, if this kind of thing turns out to be profitable for them, that garbage will not be limited to a mere static image shown just once. Given Mozilla’s current financial problems, and who their core users tend to be, this…
It is important to keep Firefox solvent and operational as it is the last real independent browser. Everything else is built on Chromium (or Webkit), which are owned and spied upon by Google (and Apple?)
Re: Why am I seeing this adorable red panda?
#16Firefox V89 was last 'not actively terrible' version in my opinion. I've disabled updates and I'll continue using it until it breaks or becomes too insecure. At that point I'll jump ship to Waterfox or another browser. Disabling updates was not straightforward. Settings in about:config and GPO are ignored, I had to create a policies.json as described here, https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1304175 .
I don't think I'd personally suggest lagging behind any more than the ESR channel[1] does, for safety's sake.
1: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/choosing-firefox-update...
Re: Why am I seeing this adorable red panda?
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. Yes; it is a slimy bait-and-switch ad for Disney's newest animated series - ultimately an ad for their streaming service. I will not support them by posting links here.
Every day I consider saying 'to hell with it' and going back to Safari.
Vivaldi, by one of the creators (and former CEO of the original Opera, still seems decent, they don't have any bullshit like a "buy now pay later" extension or a rendering engine that inserts ads.
Re: Why am I seeing this adorable red panda?
#18I put enormous effort into blocking as much advertising and marketing from my life as is humanly possible. I have written my own browser plugins and scripts, I have created network-wide blockers, I do not listen to the radio, I do not watch television, I do not look at billboards. I use Firefox to protect my privacy from advertisers and to block ads. So you may be able to imaging my rage when Firefox updated and auto…
I think this kind of mentality can only be properly appreciated when you've attempted it for yourself. It's a lot of work, but I think that reclaiming the ability to better regulate your focus/attention is absolutely worth it.
It's honestly like quitting your drug of choice (e.g. even just coffee or alcohol) and observing the affect it has on you after using it again for a long time. Only in this case, there is no "upside" to these (forced) capitulations.
Advertising has become so entrenched that it acts as if it has absolute right to your hijack your attention, and this landscape respects no boundaries. Apple in particular drives me nuts doing the same thing: pitching their arcade or wifi hot-spot partnerships with absolutely no opt-out mechanism.
Re: Why am I seeing this adorable red panda?
#19On the one hand Mozilla needs to make money somehow, on the other hand, this does feel tacky. What other alternative is there that would actually be sustainable for them?
Re: Why am I seeing this adorable red panda?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. It’s obnoxious, shabby, and needs to be shut down—swift and hard—before Mozilla gets the idea that turning its browser into a billboard is an acceptable method of making money. Because believe me, if this kind of thing turns out to be profitable for them, that garbage will not be limited to a mere static image shown just once. Given Mozilla’s current financial problems, and who their core users tend to be, this…
It is important to keep Firefox solvent and operational as it is the last real independent browser. Everything else is built on Chromium (or Webkit), which are owned and spied upon by Google (and Apple?)
I definitely agree. I’m just incredibly suspicious—and sick—of obnoxious ads, especially when they’re being pushed by companies whose products play a pretty major role in what I do online. We’ve seen how disgusting some of those smart TV manufacturers were willing to get: unremovable home screen ads, selling user data, etc. I think that happened in large part because some marketing weasel was like “hey, what if we…” and the rest of us didn’t say “no, never, we will punish you for that.”
At least, not in time. Right now, Mozilla is dipping a toe in the water, and it needs to be made unignorably clear to them that mistreating what remains of their userbase is not the answer.