Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

ted.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 285 posts

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

#241

Post by c-hendricks »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #117
skygazer wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm like the parent, on Safari – apparently also using an "inferior" way to block ads that, somehow, inexplicably, works 100% of the time and has never let an ad slip through. Is it supposed to be inferior because it's brittle and requires constant work on the side of the developer? Is it blocking too much and I'm just not aware of it? Is there some new ad tech that it's not prepared for, and can't adapt to, and will…

Ublock origin is more than an adblocker. You can target entire site elements you don’t like loading. Screw it, delete the entire youtube recommendations sidebar and live in bliss. Is it possible to learn this power? Not from a Jedi.

"Use Distraction Control in Safari to hide items on a webpage"

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/120682

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

#242

Post by AStonesThrow »

lightedman wrote: post #234
AStonesThrow wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not working No, my friend, what is reprehensible to me is freeloaders who believe that they can just play cat-and-mouse wars by installing software and then scrape whatever web content they want, without giving the company their due expected revenue. This is cheating of the cheapest cheapskate order. It's dishonest, it's disingenuous to say "please send me your web content but only the stuff I like". Perhaps you fe…

||It's dishonest, it's disingenuous to say "please send me your web content but only the stuff I like"|| It's MY metered bandwidth that I'm paying for - that a site loads 50MB of trash javascript when I merely clicked on a link for a 300kB PNG is an absolutely outrageous strain on my resources, not to mention a total waste for that site whose devs obviously know nothing about optimization.

Well that's awfully self-centered of you. It's their resources too, isn't it? It's them keeping the lights on; redundant reliable Internet connection; carrying insurance, rent; paying devs to write JS; data center storing that PNG you wanna get at so desperately. That PNG that belongs to them and they are choosing to give to you with whatever other collateral data belongs in the transaction?

If you feel that they're exploiting your resources then you have a right to decline to use theirs, right? You don't need to offer your resources to them. It was a voluntary click, a freewill request? Or just hack the shit out of them, and fuck your social contract?

If you disdain this provider so much that you criticize their developers and wish to connect to it on your own terms, then perhaps you're better off not doing it at all. In fact, anyone using adblockers or other "defensive ware" should carefully pore over all Terms of Service, EULAs and AUPs, because you could eventually be found in breach, and then perhaps they'll just nip you in the bud, at the Cloudflare level, and you won't have to worry much about ads at all!

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

#243

Post by Nursie »

_cenw wrote: post #173
Nursie wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

From a quick web search, while it supports installing firefox plugins they may not all work as expected due to limitations/differences in the browser APIs, and ublock origin fails to work properly as a result.

So IMHO mozilla are probably choosing "Let's not" rather than "Let's deliver a broken experience"

As one user on reddit said - "Orion supports Firefox and Chrome extensions. Yes. And you can install them. Yes. Do they work, though? No, most of them don't. Orion is lying about their extension support. "

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

#245

Post by MichaelZuo »

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #189

I think the problem is, I feel like most ads are so empty,hollow & fraudful on the internet... I am okay with ads, if they aren't all the above. But I don't know what the Algorithm overlord serves me as an Ad, so I use Ublock Origin. I actually think ads should probably be changed from paid promotion to actually use that money on such a good level of ad that even if you release it as a standalone video for example, p…

Why would you spend any amount of time at all on a website that you’ve observed to serve known fraud ads for more than a week or two (and hasn’t sacked their advertising provider)?

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

#246

Post by Nursie »

krupan wrote: post #156
Nursie wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least, generally, they no longer open hundreds of windows above or below the current window, which may or may not have browser control bars, may ‘warn’ on exit etc etc If a page wants to cover itself in noise and dialogues, sure it’s annoying but it’s not quite on the same level as back then.

Why do I keep seeing, "it's not as bad as that" as a defense? It's still bad!

It's not a defense particularly, it's just that it's not the same sort of experience. The old popups were so bad I was regularly killing the browser process just to make them go away. Now there's a lot less they can do, thank god.

We have the browser (and extension) people to thank for this of course, not advertisers who would still be doing it if they could.

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

#247

Post by Scrounger »

_cenw wrote: post #32
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…

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

How does Ublock origin compare to using Brave Browser + NextDNS (Pi-Hole in the cloud basically) tho?

Because I haven't seen a YouTube ad in a looong time and I don't pay for premium.

I just use this combo.

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

#248

Post by antfarm »

AStonesThrow wrote: post #242
lightedman wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

||It's dishonest, it's disingenuous to say "please send me your web content but only the stuff I like"|| It's MY metered bandwidth that I'm paying for - that a site loads 50MB of trash javascript when I merely clicked on a link for a 300kB PNG is an absolutely outrageous strain on my resources, not to mention a total waste for that site whose devs obviously know nothing about optimization.

Well that's awfully self-centered of you. It's their resources too, isn't it? It's them keeping the lights on; redundant reliable Internet connection; carrying insurance, rent; paying devs to write JS; data center storing that PNG you wanna get at so desperately. That PNG that belongs to them and they are choosing to give to you with whatever other collateral data belongs in the transaction? If you feel that they're…

Here is some fodder for your thoughts:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/11/advert...

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

#249

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

philistine wrote: post #190
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what would have happened if the web didn't have scripting languages was that you would be forced to download java applets... which now can also run on javascript/wasm coming full circle. Also, java's dominance I guess was the reason that javascript is named after inspiration of java. What you are asking for are static pages which already exists and most people do use static pages due to it being very easy to…

A static page has nothing to do at all with the discussion. There’s nothing preventing me from adding globs of nightmare JavaScript to my static website to try and chase engagement. What’s stopping the people making static pages is not technical, it’s cultural.

Kind of agree, maybe static pages wasn't the right word but rather static pages without js /minimal js that anybody can read and vet unlike those minified js that we get from frameworks...

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

#250

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #245
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #189

I think the problem is, I feel like most ads are so empty,hollow & fraudful on the internet... I am okay with ads, if they aren't all the above. But I don't know what the Algorithm overlord serves me as an Ad, so I use Ublock Origin. I actually think ads should probably be changed from paid promotion to actually use that money on such a good level of ad that even if you release it as a standalone video for example, p…

Why would you spend any amount of time at all on a website that you’ve observed to serve known fraud ads for more than a week or two (and hasn’t sacked their advertising provider)?

Because its a monopoly?

Its name is youtube.

And For the record, I am already using ad blockers but on some very rare occasions on when I don't somehow, its absolutely nightmare

Post reply on HN