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I’ve removed Disqus. It was making my blog worse

ryansouthgate.com

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Re: I’ve removed Disqus. It was making my blog worse

#291

Post by cm2012 »

bradlys wrote: post #238
mort96 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like there are almost two completely incompatible stories being sold by ad tech people. One is that "you shouldn't use an ad blocker, reputable websites have ads from Google and other reputable companies and they wouldn't be scams or malware". The other is that any time there's a story about malware and scams on reputable websites, they say: "there are so many ads being submitted, Google is doing their best bu…

Genuinely curious: why do I always get scammy ads in iOS apps and Google products but I don’t see anywhere near the same amount on Instagram or TikTok? Are Meta and TikTok better at filtering scammy ads out? Maybe their ML recommendation systems realize I’d never click on such an ad and the other platforms can’t figure that out.

IG, TikTok, Meta have a lot of data they can use to do good ad targeting that is harder to apply to Google/iOS apps. Also has to do with the ad format, placement, etc.

Re: I’ve removed Disqus. It was making my blog worse

#292

Post by accrual »

drnick1 wrote: post #274
sherr wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use "pi-hole", just an in-browser blocker (ublock origin) and am happy. But I would assume a "pi-hole" would be a useful addition to a household using a variety of potentially ad-infested devices e.g. a smart TV, various tablets etc.

The issue is that (some) smart devices are known to bypass local DNS servers entirely. They either use a public DNS server or hardcoded IPs. The best thing would be not to connect any "smart" TV to the Internet. These are closed firmware devices with cameras and microphones and they just can't be trusted.

> The best thing would be not to connect any "smart" TV to the Internet.

Agree! I regret letting my Vizio TV stay online for as long as I did.

At first it was fine, and I did get a UI refresh a couple years back that was OK.

But then some update caused it to start ripping control away from whatever my last HDMI input was so it could show me ads (which fails). Even though it's perma-offline now, it still messes with my inputs sometimes.

Re: I’ve removed Disqus. It was making my blog worse

#293

Post by 1-more »

yifanl wrote: post #146
chamomeal wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to get SO MANY “heres how I make $6,000/day in passive income with chatGPT”. I reported am all, I know it never did anything

I wonder if reporting them gives them more engagement, since that would mean you watched it and paid enough attention.

From when I worked in the video ad industry, the industry standard was that an impression was binary and seeing a single frame of the ad counted. IDK if YouTube follows the Interactive Advertising Bureau guidelines, but they probably do. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xandr/industry-reference/i...

Re: I’ve removed Disqus. It was making my blog worse

#294

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

accrual wrote: post #285
drnick1 wrote: post #246

"After years with Pi-hole, which now blocks over a million domains, I’ve become incredibly accustomed to a mostly ad-free web. Without realizing it, I’d forgotten what the typical internet experience feels like." It is estimated that between 30% and 50% of Internet users run ad blockers. I haven't see a single ad in years. Besides, Pi-holes are kind of overrated. First, ad blockers running in the browser are simply m…

I personally feel differently about the Pihole. I run one and it blocks a lot of telemetry traffic from smart TVs, apps like Netflix, etc. that are not originating from a browser. I'm showing a 23.1% block rate today. But for my use case, I like having the Pihole UI to see the charts and it's nice for temporarily unblocking one domain, etc. Here is an excellent alternative to running Pihole that I've used before: htt…

> I personally feel differently about the Pihole. I run one and it blocks a lot of telemetry traffic from smart TVs, apps like Netflix, etc. that are not originating from a browser. I'm showing a 23.1% block rate today.

Damn. I played around with PiHole years ago on an original Raspberry Pi Model B, and kinda forgot about it--it broke some stuff, and most of my connected devices could run their own adblocker.

Only in the past year did I finally buy a "Smart" TV and leverage its existing GoogleTV apps, because I got tired of trying to maintain my aging Kodi Box. I should probably setup PiHole anew and point my Smart TV's DNS at it...

Re: I’ve removed Disqus. It was making my blog worse

#296

Post by accrual »

boilerupnc wrote: post #278
sherr wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use "pi-hole", just an in-browser blocker (ublock origin) and am happy. But I would assume a "pi-hole" would be a useful addition to a household using a variety of potentially ad-infested devices e.g. a smart TV, various tablets etc.

Spot on! My samsung TV menus are soooo much better in terms of snappiness by having Pi-Hole running and also setting up DNAT for those IoT devices who want to hardcode their DNS.

> DNAT (Destination Network Address Translation)

Yes! This is easy to do on OpenBSD as well, though it's called "redirect" instead of "DNAT":

    pass in quick on $int_if inet proto udp to any port 53 rdr-to $dns_server port 53
    pass in quick on $int_if inet proto tcp to any port 53 rdr-to $dns_server port 53

Re: I’ve removed Disqus. It was making my blog worse

#298

Post by accrual »

dspillett wrote: post #74
huijzer wrote: post #30

I just can't be bothered to have comments on my site. It adds nothing but headaches. Cross-posting articles to HN or Reddit for comments is a much nicer way, I think.

I like https://github.com/tessalt/echo-chamber-js - it is basically a global shadow-ban for everyone who comments…

This is hilarious, I love it. I've thought about rolling my own comment system for a blog and thought it'd be fun to have a local LLM decide if I should even see the comment to approve/deny or not. Could be fun to browse the rejected comments periodically.

Re: I’ve removed Disqus. It was making my blog worse

#300

Post by accrual »

notRobot wrote: post #56
chistev wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, it's what modern blogs do. The discussions happen on social media and platforms where they are shared

This has disadvantages though! Often the threads on sites like HN/reddit get "archived" or lose traction and you cannot join the discussion if you don't happen to discover the article in the first few days of it getting published. In blogs people can come along anytime and use comments to add additional information/context/perspectives, point out misunderstandings or outdated information, share updates, pose question…

> I just realised while writing this comment how much I miss web comment culture from the 00s.

Remember Shoutboxes? :)

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