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uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

addons.mozilla.org

31–40 of 416 posts

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Option 3, let the ad funded internet die and keep the remaining good parts.

The problem is that the most popular alternative, microtransactions, doesn't work. Turns out there is a big psychological barrier between free and literally any payment at all, even a few pennies. People are sensitive to the danger of being nickled and dimed to death. And that's before you get into the problem of how to set up a clearinghouse where you can handle microtransactions without being eaten alive by fees.

If ad-based business models truly become unviable, they will find a new one. Ad-based businesses suck all the air out of the room, preventing other models from even forming. It'll take effort to find better models, but they'll come. But TBH, I don't see the ad-based model dying any time soon.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#32
post #3

I think it's only a matter of time until adblock is legally banned. The current situation, where the vast majority of the internet relies solely on ads and an increasing number of people use adblock year over year is unsustainable. The system can support a certain number of free riders (people who consume the product but don't contribute back in ad eyeballs), but at a certain point the math will no longer work. Event…

I keep wondering if / when we as users want to pay for more things…

I would pay for I the things I currently block. The problem is they usually want >5$/mo for things that would make maybe 10c/mo from ads otherwise which I don't find fair

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#33
post #29
post #7

I prefer Ad Nauseum ( https://adnauseam.io/ ) because I don't want to just block the ads I want to ruin the profile ad companies have on me by having all the ads clicked as well.

Do you think they can't tell when a click is automated?

Google banned it from the Chrome store while leaving other ad blockers up, so maybe they can't?

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#34

I think it's only a matter of time until adblock is legally banned. The current situation, where the vast majority of the internet relies solely on ads and an increasing number of people use adblock year over year is unsustainable. The system can support a certain number of free riders (people who consume the product but don't contribute back in ad eyeballs), but at a certain point the math will no longer work. Event…

Option 3, let the ad funded internet die and keep the remaining good parts.

Ad funding would never stop because people wanting to make money off content would never stop - it just becomes more subtle. Think sponsored posts, product placement, added bias.

Imagine a plain text blog run by an individual, good quality technical content, and a company comes and offers $10k to write a blog post about their product after trying it. If the author decides not to disclose the financial motivation, you now have a subtle biased funded advert that no adblocker will save you from.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#35

I think it's only a matter of time until adblock is legally banned. The current situation, where the vast majority of the internet relies solely on ads and an increasing number of people use adblock year over year is unsustainable. The system can support a certain number of free riders (people who consume the product but don't contribute back in ad eyeballs), but at a certain point the math will no longer work. Event…

> certain number of free riders

This implies that ads means paying/sutaining for the service, and no ads means not paying/sustaining.

This hasn't been the case for a long long time. Even paying customers get ads piled on them. Sure for many sites ads is the whole business. But there are also many business that

1. Never had a business plan to begin with, even the ads won't sustain them. The goal is just to be bought by a bigger company or become a loss leader and then "figure it out later".

2. The goal is to maximize profits by any means necessary even with paying customers upon which a sustainable business could be built. But instead we get dark patterns, abuse of user data and ads.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#36

I think it's only a matter of time until adblock is legally banned. The current situation, where the vast majority of the internet relies solely on ads and an increasing number of people use adblock year over year is unsustainable. The system can support a certain number of free riders (people who consume the product but don't contribute back in ad eyeballs), but at a certain point the math will no longer work. Event…

[deleted]

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#39
post #7

I prefer Ad Nauseum ( https://adnauseam.io/ ) because I don't want to just block the ads I want to ruin the profile ad companies have on me by having all the ads clicked as well.

I really like the concept but I would be concerned about having my Google account banned the instant it becomes popular

Time to diversify your supply chain then.
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