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Welcome to the ad-free internet

economist.com

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Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#321

Post by zigman1 »

zerbinxx wrote: post #316
zigman1 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck avoiding all adverts on bilboards in public places while riding your bike

I mostly ride on back roads and side-streets, my city banned billboards and is very small and close enough to the woods to not feel like one. But I get what you mean.

This makes sense. City I am coming from haven't done this and the billboard/advertising agency is very close with the city mayor, meaning, all the (main) streets are littered with advertising. Everytime I come home for holidays (from a large EU city, mind you), I am overblown by just how many billboards are around. Crazy.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#322

Post by 5evOX5hTZ9mYa9E »

haswell wrote: post #290
oldpersonintx wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry about sustainability. There was life before YouTube and Facebook and there will be life after. I am not sacrificing my mental well-being for a false economy. If the internet rots out its own Ponzi Scheme, we will build something else

> The ad-free internet has already been here for a long time > Don't worry about sustainability. There was life before YouTube and Facebook and there will be life after Which is it? The point is that this version of the ad-free doesn’t actually exist in the long run. In a discussion about a move away from the “false economy” you highlight via paid subscriptions (presumably not a false economy), it seems odd to say th…

Internet existed before it was commercialized up the wazoo. The way I see it, if all the so-called platforms (Google, Facebook, etc) went bankrupt tomorrow, the internet as a whole would be better, not worse.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#323

Post by dghughes »

AlienRobot wrote: post #278
dghughes wrote: post #209

lol first thing "We use data to create the best experience for you. Together with our 172 trusted partners". Just 172 close friends? That's what burns my gears not so much ads as the tracking. How did the Internet become a thing that follows you everywhere? An ad I Can take I look and click or not or buy or not but it's the invasive collection and tracking I hate.

Isn't this because they're using a middleman as an ad network, so the data goes to the middleman, and then it goes to 172 companies that interact with that middleman? Imagine if a TV channel listed to you every company that paid to show an ad that whole day. I guess it would end up being quite a high number as well.

I get what you mean but for the context of the situation/story it was amusing. That's 172 companies wanting my info not so much showing me an add or the site would be unreadable. A TV channel advertisement doesn't track me.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#324

Post by ouraf »

Ublock is more convenient and i don't need to pay one subscription per site.

In the past, it was about selling convenience. Netflix, for example has beaten conventional torrent sites because it had almost all movies you'd ever want in a single place, steady connection and a good UX. Now there are a dozen different services to juggle, each with a constantly changing library and torrents became more convenient again.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#325

Post by phone8675309 »

AlienRobot wrote: post #312
phone8675309 wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most other things are fully a "take it or leave" it deal - pay or you can't get access. If I take food from the grocery store without paying then they will call the police. Most ad supported websites aren't like that. They let anybody access the content and only then try to insert ads. That's like trying to close the barn door after the horse has left, and it's a fundamental property of the medium of web publishing.…

I don't believe that. An image or music in the computer medium is just bits. It's still a copyright infringement to copy it and publish it without license. Text is just bits. So what is the point of GPL? The goods in a shop are just atoms. There's no law of physics that stops be from just taking all the stuff I want. Just because the medium allows you to do something that doesn't mean it's right to do it. Anyway what…

Stop putting shit on the open web if you don't want people to be able to view it how they choose on a browser they choose.

That's not even a viewer abusing the protocol, that's specifically how the web was designed.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#326

Post by vGPU »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #48

Doesn't this end up spiralling, though? As we've seen with Netflix, nothing stops the service from adding ads to a subscription feed. Sooner or later the pressure to grow revenues is going to force Meta to do ads on their subscription accounts (especially since they can charge a premium on those ads). Then they introduce "premium" subscription accounts with no ads, then those get ads, then there's the "excelsior" sub…

Or how the twitter premium and extra special super premium+ subscriptions both still have ads.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#327

Post by Habgdnv »

alwayslikethis wrote: post #211

The ad-free internet has already been here for a long time if you are willing to spend 10 minutes install ublock origin. Paying is actually worse on all aspects, even if you ignore the cost, because it shows the fact that you have some amount of disposable income and are willing to pay for things, which greatly increases the value of advertising to you specifically.

Ah, this takes me back! I remember the days before Facebook, YouTube, and heck, even before Google was a thing. Anyone else remember using Altavista? Those were simpler times online. When you opened a webpage, it was all about the content – dense, to the point, and no beating around the bush. It was high-quality stuff and, best of all, ad-free.

I really miss those days. There was something special about the internet back then. It felt more like exploring a vast library full of hidden gems rather than being in a mall bombarded with ads and clickbait. Dreaming of a return to that kind of internet feels like wishing for a time machine, but hey, a person can hope, right?

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#328

Post by avgcorrection »

avgcorrection wrote: post #116

There’s this local newspaper. While I’m on a logged in account (EDIT: paid) the ads seem to take up at least 25% screen real estate at all times. The best ones are the ones that graciously show up while scrolling, dynamically—it’s like wathing TV (again)! My favorite place though is the gym. Which costs a lot when you just go there to use frickin’ weights and cardio equipment. LCD screens with ads running (for local…

(author here) I’m sorry but this looks like fake news. :/ I visited the webpage again (it’s not every day) and there were barely any ads this time. Did I misremember?

I usually notice when I log in since I can barely click on any stories without getting told that it’s for subscribers only.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#329

Post by Habgdnv »

AlienRobot wrote: post #273
alwayslikethis wrote: post #211

The ad-free internet has already been here for a long time if you are willing to spend 10 minutes install ublock origin. Paying is actually worse on all aspects, even if you ignore the cost, because it shows the fact that you have some amount of disposable income and are willing to pay for things, which greatly increases the value of advertising to you specifically.

I don't get this "adblocking culture". If you don't tolerate ads, you could just... not visit the site? Close the tab? I don't like paying for things, but I've never been in a transaction where I could say "you know what, I don't like the price of this, I'll just take it and give you no money. Deal?"

This whole thing feels like a "right to repair" situation to me. When I pull up a website, it's like it lands in my yard. If it's so jam-packed with ads that I can't find what I need, it's like it's broken. So, I tweak it a bit to make it readable again – kind of like fixing it up so I can actually use it. Just trying to make the web work for me, you know?

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#330

Post by hnfong »

mbork_pl wrote: post #202
marcus_holmes wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

haha not yet. 2043: you have been fined for having an unlicensed social activity. Please ensure all future social activity is properly arranged via Facebook groups or a registered chat application.

2053: your social credit score was decreased because of unlicensed social activity and dropped below an acceptable level. You were not fined and you still have a lot of money, but that doesn't matter, because you are not allowed to participate in any monetary transactions (in optimistic version: besides buying basic food).

2063: Your MetaFeed has not been accessed for 7 days in a row. Due to the inactivity, your MetaReality Bank account has been suspended. This is to protect all parties from potential unauthorized intrusion. You have 7 days grace period to contact our MetaAI Agent to reinstate the account by passing the EZ-Reverse-Turing-Test (v0.513) to prove you are a fully biological human. After the grace period, we will donate the assets held in your MetaReality Bank account to the NeoSingularity project for the benefit of greater humanity. In case you require financial assistance, you can always sign up to sell your brain compute for Meta Coins at the rate of 35MC/hour.
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