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Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

plausible.io

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Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#511

Post by hammock »

turbinerneiter wrote: post #15

There is a German movie about the system that is used to gather TV ratings. It's a special box that some users get which reports what they are watching. Small sample size goes into a big statistic (not sure how accurate the portrayal of the system in the movie is). These boxes are given to the people who pay the German public TV fee, which excludes i.e. students (they don't have to pay) and some other groups. This gr…

Hacking democracy (ratings voting system, whatever) to indirectly effect a supposedly benevolent unilateral outcome? Sounds familiar.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#512

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

zaphar wrote: post #491
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, for extra irony, I use the Steven Black /etc/hosts content to block on the order of 70,000 domain names, and plausible.io is in there. So I can't even read the article because I'm one of the people it describes.

Isn't the primary use-case for plausible that you can run the tracking entirely off of your own domain. Which means that blocking plausible.io doesn't really give you much.

it's just one of a list of about 68,800 hosts in the blocking data. nothing specifically intended to block plausible alone.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#513

Post by FalconSensei »

q-big wrote: post #353
mattmanser wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you say that, but isn't that exactly why Netflix got rid of ratings? All the documentaries were getting really high ratings, so would display highly in searches, but not many people actually watched them. It's the same for most content, I read a huge amount. I do read some intellectual books, but only occasionally. The rest of the time I read utter, thoroughly entertaining, trash. I don't want to read about an…

> Well, you say that, but isn't that exactly why Netflix got rid of ratings? > All the documentaries were getting really high ratings, so would display highly in searches, but not many people actually watched them. This rather shows that ratings do work, but are used wrongly for giving recommendations: If you want to create suggestions for a user, in many case the wrong answer is "suggest what has really high ratings…

> This rather shows that ratings do work, but are used wrongly for giving recommendations

And I know I'm (possibly) a minority on hacker news, but I prefer the new system. I was giving everything I wanted to watch more 4 or 5, even when it was clearly not the case, but because I want recommendations of things I'm going to like AND actually watch

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#514

Post by JTbane »

jancsika wrote: post #435
atoav wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has been in one or another meeting with German TV stations I can assure you this is not completely far fetched. The people deciding what is running at these stations are of the mindset (a translated quote): > Our average viewer is 65 years old and watches TV while doing the dishes, we must not show things that cannot be understood by them and then they will serenade about how they would "love to have a…

> Our average viewer is 65 years old and watches TV while doing the dishes, we must not show things that cannot be understood by them So like, sticking only to the first and second derivative in soap opera plots about retired civil engineers? No late-period Beethoven sonatas as background music? That must be difficult for you as a German. Meanwhile, here in America we're perhaps a few years away from something like t…

> Meanwhile, here in America we're perhaps a few years away from something like the movie "Ass" from Idiocracy winning an Oscar.

Very true, this is the first thing I thought of when I head of the popular show "Naked and Afraid".

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#515

Post by jedberg »

hammock wrote: post #511
turbinerneiter wrote: post #15

There is a German movie about the system that is used to gather TV ratings. It's a special box that some users get which reports what they are watching. Small sample size goes into a big statistic (not sure how accurate the portrayal of the system in the movie is). These boxes are given to the people who pay the German public TV fee, which excludes i.e. students (they don't have to pay) and some other groups. This gr…

Hacking democracy (ratings voting system, whatever) to indirectly effect a supposedly benevolent unilateral outcome? Sounds familiar.

It's not exactly hacking democracy. Democracy implies every gets a vote. This is P hacking small sample sizes.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#516

Post by FalconSensei »

erdii wrote: post #18
turbinerneiter wrote: post #15

There is a German movie about the system that is used to gather TV ratings. It's a special box that some users get which reports what they are watching. Small sample size goes into a big statistic (not sure how accurate the portrayal of the system in the movie is). These boxes are given to the people who pay the German public TV fee, which excludes i.e. students (they don't have to pay) and some other groups. This gr…

You mean something like AdNauseam? https://adnauseam.io/ Edit: it's an adblocker that is supposed to click on EVERY ad that it blocks.

I think it wouldn't be about the ads, but the visit tracking. Like, block GA from seeing your visits on trash sites, but allow when it's a high quality post/content/source, so we skew the numbers for high quality content

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#517

Post by bawolff »

Its not that i care about google analytics per se, its that i really want to kill more aggressive ads, and the easiest option is an extension that does both.

I certainly dont really like GA, but i wouldn't take specific action to block it. Definitely not taking specific action to unblock.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#518

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

mgh2 wrote: post #377

Why is this even at the front page of HN? I give them credit for the brilliant marketing. This is an ad disguised as an article targeting the "tech savvy" by bundling HN and Reddit (a truth + a lie makes the statement more true), a common clickbait tactic > This makes sense especially considering how difficult it is to install an adblocker on Chrome, the most popular browser on mobile devices. Nope, it is really easy…

> > This makes sense especially considering how difficult it is to install an adblocker on Chrome, the most popular browser on mobile devices.

> Nope, it is really easy: is just an extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-%E2%80%94-...

The key word here is mobile devices.

AFAIK, ad blocking in Chrome on my phone is difficult. But with Firefox, I can easily install uBlock Origin.

I use a PiHole on my phone occasionally to block ads in anything that isn't Firefox, but I found that the OpenVPN client is a significant battery drain (~7% per hour).

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#519

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

falcrist wrote: post #383
entropicgravity wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but if you use old.reddit.com and specify just the subreddits you want (eg http://old.reddit.com/r/truereddit+technology+science ) then you can still get something that's not too crappy.

I wonder how long it'll be before they phase out the old site. For now I still use it because it's significantly faster and easier to use, but I strongly suspect they want me on their new site.

As long as reddit's API still exists, someone will make a site that recreates the old reddit experience.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#520

Post by ipaddr »

hollerith wrote: post #446
ipaddr wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't block ads. I remember what the internet was about to become before ads stepped in. Everything of value was going to be pull behind paywalls. Let's say everyone get their wish and ads go away. Everything will require a purchase. Those purchases are logged to a real name/address. You end up with bigger privacy leaks. People will still be tracking you the way they are now. And at the credit card level. As an adu…

Your personal prosperity depends on a prosperous online ad industry; doesn't it?

The last time I worked in adtech was 2012.
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