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uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

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Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#731

Post by ericmay »

okamiueru wrote: post #708
ericmay wrote: post #704

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So what is the service Facebook actually provides then? A way to manage communities and events. A way to find, connect, and communicate with others. I don’t have Facebook or use any social media (except LinkedIn) and yet I still plan events, connect, and communicate with others. I have not touched a mainstream social media site since probably 2013. We don't need Facebook, and we especially don’t need to spend a bun…

HN sure has a different type of crowd compared to ten years ago. Out of curiosity, what brings you here? Also, what is your favorite AI model?

I just like to read articles and debate things.

I use Claude but don’t have too strong of an opinion on any specific model provider.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#732

Post by sire-vc »

vivzkestrel wrote: post #505
jimrandomh wrote: post #282

Eventually, this arms race ends with a computer vision model that looks at the screen, classifies visual elements as ads, and draws a rectangle over anything that looks like an ad. I am significantly less tolerant of ads than average people seem to be. (I think average people are making a horrible mistake about this, and are badly cognitively damaged by ads in ways they don't realize). If my choices are to look at ad…

- there is also a 3rd option - its called 9$ a month with a blue check mark on all facebook groups and pages - you gotta wonder why zuck hasnt done that

Every social media site that has tried a paid option has given up or vanished because nobody pays, full stop.

Whatsapp is popular because it's free and no other reason.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#733

Post by kotaKat »

OkayPhysicist wrote: post #365
kotaKat wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't. They spent hours listening to the citizens tell them not to enter a 187(g) with ICE and then they spun around and immediately voted to approve the 187(g). Citizens are powerless, period here, and they keep voting in the worst possible interests because the leopards haven't ate their face yet.

The really cool thing about local politicians is that unlike higher levels of government, they tend to actually live locally. Means you can pretty easily coordinate things like pleasant sit-down conversations, or shouting obscenities at them while they're trying to do their grocery shopping.

The really bad thing about that is the "try that in a small town" factor when they just call their friend, the police chief, and next thing you know you're trying to remember the ACLU's phone number for your one phone call (:

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#735

Post by woodrowbarlow »

snickerer wrote: post #549

Ads are an attack, aimed at your brain. They try to inject malware into your thinking, manipulating your worldview and your actions. That's horrible, worse than attacking a machine with malware, damaging persons and societies. Decades of ad propaganda have tricked people into seeing them as something 'normal'. But we shouldn't accept being under constant attack of brain worms. I propose a sane rule for all humans: if…

my least favorite part of flying is the part where i'm strapped to a chair during taxi with a screen and speaker inches from my face and they use that moment to force a few ads into my eye socket. it feels very Citizen Kane.

pumping gas is another one that takes advantage of captivity to force ads. i hate it.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#736

Post by okamiueru »

ericmay wrote: post #731
okamiueru wrote: post #708

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN sure has a different type of crowd compared to ten years ago. Out of curiosity, what brings you here? Also, what is your favorite AI model?

I just like to read articles and debate things. I use Claude but don’t have too strong of an opinion on any specific model provider.

Debating requires that one engages with the premise. Making up a different one, and then share your thoughts on it, is something different.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#737

Post by fn-mote »

sbarre wrote: post #713
techdmn wrote: post #707

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no. It's hard to escape ads even by paying for things, with cable TV being a common (though increasingly outdated) example.

What you pay(paid) for cable TV was never enough to actually cover the total cost of the service you were receiving. You were splitting that cost with the advertisers. This is not a defence of advertising, just a reality check on this bad example.

This might be true if cable companies did not make a profit.

In the US, at least, I think the lack of competition (almost monopoly pricing in most areas) has led to exactly the opposite situation - plenty of profits for the cable providers.

Do you have evidence for the claim that the monthly fees are not enough to cover the cost of providing the service?

I tried to find numbers but couldn’t, so I’m left with a macroeconomic argument. Better details would be welcome.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#739

Post by ericmay »

okamiueru wrote: post #736
ericmay wrote: post #731

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just like to read articles and debate things. I use Claude but don’t have too strong of an opinion on any specific model provider.

Debating requires that one engages with the premise. Making up a different one, and then share your thoughts on it, is something different.

Saying twice now “you didn’t engage with my premise” when someone points out a flaw in your premise or otherwise exposes the weakness in your premise.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#740

Post by miki123211 »

abirch wrote: post #699
gucci-on-fleek wrote: post #686

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I propose a sane rule for all humans: if you see an ad somewhere, or if you suspect a hidden ad ('influencers' trying to promote something), close the tab immediately and never return to that site. But this very site has lots of ads on it. Up until a few days ago, there was an "Apply to YC Fall 2026" link at the bottom of every page, and the front page usually has ads on it too [0]. So it seems tricky to strictly f…

The difficult thing is people don't want to pay for things. Ads are a way to mitigate that so that people/companies can capture some value that they create.

Ads are progressive taxes in disguise.

If you make the kind of content that costs a lot to create but almost nothing to copy, you have a dilemma: Set the price too high, and you aren't getting any money from the poor at all at all, even though they're willing to pay far above your copying costs. Set the price too low, and you aren't extracting as much profit from the rich as you could be.

Ads let you serve the same product to everybody, regardless of income, because they pay for the product indirectly, by buying the advertised products. Rich people have more money and buy more products, so they, in effect, pay more for the same content. poor people pay less.

I think this is a beautiful system in many ways. Ads give us access to all the world's music, plenty of educational content (on Youtube), including from the world's topmost universities, international texting, picture messaging, phone and video calls of unlimited duration, even some movies and TV. And it's all free, which it wouldn't be if not for ads.

If we banned ads, many people just wouldn't be able to afford to talk to their family or listen to their favorite artists every day.

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