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This is 100% the fault of shitty advertisers spamming us with literal scams, malware, and spyware.
I get that ads pay for a free internet. But that doesn’t mean that 60% of my screen needs to be malware to read a local news article.
Until advertisers act in good faith, I block as much as possible.
Or those scummy click bait ads disguised as related articles? They make my blood boil with how they prey on the vulnerable.
That’s all Google discover is on my phone… Ai generated articles that are just click bait.
is a new episode of RandomShow airing tonight?
Star Trek 31 confirmed to feature major tng character (from today)
blah.
Google is so bad for this, plus the fact that they were the ones who started rewarding clickbait articles.
In my mind though, MSN will never be dethroned from having the shittiest content.
I’ve been seeing clips from Ready Player One recently and this reminded me of the main bad guy’s philosophy on advertising in the OASIS.
we estimate we can sell up to 80% of an individual’s visual field before inducing seizures
Can’t help but feeling there’s some parallels there.
Seems unrealistic. In reality, they’d be asking how often the seizures occur and would figure out if the increased ad revenue from going to 90% would offset any potential lawsuits.
Used to be if I found the site of a newspaper I thought I liked, I’d turn off my ad blocker to see how it goes.
I don’t even try any more. Again and again and again, every time I turn it off the page gets so cluttered that following the article becomes a chore and takes up so many resources that even scrolling slows to a crawl. Ludicrous nonsense.
Don’t forget those annoying floating ads and the tiny X that doesn’t actually close the ad
And the fucking videos that auto play in the bottom corner with audio. I think the old people that recently found out about internet are trying to turn it into regular TV.
Some folks still raw dog the net? Wrap that shit up
tbh it feels like most people I know use chrome or even edge without any extensions
Most Firefox users have never used extensions either. https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/extensions-addons/heres-whats-going-on-in-the-world-of-extensions/
How do I do that on iPhone?
You can do that by selling it and buying an Android.
“an Android”
You know, like a Nintendo.
I dislike the fact that “ads” can also include crapware being injected into my computer (viruses, tracking cookies, mysterious scripts, etc).
The internet is unusable without an adblocker… I recommend uBlock Origin and Pihole.
uBlock Origin at a minimum. But I would suggest a privacy focused browser. Librewolf, Mulvad or even Brave. Browsers leak so much information about you it is easy for sites to fingerprint and track you even with an ad blocker.
I know Librewolf is working on their DNS leakage (last section on privacytests.org), but they also allow you to select a privacy focused DNS server which is nice when you’re not on a network you own, so you can’t run PiHole.
Is there a big advantage to a pihole in addition to ublock?
Pihole will also block non-browser traffic (e.g. your OS phoning home). Adblocking extensions are typically restricted to just blocking traffic of the browser it’s installed on.
It also operates on your entire home network, so it can block junk traffic on devices that can’t run adblockers.
I don’t think I could use the internet if I didn’t have an adblocker. Ads genuinely anger me. I think it’s just from the early days with pop-overs and unders, blinking, non-collapsible and the like holding content hostage. Intrusive or not, I’ll do everything I can to not see an ad.
using the internet without an adblocker is like fuckin a 5 dollar hooker behind a dumpster.
You’re gonna catch something nasty and go through a lot of misery.
I thought the text said “stop AIDS” but practically the same thing.
I am surprised the reason for blocking ads doessn’t include making sites somewhat readable. I guess faster loading could be it? But generally it’s more of a layout problem than a bandwidth one.
I tend to not use adblockers, or when I do it’s on a black list system for worst offenders rather than by default. However, I absolutely refuse tracking, and if it’s the only option I go to firefox reader mode immediately.
The usual false dichotomy of “personalised ads or you’re killing us!” is not acceptable.
Ad tech IS the tracking, so if you’re not blocking ads, you’re not actually refusing said tracking. I think you might be conflating cookies with being tracking (they are), but that’s only a part of it.
I wonder why ad tech can‘t be „Let‘s show ads that correspond to what‘s being talked about on that website.“ Kinda like what Google suggested with Topics but without following me through the internet.
Look, you need to understand that advertisers are Hell-bent on forcibly extracting as much money from you as possible. If they could strap you to a chair, hold your eyes open like in A Clockwork Orange, and then charge you for everything you so much as glanced at, they absolutely would.
If that’s not how you want to live, then they are your enemy.
There is no real technical challenge in displaying ads that are based on the page content. But ads based on tracking users is much more profitable. Plus they can sell the data collected to anyone else that is interested.
Because that’s not as profitable. That’s it. That’s the reason.
The surprise is that apparently 28 percent of “experienced programmers” don’t have an ad blocker. I’m not sure how they got the data, but I wonder if their methods are up to the task of sorting out any possible inverse correlation between blocking ads and being willing to respond to polls.
My mom, in her 60s, is an experienced programmer. She programmed before she had the internet
ads are the worst. block them all! Would be great if an advertising company did not have the most popular browser.
That’s why I use firefox, never going to downgrade to manifest v3 ever
Ublock Origin, privacy badger, pihole for home DNS… Can’t live without them
What does pihole do that Ublock does not?
A DNS blocking system like Pihole can block ads on platforms you don’t control, like smart TVs or mobile apps.
I was told YouTube is excluded from said benefit.
Yes the way YT loads ads it won’t work to simply block them with a simple DNS pattern match, you need a proper adblocker or third party app. But you can block all the other nuisance clutter on the smart TV, at least.
My TV is hooked to my PC now as a monitor, so I just watch YT on it right in Firefox.
For smart tv there is smarttuve, its complete replacement of youtube and acts like youtube revsnced or youtube with ublocknon pc.teybit out
