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[–] 76 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I use an add blocker to such an extent im horrified every time I'm on an unfamiliar device and have to deal with copious adds.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago*

    I’m to the point that if whatever I’m watching/doing pops an ad at me, I reflexively make a snap judgement on whether I want to continue watching/doing whatever it is. Often the answer is ‘no’ and I’ll just bail entirely.

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    [–] 51 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    I remember life without adblockers. Back when they were not needed, because web sited did not have ads.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    did you use the internet in '92 or something? because even in mid to late 90s the ads were so cancerous that pop-up blocking eventually became a standard feature of browsers before ad blockers were even a thing.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago

    My first contact with the web (I had been in the internet for some time already) was when a collegue at university told me about the Arena browser, and this new system, "like Gopher, but with Hypertext and pictures". And yes, I've seen the CERN website, served from Tim Barners-Lee's NeXT cube, too.

    So yes, I knew the web before there were ads, the internet when services were normally open to all sides, and when people on the internet that were actually much smarter than average.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    I remember when I first noticed YouTube had ads. They've had them a while but before they got ads I had installed an ad blocker. So when I was setting up a new laptop and just testing if everything worked I loaded up a YouTube video and suddenly there was a pre roll playing and I wondered "What the fuck is this ... Ah yes still need to install an ad blocker"

    Edit: Toni? Who the fuck is he? ;)

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    [–] 40 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Camara zooms out revealing a third guy looking down into his face youtube requiring a Webcam so they can track your eyes

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I'm convinced Mark Zuckerberg had a wet dream about pupil tracking when he bought Oculus.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    He saw that Black Mirror episode and found it to be aspirational.

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  • [–] 38 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    After going nuclear against ad blockers, at some point google is going to introduce a new “feature” where YouTube uses AI with your phone’s camera to automatically pause videos when you look away from your phone.

    Then they’ll make it so you have to buy a subscription to turn it off during ads.

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    [–] 33 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I remembered a scene of a black mirror episode: if the person looked away the ads will stop until the person watch it again and it's unavoidable ... I wonder if this will be a reality one day

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Yes, the technology to do this is here, and they're just waiting for the consumer to be able to put up with it.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    This is why I just set up a media server at home.

    It's mine, you can't pump it full of ads. All the media is mine and those companies can go fuck themselves.

    Sail those seas folks

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Reading your reply made me think ... it's possible that implying such technology might help rising Free & Open Source culture more ... given that FOSS apps are usually ad-free and with no tracking

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Honestly the best thing about FOSS is that money isn't driving all the decisions. Most open-source projects are built because the dev just wants to build something cool or useful, or they're trying to solve specific problems. Most individual devs don't really care if their user count goes up every quarter.
    Personally I've been maintaining a chrome extension for about 10 years, and it's sat happily with about 7000 users that entire time. I built it because I wanted to use it, and I've declined several offers to buy the extension and monetize it.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    What's the extension? Advertise to me dammit, I'm intrigued

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It's an extension that makes GitHub pages full width: https://github.com/xthexder/wide-github/

    Admittedly the usefulness has gone down a little bit in the last couple years now that GitHub themselves have made code diffs and some other things full width by default.

    When I first wrote this I had just gotten a giant 4K display at work and was really annoyed I still had to scroll left and right with the page only covering 1/3 of the screen.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    They know if they do that people will just disable their cameras or put tape over it like they already do. If they make it so you can't disable the camera without losing functionality then people won't buy the product.

    If they try to push it by making a gentleman's agreement with their competitors to make all tvs or phones use camera eye contact during ads well have to have fight back with more ad blockers and such.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    On my Roku TV I can't block ads, when they play I mute the TV and look away. I am absolutely the level of autistic that I think I'm "winning" by doing this.

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    [–] 18 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Put a pi-hole in my rooter filtering all adds of all webs and apps was the best thing I ever did.

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    [–] 18 points 2 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    That would be a point where I would just never use YouTube again.

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    [–] 13 points 2 years ago

    uBlock origin carries my browser ngl

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    I have adblock on my Mac, but not on the PS5. Whenever I watch YouTube on my TV via PS5, I have to open and close videos sometimes 10 or 15 times before they just play the video I've clicked on and not some obnoxious 45 second long advert for some bullshit I don't want and won't use. Honestly not sure why YouTube finds it so hard to play the video I clicked on and not random other videos. I also tend to stop watching vids as soon as an ad break happens.

    I work with a marketing department full time and they're exactly as annoying as expected, always pissing about on tiktok or Instagram creating shit that nobody could possibly feasibly care about.

    Is there an alternative to YouTube on PS5 that doesn't have adverts? Or is there some way to get adblocking on there?

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    [–] 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    If I'm watching YouTube on my TV, I mute it when anything longer than a 5 second ad comes on. If what I'm watching is less than 10 minutes, I'll just back out and start in again, usually it will come up without the ad, then seek to where I left off. Although oftentimes lately, I'll be watching a 5 minute video, and I'll get 1 minute in and get hit with an unskippable 2 minute ad, I just quit YouTube for the day.

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    [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    Even better, make a list of the ads you see, and activelly avoid buying the products or services that they promote.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    Yes, I someones forget how people live.
    Disgusting.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago* (4 children)

    On Linux or Windows? Firefox + uBlock origin (there’s nothing better than that)

    On Mac? Firefox + uBlock origin (worse alternative: Safari + AdGuard, since you might synch browser with iPhone)

    On Android? Firefox + Privacy Badger + uBlock Origin

    On iOS? Safari + AdGuard + Vinegar + Baking Soda

    On SmartTV it’s different.

    Hardest overall solution: Get yourself a Pi-Hole https://pi-hole.net/

    For WebOS TVs use this: https://github.com/webosbrew/youtube-webos

    Android TVs should get SmartTube: https://github.com/yuliskov/smarttube#smarttube-old-name-smarttubenext

    RokuTVs got either this thing: https://channelstore.roku.com/en-ca/details/840aec36f51bfe6d96cf6db9055a372a/playlet or the open source alternative: https://github.com/iBicha/playlet

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    [+] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
    [–] 7 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    If you click the ad does the company have to pay like a fraction of a cent or something for a click through? Like if I always click on the ads can I make them pay for having waisted my time if it’s only a little bit?

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    [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    Also, frantucally turning down the sound of my phone

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