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Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by ndiscussion on Friday May 04, 2018 @03:26PM (#16997474)
Full disclosure: I wrote this post.

I'm sure a lot of us here have already embraced uBlock Origin. It seems to be universally acclaimed on most tech forums.

Before I wrote this post, I wasn't aware that eyeo served ads directly, which is what prompted me to write it.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by davidfischer on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:24PM (#16997969)
> Before I wrote this post, I wasn't aware that eyeo served ads directly, which is what prompted me to write it.

I think they floated this idea but ended up nixing it after users weren't happy. I run ABP with "acceptable ads w/o 3rd party tracking" a subset of the acceptable ads list and have for the last couple years. I've never seen an ad they injected or I wasn't aware they injected it.

The ad-supported site I work on and who employs me was added to the acceptable ads list today. I'm not affiliated with eyeo in any other way. We did not have to pay them (yet?).

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by rever on Friday May 04, 2018 @08:01PM (#16999397)
One heads up and kind of a correction, for users that want to stick to Safari on iOS (myself being one of them) after installing Firefox Focus on iOS, go to iOS Settings -> Safari -> General section "Content Blockers" and toggle on for "Firefox Focus"

Then ad blocking is on (:

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by briandear on Friday May 04, 2018 @09:19PM (#16999719)
You can also use Crystal.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by zjs on Friday May 04, 2018 @11:04PM (#17000106)
From the article, Crystal also participates in eyeo's Acceptable Ads program.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by kenning on Sunday May 06, 2018 @12:10AM (#17005180)
As a stupid and impatient person, I didn't get to the end of the article the first time i looked at it. After I saw you wrote it I went back to check if you mentioned ublock by name.

You might want to have something below the header and above the lede that says "hey just before we go any further, the solution is to use ublock origin instead of adblock." And even better, a big image of adblock with another, bigger red "no" symbol over it (in addition to the one that's already in the logo i guess) and then a check mark next to ublock origin. Like I said, I'm stupid. It's an interesting article but i already knew adblock plus was sketchy so I didn't finish.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by coretx on Saturday May 05, 2018 @09:38AM (#17001741)
Although uBlock does a fine job at fighting most symptoms,AdNauseam ( banned by google. )does a better job at fighting the cause by clicking on ads in the background, providing some financial incentives to advertisers. To fight back and undermine value & business models seems more effective than just docile ad-blocking. Link: https://adnauseam.io/
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by touristtam on Sunday May 06, 2018 @12:06AM (#17005173)
It would be useful if it was registering a click as a generic user without means to identify you personally. I don't see this on their landing page.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by mey on Friday May 04, 2018 @03:51PM (#16997670)
EFF Privacy Badger combined with uBlock Origin is my current combination.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by early on Saturday May 05, 2018 @02:31AM (#17000642)
Privacy Badger is not an adblocker. It block sites that track you by some magic heuristic. It just happen to be that ads are really intrusive. Every time I see a "please whitelist or page in your ad blocker", I get a smug smile on my face, because I do not have one
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by TheRealPomax on Saturday May 05, 2018 @04:44AM (#17000953)
It's a great combo, although as a developer it's also a constant source of "why the fuck does this website I'm working on not work" because privacybadger is the most aggressive cookie destroyer on the planet.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by MandieD on Saturday May 05, 2018 @07:30AM (#17001365)
They work well enough together that I set up any new PC for friends and family with them, after giving them a non-admin account.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by gruez on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:01PM (#16997788)
what does privacy badger do that can't be accomplished with a custom ublock list?
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by zenhack on Friday May 04, 2018 @05:48PM (#16998657)
Mostly automation -- you don't have to actually craft the list. It will just spot stuff it thinks it should be blocking and do so. And if you need to correct it (uncommon in my experience) the UI for doing so is right there next to the address bar. Also, it's capable of just blocking cookies for some sites, which is nice when they're hosting common J's libs/fonts or something, and blocking them outright would break the page.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by davidfischer on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:27PM (#16998000)
I ran Privacy Badger for a while. It is very good for finding out who is setting 3rd party cookies or using alternatives to cookies (eg. localstorage with unique identifiers). Rather than using a list, my understanding is it uses heuristics based on what cookies are set, whether they are 1st vs 3rd party, their expiry time and the like.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by phicoh on Saturday May 05, 2018 @07:36AM (#17001383)
The good thing about privacy badger is that you don't have to care about the contents of ads ('acceptable ads') or how much you like a particular site ('please unblock us in your ad-blocker).

If a site has parts with 3rd party tracking cookies then I just don't see it.

The downside of only using privacy badger is that you do see some ads. At the moment I find that level of ads acceptable.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by BRAlNlAC on Friday May 04, 2018 @03:58PM (#16997746)
Interested why you chose to focus solely on uBlock Origin as an alternative instead of something more forward thinking like AdNauseum?
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by gorhill on Saturday May 05, 2018 @08:30AM (#17001528)
> something more forward thinking like AdNauseum

I personally disagree with "forward thinking" description for what AdNauseam does, hence why I disagreed when the AdNauseam authors asked me to implement hooks in uBO[1].

To me the ideal for many reasons[2] is to reduce as much as possible the number of connections to 3rd parties on any given web page.

* * *

[1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/67

[2] Privacy exposure, page load time, bandwidth, CPU/memory.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by BRAlNlAC on Monday May 07, 2018 @05:54PM (#17016790)
I care about privacy in absolute terms. The difference to me, personally, between the advertisements I'm served after using AdNauseum and TMN running in a tab for 6 months vs the ads I was seeing using other blocking protocol (such as UBO and Privacy Badger) for longer periods of time have me convinced that the only way to gain any amount of privacy on the web these days is through obfuscation. I couldn't care less about page load time(as long as the hit is <500ms), bandwidth consumed or CPU/memory load on my desktop.

I hate the tracky nature of the web nowadays, and feel that AdNauseam is fighting fire with fire. UBO is fighting fire with CO2, fine unless the fire has it's own oxygen supply, which I would argue the online ad industry has in the form of copious numbers of inattentive and uncaring users.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by pmoriarty on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:32PM (#16998040)
I've never heard of AdNauseum. Could you elaborate on why you call it "more forward thinking"?
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by kuschku on Friday May 04, 2018 @08:44PM (#16999593)
The goal of AdNauseam is to not just avoid websites profiting from ads, it’s to destroy the ad industry as a whole.

So it automatically clicks all ads your browser encounters hundreds of times to reduce the value of ad impressions.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by Panino on Saturday May 05, 2018 @12:48PM (#17002558)
> it automatically clicks all ads your browser encounters hundreds of times

I think it would be hard to deny that clicking every ad hundreds of times is straying into uncoordinated DDoS territory, considering the installed userbase. I don't see that as enlightened or forward thinking.

I agree with gorhill on this and would rather decrease connections to 3rd parties. After all, part of the reason the web is so slow is that browsers make so many 3rd party connections! With that in mind, my approach to ad blocking is to combine DNS blocks, MVPS /etc/hosts + my own entries, JS blocking, and uBlock Origin. This setup catches more junk and is more likely to work while transitioning or temporarily changing my setup.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by a_imho on Saturday May 05, 2018 @06:34AM (#17001225)
I would say the goal of AdNauseam is obfuscating ad profiles. It not necessarily clicks all ads, the rate can be set in the preferences.

Personally, I would welcome similar extensions for social media, automated follows/likes/post/retweets, let facebook backup GBs of generated pictures per users for facial recognition or Gmail mine random emails. A more noble use case for lifefaker if you will.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by briandear on Friday May 04, 2018 @09:21PM (#16999725)
Who pays for the content you consume then? I am assuming you are a paid subscriber to all of the sites you visit?
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by alkonaut on Saturday May 05, 2018 @07:22AM (#17001346)
Sites that offer paid and ad sponsored alternatives are fine. It’s sites that don’t offer subscriptions that should just change their business model, if it’s now based on intrusive tracking ads from ad networks.

And no, I don’t mind consuming contents from hundreds of ad financed sites while simultaneously wanting the majority of them to simply disappear because they could likely never sustain a different business model than ads.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by robryan on Friday May 04, 2018 @10:01PM (#16999896)
There are other ways to fund content that doesn’t involve slapping a bunch of third party trackers and running retargetted display ads.

Some examples other than subscriptions would be sponsored content and creating a product such as an ebook or selling products that are related to your content.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by kuschku on Saturday May 05, 2018 @01:49AM (#17000542)
I am a subscriber to all the German-language news site I visit, or they're all paid with taxes.

I run my own image host, my own irc bouncer service, and many many more for all the use cases where I'd have to rely on ad-infested services.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by kiriakasis on Saturday May 05, 2018 @04:46AM (#17000955)
good for you, and how are lower income countries going to do it?
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by kuschku on Saturday May 05, 2018 @06:25AM (#17001196)
How are they doing it today? Ads from lower income countries pay less as well.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by ndiscussion on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:18PM (#16997921)
I remember reading about a similar project a while ago, but frankly, it had slipped my mind.

Perhaps I'll write a follow-up post later.

AdNauseam and similar programs certainly throw a monkey wrench into the discussion.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by hendersoon on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:16PM (#16997906)
AdNauseum essentially defrauds advertising networks. That is not the righteous path.

"Acceptable ads" allowed by default (opt-out) are inherently and OBVIOUSLY the right idea, but the acceptable ad list should be maintained by a disinterested party, not an advertiser or ad agency.

Problem is that disinterested parties are just that-- nobody cares enough to do it. Who wants to go to that effort to _allow_ ads?

One solution would be for Google and other large advertisers to fund a not-for-profit company to build acceptable ad lists, and then convince adblock addon developers to enable the lists by default through sheer benevolence.

Enforcement is easy, if they play games like AdBlock and start allowing intrusive ads, Gorhill (uBlock Origin developer) and those like him will instantly disable the lists and their entire model falls apart.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by JoshTriplett on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:30PM (#16998021)
> "Acceptable ads" allowed by default are inherently and OBVIOUSLY the right idea

I think you're overestimating how universal that opinion might be, and underestimating how many people don't want any ads.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by hendersoon on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:35PM (#16998074)
Not at all, I'm one of those people! It's opt-out. We can simply uncheck a box to block the acceptable ads too.

I edited my original post to make that clear, I thought "allowed by default" was sufficient but several people had the same reaction.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by pmoriarty on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:40PM (#16998119)
It should be opt-in. The user should have to check a box to allow "acceptable" ads.

Though I expect you'll find that the number of adblock users who check such an opt-in-to-ads box to be vanishingly small.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by hendersoon on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:45PM (#16998160)
That's why it has to be opt-out.

The goal is to make the web a markedly less hostile place to visit by eliminating intrusive ads while still allowing sites to support themselves through advertising.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by pmoriarty on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:53PM (#16998233)
"The goal is to make the web a markedly less hostile place to visit by eliminating intrusive ads while still allowing sites to support themselves through advertising."

That's not my goal. My goal is to eliminate unsolicited advertising.

I don't want it, and if websites have to find other, non-advertising-based business models to support themselves, so be it.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by atom_arranger on Saturday May 05, 2018 @01:10AM (#17000437)
This mostly just makes it so less tech savvy users would have to be exposed to more advertisements. Even after they've gone out of their way already to install an ad-blocker.

If I'm installing an ad-blocker I want it to block all ads.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by kiriakasis on Saturday May 05, 2018 @04:49AM (#17000960)
in my case that was false. I used a manga reading site that had ads on page change making literally impossible to use their site.

this is why most people use ads, they are annoying and intrusive.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by JoshTriplett on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:46PM (#16998177)
It's clear that it won't work or get enough revenue to survive unless it's enabled by default.

That doesn't mean it should be enabled by default.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by jlarocco on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:44PM (#16998151)
> "Acceptable ads" allowed by default (opt-out) are inherently and OBVIOUSLY the right idea, but the acceptable ad list should be maintained by a disinterested party, not an advertiser or ad agency.

That's silly. If a person is installing an ad blocker, the "obvious" thing is for it to block advertisements. You may not like it, but everybody is fully capable of making up their own mind on whether they think certain advertisements are acceptable or not.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by kiriakasis on Saturday May 05, 2018 @04:56AM (#17000979)
this is purely sophistic. It is shady to block ads and sell ads at the same time, but for me at least "ad blocker" meant "stop redirecting me to crap sites while clicking on your menus".

It was about being literally unable to use some sites, I don't care about still images at the bottom of a page.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by distances on Saturday May 05, 2018 @06:12AM (#17001154)
> It was about being literally unable to use some sites, I don't care about still images at the bottom of a page.

For me it's about privacy and security too, but most of all, I just don't want to see any ads whatsoever. I don't watch ad-supported TV, no ad-supported radio, no ads to my mailbox, won't use apps that show ads, and no ads are allowed in my web browser either.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by jlarocco on Saturday May 05, 2018 @01:40PM (#17002786)
Use your own definition "ad blocker" if you want to, but everybody else will see it as dishonest if a product claiming to block ads doesn't actually block ads.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by pmoriarty on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:33PM (#16998059)
There's no such thing as an "acceptable ad" for me, so allowing them is not "inherently and OBVIOUSLY the right idea".

What's obviously the right idea for me is making all unsolicited advertising illegal, and throwing any violators of that law in jail.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by kiriakasis on Saturday May 05, 2018 @04:53AM (#17000971)
Ads is quite conflated as a term.

should flyers be illegal? posters? tv ads?

mozzila is now trying to introduce non tracking ads in their browser. how are non tracking ads different from posters on the street? (minus security concern, honestly i trust mozilla on that)

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by pmoriarty on Saturday May 05, 2018 @12:22PM (#17002466)
"should flyers be illegal? posters? tv ads?"

Yes, yes, and yes.

Who needs all this junk? No one.

When walking down a scenic street, you know who says to themselves, "What this street really needs to make it truly pleasing is more flyers and posters"? No one.

When watching TV, who yearns for more ads? No one.

This is all junk no one needs except the advertisers themselves. The rest of us don't want their garbage.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by dcbadacd on Sunday May 06, 2018 @10:01AM (#17006433)
"Advertising" is just a friendly name to "manipulation for monetary goals". It should honestly be illegal.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by worldexplorer on Sunday May 06, 2018 @05:02PM (#17008518)
Seems like entire human economics need an upgrade.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by trophycase on Friday May 04, 2018 @04:36PM (#16998078)
Sorry, but there's no such thing as acceptable brainwash.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by thefounder on Saturday May 05, 2018 @01:43AM (#17000524)
Is not available in ios appstore
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by kerng on Friday May 04, 2018 @03:45PM (#16997617)
uBlock Origin is great, I have been using it on both desktop and mobile for a while. I wish it would be there by default in Firefox and also other browsers!
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by kodablah on Friday May 04, 2018 @07:17PM (#16999202)
Glaring omission that is built in to Chrome: https://www.betterads.org. one might hope it's not as much of a racket, but the conflict of interest exists.
Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by tgsovlerkhgsel on Saturday May 05, 2018 @07:47AM (#17001414)
This is just my personal opinion, but I find that it only removes the worst of the worst though, and I find it dishonest. For example, they ban auto-playing video ads, but

> The Better Ads Methodology has not yet tested video ads that appear before (“pre-roll”) or during (“mid-roll”) video content that is relevant to the content of the page itself.

So shitty news web sites that put one of those "we put a useless video here so we can show video ads" videos on their page can still continue using auto-playing video ads, with sound, and I'm pretty sure they'll find some way to define Youtube's pre-roll ads as "totally not a banned prestitial with countdown".

Also, just saw Taboola on their web site - their ads certainly meet the technical standards, but are one of the most obnoxious ones on the Internet, and the cause for many to disable the "acceptable ads" program/switch to uBlock.

They're just trying to take the worst edge off to reduce the necessity to install an adblocker, or, if you want to interpret it uncharitably, maximize the amount of people who get to see the bad-but-not-absolutely-horrifying ad formats.

It's way too little way too late.

Re:Please Stop Using Adblock (But Not Why You Think) by kodablah on Saturday May 05, 2018 @09:10AM (#17001661)
If you're curious, I keep a list updated a few times a day at https://github.com/cretz/badads