Asklemmy

I use AdBlock, PiHole, and several tracking protections because I'm fucking tired of being treated like a product by bigtech. I also have various websites blocked on the DNS level, using only privacy-respecting frontends (youtube, reddit, twitter)

Ads annoy me to no end so yes. I use NextDNS on all of my devices + uBo in my browsers

I do, and I don't care if creators and companies that are already rich aren't getting 50 cents more.

I do, because they are my devices and I get to choose what they do. Not some content creator.

Fuck ads. They always fuck me when I try to make money online. If the only way I'm allowed to make money is with "a real job" then they should "get a real job" too. Fuck 'em.

As I can remember I have always been using ad blockers. The few times I don't is when I buy a new device and I have to setup the browser, but the first thing I search is the browser store and install uBlock Origin. The internet is unusable without it, too many ads, too many sponsored sites. Without an ad blocker I would probably not use internet this much since the experience is awful

I use PiHole on my home network to block ads across all devices. I mostly use it specifically for our smart TV as our Samsung loves to display Big Mac ads and track the hell out of everything. This way I can still stream to it. I have my phone and computer routed through it but my girlfriend doesn’t like how it slows down TikTok. Probably a reason for that 😁

Supposedly this is about YouTube ad blocking but this applies everywhere.

Anyone who thinks you ought to unblock ads for the creator's sake is propagandized to hell and back by advertisers who exploit creators by monetizing their content.

Oh! Milord is so good! He lets me paint in his shed but only if I paint 5 paintings a day with my own paint and he'll even let me keep a penny a week from his sales of my paintings!

I use Pi-hole, which is great since it is network wide. Doesn't do much for youtube, so for that I just download videos using yt-dlp. Downloading the video has the added bonus that you get the highest video quality for 100% of the video.

Of course. Parts of the internet are basically unusable without it, and others are much less safe. Any creator who moans about this is just taking out their frustration about their chosen line of work on you, or guilt tripping you to make a penny. Plus, lots of creators have found ways to run ethical and safe do that don't put the user at risk.

At this point, the internet is so goddamn unusable without an adblocker that I don't know why anyone would try.

At work, I'll occasionally start talking to someone about some fandom like Star Wars or Pathfinder or whatever. I'll go to the wikia or fandom page for them and suddenly I get a million popups and half the page is covered in ads. It's actually so bad that my work's filter will occasionally block a site because they'll say that the ads are too bad.

The only time I see ads now is when I watch YouTube or Hulu on my TV, but even then I try to cast from my desktop (though Hulu ads seem to break through). I understand the idea of supporting creators, but for most YouTubers, their money comes from the sponsorships, not from me watching an ad.

For the longest time I use:

• for blocking ads: uBlock Origin, Disconnect, Privacy Badger, Ghostery
• for search: DuckDuckGo
• mobile ads blocking: AdGuard

I donate or buy merch from creators directly. Many of them voiced that majority of the revenue doesn't come from ads, but from sponsorships and direct donations/purchases.

Not all creators are influencers, but all influencers are one-person ad distrubutor agencies. Most of the influencers business model is based on ad revenue and making ads themselves (collabs).

Ads are mental poison, so yes.

Yes. When I visit my parents, who don't use adblocker, I get really anxious when I have to face the enormous flood of ads that you get without it. I wouldn't be able to concetrate to anything if I were interupted frequently with ad breaks. I also hate how ads volume loudness has been maximized, so they sound more loud than normal content.

Lmao yeah uBlock Origin reks the internet fr. After chromium shifts to manifest v3, I'm switching to librewolf and uBlock to retain the same experience I've been having

Yeah, I use ublock origin. I don't like the ad model and many ads on the web are privacy invasive. I'm not averse paying for content (something I'm doing for some of it) but I won't watch ads to fund creators.

Yes, I do. And I do since I don't want to watch ads and being interrupted with the video. I also have a sponsorblock extention. I use those since ads are always the same. I know what NordVPN is and I won't sign up for that thing. Also, ad revenue on YouTube is near zero for creators but fir YouTuve itself I imagine it's pretty huge. So I'm bit damaging my creators. If I want to support them, I'd rather sign up for Patreon.

On my phone I use personalDNSfilter to block most ads on Android, as well as the Mull browser with the Ublock Origin plugin added. I have always enabled ad block for as long as I can remember being annoyed by ads and I have no plans to stop anytime soon.

I don't use ad blocker while at work, except to block YouTube ads.

Yes, AdGuard Home running network wide, then on my web browsers uBlock Origin on top of that.

Many websites are a cluttered ugly mess with ads and I dislike them. And don't don't me started on trackers.

I use ublock origin on desktop. For YouTube I love Sponsorblock and started to use dearrow to remove gaping mouth thumbnails and modify click bait thumbnails.

On mobile I do not usually have an ad blocker set up so I just don't browse the Internet much at all from it. I do always use some kind of ad blocking YouTube player though. I really love sponsorblock.

I most certainly feel fine about it.

Especially since most of what I want to see is by people passionately showing off their hobby. When nobody tried to get paid for content I found I enjoyed it more. Nowadays I costume less and less content.

I use a mix of uBlock Origin and NextDNS to block ads. I would support creators if they or the platform itself can clearly mark which part is an advertisement. I also donate to creators I think are adding value with their contents. Unfortunately, majority of creators aren't being very upfront on whether or not they're sponsored, platforms are mixing advertisements with legitimate contents/results.

Ads can deliver viruses, many ads are animated or have sound, or both. If every ad were static and safe, I wouldn't mind so much... but alas, that's not a thing. So AdBlock it is!

If I really like a creator, I’ll donate to them. Ads are an intrusion on privacy, and everybody has the right to block them without moral backlash.

I use AdBlock because I don't want to sacrifice 70% of my viewport to obxonious and intrusive targetted ads. I never click on ads anyway.

As Louis Rossmann said, supporting a creator directly via patreon Kofi or other means has way more impact than watching ads.

If you use adblock, you don't care about creator's point blank

This sounds a lot like not tipping being a bad thing.

Ads and tipping denigrate my daily experience. So I'm not going to suffer either.

Blocking ads is also just more secure as it's a vector for so many exploits.

In conclusion, I don't agree with them at all.

I have been using adblockers for more than 20 years, probably read a post about it on Slashdot and I think userfriendly.org could have mentioned it.

A site added big blinking ads left, right and top and that pissed me off, I installed AdBlocker on FF and never looked back.

Probably close to 20 years ago at this point, when visiting the official forums for a game I loved, my computer was infected by malware delivered by a malicious ad. This was not some seedy part of the internet, but a website hosted by a major game publisher whose product I enjoyed.

Try as I might, I could not revert the damage caused by the virus, so the only recourse I had was to just blank slate wipe it clean and start over.

Today, I acknowledge that most websites more tightly control the ads they host, but the trust is forever broken. As soon as the option became available to me, I installed the best adblocker I could find and never looked back. No exceptions.

The truth is that every ad is malicious, to small degrees. They want to commodify your eyeballs and take up space in your mind. They're trying to create a need where one does not exist, and will use whatever tactic they can to try to part you from your hard-earned money. They're a barrier between you and the content you want to enjoy—in many cases content that you paid to enjoy.

Even if it's in the name of supporting a website/service I enjoy, I can't confidently turn off my ad blocker anymore. It only takes one malicious ad to sneak through the cracks to cause disaster.

There has got to be a better way of running an online business without having to completely fill the space with ads.

uBlock Origin or the built-in adblocker, depending on the browser I use. On iOS I use AdGuard.

I treat adblockers the same as an antivirus at this point, there have been multiple times that I've seen ads for scams and malware, so I save myself the headache and use an adblocker. I believe it was Linus from Linus Tech Tips who said adblocking YouTube ads is piracy, if so then call me a filthy pirate.

Ever since my Unifi Dream Machine Pro router was updated with VPN and pihole functionality, I haven't needed to use any adblocking. I can route all my traffic through my home network and it blocks ads in every context, including in apps.

As might be obvious, I completely disagree with the tweet. I hate ads. They're predatory and abusive and they ruin the internet. Anybody who is willing to be responsible with ads has a donate/subscribe option anyway. The auto play video people with dark patterns etc. need to be obliterated. But I probably hate them even less than I hate sites like the New York Times, which charge a subscription fee and then fill their site and apps with ads anyway. Fuck off.