Asklemmy

Advertising is a form of hostile content. Advertisers mean us harm. They might have some tenuous moral right to try to expose me to their manipulation, but I am not obliged to co-operate and my moral right to protect myself is much stronger. This is implicit in every form of advertising. You are not doing anything immoral by buying a magazine and then not reading any of the ads it contains.

Arguments against ad blockers require that there are not alternate ways of exploiting content production, or any reasons to produce content other than financial gain.

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.

Adblock and Sponsorblock. Also Enhancer for Youtube that hides those pesky YT Shorts.

Why? Fuck ads, that's why.

I use adblock (uBlock origin) because the internet is nigh unusable otherwise. It's incredibly risky (even irresponsible) to not have adblock turned on given the danger of malware, or malware in the guise of advertisements. However, I'd whitelist sites that are decent about it--though in practice, I find it risky to temporarily disable my adblock just to test things, much less to whitelist them.

Most of all, there are other, better, ways to support content creators in the internet.

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.

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)

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

Yes. I have a whole house dns adlock AND iuse a browser adblock as well.

Too many websites are COMPLETE SHIT TO NAVIGATE without adblock. They will be slow to load because of all the ad servers loading in. They fill so much of their space with ads that the main Co tent you're there to see is obfuscated. They break content up with ads, so you're forced to scroll past them.

I have never understood why we legally allow advertising at all. Why should we let companies harass literally anyone with advertisements? I know literally nobody who likes seeing ads on any kind of content. It's an incredibly annoying thing we have normalized, and it needs to get cut back.

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

Absolutely. Ublock origin which also blocks YouTube ads and running a pihole for my home network for the rest of the devices.

Wanna know why I use ublock origin eveywhere? If you're brave (and dumb) go to wordhippo.com with a "naked" browser (no adblock and default privacy settings). Then come back and talk to me when you've removed all the malware from your system.

I use an ad blocker in all my clients plus pihole on my local network... And outside with a VPN.

If a creator is really useful, I support them directly through donations or paid subscriptions. Other than that, I can't stand ads.

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!

I've used it for the past decade. Literally the only time I see ads is when I look at other people's devices and wonder how TF they use them.

The argument to turn off your adblocker is like a circus ringleader demanding the audience’s money for the sake of the lion, even while he beats the lion.

I used to on my phone, but then i started using foss apps and disabling JavaScript, so i never see ads unless sponsors are in a yt vid i watch

Ads are mental poison, so yes.

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.

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.

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.

It's more about the mechanism of ads. If you ever read only a brief summary of Pavlov's work, you will know the difference between the mechanism of brainwashing and ads (which is none). It's not just unethical but borderline dangerous to society. The same with corruption. if you call it lobby and doing it in a suit, it's okay.... I really hope a meteor will come soon, before this shitty human race will be multi-planet trash...

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.

Neurological warfare with a side of malware? Where do I sign up

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

@tsukii I don't use adblocker but I use Safing's Portmaster and Vivaldi Browser with built-in ad-and-tracker-blocker enabled plus uBlock Origin - using plus Librewolf as well.

Hope that helps 🥰

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.