this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023
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Most people, including myself, seem to agree, that ads were never the problem. When YouTube started, it had ads too and nobody cared. But the ads got worse and websites started to shove them down our throats. I miss the times of a single banner below a video. I don't think Google and all the others realise just how much determined nerds can achieve. So far the ad blockers seem to win the race, minus some minor setbacks.
It was October Spooky when Microsoft dropped the GetWinX.exe icon on everyone's Win7 and Win8 taskbars. The first time, we all followed the directions and dove into the registry to remove it, because it wasn't enough to just delete it. The icon would self restore.
Then Microsoft reinstalled their adware in a critical security update Big Mic also started using dark patterns making upgrading opt-out, and hiding the onay anksthay toggle.
Thats when an engineer, UltimateOutsider, I think, created the GetWinX Control Panel which not only did the full remove in a wizard but also monitored on boot to see if it came back.
It was a reassuring day. I think no matter how much the companies enshittify, it will only drive pissed off engineers to write hard bypasses. It's how we got the GCP. It's how we got Windows Loader for every release since XP's activation process.
When youtube started, the ads would load perfectly every single time and the video was a tiresome afterthought that would load in fits and starts if it loaded at all.
That sounds like every streaming service
I use an ad blocker but I cringe when I see my wife viewing a short recipe online, on a page with 10+ ads.
Why don't you help her? Do you not like her??
She's drowning and you're just standing there watching :( :(
You’re assuming I haven’t tried?
Ah. Ginger spouses, am I right?
Hook your wife up
I'm totally shocked when I see people using browsers without an ad blocker, mind blowing
Now on mobile they even open up the sidebar where the playlist normally is and puts an extra ad there too. Then it breaks your fullscreen and youre left with the comments open and a banner ad. So dumb.
This. Ads can be somewhat okay as long as they don't interrupt or otherwise hinder the functionality of the website or application I'm using.
YouTube's video ads interrupt the main functionality of the website for the full duration of the ads (some are skippable after 5s).
In the early days of the Internet, ads were ok.
Then the popups came.
Then came the popup blockers.
It's been an arms race since the beginning. The ad-throwers get greedy, not knowing when to stop pushing. That's how things escalate.
The pop-up divs annoy the fuck out of me. And most websites have gotten smart about them by creating the div ids on the fly so ublock can take them on.
I'm getting close to completely disabling JavaScript at this rate.
I started using noscript on my phone despite how annoying it is to use day to day. Desktop have more tools to manage pop ups better, but on mobile the only reliable way I've found is to nuke everything and just re enable what you need.
As a matter of principle I will doff my headphones and look away or hyperfocus on the specific area to skip the ad waiting for it to become available.
Greed
While I think this may play a part, YouTube was unprofitable for more than a decade and probably still is right now. It's not greedy to want to pay server costs
My company is heavily considering raising premium prices because ad revenue is now equal to the subscription cost, and we're still very unprofitable. That's not greedy, that's basic business
Some of those that work ad tech are the same that write filters.
Yep. My day job is providing tools to marketing folks and improving lead gen. It pays me well.
But I also contribute to open source projects to unfuck the internet. I know the tricks people like me use.
Real heroes have shitty day jobs. Checks out.
Except Batman and Iron Man. Those guys also have mansions, hot chicks, cars, and sarcasm.
How about you just pay for services then?
We do, look at all this data we let them harvest
It’s not the most appealing option, but it might just work as long as the service is good.