5 ms·

> They are welcome to try. And I am welcome to try harder to block them. Technically, Facebook could insert news feed ads like a post from one of your friend (

> They are welcome to try. And I am welcome to try harder to block them. Technically, Facebook could insert news feed ads like a post from one of your friend (assume that the friend has liked some page or organization). It could be tough to distinguish between ads and posts much like native advertising.

mgbmtl 10y ago
Ads already affect the experience significantly, this would do so even more. (not that I use Facebook, but Tumblr for example, has extremely annoying repetitive offensive ads)
- ulucs 10y ago
  Do you remember the time when staff broke the audio ads and they kept looping with no way to stop whatsoever? And people still go on about blocking ads being unethical
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
mattmanser 10y ago
It's a legal requirement in most countries to clearly distinguish ads from content.
- SilasX 10y ago
  Distinguish them to human viewers, not to computers. If the aggregate effect of all the CSS and element classes is to make ads look one way and non-ads look a different way (each with slight variations), it's an AI-complete problem infer an answer to "given these elements and this CSS sheet, which subset of them looks different and add-like to a human?"
  - robrenaud 10y ago
    Is it an AI-complete problem to do email spam classification? Why is determining if a facebook post is an ad or not so different than spam classification?
    - SilasX 10y ago
      It's AI complete to do it with human level accuracy, yes. If you don't mind blocking random friends' posts, you can craft the ad blocker to remove them all.
mayneack 10y ago
I actually created a custom adblock filter to block the whole news section. They already show "news" about stuff like prime day sales, so it might as well be advertising.
- chillydawg 10y ago
  Care to share?
  - bbradley406 10y ago
    I'd like to mention News Feed Eradicator here - not only does what its name implies, but it adds a motivational quote in the empty space. The quotes are usually about goals, procrastination, etc and it's saved me a lot of (potentially) wasted time.
  - mayneack 10y ago
    here's my facebook filters. I don't really do this systematically, I just use the ublock element picker until I'm happy. I think you probably want the trending topics one. ! 7/5/2016, 11:08:51 AM https://www.facebook.com/ www.facebook.com###pagelet_trending_tags_and_topics > ._5mym > ._5spf._2sns ! 7/5/2016, 11:09:01 AM https://www.facebook.com/ www.facebook.com###u_jsonp_3_0 ! 7/5/2016, 11:09:09 AM https://www.facebook.com/ www.facebook.com###u_jsonp_3_1 ! 7/5/2016, 11:09:13 AM https://www.facebook.com/ www.facebook.com###rightCol > ._5v6d._5rzs > ._64a > div:nth-of-type(2) ! 7/5/2016, 11:09:23 AM https://www.facebook.com/ www.facebook.com###rightCol
_RPM 10y ago
I'd bet their terms allow them to impersonate your own friends.
deanCommie 10y ago
That was what I was referring to here: > Facebook is already full of advertising disguised as content. From sponsored posts to content from things you "like". So I'm kind of surprised they need to go out of their way to explicitly announce that they will be disguising ads. They already have the power to inject it in the middle of content invisibly.
- Azkar 10y ago
  But Facebook doesn't get any cut of a sponsored post. (meaning a company paid an individual to write a post)
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    > But Facebook doesn't get any cut of a sponsored post. "Sponsored Stories" and "Promoted Posts" (one of which I expect is what was meant by "sponsored post") are the names of specific kinds of Facebook ads.
maxxxxx 10y ago
Sounds like a good application for AI to detect ads.
- WalterSear 10y ago
  You wouldn't even even need that. Just a methods for identifying content and aggregating users 'votes' on them. Reach critical mass and start hiding it.

mgbmtl 10y ago

Ads already affect the experience significantly, this would do so even more. (not that I use Facebook, but Tumblr for example, has extremely annoying repetitive offensive ads)

ulucs 10y ago
Do you remember the time when staff broke the audio ads and they kept looping with no way to stop whatsoever? And people still go on about blocking ads being unethical

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

mattmanser 10y ago

It's a legal requirement in most countries to clearly distinguish ads from content.

SilasX 10y ago
Distinguish them to human viewers, not to computers. If the aggregate effect of all the CSS and element classes is to make ads look one way and non-ads look a different way (each with slight variations), it's an AI-complete problem infer an answer to "given these elements and this CSS sheet, which subset of them looks different and add-like to a human?"
- robrenaud 10y ago
  Is it an AI-complete problem to do email spam classification? Why is determining if a facebook post is an ad or not so different than spam classification?
  - SilasX 10y ago
    It's AI complete to do it with human level accuracy, yes. If you don't mind blocking random friends' posts, you can craft the ad blocker to remove them all.

mayneack 10y ago

I actually created a custom adblock filter to block the whole news section. They already show "news" about stuff like prime day sales, so it might as well be advertising.

chillydawg 10y ago
Care to share?
- bbradley406 10y ago
  I'd like to mention News Feed Eradicator here - not only does what its name implies, but it adds a motivational quote in the empty space. The quotes are usually about goals, procrastination, etc and it's saved me a lot of (potentially) wasted time.
- mayneack 10y ago
  here's my facebook filters. I don't really do this systematically, I just use the ublock element picker until I'm happy. I think you probably want the trending topics one. ! 7/5/2016, 11:08:51 AM https://www.facebook.com/ www.facebook.com###pagelet_trending_tags_and_topics > ._5mym > ._5spf._2sns ! 7/5/2016, 11:09:01 AM https://www.facebook.com/ www.facebook.com###u_jsonp_3_0 ! 7/5/2016, 11:09:09 AM https://www.facebook.com/ www.facebook.com###u_jsonp_3_1 ! 7/5/2016, 11:09:13 AM https://www.facebook.com/ www.facebook.com###rightCol > ._5v6d._5rzs > ._64a > div:nth-of-type(2) ! 7/5/2016, 11:09:23 AM https://www.facebook.com/ www.facebook.com###rightCol

_RPM 10y ago

I'd bet their terms allow them to impersonate your own friends.

deanCommie 10y ago

That was what I was referring to here: > Facebook is already full of advertising disguised as content. From sponsored posts to content from things you "like". So I'm kind of surprised they need to go out of their way to explicitly announce that they will be disguising ads. They already have the power to inject it in the middle of content invisibly.

Azkar 10y ago
But Facebook doesn't get any cut of a sponsored post. (meaning a company paid an individual to write a post)
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > But Facebook doesn't get any cut of a sponsored post. "Sponsored Stories" and "Promoted Posts" (one of which I expect is what was meant by "sponsored post") are the names of specific kinds of Facebook ads.

maxxxxx 10y ago

Sounds like a good application for AI to detect ads.

WalterSear 10y ago
You wouldn't even even need that. Just a methods for identifying content and aggregating users 'votes' on them. Reach critical mass and start hiding it.