4 ms·

Might be off-topic. It seems a majority of people are against ads. What are the top few reasons why people dislike ads, excluding reasons such as them just bein

by dhab 9y ago

Might be off-topic. It seems a majority of people are against ads. What are the top few reasons why people dislike ads, excluding reasons such as them just being a nuisance? My own guesses are: * People don't like the idea that the platform serving the ads is making money through ads which is not directly tied to the main value they derive from that platform * Maybe people feel that they are also indirectly contributing to the platform and that they also should have some stake in the revenue Personally, I have found ads to sometimes remind me of certain things that I could do, or given me new information altogether which I wouldn't have otherwise been aware about normally. And for the most part, my mind mostly tunes them out even when they are there. Are there other good alternatives to get a product known besides ads that can cover the same breadth?

makecheck 9y ago
There is nothing wrong with the idea of an ad, it's the implementations that are the major problem. Malware risks, completely unreasonable consumption of resources (battery, locking up the CPU), tracking, and more. No one would really run screaming from ads if they were simply text and images. And indeed, in magazines, they are. It's just that the dynamic nature of the web is too much power and greedy companies go overboard.
Endy 9y ago
The main reason I despise ads is because I believe in privacy and anonymity. The goal of Internet advertising is to remove that from me in order to shove more impressions at me. I want to know what I'm choosing to download to my computer, what data is being communicated back, and to whom that data is going. In other words, I demand privacy for myself, and I ask for nothing in return, but when you ask something of me, I demand to know who you are. These services do everything they can to obfuscate that. Beyond that, while this might fall under your "nuisance" category, I don't have a very fast or strong computer; that's why I use Firefox over Chrome (with 4+ processes all running at once, I can barely load Chrome let alone a webpage in it). When ads load, that takes up memory and time that should be spent loading content.
self_awareness 9y ago
I don't like ads on the Internet, because I don't want to feel like I'm in a shop when I'm searching for information about something. However I do like ads when I'm actually in a shop. The problem is that 98% of ads I see on the Internet are served on pages that don't sell anything. It's mostly about context; I want to discover new services/goods/whatever only when I want to discover them. Most of the time I don't. There are also lots of technical issues. One technical problem is described in OP's link, so I won't go there. There are also examples when the ad opens a new window. The ad steals focus -- window's focus, and my focus. It switches my context, it wants to hijack or steal my concentration. I didn't give my consent to that. It can track my fingerprint. It slows down my connection by issuing lots of HTTP requests. Also, ads lie. - 20% discount on something? Only with payments $399 and above. - Price goes down from $200 to $50? How do I know that the price was $200 in the first place? Maybe it was always $50 and you just told me it was $200 few weeks ago? - Price that says $200* for something? The asterisk basically tells you that this is a lie. - Best company in the market? Best service in the world? Lowest price in the country? Those are most overused, empty and incorrect sentences in the world. Simply put, ads are wasting my time (most of the time). Most ads are low quality eye catchers and nothing more.
Simon_says 9y ago
To answer your question, I'm a little extreme in this regard, but I view ads as malware for the human brain. They hijack my limited attention span to make me desire products that I would have a happier life if I never knew existed and that I don't have to spend my limited willpower resisting. It's been an extraordinarily rare event in my life that I see an ad for a product that makes my life better. If I want something, I will proactively research it, or if something is popular enough, my friends will tell me about it. I view ads in their totality as bad for my mental health, and there's no level of advertising which is acceptable to me. All these issues concerning security, privacy, CPU/network usage are important, but they miss the mark for me.
TheAceOfHearts 9y ago
Loss of privacy, for one. I don't want to be tracked at all. Tracking and user-tailored ads should be opt-in, not opt-out. Advertisers don't respect the user and their chosen settings. They kill web performance. I use Firefox Mobile with uBlock Origin, and it's blazing fast! Ads REALLY hurt mobile web. Their purpose is to manipulate users in order to extract money. They never serve the user's interests. Ads will lie and manipulate you in any way they can, in order to milk you dry. I have a very limited attention span, and I don't think advertisers deserve any access to it. I'm the one that gets to decide where I spend it. At most, ads should be a static images or a snippet of text that gets sent along with the page. You can pick what ads to serve based on the page content. The only time I might be fine with ads is when I'm actively searching for something which is directly related to the product or service. But even then I'd be weary. I want unbiased sources to compare and review different competing products or services, so I can pick the best one for my needs. That's at odds with the advertiser's desire to sell me something.
CapsAdmin 9y ago
I think for me it's mostly about not being in control over the content I choose to view. I'm the kind of person who want involuntary ads to disappear entirely (so basically all ads on the internet). But at the same time I don't mind reading about new products, services, cheap offers etc as long as I can control when. I look at ads in real life in grocery stores. Here in Norway (and I would assume elsewhere but I don't know what it's called) we have a wall at the entrance where people can put up things. It's usually missing cats, piano lessons, local cleaning services, etc. It's there at the entrance but you have to get close to read anything. Maybe instead of ads disappearing entirely I just wish they were put in one place.
- self_awareness 9y ago
  My thoughts exactly. If put in one place, maybe they would start competing for attention by increasing their quality. Because today's ads are at their lowest quality possible.
alkonaut 9y ago
I don't mind advertising as a way of paying for content. As long as there isn't a better micropayment strategy, I realize there is no better model (donations and expensive per-site subscriptions I don't think are a viable model). BUT - I do mind being tracked. I think it's an extreme violation to even show me a shoe ad because I googled shoes yesterday, or visited a shoe store online on monday. - I do mind annoying ads (Animated ads, ads disrupting the reading etc). - I do mind ads that aren't clearly marked (Instagram "influencers" without obvious disclosure, "native" advertising in newspapers etc) My hope for the online ad industry is that it will backtrack 20 years to a point where it works like print and billboard ads. Advertisers pay X dollars to buy N impressions of static images with vanlilla hyperlinks, untargeted and unverified on some known range of sites. This might seem like a ridiculous idea today. Who would want to pay for unverified impressions with little or no fraud detection? Who would want to pay to show ads that should be shown to 20-23 year old females to ALL visitors? My hope for adblocking is that this will be the only ad space you can buy online. The first effect will be that advertisers pull out of the web and start advertising on native apps, in video clips etc. But once people start preferring their adblocked web version of facebook to the ad-bloated app (and so on) maybe that will change too.

by dhab 9y ago

makecheck 9y ago

There is nothing wrong with the idea of an ad, it's the implementations that are the major problem. Malware risks, completely unreasonable consumption of resources (battery, locking up the CPU), tracking, and more. No one would really run screaming from ads if they were simply text and images. And indeed, in magazines, they are. It's just that the dynamic nature of the web is too much power and greedy companies go overboard.

Endy 9y ago

The main reason I despise ads is because I believe in privacy and anonymity. The goal of Internet advertising is to remove that from me in order to shove more impressions at me. I want to know what I'm choosing to download to my computer, what data is being communicated back, and to whom that data is going. In other words, I demand privacy for myself, and I ask for nothing in return, but when you ask something of me, I demand to know who you are. These services do everything they can to obfuscate that. Beyond that, while this might fall under your "nuisance" category, I don't have a very fast or strong computer; that's why I use Firefox over Chrome (with 4+ processes all running at once, I can barely load Chrome let alone a webpage in it). When ads load, that takes up memory and time that should be spent loading content.

self_awareness 9y ago

I don't like ads on the Internet, because I don't want to feel like I'm in a shop when I'm searching for information about something. However I do like ads when I'm actually in a shop. The problem is that 98% of ads I see on the Internet are served on pages that don't sell anything. It's mostly about context; I want to discover new services/goods/whatever only when I want to discover them. Most of the time I don't. There are also lots of technical issues. One technical problem is described in OP's link, so I won't go there. There are also examples when the ad opens a new window. The ad steals focus -- window's focus, and my focus. It switches my context, it wants to hijack or steal my concentration. I didn't give my consent to that. It can track my fingerprint. It slows down my connection by issuing lots of HTTP requests. Also, ads lie. - 20% discount on something? Only with payments $399 and above. - Price goes down from $200 to $50? How do I know that the price was $200 in the first place? Maybe it was always $50 and you just told me it was $200 few weeks ago? - Price that says $200* for something? The asterisk basically tells you that this is a lie. - Best company in the market? Best service in the world? Lowest price in the country? Those are most overused, empty and incorrect sentences in the world. Simply put, ads are wasting my time (most of the time). Most ads are low quality eye catchers and nothing more.

Simon_says 9y ago

To answer your question, I'm a little extreme in this regard, but I view ads as malware for the human brain. They hijack my limited attention span to make me desire products that I would have a happier life if I never knew existed and that I don't have to spend my limited willpower resisting. It's been an extraordinarily rare event in my life that I see an ad for a product that makes my life better. If I want something, I will proactively research it, or if something is popular enough, my friends will tell me about it. I view ads in their totality as bad for my mental health, and there's no level of advertising which is acceptable to me. All these issues concerning security, privacy, CPU/network usage are important, but they miss the mark for me.

TheAceOfHearts 9y ago

Loss of privacy, for one. I don't want to be tracked at all. Tracking and user-tailored ads should be opt-in, not opt-out. Advertisers don't respect the user and their chosen settings. They kill web performance. I use Firefox Mobile with uBlock Origin, and it's blazing fast! Ads REALLY hurt mobile web. Their purpose is to manipulate users in order to extract money. They never serve the user's interests. Ads will lie and manipulate you in any way they can, in order to milk you dry. I have a very limited attention span, and I don't think advertisers deserve any access to it. I'm the one that gets to decide where I spend it. At most, ads should be a static images or a snippet of text that gets sent along with the page. You can pick what ads to serve based on the page content. The only time I might be fine with ads is when I'm actively searching for something which is directly related to the product or service. But even then I'd be weary. I want unbiased sources to compare and review different competing products or services, so I can pick the best one for my needs. That's at odds with the advertiser's desire to sell me something.

CapsAdmin 9y ago

I think for me it's mostly about not being in control over the content I choose to view. I'm the kind of person who want involuntary ads to disappear entirely (so basically all ads on the internet). But at the same time I don't mind reading about new products, services, cheap offers etc as long as I can control when. I look at ads in real life in grocery stores. Here in Norway (and I would assume elsewhere but I don't know what it's called) we have a wall at the entrance where people can put up things. It's usually missing cats, piano lessons, local cleaning services, etc. It's there at the entrance but you have to get close to read anything. Maybe instead of ads disappearing entirely I just wish they were put in one place.

self_awareness 9y ago
My thoughts exactly. If put in one place, maybe they would start competing for attention by increasing their quality. Because today's ads are at their lowest quality possible.

alkonaut 9y ago

I don't mind advertising as a way of paying for content. As long as there isn't a better micropayment strategy, I realize there is no better model (donations and expensive per-site subscriptions I don't think are a viable model). BUT - I do mind being tracked. I think it's an extreme violation to even show me a shoe ad because I googled shoes yesterday, or visited a shoe store online on monday. - I do mind annoying ads (Animated ads, ads disrupting the reading etc). - I do mind ads that aren't clearly marked (Instagram "influencers" without obvious disclosure, "native" advertising in newspapers etc) My hope for the online ad industry is that it will backtrack 20 years to a point where it works like print and billboard ads. Advertisers pay X dollars to buy N impressions of static images with vanlilla hyperlinks, untargeted and unverified on some known range of sites. This might seem like a ridiculous idea today. Who would want to pay for unverified impressions with little or no fraud detection? Who would want to pay to show ads that should be shown to 20-23 year old females to ALL visitors? My hope for adblocking is that this will be the only ad space you can buy online. The first effect will be that advertisers pull out of the web and start advertising on native apps, in video clips etc. But once people start preferring their adblocked web version of facebook to the ad-bloated app (and so on) maybe that will change too.