7 ms·

I've heard others do this as well and I don't quite understand it. If you don't want to see ads, sure maybe use AdBlock or PiHole, but why block the company? N

I've heard others do this as well and I don't quite understand it. If you don't want to see ads, sure maybe use AdBlock or PiHole, but why block the company? Not trying to put words in your mouth, but are you offended that the company spent money on a promoted tweet? That it was an overreach on their part?

onion2k 7y ago
If you don't want to see ads, sure maybe use AdBlock or PiHole, but why block the company? Blocking the company stops the tweet appearing everywhere I see tweets. That's on my home computer, laptop, Chromebook, office computer, my phone, etc. It continues to block the ads from that company if/when Twitter work out ways around ad-blockers. And it makes me feel like I'm proactively looking after my account. I use ad blockers as well. are you offended that the company spent money on a promoted tweet? I just find that Twitter promotes the same tweets over and over again, so if you don't block them it gets very repetitive. If I was actually offended I'd reply first so they had to pay for an engagement as well as the promotion.
- jordanpg 7y ago
  I don't want to see ads, ever. I hope a growing number of people feel the same way. I don't care about the business model of the whole internet. It is obviously a house of cards. A business model based on bad UX? I hope it collapses. No, I don't know what will replace it. I don't care, as long as it doesn't involve ads. I really don't care if the ads are innocuous or labeled or relevant. I don't ever want to see an unsolicited nudge to spend money on something. Ever. I can't be any more clear than this. I hope there are more like me every day.
  - Intermernet 7y ago
    We're out here. You're not alone.
  - enlyth 7y ago
    I completely agree. I don't care if your ad is clever, relevant, organically sourced, environmentally friendly, necessary for financing your product, something I actually want, need, or didn't know I wanted yet. The internet is plagued with this cancer everywhere you go, no matter what you do. Somehow it's become acceptable that every second of our attention and time is competed for by corporations trying to sell us things. I simply do not want to see ads, ever.
    - jimmaswell 7y ago
      I don't understand this overreaction. Ads are there, so what, they don't even make noise or tend to cover parts of the screen like they used to.
      - jordanpg 7y ago
        The point is that I'm fundamentally disgusted by an incitement to spend money being thrust in front of me in any form, for any reason. I see it as exactly at odds with what I'm trying to do with my life and my attention. I do not consent to have my time and attention taken from me in this way. Yes, I am a free rider on much of the internet today, such as it is. That the entire internet is based on this absurd proposition is a symptom of its rapid growth and industries going after the lowest hanging fruit. I am confident that the internet will find another way forward.
      - _Understated_ 7y ago
        You need to look at what powers the ads. It's never "just" an ad. Like the way you see an ad in a newspaper. It's the spyware that comes with it and the fact that tons of them are animated! And yes, I consider it spyware and virus-like behaviour to track me wherever I go and I will actively do what I can to stop it. Even if it means you don't get paid... you chose that seedy medium to make money, not me. It's not my job to validate your business model. By all means block me. I will go elsewhere. Browsing the internet without an ad blocker is actually impossible for me now... whenever I rebuild a machine I have those few hours or so before I get the ad blocker installed where the internet is a horrific assault on the senses with everything trying to steal my attention away from the thing I am there to see and slowing down the page load (significantly in some cases) I still remember when plenty of the internet was running fine from hobbyists and whatnot without resorting to ads and tracking... it costs practically zero to run a website (granted, at scale it's a whole other ball-game but how many people have that problem?) The internet would survive fine without ads. It would have a different mix of behemoths and hobbyists sites but it would survive just fine. That being said... I do remember trying to punch the monkey to win :D Edit: added stuff for clarity
  - jimmaswell 7y ago
    The rest of us don't want to pay a monthly subscription to every single website we use, so ads it is.
    - asark 7y ago
      Ad supported also competes with entirely free, by having more resources for development and, go figure, more marketing/ad dollars to promote their services elsewhere and gain usershare, for cases in which everyone-is-using-it matters—so, social media and messaging. Paid services aren't the only things that can/would replace spyvertising-funded services.
  - joshvm 7y ago
    One grey area that I approve of is referral links, if they're obviously presented as such. For example if you read a tutorial on how to build a weather station and the author provides referral links to a component on Amazon, I'm happy to use those links. Referral systems are open to abuse though, like the myriad of ultra specific comparison websites with tenuous "expert" reviews.
    - rurp 7y ago
      I agree with this. An ad that is relevant and doesn't track, harass, or deceive users is reasonable in my opinion. There's no reason that most ads couldn't fit this model, but due to greed and laziness they mostly don't.
    - HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
      @rurp- A lot of those referral links do have logging (seeing who visited / hoe many people have) and tracking (general location, some demographics). Is that okay to you?
      - joshvm 7y ago
        In my case, I guess I am? Obviously the site owner will get some logging results, and maybe they will try to optimise for that. I'm fine with a site owner knowing their demographic. That's potentially useful for other things, eg should you invest in localisation? Otherwise unless you have a vpn, your IP is going to be visible anyway. It probably depends on the referral site. For example, do Amazon have any reason to sell my data to anyone else? It's most valuable to them and they already have a decade+ of purchase and browsing history. I still think this a preferable situation to targeted ads which try to guess what I want.
  - stronglikedan 7y ago
    Are you saying you want something for nothing? If not nothing, what? Ads aren't just the business model of the internet. They've been subsidizing human interaction since ancient times.
    - shakna 7y ago
      However, they weren't always backed by vast networks designed to stalk, and manipulate you, with access to more data than most ruling governments have.
  - miguelmota 7y ago
    Have you ever ran a business? Curious to how you promote a business without ads or sponsored content to get the word out there to the masses..
    - _Understated_ 7y ago
      On that note, I have nothing against sponsored content. For example, a blog on programming that happens to have posts sponsored by a company that specializes in dev tools or something. That makes perfect sense! Sure, some of it can be puff-pieces for the company and they are quite clearly just bullshit but it's easy to leave and go elsewhere if they take the piss. A banner at the top of a blog post saying "this content was kindly sponsored by <insert company relevant to the content>" is a great idea and more should do it. But they don't! They use ad networks that track the ever-living shit out of every move you make. That's the issue for me!
    - Nextgrid 7y ago
      Good old SEO? I mean if your product fills a unique niche it should be really easy to rank high. Get your first few customers like that, then because your product is revolutionary, word of mouth will do the rest. A real-world example: Monzo, a modern bank in the UK. They only very recently started using advertising, but got their first million customers with nothing but word of mouth. Their secret? Simply making a product that's light-years ahead of what the existing banks provide. Your product is not revolutionary? Oh then I don't know (actually I do - make a revolutionary product - switch industries if necessary), but you're not entitled to waste my time, attention & privacy with ads just so your business can survive. Being profitable is not a right, I couldn't care less if you go out of business.
    - revvx 7y ago
      SEO, good content marketing, sponsoring blogs and videos (when done tastefully), product placement, engaging with communities, talking about it in HN/ProductHunt/etc. All those things are acceptable to most people who block ads, IMO.
      - miguelmota 7y ago
RobertKerans 7y ago
Promoted tweets are generally annoying, I can't speak for others but it's just slightly satisfying to tell the advertiser to eff off for breaking my reading flow. I literally don't care that the company is trying to sell me stuff, it's a company, why should I? I follow people, companies and orgs that I'm interested in, and Twitter suggests similar and I often take them up on the suggestions. Those users will advertise if they're selling things in tweets, I don't need Twitter spamming me with adverts as well.
ryandrake 7y ago
Not a Twitter user, but isn’t that just the same as ad blocking? Company X pays money to insert their message into person Y’s life: that’s an ad. If someone doesn’t want ads in their life and Twitter provides a tool to block them, why wouldn’t that person use the tool?

onion2k 7y ago

If you don't want to see ads, sure maybe use AdBlock or PiHole, but why block the company? Blocking the company stops the tweet appearing everywhere I see tweets. That's on my home computer, laptop, Chromebook, office computer, my phone, etc. It continues to block the ads from that company if/when Twitter work out ways around ad-blockers. And it makes me feel like I'm proactively looking after my account. I use ad blockers as well. are you offended that the company spent money on a promoted tweet? I just find that Twitter promotes the same tweets over and over again, so if you don't block them it gets very repetitive. If I was actually offended I'd reply first so they had to pay for an engagement as well as the promotion.

jordanpg 7y ago
I don't want to see ads, ever. I hope a growing number of people feel the same way. I don't care about the business model of the whole internet. It is obviously a house of cards. A business model based on bad UX? I hope it collapses. No, I don't know what will replace it. I don't care, as long as it doesn't involve ads. I really don't care if the ads are innocuous or labeled or relevant. I don't ever want to see an unsolicited nudge to spend money on something. Ever. I can't be any more clear than this. I hope there are more like me every day.
- Intermernet 7y ago
  We're out here. You're not alone.
- enlyth 7y ago
  I completely agree. I don't care if your ad is clever, relevant, organically sourced, environmentally friendly, necessary for financing your product, something I actually want, need, or didn't know I wanted yet. The internet is plagued with this cancer everywhere you go, no matter what you do. Somehow it's become acceptable that every second of our attention and time is competed for by corporations trying to sell us things. I simply do not want to see ads, ever.
  - jimmaswell 7y ago
    I don't understand this overreaction. Ads are there, so what, they don't even make noise or tend to cover parts of the screen like they used to.
    - jordanpg 7y ago
      The point is that I'm fundamentally disgusted by an incitement to spend money being thrust in front of me in any form, for any reason. I see it as exactly at odds with what I'm trying to do with my life and my attention. I do not consent to have my time and attention taken from me in this way. Yes, I am a free rider on much of the internet today, such as it is. That the entire internet is based on this absurd proposition is a symptom of its rapid growth and industries going after the lowest hanging fruit. I am confident that the internet will find another way forward.
    - _Understated_ 7y ago
      You need to look at what powers the ads. It's never "just" an ad. Like the way you see an ad in a newspaper. It's the spyware that comes with it and the fact that tons of them are animated! And yes, I consider it spyware and virus-like behaviour to track me wherever I go and I will actively do what I can to stop it. Even if it means you don't get paid... you chose that seedy medium to make money, not me. It's not my job to validate your business model. By all means block me. I will go elsewhere. Browsing the internet without an ad blocker is actually impossible for me now... whenever I rebuild a machine I have those few hours or so before I get the ad blocker installed where the internet is a horrific assault on the senses with everything trying to steal my attention away from the thing I am there to see and slowing down the page load (significantly in some cases) I still remember when plenty of the internet was running fine from hobbyists and whatnot without resorting to ads and tracking... it costs practically zero to run a website (granted, at scale it's a whole other ball-game but how many people have that problem?) The internet would survive fine without ads. It would have a different mix of behemoths and hobbyists sites but it would survive just fine. That being said... I do remember trying to punch the monkey to win :D Edit: added stuff for clarity
- jimmaswell 7y ago
  The rest of us don't want to pay a monthly subscription to every single website we use, so ads it is.
  - asark 7y ago
    Ad supported also competes with entirely free, by having more resources for development and, go figure, more marketing/ad dollars to promote their services elsewhere and gain usershare, for cases in which everyone-is-using-it matters—so, social media and messaging. Paid services aren't the only things that can/would replace spyvertising-funded services.
- joshvm 7y ago
  One grey area that I approve of is referral links, if they're obviously presented as such. For example if you read a tutorial on how to build a weather station and the author provides referral links to a component on Amazon, I'm happy to use those links. Referral systems are open to abuse though, like the myriad of ultra specific comparison websites with tenuous "expert" reviews.
  - rurp 7y ago
    I agree with this. An ad that is relevant and doesn't track, harass, or deceive users is reasonable in my opinion. There's no reason that most ads couldn't fit this model, but due to greed and laziness they mostly don't.
  - HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
    @rurp- A lot of those referral links do have logging (seeing who visited / hoe many people have) and tracking (general location, some demographics). Is that okay to you?
    - joshvm 7y ago
      In my case, I guess I am? Obviously the site owner will get some logging results, and maybe they will try to optimise for that. I'm fine with a site owner knowing their demographic. That's potentially useful for other things, eg should you invest in localisation? Otherwise unless you have a vpn, your IP is going to be visible anyway. It probably depends on the referral site. For example, do Amazon have any reason to sell my data to anyone else? It's most valuable to them and they already have a decade+ of purchase and browsing history. I still think this a preferable situation to targeted ads which try to guess what I want.
- stronglikedan 7y ago
  Are you saying you want something for nothing? If not nothing, what? Ads aren't just the business model of the internet. They've been subsidizing human interaction since ancient times.
  - shakna 7y ago
    However, they weren't always backed by vast networks designed to stalk, and manipulate you, with access to more data than most ruling governments have.
- miguelmota 7y ago
  Have you ever ran a business? Curious to how you promote a business without ads or sponsored content to get the word out there to the masses..
  - _Understated_ 7y ago
    On that note, I have nothing against sponsored content. For example, a blog on programming that happens to have posts sponsored by a company that specializes in dev tools or something. That makes perfect sense! Sure, some of it can be puff-pieces for the company and they are quite clearly just bullshit but it's easy to leave and go elsewhere if they take the piss. A banner at the top of a blog post saying "this content was kindly sponsored by <insert company relevant to the content>" is a great idea and more should do it. But they don't! They use ad networks that track the ever-living shit out of every move you make. That's the issue for me!
  - Nextgrid 7y ago
    Good old SEO? I mean if your product fills a unique niche it should be really easy to rank high. Get your first few customers like that, then because your product is revolutionary, word of mouth will do the rest. A real-world example: Monzo, a modern bank in the UK. They only very recently started using advertising, but got their first million customers with nothing but word of mouth. Their secret? Simply making a product that's light-years ahead of what the existing banks provide. Your product is not revolutionary? Oh then I don't know (actually I do - make a revolutionary product - switch industries if necessary), but you're not entitled to waste my time, attention & privacy with ads just so your business can survive. Being profitable is not a right, I couldn't care less if you go out of business.
  - revvx 7y ago
    SEO, good content marketing, sponsoring blogs and videos (when done tastefully), product placement, engaging with communities, talking about it in HN/ProductHunt/etc. All those things are acceptable to most people who block ads, IMO.
    - miguelmota 7y ago

RobertKerans 7y ago

Promoted tweets are generally annoying, I can't speak for others but it's just slightly satisfying to tell the advertiser to eff off for breaking my reading flow. I literally don't care that the company is trying to sell me stuff, it's a company, why should I? I follow people, companies and orgs that I'm interested in, and Twitter suggests similar and I often take them up on the suggestions. Those users will advertise if they're selling things in tweets, I don't need Twitter spamming me with adverts as well.

ryandrake 7y ago

Not a Twitter user, but isn’t that just the same as ad blocking? Company X pays money to insert their message into person Y’s life: that’s an ad. If someone doesn’t want ads in their life and Twitter provides a tool to block them, why wouldn’t that person use the tool?