4 ms·

Some people just use adblock.

by blocked_again 6y ago

rootusrootus 6y ago
And some people consider that theft.
- rootusrootus 6y ago
  Y'all are jumping through some serious mental hoops. Nobody on HN can claim to be naive enough not to understand the ad model of financing content, so ad blocking IS essentially theft. Avoid the content if you find the means of paying for it objectionable; vote with your wallet.
  - xenocratus 6y ago
    > vote with your wallet And that's exactly what I intend to do. If something is masquerading as free but uses that to actually sell my attention/trust to other parties, then I don't see why I can't masquerade as a client that's willing to be subjected to that but only takes the functionality. Make your cost upfront and clear and I will pay upfront and clear. If your business model involves a high degree of obscurity, my consumer behaviour will, as well. Put it another way - is it theft to go to a company meeting where they serve pizza, just for the pizza?
  - travisgriggs 6y ago
    I don't follow this argument. Let's pretend I was using a "normal" browser with no extensions. Would I then face the moral dilemma of how long to look at the ads? Or how often to click on them? The more I make use of the ads, the more I contribute financially (either directly or indirectly) to the bottom line of the content provider, the more I support them. So when I gloss over those ads without fully engaging with them, am I then committing theft as well? Invoking a "moral" argument about theft here, begs the question, are ads themselves moral? When I read site X, I am not thinking "and as a nice side bonus, it would be cool if they could throw in a side bar making me aware of a miracle drug that will cure my insecurity by the size of my penis." The whole point of ads is basically to trick/deceive me into buying something I had no intention of purchasing originally. Is that not theft? I know "two wrongs don't make a right", but since morality is relative these days anyway, when I enter a market place (which is what the ad driven economy is) where the whole point is a contest between will you trick me into buying this or not, I figure it's survival of the trickiest.
  - ogre_codes 6y ago
    > Avoid the content if you find the means of paying for it objectionable; vote with your wallet. There is a link at the top of this page. How do I know whether it's riddled with trackers and obnoxious advertising based on that link? Yes, I can see it's Forbes so it's likely pretty bad. Am I supposed to keep an internal dictionary of link knowledge in my head for the hundreds of sites I interact with on a give week and "Vote with my wallet?" every time I click a link? That's ridiculous.
  - brlewis 6y ago
    When I look back at my life and think of the number of times I've taken a bathroom break during live TV commercials, or fast-forwarded commercials on my VCR, or switched to another radio station when commercials came on, it's a wonder I'm not in jail.
  - srtjstjsj 6y ago
    Why is it theft to block ads I didn't agree to see, but not theft for them to send ads I didn't agree to receive? If they want, they can require me to answer a question about the ads they served before sending me content. Or they can put EULA in front of their content.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- PrinceKropotkin 6y ago
  That implies any kind of honest transaction took place first.
- blocked_again 6y ago
  The company has the option to stop providing their service to users who use adblock. And they have decided not to do that. If they don't have any issue I don't see why I should have any issue using adblock either.
chongli 6y ago
Ad-blockers can only remove content you don’t want to see. What they can’t do is get Google to show you the results they’ve buried on page N because they’ve reinterpreted your query in order to steer you toward popular, commercial sites that happen to be Google’s partners.
- zouhair 6y ago
  Why do you think Apple would not do that?
  - simonh 6y ago
    We simply don’t know.
  - chongli 6y ago
    We don't know. What we do know is that Apple generates their revenue from hardware sales, App Store commissions, and subscriptions to their music and tv services. Google generates most of their revenue from ads. I took the above information and hazarded an educated guess that Apple probably won't pivot into the ad business and attempt to compete against Google with a conventional ad-driven search engine. They might do that, but I think it's less likely.
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  Will Apple let me see website that "replicate iOS's built-in functionality" or fail review, or don't pay a $100/yr listing fee?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

Some people just use adblock.

rootusrootus 6y ago

And some people consider that theft.

rootusrootus 6y ago
Y'all are jumping through some serious mental hoops. Nobody on HN can claim to be naive enough not to understand the ad model of financing content, so ad blocking IS essentially theft. Avoid the content if you find the means of paying for it objectionable; vote with your wallet.
- xenocratus 6y ago
  > vote with your wallet And that's exactly what I intend to do. If something is masquerading as free but uses that to actually sell my attention/trust to other parties, then I don't see why I can't masquerade as a client that's willing to be subjected to that but only takes the functionality. Make your cost upfront and clear and I will pay upfront and clear. If your business model involves a high degree of obscurity, my consumer behaviour will, as well. Put it another way - is it theft to go to a company meeting where they serve pizza, just for the pizza?
- travisgriggs 6y ago
  I don't follow this argument. Let's pretend I was using a "normal" browser with no extensions. Would I then face the moral dilemma of how long to look at the ads? Or how often to click on them? The more I make use of the ads, the more I contribute financially (either directly or indirectly) to the bottom line of the content provider, the more I support them. So when I gloss over those ads without fully engaging with them, am I then committing theft as well? Invoking a "moral" argument about theft here, begs the question, are ads themselves moral? When I read site X, I am not thinking "and as a nice side bonus, it would be cool if they could throw in a side bar making me aware of a miracle drug that will cure my insecurity by the size of my penis." The whole point of ads is basically to trick/deceive me into buying something I had no intention of purchasing originally. Is that not theft? I know "two wrongs don't make a right", but since morality is relative these days anyway, when I enter a market place (which is what the ad driven economy is) where the whole point is a contest between will you trick me into buying this or not, I figure it's survival of the trickiest.
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  > Avoid the content if you find the means of paying for it objectionable; vote with your wallet. There is a link at the top of this page. How do I know whether it's riddled with trackers and obnoxious advertising based on that link? Yes, I can see it's Forbes so it's likely pretty bad. Am I supposed to keep an internal dictionary of link knowledge in my head for the hundreds of sites I interact with on a give week and "Vote with my wallet?" every time I click a link? That's ridiculous.
- brlewis 6y ago
  When I look back at my life and think of the number of times I've taken a bathroom break during live TV commercials, or fast-forwarded commercials on my VCR, or switched to another radio station when commercials came on, it's a wonder I'm not in jail.
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  Why is it theft to block ads I didn't agree to see, but not theft for them to send ads I didn't agree to receive? If they want, they can require me to answer a question about the ads they served before sending me content. Or they can put EULA in front of their content.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
PrinceKropotkin 6y ago
That implies any kind of honest transaction took place first.
blocked_again 6y ago
The company has the option to stop providing their service to users who use adblock. And they have decided not to do that. If they don't have any issue I don't see why I should have any issue using adblock either.

chongli 6y ago

Ad-blockers can only remove content you don’t want to see. What they can’t do is get Google to show you the results they’ve buried on page N because they’ve reinterpreted your query in order to steer you toward popular, commercial sites that happen to be Google’s partners.

zouhair 6y ago
Why do you think Apple would not do that?
- simonh 6y ago
  We simply don’t know.
- chongli 6y ago
  We don't know. What we do know is that Apple generates their revenue from hardware sales, App Store commissions, and subscriptions to their music and tv services. Google generates most of their revenue from ads. I took the above information and hazarded an educated guess that Apple probably won't pivot into the ad business and attempt to compete against Google with a conventional ad-driven search engine. They might do that, but I think it's less likely.
srtjstjsj 6y ago
Will Apple let me see website that "replicate iOS's built-in functionality" or fail review, or don't pay a $100/yr listing fee?

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]