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> It’s not like you’re unbiased either. Correct, I'm not. I can't stand ads. And to clarify, I mean traditional ads like banner ads, billboards, TV ads etc. Ad

> It’s not like you’re unbiased either. Correct, I'm not. I can't stand ads. And to clarify, I mean traditional ads like banner ads, billboards, TV ads etc. Ads come with tracking now... that needs to die immediately! And I'm not talking about sites like HN: I know who owns it but they're not actively forcing me to watch some claim that "This thing will stop you being an ugly bastard and make women throw themselves at you"... In fact, UBlock Origin shows nothing on this site.

paulcole 5y ago
> In fact, UBlock Origin shows nothing on this site. That’s the very best kind of advertising. The kind that has fooled you into thinking it’s not there.
- _Understated_ 5y ago
  Ok, if I squint really hard I can see where you're coming from but if I took your stance I would have to disconnect from the internet. Every site has logs. They can all see where I've been, what I've looked at, how long I looked at it and so on. I get that part. I'm a developer. I build that stuff myself. However, I need to draw the line somewhere and using UBlock Origin and never ever seeing an on-page advertisement AND minimising all tracking is the threat-model I'm targetting. And, I'd reckon that most people who care about privacy would stop about there too. With HN, there are no distractions on the screen. Nothing flashing or moving or asking me to sign up or anything... that's what I am trying to prevent. In any case, lets say I could stop everything and still let the text on a web page through on my browser... just the text, nothing else: we've seen in the past how even that is a signal that can be tracked. We can't stop it completely but I feel that I'm doing my bit to make it less effective and hopefully, eventually, pointless.
  - paulcole 5y ago
    In a way, what you’re OK with is more insidious because it’s tricked you into believing it’s real content. Now you’re even defending them, a far cry from the original ADS ARE BAD sentiment you started with.
- poetaster 5y ago
  Yeah. And some of us fetch HN via rest apis in json. Tracking? Ah, no. Nice hanging out with you guys 'here' :-)
  - paulcole 5y ago
    The ads are the content, not the tracking.

paulcole 5y ago

> In fact, UBlock Origin shows nothing on this site. That’s the very best kind of advertising. The kind that has fooled you into thinking it’s not there.

_Understated_ 5y ago
Ok, if I squint really hard I can see where you're coming from but if I took your stance I would have to disconnect from the internet. Every site has logs. They can all see where I've been, what I've looked at, how long I looked at it and so on. I get that part. I'm a developer. I build that stuff myself. However, I need to draw the line somewhere and using UBlock Origin and never ever seeing an on-page advertisement AND minimising all tracking is the threat-model I'm targetting. And, I'd reckon that most people who care about privacy would stop about there too. With HN, there are no distractions on the screen. Nothing flashing or moving or asking me to sign up or anything... that's what I am trying to prevent. In any case, lets say I could stop everything and still let the text on a web page through on my browser... just the text, nothing else: we've seen in the past how even that is a signal that can be tracked. We can't stop it completely but I feel that I'm doing my bit to make it less effective and hopefully, eventually, pointless.
- paulcole 5y ago
  In a way, what you’re OK with is more insidious because it’s tricked you into believing it’s real content. Now you’re even defending them, a far cry from the original ADS ARE BAD sentiment you started with.
poetaster 5y ago
Yeah. And some of us fetch HN via rest apis in json. Tracking? Ah, no. Nice hanging out with you guys 'here' :-)
- paulcole 5y ago
  The ads are the content, not the tracking.