6 ms·

I've thought a lot about what plagues our modern world and I've come to the same conclusion. I'm at a loss for what can be done about it though. We can't very

I've thought a lot about what plagues our modern world and I've come to the same conclusion. I'm at a loss for what can be done about it though. We can't very easily ban advertising. Any regulation has to be lightweight because it's nearly impossible to enforce at internet scale (as we've seen again and again). Curious if you've thought about any ways to fix the problem we're in.

jacquesm 5y ago
My life is as close to advertising free as possible. The only thing that I can't really do much about is advertising signs by the roadside, but other than that it isn't a problem.
- noneeeed 5y ago
  I'm sure I remember reading about a city (somewhere in south america I think) that banned all billboards, and it was like the city was reborn.
  - handrous 5y ago
    They're banned on some stretches of interstate (maybe where they cross federal land? Not sure) and damn, it's nice. Even relatively dull and shitty landscapes are so much better without that blight.
    - duderific 5y ago
      I learned today that in California at least, they have to be designated as a Scenic Highway [1]; then advertising is not allowed. [1] https://dot.ca.gov/programs/design/lap-landscape-architecture-and-community-livability/lap-liv-i-scenic-highways https://dot.ca.gov/programs/design/lap-landscape-architectur...
  - sofetch 5y ago
    Sounds like the São Paolo Clean City Law: https://newdream.org/blog/sao-paolo-ad-ban https://newdream.org/blog/sao-paolo-ad-ban
    - noneeeed 5y ago
      That's the one! Such a good idea.
- aigo 5y ago
  Me too, ad blockers and all my media on Plex, etc. For me it's only when I watch live sport that I see adverts now, which I quite like, it's like a little window into what most other British people are seeing when they watch TV all week.
  - wincy 5y ago
    PLEX really makes me feel like I’m living in an awesome future, the one I imagined as a kid on the early internet where I can watch whatever I want whenever I want. Then I go to YouTube and am grossed out by all the ads and the sponsored portions in every video.
  - amelius 5y ago
    How do you navigate around sites that insist on you removing the ad blocker?
    - gryn 5y ago
      A. F12 and remove the div that says so or one of it's parent. B. find another website that offer the same thing. C. give up and temporarily disable adblock for that website until you do what you need to do and enable it again what I find really annoying is website that tangle login to their ads, so when you have adblock software enabled it just silently fails. the most recent example I encountered is https://www.edf.fr/ https://www.edf.fr/ a government owned company, I couldn't get electricity for my new house unless I disabled ublock.
    - aigo 5y ago
      How many of those are there? I've never encountered more than maybe one or two. Even illegal premier league streaming sites don't mind adblockers.
- grech 5y ago
  Curious to know, how did you manage to get to an advertising free life?
  - wincy 5y ago
    It sounds like the steps are pretty simple. I live in the suburbs of a US city, and billboards are banned, so unless I go into the city proper (a few times a year) I hardly ever see advertisements. 1) move to the countryside or at least outside a major city, or a place where billboards are banned 2) Don’t own a TV 3) use uBlock Origin/Adblock on all your devices
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    No TV, big sticker saying 'no print advertising' on my mailbox, adblocked and jsblocked to the hilt on all computers in the house (I see that as a sanity and a security bonus as well), no physical newspaper. It's as good as clean now, every now and then something slips through and then my first response usually is 'surely people can't be that stupid'.
- 4ggr0 5y ago
  I don't know if this is unrealistic, but a couple of months ago I had a thought As soon as AR Glasses start being usable and affordable, I want to buy an open-source model and try to develop a RL-Adblocker. I guess it would need AI, because I still have to see traffic signs and other actually useful things. If AR Glasses allow me to replace every billboard with a picture of a family member or someting else, I will be happy. Hopefully we will get to use open-source ones to play around with.
ok_dad 5y ago
Personally, I just "ignore" those big problems, as I have no authority to fix them. I focus on what I can do: help my family when they need it, teach my kid(s) to be good and intelligent people (for my and my wife's definition of good and intelligent), and work in industries or on technology that will have a positive effect on the world (like distributed energy resource/load controls, currently). I can only affect my little part of the world, so why worry about those big issues that are above my paygrade? I just vote for whom I think will help most (hard to find these days), raise my voice when I see something I don't like (like when someone is being rude to a clerk at a store), and the rest is up to fate/the universe/god(s)/whatever.
- saxonww 5y ago
  This is a good point and it is something we can all do. Don't go work for companies in industries you're opposed to, no matter how much money they want to throw at you. For this discussion, that would be adtech, marketing/pr, etc. Most of the time people think about how to stop corporate behavior they don't like, and it comes down to shutting off their cash flow by not buying their stuff, or by regulation. But workers are also required, and just based on numbers I'd say withholding talent is a lot more impactful than withholding cash.

jacquesm 5y ago

My life is as close to advertising free as possible. The only thing that I can't really do much about is advertising signs by the roadside, but other than that it isn't a problem.

noneeeed 5y ago
I'm sure I remember reading about a city (somewhere in south america I think) that banned all billboards, and it was like the city was reborn.
- handrous 5y ago
  They're banned on some stretches of interstate (maybe where they cross federal land? Not sure) and damn, it's nice. Even relatively dull and shitty landscapes are so much better without that blight.
  - duderific 5y ago
    I learned today that in California at least, they have to be designated as a Scenic Highway [1]; then advertising is not allowed. [1] https://dot.ca.gov/programs/design/lap-landscape-architecture-and-community-livability/lap-liv-i-scenic-highways https://dot.ca.gov/programs/design/lap-landscape-architectur...
- sofetch 5y ago
  Sounds like the São Paolo Clean City Law: https://newdream.org/blog/sao-paolo-ad-ban https://newdream.org/blog/sao-paolo-ad-ban
  - noneeeed 5y ago
    That's the one! Such a good idea.
aigo 5y ago
Me too, ad blockers and all my media on Plex, etc. For me it's only when I watch live sport that I see adverts now, which I quite like, it's like a little window into what most other British people are seeing when they watch TV all week.
- wincy 5y ago
  PLEX really makes me feel like I’m living in an awesome future, the one I imagined as a kid on the early internet where I can watch whatever I want whenever I want. Then I go to YouTube and am grossed out by all the ads and the sponsored portions in every video.
- amelius 5y ago
  How do you navigate around sites that insist on you removing the ad blocker?
  - gryn 5y ago
    A. F12 and remove the div that says so or one of it's parent. B. find another website that offer the same thing. C. give up and temporarily disable adblock for that website until you do what you need to do and enable it again what I find really annoying is website that tangle login to their ads, so when you have adblock software enabled it just silently fails. the most recent example I encountered is https://www.edf.fr/ https://www.edf.fr/ a government owned company, I couldn't get electricity for my new house unless I disabled ublock.
  - aigo 5y ago
    How many of those are there? I've never encountered more than maybe one or two. Even illegal premier league streaming sites don't mind adblockers.
grech 5y ago
Curious to know, how did you manage to get to an advertising free life?
- wincy 5y ago
  It sounds like the steps are pretty simple. I live in the suburbs of a US city, and billboards are banned, so unless I go into the city proper (a few times a year) I hardly ever see advertisements. 1) move to the countryside or at least outside a major city, or a place where billboards are banned 2) Don’t own a TV 3) use uBlock Origin/Adblock on all your devices
- jacquesm 5y ago
  No TV, big sticker saying 'no print advertising' on my mailbox, adblocked and jsblocked to the hilt on all computers in the house (I see that as a sanity and a security bonus as well), no physical newspaper. It's as good as clean now, every now and then something slips through and then my first response usually is 'surely people can't be that stupid'.
4ggr0 5y ago
I don't know if this is unrealistic, but a couple of months ago I had a thought As soon as AR Glasses start being usable and affordable, I want to buy an open-source model and try to develop a RL-Adblocker. I guess it would need AI, because I still have to see traffic signs and other actually useful things. If AR Glasses allow me to replace every billboard with a picture of a family member or someting else, I will be happy. Hopefully we will get to use open-source ones to play around with.

ok_dad 5y ago

Personally, I just "ignore" those big problems, as I have no authority to fix them. I focus on what I can do: help my family when they need it, teach my kid(s) to be good and intelligent people (for my and my wife's definition of good and intelligent), and work in industries or on technology that will have a positive effect on the world (like distributed energy resource/load controls, currently). I can only affect my little part of the world, so why worry about those big issues that are above my paygrade? I just vote for whom I think will help most (hard to find these days), raise my voice when I see something I don't like (like when someone is being rude to a clerk at a store), and the rest is up to fate/the universe/god(s)/whatever.

saxonww 5y ago
This is a good point and it is something we can all do. Don't go work for companies in industries you're opposed to, no matter how much money they want to throw at you. For this discussion, that would be adtech, marketing/pr, etc. Most of the time people think about how to stop corporate behavior they don't like, and it comes down to shutting off their cash flow by not buying their stuff, or by regulation. But workers are also required, and just based on numbers I'd say withholding talent is a lot more impactful than withholding cash.