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Every time this discussion comes up on HN I get downvoted for being completely against adblock. It's crazy how far people will go to justify taking food off oth

by Flankk 5y ago

Every time this discussion comes up on HN I get downvoted for being completely against adblock. It's crazy how far people will go to justify taking food off other people's plate. Usually the argument about tracking comes up. As if it's used for anything other than attempt to sell you products and services. Completely screw over small businesses and screw the content creators. On a venture capitalist forum. The hypocrisy is unreal.

CuriouslyC 5y ago
It's because modern advertising's purpose isn't to tell people about a product they already wanted but didn't know existed (which would be fine), it's to cause people to feel a sense of fear/loss/inadequacy that they previously didn't and then present the product as a solution, or associate a product with something people love in a manipulative way, because those types of ads are worlds more effective at driving sales. That's cancer capitalism and a lot of people with principles rightly refuse to be a part of it.
- reedjosh 5y ago
  > modern advertising's purpose isn't to tell people about a product they already wanted but didn't know existed Yes. > it's to cause people to feel a sense of fear/loss/inadequacy that they previously didn't and then present the product as a solution Maybe a bit. But, these days I think the real reason is the corrupctive influence ad money buys. Major media platforms censor at the whim of their advertisers. Content providers also do so. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAkQlZgnbUQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAkQlZgnbUQ
  - matheusmoreira 5y ago
    Completely agree. I've seen websites delete whole pages and heavily censor remaining ones because somebody complained to Google that their sensibilities were offended. Advertisers should not have this power.
matheusmoreira 5y ago
> It's crazy how far people will go to justify taking food off other people's plate. We don't have to justify it. We simply don't want to see ads. That's the end of it. The second they insist on showing us ads despite our preferences, their software becomes malware and will be blocked. And nobody is "taking" anything off anyone's plate. They're the ones sending us free stuff bundled with ads. We're just deleting the noise. Just like ripping ads out of magazines and throwing them away.
- Flankk 5y ago
  > We don't have to justify it. We simply don't want to see ads. That's the end of it. Replace "see ads" with "pay money." Pirates are thieves and content theft is piracy.
  - matheusmoreira 5y ago
    Nope. "Piracy" is just copyright infringement. It is literally just copying bits, no theft of any kind is occurring. The only loss here is the corporation's artificial monopoly rights which shouldn't even exist anyway.
  - ohgodplsno 5y ago
    Exactly. Because you know what's better than paid shit ? Free shit. Especially if it contributes to me not showing ads _and_ costing Google. I am happy to steal your precious, endlessly reproducible bytes.
- endisneigh 5y ago
  If you don’t watch the videos, then you won’t see the ads, no?
  - matheusmoreira 5y ago
    Yeah, but I'll watch the videos anyway. Because they're free, I'm not obligated to pay attention to ads and uBlock Origin gets rid of them.
raelmebrand 5y ago
I am genuinely concerned that you feel bad. But do you know how much money poor people pay to watch ads + all the scam ads they get (and unfortunately lose money). Seriously, test it. (I used to live in 3rd world and now use adblock)... > Completely screw over small businesses and screw the content creators. On a venture capitalist forum Then please try to screw VCs (not innocent people in developing world that want to see something for 1GB data per month and they lose so much money for ads). Sure please bill the VCs. Yes, the hypocrisy is unreal.
genera1 5y ago
Am I taking food off other people's plate when I manually skip ads in podcasts I'm listening to? Do people who change channels on TV when ads start steal? Is it theft to toss ad inserts from a newspaper straight into trash?

by Flankk 5y ago

CuriouslyC 5y ago

It's because modern advertising's purpose isn't to tell people about a product they already wanted but didn't know existed (which would be fine), it's to cause people to feel a sense of fear/loss/inadequacy that they previously didn't and then present the product as a solution, or associate a product with something people love in a manipulative way, because those types of ads are worlds more effective at driving sales. That's cancer capitalism and a lot of people with principles rightly refuse to be a part of it.

reedjosh 5y ago
> modern advertising's purpose isn't to tell people about a product they already wanted but didn't know existed Yes. > it's to cause people to feel a sense of fear/loss/inadequacy that they previously didn't and then present the product as a solution Maybe a bit. But, these days I think the real reason is the corrupctive influence ad money buys. Major media platforms censor at the whim of their advertisers. Content providers also do so. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAkQlZgnbUQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAkQlZgnbUQ
- matheusmoreira 5y ago
  Completely agree. I've seen websites delete whole pages and heavily censor remaining ones because somebody complained to Google that their sensibilities were offended. Advertisers should not have this power.

matheusmoreira 5y ago

> It's crazy how far people will go to justify taking food off other people's plate. We don't have to justify it. We simply don't want to see ads. That's the end of it. The second they insist on showing us ads despite our preferences, their software becomes malware and will be blocked. And nobody is "taking" anything off anyone's plate. They're the ones sending us free stuff bundled with ads. We're just deleting the noise. Just like ripping ads out of magazines and throwing them away.

Flankk 5y ago
> We don't have to justify it. We simply don't want to see ads. That's the end of it. Replace "see ads" with "pay money." Pirates are thieves and content theft is piracy.
- matheusmoreira 5y ago
  Nope. "Piracy" is just copyright infringement. It is literally just copying bits, no theft of any kind is occurring. The only loss here is the corporation's artificial monopoly rights which shouldn't even exist anyway.
- ohgodplsno 5y ago
  Exactly. Because you know what's better than paid shit ? Free shit. Especially if it contributes to me not showing ads _and_ costing Google. I am happy to steal your precious, endlessly reproducible bytes.
endisneigh 5y ago
If you don’t watch the videos, then you won’t see the ads, no?
- matheusmoreira 5y ago
  Yeah, but I'll watch the videos anyway. Because they're free, I'm not obligated to pay attention to ads and uBlock Origin gets rid of them.

raelmebrand 5y ago

I am genuinely concerned that you feel bad. But do you know how much money poor people pay to watch ads + all the scam ads they get (and unfortunately lose money). Seriously, test it. (I used to live in 3rd world and now use adblock)... > Completely screw over small businesses and screw the content creators. On a venture capitalist forum Then please try to screw VCs (not innocent people in developing world that want to see something for 1GB data per month and they lose so much money for ads). Sure please bill the VCs. Yes, the hypocrisy is unreal.

genera1 5y ago

Am I taking food off other people's plate when I manually skip ads in podcasts I'm listening to? Do people who change channels on TV when ads start steal? Is it theft to toss ad inserts from a newspaper straight into trash?