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Reclaim the web from marketers and advertisers: block all ads, all JS and all cookies and operate on a whitelist alone. Fuck those people. If I need to have a

by pluc 4y ago

Reclaim the web from marketers and advertisers: block all ads, all JS and all cookies and operate on a whitelist alone. Fuck those people. If I need to have a PiHole, 3 ad blockers and block everything to enjoy the web I fucking will.

Bakary 4y ago
It's an uncomfortable topic because so many people here work for adtech and spend their lifetime essentially manipulating others for massive gain
- chatterhead 4y ago
- YeBanKo 4y ago
  Ads are necessary for business. Surely there are some companies with 0 marketing spend, but rather exceptional. You can say Tesla is one, but arguably their marketing expenses is Musk’s social influence, SEC and other potential regulatory fines that may eventually catch up with their self-driving campaign. Otherwise, investing marketing money into your brand means that you have something too loose. Relatively easy to set to set up a website or a white-labeled brand, but when you put few millions into marketing it signals that you attached to that brand. When competition is tight and cost of acquisition can eat your margin, you want to want to be laser focused on ad efficiently. Getting cost of acquisition, life time value and ROI of different cohorts is very very difficult. You need a good tracking for that. But then there are two outcomes, improve the product or invest further into invasive tracking to “engineer” customers into buying your product. When industry leans towards the latter, individual companies have to as well to stay competitive.
  - Bakary 4y ago
    I understand this reality, but that is what I am referring to as manipulating people for gain. That is literally what is happening. That it helps businesses doesn't change that.
  - account42 4y ago
    > Ads are necessary for business. No. Even less so when your competitiors also can't use ads.
nichos 4y ago
Those ads pay for a lot of the web. It doesn't have to be as intrusive as it is, but if there were no ads, lots of websites would simply go away.
- pluc 4y ago
  If your sole business model is to find tricks to assault your users' attention I think your business should die.
- alkonaut 4y ago
  Ads don’t have to imply tracking or targeting based on anything but page context or browser language or crude geolocation. If as tracking and targeting disappears tomorrow, not much would have to change, except that some of the money that has been flowing out of traditional advertising like print and TV will flow back. This would make a dent in the “free” online content for sure but it would be worth it. Personally I wouldn’t lose any sleep even if 90% of the ad funded internet including most social media disappeared or became subscription only tomorrow.
- silisili 4y ago
  Ad delivery should have been standardized decades ago into a sane, safe format. The way they are implemented today is lunacy. I won't even use the web without a blocker.
- strix_varius 4y ago
  > if there were no ads, lots of websites would simply go away Increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of the web like this sounds fantastic.
  - thebytefairy 4y ago
    Would you actually pay subscriptions for YouTube, for a news site, for a recipe site, for newsletters, for podcasts, etc?

by pluc 4y ago

Bakary 4y ago

It's an uncomfortable topic because so many people here work for adtech and spend their lifetime essentially manipulating others for massive gain

chatterhead 4y ago
YeBanKo 4y ago
Ads are necessary for business. Surely there are some companies with 0 marketing spend, but rather exceptional. You can say Tesla is one, but arguably their marketing expenses is Musk’s social influence, SEC and other potential regulatory fines that may eventually catch up with their self-driving campaign. Otherwise, investing marketing money into your brand means that you have something too loose. Relatively easy to set to set up a website or a white-labeled brand, but when you put few millions into marketing it signals that you attached to that brand. When competition is tight and cost of acquisition can eat your margin, you want to want to be laser focused on ad efficiently. Getting cost of acquisition, life time value and ROI of different cohorts is very very difficult. You need a good tracking for that. But then there are two outcomes, improve the product or invest further into invasive tracking to “engineer” customers into buying your product. When industry leans towards the latter, individual companies have to as well to stay competitive.
- Bakary 4y ago
  I understand this reality, but that is what I am referring to as manipulating people for gain. That is literally what is happening. That it helps businesses doesn't change that.
- account42 4y ago
  > Ads are necessary for business. No. Even less so when your competitiors also can't use ads.

nichos 4y ago

Those ads pay for a lot of the web. It doesn't have to be as intrusive as it is, but if there were no ads, lots of websites would simply go away.

pluc 4y ago
If your sole business model is to find tricks to assault your users' attention I think your business should die.
alkonaut 4y ago
Ads don’t have to imply tracking or targeting based on anything but page context or browser language or crude geolocation. If as tracking and targeting disappears tomorrow, not much would have to change, except that some of the money that has been flowing out of traditional advertising like print and TV will flow back. This would make a dent in the “free” online content for sure but it would be worth it. Personally I wouldn’t lose any sleep even if 90% of the ad funded internet including most social media disappeared or became subscription only tomorrow.
silisili 4y ago
Ad delivery should have been standardized decades ago into a sane, safe format. The way they are implemented today is lunacy. I won't even use the web without a blocker.
strix_varius 4y ago
> if there were no ads, lots of websites would simply go away Increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of the web like this sounds fantastic.
- thebytefairy 4y ago
  Would you actually pay subscriptions for YouTube, for a news site, for a recipe site, for newsletters, for podcasts, etc?