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I'm with you, my jaw drops when I see so much support for brave on hn. Super shady. Do they still replace website ads with their own ad network? (I'm all for bl

I'm with you, my jaw drops when I see so much support for brave on hn. Super shady. Do they still replace website ads with their own ad network? (I'm all for blocking ads, but does this really not seem wrong to anyone?

jason-phillips 4y ago
I use Brave all day long and have never experienced this. I see no ads, so working as intended, I guess. Also, I love the useful little features they include like redirecting all http requests from www.reddit.com to old.reddit.com. One can also bypass paywalls at the NY Times and The Economist with the click of a button.
- uncletammy 4y ago
  > Also, I love the useful little features they include like redirecting all http requests from www.reddit.com to old.reddit.com. I use Brave daily and have never heard of this feature. How do I turn this on?
  - iamacyborg 4y ago
    You can literally just set this up in your reddit settings though.
    - grumbel 4y ago
      That requires being logged in and gets regularly reset.
  - jason-phillips 4y ago
    Three-dots menu > settings > website redirects
    - uncletammy 4y ago
      I've looked everywhere for this but can't find it. I'm on Brave Desktop v1.44.112
      - jason-phillips 4y ago
        Sorry, we might be crossing devices then. I'm talking about iPhone Brave, which is where I use it.
hunterb123 4y ago
They never replaced ads... that's another myth about them. They have a built in ad blocker and only block ads, not replace. The OPT-IN text notification ad service is separate. You can enable it to get text notification ads in exchange for BAT. It's OPT-IN and completely up to you. It's ALWAYS been like that. At no time did they ever "replace" blocked ads. What's really shady is how these obviously false talking points about Brave get perpetuated to this day, in every Brave thread. -- edit @Accacin -- I was responding to a very specific false claim that they replaced ads being constantly repeated. If you want to go on a general rant find another thread. -- edit @411111111111111 --- Nice biased article, that's exactly where this misinformation came from. They say "replaced ads" then their only linked source to that claim is https://brave.com/brave-launches-user-trials-for-opt-in-ads/ https://brave.com/brave-launches-user-trials-for-opt-in-ads/ Which talks about the BAT rewards program, which are opt-in text system notification ads shown in an interval. Not on the webpage, or while browsing, or by default. -- edit @vegetable -- No you notice people bringing up 2 year old lies and people responding to them. The first people who act crazy are those saying these ridiculous statements like "Brave is a cryptocurrency scam!" Then the people who inevitably have to call them out, then comes the people who say the people calling them out are fanboying. It's a cycle that repeats over and over in every Tesla, SpaceX, Brave, etc. thread that for some reason (because the owners are hated) gets the same talking points spammed over and over.
- Accacin 4y ago
  No, what's super shady is people who are so entrenced in something that they defend and get aggressive when people talk negative about it. I have been using Firefox for over 10 years now, and if they do something stupid I'll be on here complaining with everyone else. If they crossed the line I would definitely look for another browser. The problem with Brave users seems to be that Brave can do no wrong. Bundling crypto in a browser seems absolutely insane to me. Remember all the shit Firefox got for bundling Pocket? Difference is, Pocket actually makes a little bit of sense in the context of a browser. At the end of the day, it's thin veneer over Chromium and IMO they won't be able to block manifest v3 forever. Firefox can.
  - 4y ago
qwertyzxcvmnbvw 4y ago
You're not even wrong, dude. It's not hard to inform yourself, e.g. the whitepaper linked at https://basicattentiontoken.org/ https://basicattentiontoken.org/
colordrops 4y ago
Have you used it? Or are you just repeating unsubstantiated things you read online? Google is at least as shady as Brave.
- recursive 4y ago
  I used it briefly, but long ago, (about the last time I was interested in Brave) Brave's own first-party website advertised this as a feature.
- angryasian 4y ago
  what are you talking about ? Do you know how ads work ? Brave is literally stealing and profiting from it. Brave will remove the ads from a site, that a person/company has paid for to ad provider. The ad provider thats supposed to pay the website host / content creator / whatever. Now Brave will insert their own ads and that another company has paid them to insert. So they are stealing and making money from the effort that someone else is expecting.
  - iinnPP 4y ago
    The ads are not replaced. More like they are placed within Brave as ads for the application itself. They are defaulted to off. I can't understand how this seems negative to anyone. There is a certain assumption that any Brave user would have an ad blocker anyway. What is the alternative?
    - angryasian 4y ago
      >https://www.computerworld.com/article/3292619/the-brave-browser-basics-what-it-does-how-it-differs-from-rivals.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3292619/the-brave-brow... What are you talking about. They are stealing from content creators / whom ever took the time to create the website to begin with and taking their money. They are literally leeches. I don't care about the ad business and believe there are better ways to do this, but this is scummy stuff. Use an ad blocker or whatever you want but this is another company profiting from it.
tomjen3 4y ago
There is a very active segment on HN who has a raging hate boner for anything having to do with crypto, so much so that a pro crypto statement will get downvoted drastically in a few minutes. However that is a minority (and my pro crypto comments usually recover to +3 or 4 a few days after), and most of us are here because we like good technology. So that is why Brave is relatively popular here: we don't think it is shady.
- angryasian 4y ago
  They literally remove ads, that people and companies have paid for. Then they insert their first party ads that another company paid them for. Shady asf
  - kwalikz 4y ago
    Have you actually used Brave? Can you provide actual evidence this is happening? Maybe a screenshot? Literally anything. I’ve been using Brave for a while, even before the crypto stuff but all, and I mean all of that can be turned off. I haven’t seen an Brave ad in place of where a typical ad would be. Ever. That kind of defeats the purpose of Brave, doesn’t it? The only reason I known internet ads still exist is because of Chrome forced on my work computer.
  - lelanthran 4y ago
    > They literally remove ads, that people and companies have paid for. Then they insert their first party ads that another company paid them for. Shady asf You're presenting a very persuasive argument for using Brave[1]. 1. They automatically block ads. 2. By default, they show no other ads. 3. If the user wants to see ads, the user can opt-in, and then only receive text ads OOB (of the actual content). I don't think that I've ever had such a joyful reaction to a feature-list in software before. Thank you. [1] Downloading it now as I write this.
    - angryasian 4y ago
      yes profiteering company stealing ad revenue by utilizing open sources extensions to an open source browser... this seems like the new HN crowd would like this because BAT pffft
dang 4y ago
Please don't take HN threads into repetition of the same flamewar. It gets tedious and inevitably turns nasty. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

jason-phillips 4y ago

I use Brave all day long and have never experienced this. I see no ads, so working as intended, I guess. Also, I love the useful little features they include like redirecting all http requests from www.reddit.com to old.reddit.com. One can also bypass paywalls at the NY Times and The Economist with the click of a button.

uncletammy 4y ago
> Also, I love the useful little features they include like redirecting all http requests from www.reddit.com to old.reddit.com. I use Brave daily and have never heard of this feature. How do I turn this on?
- iamacyborg 4y ago
  You can literally just set this up in your reddit settings though.
  - grumbel 4y ago
    That requires being logged in and gets regularly reset.
- jason-phillips 4y ago
  Three-dots menu > settings > website redirects
  - uncletammy 4y ago
    I've looked everywhere for this but can't find it. I'm on Brave Desktop v1.44.112
    - jason-phillips 4y ago
      Sorry, we might be crossing devices then. I'm talking about iPhone Brave, which is where I use it.

hunterb123 4y ago

They never replaced ads... that's another myth about them. They have a built in ad blocker and only block ads, not replace. The OPT-IN text notification ad service is separate. You can enable it to get text notification ads in exchange for BAT. It's OPT-IN and completely up to you. It's ALWAYS been like that. At no time did they ever "replace" blocked ads. What's really shady is how these obviously false talking points about Brave get perpetuated to this day, in every Brave thread. -- edit @Accacin -- I was responding to a very specific false claim that they replaced ads being constantly repeated. If you want to go on a general rant find another thread. -- edit @411111111111111 --- Nice biased article, that's exactly where this misinformation came from. They say "replaced ads" then their only linked source to that claim is https://brave.com/brave-launches-user-trials-for-opt-in-ads/ https://brave.com/brave-launches-user-trials-for-opt-in-ads/ Which talks about the BAT rewards program, which are opt-in text system notification ads shown in an interval. Not on the webpage, or while browsing, or by default. -- edit @vegetable -- No you notice people bringing up 2 year old lies and people responding to them. The first people who act crazy are those saying these ridiculous statements like "Brave is a cryptocurrency scam!" Then the people who inevitably have to call them out, then comes the people who say the people calling them out are fanboying. It's a cycle that repeats over and over in every Tesla, SpaceX, Brave, etc. thread that for some reason (because the owners are hated) gets the same talking points spammed over and over.

Accacin 4y ago
No, what's super shady is people who are so entrenced in something that they defend and get aggressive when people talk negative about it. I have been using Firefox for over 10 years now, and if they do something stupid I'll be on here complaining with everyone else. If they crossed the line I would definitely look for another browser. The problem with Brave users seems to be that Brave can do no wrong. Bundling crypto in a browser seems absolutely insane to me. Remember all the shit Firefox got for bundling Pocket? Difference is, Pocket actually makes a little bit of sense in the context of a browser. At the end of the day, it's thin veneer over Chromium and IMO they won't be able to block manifest v3 forever. Firefox can.
- 4y ago

qwertyzxcvmnbvw 4y ago

You're not even wrong, dude. It's not hard to inform yourself, e.g. the whitepaper linked at https://basicattentiontoken.org/ https://basicattentiontoken.org/

colordrops 4y ago

Have you used it? Or are you just repeating unsubstantiated things you read online? Google is at least as shady as Brave.

recursive 4y ago
I used it briefly, but long ago, (about the last time I was interested in Brave) Brave's own first-party website advertised this as a feature.
angryasian 4y ago
what are you talking about ? Do you know how ads work ? Brave is literally stealing and profiting from it. Brave will remove the ads from a site, that a person/company has paid for to ad provider. The ad provider thats supposed to pay the website host / content creator / whatever. Now Brave will insert their own ads and that another company has paid them to insert. So they are stealing and making money from the effort that someone else is expecting.
- iinnPP 4y ago
  The ads are not replaced. More like they are placed within Brave as ads for the application itself. They are defaulted to off. I can't understand how this seems negative to anyone. There is a certain assumption that any Brave user would have an ad blocker anyway. What is the alternative?
  - angryasian 4y ago
    >https://www.computerworld.com/article/3292619/the-brave-browser-basics-what-it-does-how-it-differs-from-rivals.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3292619/the-brave-brow... What are you talking about. They are stealing from content creators / whom ever took the time to create the website to begin with and taking their money. They are literally leeches. I don't care about the ad business and believe there are better ways to do this, but this is scummy stuff. Use an ad blocker or whatever you want but this is another company profiting from it.

tomjen3 4y ago

There is a very active segment on HN who has a raging hate boner for anything having to do with crypto, so much so that a pro crypto statement will get downvoted drastically in a few minutes. However that is a minority (and my pro crypto comments usually recover to +3 or 4 a few days after), and most of us are here because we like good technology. So that is why Brave is relatively popular here: we don't think it is shady.

angryasian 4y ago
They literally remove ads, that people and companies have paid for. Then they insert their first party ads that another company paid them for. Shady asf
- kwalikz 4y ago
  Have you actually used Brave? Can you provide actual evidence this is happening? Maybe a screenshot? Literally anything. I’ve been using Brave for a while, even before the crypto stuff but all, and I mean all of that can be turned off. I haven’t seen an Brave ad in place of where a typical ad would be. Ever. That kind of defeats the purpose of Brave, doesn’t it? The only reason I known internet ads still exist is because of Chrome forced on my work computer.
- lelanthran 4y ago
  > They literally remove ads, that people and companies have paid for. Then they insert their first party ads that another company paid them for. Shady asf You're presenting a very persuasive argument for using Brave[1]. 1. They automatically block ads. 2. By default, they show no other ads. 3. If the user wants to see ads, the user can opt-in, and then only receive text ads OOB (of the actual content). I don't think that I've ever had such a joyful reaction to a feature-list in software before. Thank you. [1] Downloading it now as I write this.
  - angryasian 4y ago
    yes profiteering company stealing ad revenue by utilizing open sources extensions to an open source browser... this seems like the new HN crowd would like this because BAT pffft

dang 4y ago

Please don't take HN threads into repetition of the same flamewar. It gets tedious and inevitably turns nasty. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html