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Same. When I help relatives with their tech woes, loading a website on a vanilla browser after all these years without ads is shocking. All these flashing and

by mpsprd 4y ago

Same. When I help relatives with their tech woes, loading a website on a vanilla browser after all these years without ads is shocking. All these flashing and moving gizmos and pop up videos. It's so jarring, like having a flashlight flickered in your face constantly. I have honestly no idea how people manage to work the web without adblock nowadays.

dwighttk 4y ago
yep... I've started loading pages I want to send to my mom with adblockers turned off just to check how bad they'll be because somehow despite turning them on every time I visit by the time I get back they have been turned back off...
- culi 4y ago
  just teach them to download adblock. It might be an annoying 20 minutes of your life but it'll do wonders for their mental health in the long run
- TeMPOraL 4y ago
  I'm going to guess it's one or more of: - Lack of experience or awareness that running an ad blocker isn't something weird or niche, but is in fact basic hygiene when on-line. - Sites that ask, demand, beg or cajole visitors into turning your ad blocker off, many of which provide detailed instructions aimed at non-technical people; your mom may have needed something from one of such sites, and didn't bother or remember to turn the adblocker back on. If I were to bet, I'd pick a link to an interesting article on a news site that employs this technique. - Perhaps your mom uses one of those cashback extensions to get some money back when shopping on-line? They're somewhat popular and regularly advertised by vloggers and influencers. Disabling ad blocker is AFAIK necessary - for technical reasons - for the service to award you cashback. My wife uses one of those cashback services, but we did some research on their inner workings and business model first, to be sure she's taking advantage of it, instead of being taken advantage of herself. And she follows a strict routine: she disables uBlock before visiting a participating e-commerce store, does the purchase, and re-enables it immediately afterwards.
grishka 4y ago
— There are so many ads on this page, it must be intolerable. Do you want me to install an ad blocker? — Nah I'm fine.
- Firmwarrior 4y ago
  haha, the same thing happened with my 10 year old nephew I was watching live TV, and he just randomly started screaming at me I was like "Why the hell are you screaming, kid?" and it turned out it was because the TV was so loud and obnoxious Turned out he managed to go 10 years without watching ad-infested live TV!
- tasuki 4y ago
  Same experience. People universally hate ads, yet they're not too keen on blocking them. I'd be curious to learn why.
  - Nextgrid 4y ago
    I think some people are so annoyed or afraid of tech that once they’ve got something that at least somewhat works they avoid making any changes in fear that it’ll break their workflow.
  - paulryanrogers 4y ago
    Ads lower the barrier of entry to the web by paying for content. By blocking them and encouraging others to as well that on-ramp becomes weaker, motivating producers to pack more ads for what audience still sees them.
    - troyvit 4y ago
      Funny thing though, I worked in ad-tech for ten years at a small player (outbrain). They're present on most major news sites around the world, which means I got to dig into the source of many of these sires. Easily 90% of their source was dedicated to serving ads or tracking behavior for campaigns. And we're talking a ton of code. It's like they're in an arms race with themselves where their site is an expensive nightmare to maintain so they add ads which makes their site an expensive nightmare so they add more ads.

by mpsprd 4y ago

dwighttk 4y ago

yep... I've started loading pages I want to send to my mom with adblockers turned off just to check how bad they'll be because somehow despite turning them on every time I visit by the time I get back they have been turned back off...

culi 4y ago
just teach them to download adblock. It might be an annoying 20 minutes of your life but it'll do wonders for their mental health in the long run
TeMPOraL 4y ago
I'm going to guess it's one or more of: - Lack of experience or awareness that running an ad blocker isn't something weird or niche, but is in fact basic hygiene when on-line. - Sites that ask, demand, beg or cajole visitors into turning your ad blocker off, many of which provide detailed instructions aimed at non-technical people; your mom may have needed something from one of such sites, and didn't bother or remember to turn the adblocker back on. If I were to bet, I'd pick a link to an interesting article on a news site that employs this technique. - Perhaps your mom uses one of those cashback extensions to get some money back when shopping on-line? They're somewhat popular and regularly advertised by vloggers and influencers. Disabling ad blocker is AFAIK necessary - for technical reasons - for the service to award you cashback. My wife uses one of those cashback services, but we did some research on their inner workings and business model first, to be sure she's taking advantage of it, instead of being taken advantage of herself. And she follows a strict routine: she disables uBlock before visiting a participating e-commerce store, does the purchase, and re-enables it immediately afterwards.

grishka 4y ago

— There are so many ads on this page, it must be intolerable. Do you want me to install an ad blocker? — Nah I'm fine.

Firmwarrior 4y ago
haha, the same thing happened with my 10 year old nephew I was watching live TV, and he just randomly started screaming at me I was like "Why the hell are you screaming, kid?" and it turned out it was because the TV was so loud and obnoxious Turned out he managed to go 10 years without watching ad-infested live TV!
tasuki 4y ago
Same experience. People universally hate ads, yet they're not too keen on blocking them. I'd be curious to learn why.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  I think some people are so annoyed or afraid of tech that once they’ve got something that at least somewhat works they avoid making any changes in fear that it’ll break their workflow.
- paulryanrogers 4y ago
  Ads lower the barrier of entry to the web by paying for content. By blocking them and encouraging others to as well that on-ramp becomes weaker, motivating producers to pack more ads for what audience still sees them.
  - troyvit 4y ago
    Funny thing though, I worked in ad-tech for ten years at a small player (outbrain). They're present on most major news sites around the world, which means I got to dig into the source of many of these sires. Easily 90% of their source was dedicated to serving ads or tracking behavior for campaigns. And we're talking a ton of code. It's like they're in an arms race with themselves where their site is an expensive nightmare to maintain so they add ads which makes their site an expensive nightmare so they add more ads.