3 ms·

I have an imperfect "canary in the coalmine" test for whether/where the principled/idealist nerds have the power vs the mercenary/cynical nerds have the power:

I have an imperfect "canary in the coalmine" test for whether/where the principled/idealist nerds have the power vs the mercenary/cynical nerds have the power: Advertisers vs Ad Blockers - as long as the Ad Blockers are blocking the vast majority of junk, I feel like team principles is winning. Like they have more nerd power to outsmart the lesser nerds working on team mercenary. But there are places like Facebook where that is not the case. And even in Youtube, team mercenaries has recently won some territory from team principles.

nathan_compton 4mo ago
I would happily, delightedly, see the entire internet disappear in a puff of smoke, to remove ads from the world. Honestly, I'd be happy to see everything on the internet except the wikipedia vanish regardless, at this point.
- kzrdude 4mo ago
  Much of the mundane world - tv, bus stops, and so on seems to have ads. While in my nerd domain, my computer, I don't see ads at all. So it would seem that open source software is letting me live without ads on the internet, from home. I was even annoyed at the ads in a paper newspaper I was leafing through, I'm not just used to them and I think some of them were a bit dishonest and scummy.
  - Ntrails 4mo ago
    Compared to the 40 ft led screen blaring images out to everyone 24h a day in central London I will take the newspaper any day. Drives me nuts
geraldwhen 4mo ago
There are currently multiple trivial ways for a layman to block all YouTube ads.
- ofrzeta 4mo ago
  For some definition of layman, I guess.
  - geraldwhen 4mo ago
    There’s an app on the App Store that only has the purpose of YouTube without ads. Can’t get more layman.
- dozerly 4mo ago
  Clearly the original comment is from a mercenary nerd who has not heard of DNS blocking of ads.
  - move-on-by 4mo ago
    I’ve been very involved with the DNS blocking scene- and it’s extremely easy to circumvent. I always wonder if there are some principled nerds on the architecture side purposely designing things to be easily blocked with DNS blocking. Or perhaps the mercenary nerds are just that inept. Maybe a mix. I also don’t think the numbers of users with DNS blocking are large enough for the mercenary nerds to care about. However, the math for LoE to bypass DNS blocking has certainly changed recently.
    - spwa4 4mo ago
      It's not. You forget the disadvantage the mercenary nerds have - they do not, and can not, trust each other. So having the same company serve ads as is serving the content can never happen because mercenaries can't resist cheating and so advertisers won't trust them (after being burned way too many times)
  - anon-3988 4mo ago
    If we go this route, they are just going to embed the ads into the video itself. Clearly the solution is to create an alternative to Youtube. This war is not going to bode well to either side.

nathan_compton 4mo ago

I would happily, delightedly, see the entire internet disappear in a puff of smoke, to remove ads from the world. Honestly, I'd be happy to see everything on the internet except the wikipedia vanish regardless, at this point.

kzrdude 4mo ago
Much of the mundane world - tv, bus stops, and so on seems to have ads. While in my nerd domain, my computer, I don't see ads at all. So it would seem that open source software is letting me live without ads on the internet, from home. I was even annoyed at the ads in a paper newspaper I was leafing through, I'm not just used to them and I think some of them were a bit dishonest and scummy.
- Ntrails 4mo ago
  Compared to the 40 ft led screen blaring images out to everyone 24h a day in central London I will take the newspaper any day. Drives me nuts

geraldwhen 4mo ago

There are currently multiple trivial ways for a layman to block all YouTube ads.

ofrzeta 4mo ago
For some definition of layman, I guess.
- geraldwhen 4mo ago
  There’s an app on the App Store that only has the purpose of YouTube without ads. Can’t get more layman.
dozerly 4mo ago
Clearly the original comment is from a mercenary nerd who has not heard of DNS blocking of ads.
- move-on-by 4mo ago
  I’ve been very involved with the DNS blocking scene- and it’s extremely easy to circumvent. I always wonder if there are some principled nerds on the architecture side purposely designing things to be easily blocked with DNS blocking. Or perhaps the mercenary nerds are just that inept. Maybe a mix. I also don’t think the numbers of users with DNS blocking are large enough for the mercenary nerds to care about. However, the math for LoE to bypass DNS blocking has certainly changed recently.
  - spwa4 4mo ago
    It's not. You forget the disadvantage the mercenary nerds have - they do not, and can not, trust each other. So having the same company serve ads as is serving the content can never happen because mercenaries can't resist cheating and so advertisers won't trust them (after being burned way too many times)
- anon-3988 4mo ago
  If we go this route, they are just going to embed the ads into the video itself. Clearly the solution is to create an alternative to Youtube. This war is not going to bode well to either side.