It seems like every day, the ruling class is pushing us towards the dystopia in the Black Mirror episode, Fifteen Million Merits. Our ads are becoming cringier, stupider, and oversexualized, and they are so unbearable.
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
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I don't want to make things worse for you. I really don't. But I feel the same way about billboards and posters. We go about our day surrounded by ads of all types, both digital and physical, and once you sorta snap out of the haze and notice how unsightly and annoying they all are it's impossible to not be constantly annoyed by them.
I hate that driving down a nice road with trees and fields and pretty things is just FULL of dumb ass giant billboards the whole way. Like you can't look in any direction and see something nice, only ads fucking up the view. I hate it.
I’m sure you’d love one of YouTube’s proposals for a new ad system!
Didn't MoviePass already try that?
No, the CEO stated that they were thinking about a service where a user could watch several dozen ads for a free movie tickets.
The eye tracking was deemed unfeasible to begin with, so they opted to give the user a set of questions at the end of each ad that they have to answer correctly.
When reality turns into a Black Mirror episode...
Hilariously that episode about the society built on ads was their second ever episode.
They're the worst thing ever, first you literally cannot live without adblock on YouTube or anywhere else, and second it can be anything, almost every time you open some site, it's basically guaranteed for 5+ random shit to start poping up all over the screen, it can be either of these: question to allow ads, if you want to subscribe for this and that, to allow info access or not, notifications, and then you have to turn off 5+ random shit before you actually see what you wanted to see on that page, like can they just piss off!?
What's a good adblock?
On Android, use Adguard DNS for some system-wide effects.
On all operating systems, use Firefox + uBlock Origin as your browser.
On all operating systems, use Firefox + uBlock Origin as your browser.
👍
Additionally I'd recommend Arkenfox, which is a portable user.js for FF which is a configurable set of browser variables (many of which are hidden in about:config) that helps block browser fingerprinting, tracking and can disable some of the awful "conveniences" that FF ships with. There's a FF fork called LibreWolf which implements most of the Arkenfox recommended policies if you're not comfortable meddling with files.
I also like to use NoScript with uBlockOrigin to have more granular control.
Ublock origin
One of the things I miss the most about growing up in USSR is not having ads shoved down my throat at every waking moment. Being able to walk around on a street without constant flashing lights trying to get your attention is frankly blissful.
One of the things I miss the most about growing up in USSR is not having ads shoved down my throat at every waking moment.
Whoa, really? I mean the no ad stuff makes sense, but I didn't know you grew up there, comrade.
Oh yeah, I was lucky enough to catch the last decade of it.
Try like a dns filter like rethinkdns or pi hole or nextdns.
I agree, I live as free as I can from ads. Ads that I cannot block (real life) can always be tagged up!
idk if where i live just has particularly few ads but i almost never see them outside and i dont watch tv cuz its awful and i have adblockers on everything i use for the internet so idk they play such a small role in my life that it doesnt bother me when i see the occasional one.
Must be nice where you live. I can't step foot outside my door without seeing billboards.
It's going to only get worse and YouTube is experimenting with server side ads that can't be blocked because they are directly injected into the videos from the server side. As in put in as part of the video and the timing will be random. There's pretty much no way to counter it. If you tried to use a downloader program the video would probably download with the ads in it.
So basically, if there's anything on YouTube you have saved to a playlist and want to watch in the future without ads.... Download it now.
Look up YouTube dlp for PC downloading.
https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?tab=readme-ov-file#installation
If you have android there is the app Newpipe
https://newpipe.net/
That sucks to hear. The day I can't block ads on youtube will be the day I stop using it. It is just not worth the psychological damage of having that garbage blasted at me.
It definitely wouldn't be impossible to counter, but it would be difficult. I don't really doubt that effective ad-blocking to server-side injections would appear sooner or later.
From what I understand they did this on some other platform year ago and still there no real work around. Twitch maybe? Idk. The developer of sponsor block straight up said there is nothing they can do about them and the various anti-ad communities on Reddit are pretty much confirming that there's no way to block them. They MAY figure something out eventually but this is going to really mess things up for a while.
+1 yt-dlp is workhorse
The threat of server-side ads, as you mentioned, is concerning. I haven't looked into the proposed implementations, but it seems like the nature of HLS still leaves the door open for workarounds. It seems like yt encoding chunks on the fly with both content and ads so you wouldn't be able to filter chunks would be too much of a burden, and doing so statically would be too restrictive.
... Or maybe they'll just abandon open standards and they'll just do widevine 2.0 🤮
I hate them too. If the VR/AR headsets like the Apple vision pro ever become a popular thing, I hope someone creates a real world Adblock that blocks out billboard advertising using the AR capabilities. It would be the only good thing to come out of such a scenario.
The real solution is to allow users to flash custom firmware onto those headsets. There is no way I would ever buy VR/AR equipment if I don't even have control over it. A machine that doesn't follow the operator's commands is useless.
Or switch all the billboards and ads to "They Live" glasses on mode.
I just don’t get people who tolerate them. As someone who’s spent years blocking and avoiding them (arrrr) they just seem unnatural and infuriating but to so many people used to them they’re just an accepted part of life.
Omg this. I seriously worked with a dude that was a like, a hyper cuck to capitalism. He would sit there and watch YouTube ads and when I'd ask him why he didn't use adblock or use an app (this was at the height of ease in using YouTube Vanced) he just goes, "I like to watch ads because I want to support my content creators. "
I was so shocked someone actually said those words is just... Stopped for a minute. Like I just turned around back to my desk and just sat there and realized there's no hope for this country.
I have met these people a few times. Complete utter fucking cucks to the point that "Patreon doesn't count" and one of them ACTUALLY defending Youtube TOS. I had the same reaction as you, comrade.
I once showed a person who was constantly scrolling and sitting through ads on their phone that those ads can just be blocked with little effort. They were interested in the idea so I introduced them to Firefox and uBlock Origin and I even helped them setting it up. Days later I meet them again and notice they're scrolling through ads again. I ask them why they're using all those apps instead of the Firefox we set up. They told me that using Firefox is difficult because dealing URLs and setting up bookmarks is complicated. I can't ever imagine being inconvenienced by a different way of doing things to the point where I go back to watching ads.
Welcome to late stage capitalism
I'll never understand how people are like "okay I agree to a bit of brainwashing in exchange for watching this :)"
I do my best to actively work at not buying anything I see advertised. Often there's little choice, but I like to think successfully showing me ads is a net negative to the company.
I do my best to actively work at not buying anything I see advertised.
Same, but at the same time we have to recognize that none of us are immune to psychological manipulation, even when we are aware that that is what they are doing. With enough repetition ads will still work subconsciously even though you may consciously make an effort to try and resist them. It's mental rape. You did not consent yet you still have this shit thrust into your brain.
At some point i may have to go live in the forest for the sake of my own sanity.
Too bad most of the forests are either burning or owned by a degenerate.
I feel an urge to scream it into the world every single day just how much i despise ads and whoever invented them.
If you are like me and just like reading history for fun, even the history of things like advertising, there is some actual interesting history there. Advertising goods for sale basically goes back as far as recorded history does. We have examples of adverts from the Song dynasty. These tended to be fairly innocous though. Basically just signs advertising a product sold at a shop.
Modern advertising, the more invasive kind that we hate, unsurprisingly got its start in the US. All the advertising execs that basically set out with the goal of exploiting human psychology to sell product are from the early 1900s in the US/UK for the most part. Nielsen and the dedicated advertising agency came a bit later. Thomas Barratt (UK) was one of the worst, he famously bought the rights to a painting and then added a product he was selling to the painting. The artist hated it but couldn't do anything about it.
bought the rights to a painting and then added a product he was selling to the painting
Straight to the gulag. No discussion, no trial, just gulag. Goodbye.
You only notice how insidious and shit ads are once you properly experience what life is like without them. As someone who browses internet only with uBlock Origin, obtains media only through ethical means (piracy), I cannot stand ads at all. Then one day I am forced to experience ads. Like maybe I am visiting someone who is watching cable TV. And I cannot comprehend how someone just does not go berserk seeing ads.
My father was watching YouTube on a smart tv and there was a whole one and half movie as an ad. It was skippable but who puts an entire movie up as an ad? And why? They also put up kpop boy band music videos as ads. For my late-middle-aged Hindu fascist father, a fact that YouTube knows owing to the browsing history. I don't understand advertising at all.
YouTube ads have gotten so intrusive and so frequent that it has become virtually impossible to use that platform without adblockers. You'd have to be a masochist to watch YouTube without them. And even when you adblock you still have sponsored segments in the videos themselves. Shit is inescapable.
In case you didn't know, there's a browser plug-in called Sponsorblock which help skip those in-video ad segments. It relies on user input to work, so someone has to watch the video and timestamp the ad segments and maybe a couple other important points in the video, but it works really well most of the time.
Sometimes it has sponsor data for videos which one could consider obscure. The people populating that database are absolute heroes. It even skips intros and outros if you want.
I was listening to a podcast, and the host was talking about how his son (early middle school age) apparently came home from school singing ad jingles just because of how much they were exposed to it. It's basically the plot of a dystopian novel.
I think that's horrifyingly normal honestly. I can still remember jingles from adverts from my childhood that I haven't seen in decades. It's really insidious.
My agreement with you is deep like a mineshaft.
Every ad represents, in the final sense, a missed opportunity for a meaningful communication, displaced by redundant consumption.
I’m always amazed by how much of the neoliberal economy is held up by ads. Producers want people to buy their products so bad that they literally throw away hundreds, thousands, millions of dollars so that 1.0% of us rubes might click a link or go to a drive-thru.
My brother works in marketing. He’s explained the ROI for ads. I just don’t believe it. It’s a fucking shell game.
I'm with you, I hate ads!