this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2024
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Mobile ads suck so bad. How did we get here? (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
40 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I honestly think mobile ads in free games and other apps are some of the lowest quality piles of garbage I've ever had the misfortune to see, and they are constant. How did we get to this point? Where they are so horribly unbearable and yet so commonplace?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I'll show you how we got here. Ready for this.

We should make the internet as toxic and hostile to anyone using ads as possible because soon as people make money online through ad revenue it will grow so large we can never stop it again among other problems like looking away content and enshitification. Digitally copy and pirate all things that make money through ads. Make them pay for stealing your time and making everything worse. Every time we see an ad, make 5 posts or comments about how that product or service or thing gave you cancer or stared a fire or is haunted. Chase the bankers out of the temple with a whip.

And then people will say "but what about the content creators they need to get paid"

You can't have both. You cannot have people earning money online through ads and an internet where ads don't become the sole driver of all things online.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

By continuing to use the same services that keep pumping ads into your face. How else?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago

You mean you don't want to play a match 3 game that will make you cum in 30 seconds, guaranteed.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

Haven't seen an ad in ages :)

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It’s 2024. How do you not have ad blockers everywhere?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago

Websites too, journalism pages in particular have become just ridiculous.

A nearly full screen ad after every 1-3 (short) paragraphs is just bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

@Philharmonic3 A lot of mobile game ads sought to become weird slop because it would get people talking. I remember years ago when everyone was joking about a game called Mafia City, where the ad would show a L1 Goon beating up people on the street to become a L100 Boss. Now every mobile game ad wants to be the next big meme, or at least an appearance on those Vinesauce segments

[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The modern day mobile ad slop was the breaking point for me with ads, adblock is required now for viewing any website with ads.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I have a pihole.

Every time I go out onto LTE I experience the shittery that the rest of the world lives with every day. It is brutal. I have no idea how people do it.

It's funny, even sync for lemmy I never use it outside because it also has huge shitty ads. But on my network all is nice and clean!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Investigate tailscale, run your phone's internet thru your pihole when you're out and about, or set your phone's dns to dns.adguard-dns.com. No-one should have to live with that crap.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Will check it out, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You can also host a VPN server with your pihole so you don't get ads on LTE either.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Yea I've considered that but I'm afraid of opening up anything on my local network to the outside. I'm not sure I'm technical enough to risk accidentally opening something that's a vector for attacks. I'm ok with everything only accessible from 192 I'm not out enough for it to matter too much.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Android - Blockada.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Alternatively if you have a raspberry pi, pi hole. Also blocks all mobile ads and does it network wide.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'd love to, I have a pi 3 lying about.

Unfortunately it will also block the free TV streaming box we have and Mrs won't be able to watch Poirot and I'll get murdered myself

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You can set up a regular dns on that device, or you can white list the domains that the stealing box uses. Join the revolution, it's actually quite nice!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Would that it were that simple! It's an Orange TV streaming box, notorious for fucking up with PiHole :)

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Subscription instead of one time payment is a massive "fuck off" from me

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

I use personaldnsfilter which has been good for general system wide adblocking, but I avoid apps with ads these days.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Try AdGuard DNS, it's free and only takes a few minutes to set up, no account needed - you just modify your phone's DNS settings (there's also an app instead). Sometimes it doesn't block everything, like any DNS blocker including Blockada, but gets most things.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

And they even have DNS profiles for most devices. I’ve been running some form of AdGuard for nearly a decade. On the rare occasion I do see an ad, it’s quite surprising.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I've only ever used the free version. V5

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (3 children)

There's simply no "free" stuff out there, unless it's specifically released as free/open source.

If you're on Android, AdAware and Lucky Patcher are quite effective in filtering/killing most ads though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Yup! Droidify (f-droid) first, and Google Play only if it's a corporate app, or I'm really desperate.

I'd say 80% of my regularly used apps are FOSS.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

There's also DNS based ad blocking for any device that lets you adjust the internet settings.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

is lucky patcher still alive?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Yep, working nicely and receiving regular updates. Many apps can't be patched to bypass the payment anymore since they authenticate via Google servers, but at least you can patch out the ad server paths. Haven't had any total failure yet.