Asklemmy

I always use adblock on every device I browse with, no exceptions. I honestly wouldn't use the internet without it in any significant way. When other people try to show me videos on their phones and double ads play in front or in the middle, I get so irritated I wanna scream. I have no idea how people use the internet without ad block, it's just so over the top now days.

And no, I piss on the idea that by using ad blockers you are "stealing" from the creators. That's absolute garbage imo. I never signed a contract with them to watch X minutes of ads in order to consume their content. Plus, most creators now just embed ads in their videos anyways, so ad blockers don't do anything for those, I just skip over them in my browser.

If you wanna support a creator, donate to them, buy their merch, link to their content from yours and give them free advertising/publicity. The idea that I "owe" a content creator some fraction of a cent of ad revenue by letting some random clip about ball hair trimmers or protein bars play for 15-30 seconds is laughable. If they are really opposed to their content being consumed for free online, then lock it all behind pay walls or don't release it online at all.

I know that's a hard-line position in some people's minds, but it's what I truly believe. Also, the creators that I consume a ton of content from, I've donated or purchased 100's-1000's of times more than what they would ever make off me watching all of the YT ads that play before/during their vids.

I use them. And I won't pretend that I do it for moral reasons - it's because I do not want to see ads or waste my bandwidth with ads, period.

And I don't usually whitelist content creators because I know that most money won't get in their pockets, it'll go for Google or Meta or whatever. In a few cases however I might buy some stuff from the creator (if I got the money...), specially if it's a book or similar.

It is the one universal truth. Viewers do not want ads.

Why then should I care about a content creator who doesn't care about their viewers?

If you have built your business model on giving people what they don't want, AND have the audacity to insist that people make it easier for you to give them what they don't want, then you can fuck right off.

No. I do not care about creators who rely on ads. You'll take my Ublock Origin from my cold, dead hands.

I just whitelist ads/domains which follow EFF DNT standard (Automatically via AdNauseaum but should be working with any Adblock Plus/uBlock Origin standard adblockers https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/FAQ#how-and-why-does-adnauseam-make-exceptions-for-non-tracking-ads). https://www.eff.org/files/effdntlist.txt As you can see, this whitelist isn't that long, hence I do block most of the ads with my ad blocker. Outside individual exceptions, that's the only whitelist I have. Other than that, It's no pity. Doing so, I don't think I really ruin other individual's revenue, which are still done via ads online. Nowadays, it's more of sponsored content or affiliation links it seems, as advertisers adapt to the popularity of adblocker users instead of trying to fight them by being more and more aggressive with them (Which has been found to just reduce actual potential website users if it's too aggressive with pop-ups and all).

Absolutely I use ad block. Ublock origin, plus a couple other privacy related extensions, plus browser configured with most privacy settings turned up all the way.

Most publishers seem to have no interest in giving me a good browsing experience, only in shoving as many ads as possible down my throat and violating my privacy as much as possible. So I have zero sympathy. I have sympathy for the smaller websites that then get locked as well, that wouldn't otherwise have intrusive ads, but I am not going to subject myself to the larger ones just for their benefit.

Without ad block I have found a lot of websites almost totally unusable, or significantly more time wasting. Reddit is of course a big one, new Reddit without ad block is a total clusterfuck. YouTube is also pretty bad.

Thing is, I'm happy to pay. I'm looking forward to an era when I can do microtransactions in crypto to pay a website a couple pennies for content I like.

Ads annoy me to no end so yes. I use NextDNS on all of my devices + uBo in my browsers

I use PiHole on my home network to block ads across all devices. I mostly use it specifically for our smart TV as our Samsung loves to display Big Mac ads and track the hell out of everything. This way I can still stream to it. I have my phone and computer routed through it but my girlfriend doesn’t like how it slows down TikTok. Probably a reason for that 😁

Yes I do, screw ads. I use uBlock Origin on all my browsers and I run a home server with Adguard Home in it (I prefer Adguard Home instead of Pi-Hole, the former is super easy to update and it only runs on 1 service).

I often connect to my home server from my cellphone with Wireguard or OpenVPN to go through Adguard Home when I'm away.

Absolutely. I can still support a creator without watching terrible ads, and I really don't like selling my soul to DoubleClick.

Yeah I use adblock.

If you use adblock, you don't care about creator's point blank

Depending on what kind of content they serve, they usually still make a lot of money.

uBlock origin on my PC, AdGuard on my Google Pixel

I do want people to make their money but not to the point I get malware from a single click.

I remember the dark old days when I did not use adblock and then Brave came along and introduced me to the idea and everything was so simple, so much better. I block cookies and scripts on news sites and everything has been far better than what it was a few years ago.

I use Firefox + Ublock now and it has blocked a few million ads for me!

I pay for content that I enjoy, but the general web is intolerable without an ad blocker.

I use adblocking either through Chrome extentions or by using Brave Browser. I don't feel good about not supporting some websites, but ads have become extremely intrusive and excessive. It's not my fault that ads try to finger my brain at every chance whenever I am on the internet. I do it for my own peace of mind.

I use it because the advertising industry is trying to gobble up as much personal info about you. Ad banners are more than just displays for ads, they’re embedded trackers surveilling your browsing activity. I’d be happy to see some ads if they were truly privacy preserving.

For now, I just donate to my favourite creators or use subscriptions like YouTube Premium to pay creators for the content I consume.

I do, I hate fucking ads.

No creator is worth catching some dodgy-ass computer std from someone's drive-by ad.

I use unlock origin because it blocks ads and other annoying web features like cookies and newsletters popins.

Fuck ads. They always fuck me when I try to make money online. If the only way I'm allowed to make money is with "a real job" then they should "get a real job" too. Fuck 'em.

I use Privacy Badger to block trackers, and uBlock to manually block especially annoying ads. Everything else is allowed. So if an ad isn't obnoxious and doesn't track, it gets through. It's not perfect but I figure that's a reasonable compromise.

Advertising is a form of hostile content. Advertisers mean us harm. They might have some tenuous moral right to try to expose me to their manipulation, but I am not obliged to co-operate and my moral right to protect myself is much stronger. This is implicit in every form of advertising. You are not doing anything immoral by buying a magazine and then not reading any of the ads it contains.

Arguments against ad blockers require that there are not alternate ways of exploiting content production, or any reasons to produce content other than financial gain.

Yes. I have a whole house dns adlock AND iuse a browser adblock as well.

Too many websites are COMPLETE SHIT TO NAVIGATE without adblock. They will be slow to load because of all the ad servers loading in. They fill so much of their space with ads that the main Co tent you're there to see is obfuscated. They break content up with ads, so you're forced to scroll past them.

I have never understood why we legally allow advertising at all. Why should we let companies harass literally anyone with advertisements? I know literally nobody who likes seeing ads on any kind of content. It's an incredibly annoying thing we have normalized, and it needs to get cut back.

Adblock and Sponsorblock. Also Enhancer for Youtube that hides those pesky YT Shorts.

Why? Fuck ads, that's why.

Of course. Parts of the internet are basically unusable without it, and others are much less safe. Any creator who moans about this is just taking out their frustration about their chosen line of work on you, or guilt tripping you to make a penny. Plus, lots of creators have found ways to run ethical and safe do that don't put the user at risk.

I use adblock (uBlock origin) because the internet is nigh unusable otherwise. It's incredibly risky (even irresponsible) to not have adblock turned on given the danger of malware, or malware in the guise of advertisements. However, I'd whitelist sites that are decent about it--though in practice, I find it risky to temporarily disable my adblock just to test things, much less to whitelist them.

Most of all, there are other, better, ways to support content creators in the internet.

At this point, the internet is so goddamn unusable without an adblocker that I don't know why anyone would try.

At work, I'll occasionally start talking to someone about some fandom like Star Wars or Pathfinder or whatever. I'll go to the wikia or fandom page for them and suddenly I get a million popups and half the page is covered in ads. It's actually so bad that my work's filter will occasionally block a site because they'll say that the ads are too bad.

The only time I see ads now is when I watch YouTube or Hulu on my TV, but even then I try to cast from my desktop (though Hulu ads seem to break through). I understand the idea of supporting creators, but for most YouTubers, their money comes from the sponsorships, not from me watching an ad.

I use ad-blockers because I'm not a masochist. 🤨

Yes. When I visit my parents, who don't use adblocker, I get really anxious when I have to face the enormous flood of ads that you get without it. I wouldn't be able to concetrate to anything if I were interupted frequently with ad breaks. I also hate how ads volume loudness has been maximized, so they sound more loud than normal content.

Wow, there are a lot of comments describing how neccessary it must be to use adblock. I don't think I can actually change anyone's mind here, but I'm going to share my perspective anyway:

While I don't agree with the statement quoted in the original post, I do think that ads are neccessary for most websites I visit to function. Not because of the content creators, but because of the companies running the platforms.

I know, ads can be problematic. But to outright block all ads is no solution. Privacy and data protection are very important to me, so I'm against every form of targeted ads. But just generic or maybe contextual ads? I don't see any harm in that. Malware is mentioned often in other comments. I disable JavaScript whenever I can. That's absolutely enough for blocking all ads to not make any real difference in terms of security. Although I have to admit that blocking scripts also blocks some ads.

But still, I see all ads on YouTube and search engines for example. And I'm happy to see them. It's incredible that such platforms, providing so many people with access to so much content from so many other people can actually exist. There are a lot of resources needed for this.

And if I still don't want to see ads simply because I don't want to? Then I don't have to, even without any adblockers. If I don't think a website is worth the ads it thinks it needs to show me, then I don't have to use it. I can just leave. If it is easy to provide the same service without ads then there must be countless alternatives already.

Sometimes I see how some friends and relatives browse the web. From googling a recipe to watching hours of youtube videos. Shockingly, they spend like 10% of the time staring at advertisments, waiting for them to pass by. Sometimes, when they are close friends, I "confront" them about it and 90% of the time their answer is "I didn't even know you can block them". Not once have I heard "I do it to generate money the creators and or websites".

My girlfriend used to show me youtube videos on her phone and she used a "trick" where you report the unskippable ads or whatver and then you get through them quicker. Having to wait for HER ads to pass started to annoy me so much that I upgraded my YouTube subscription to family. Now her and her siblings get to enjoy ad-free YouTube content.

I even sometimes walk out of the room to do something else when the TV adverts come on, otherwise I ignore them. No one has ever accused me of denying a tv channel of revenue.

I use adblock wherever I can as ads have only become more annoying and intrusive over time. It's incredibly frustrating going to a site and having three banner ads covering 60% of the screen, or seeing an unskippable ad interrupt a YouTube video every 90 seconds. It's wasted time I will never get back, and it feels like theft of my life. I wish I could have adblock everywhere outside of the internet.