SponsorBlock. You have to turn on all the segments to skip.
Firefox + uBlock origin, nextDNS + a shit ton of blocking lists, revanced, metrolist and now i forgot that ads even exist.
con:
I always get traumatised when I use a device that isn’t mine.I turn NextDNS off on my phone when I need a particular site/feature to work. Then sometimes I forgot to enable it again. Always gives me a jumpscare when the in-app banner ads pop up…
very traumatic, like how do you guys live like this?
Barely watching TV or listening to radio and block ads online. I stop watching TV or switch radio off after the second ad segment and start an audiobook or use an ad free subscriber platform.
Honestly I’m going to have to start asking them out aloud; “how do you live like this, and how can I help?”
I’ve done that plenty of times. I’d encourage you to do so too. You’ll be shocked with how many people you thought you knew say something to the effect of, “but I like the things that get advertised to me and I’ve clicked on a bunch of them and bought things from them! Why would I want to block them?”
I’ve even explained the whole thing about companies building flawed profiles on people and how governments and bad actors can use them as a reason to investigate you. This works with people I know and get along with well, but doesn’t seem to make any difference with others.
Whenever i go to my folks or in-laws, im always blasted by live TV which is absolutely rotten with ads
Same thing when I visit my parents. They effectively have a billboard installed in their home.
Watching normal TV is jarring, just because I so rarely view non-pirated content.
Once you’re outside that bubble, the invasiveness is so much worse
Fuck unlock - try adnauseum and actively poison their data
I recently tried. Sadly some YouTube ads came through. Could be a configuration thing, but to be fair, if the defaults don’t work as good as ublock it’s not worth switching for me.
That’s a good point, I’ve turned on the annoyances and other filters! It seems to be an overlay on ublock - uBlocks configuration is still accessible in the adnauseum settings
I’ve not had issues with YouTube personally but it’s quite possibly the cat and mouse game they have on their hands
I’il try!
I use adnauseum too, but ublock has its place since it performs better.
Sponsorblock, too. It comes included in ReVanced these days, and even comes with SmartTube, an excellent ad-blocking YT app for android TVs. I am convinced that if I see another ad on YT, I will wither and die. Not today…
Never used nextDNS. Idk, do they care about piracy? How do they make money?
They make money with paid plans, but there is a limited free one too, in my expirience it’s enough and they don’t care about piracy i think
SponsorBlock for youtube as well to skip ad reads, with unhooked to de-enshittify youtube as well.
And for that last little bit https://sponsor.ajay.app/
Have a tutorial? I use unlock and sponsor block.
And Privacy Badger
Teach 👏 your 👏 kids 👏 to 👏 hate 👏 ads 👏
On the occasion that we have to watch something that’s not self-hosted, my toddler will point and go “oh ads!” LOL
Peak childhood if you ask me
In Belgium, we had a pretty based children TV show called “Blabla”. In the opening song there is
Je bouche mes oreilles et je cache mes yeux. La pub ? Bêê !
I plug my ears and I cover my eyes. Ads? Blegh!
Hell yeah
Henry Kuttner’s story ‘Year Day’ from 1953 is a nice dystopian portrayal of how bad it can get even compared to the present day. (It was published in the collection ‘Ahead of Time’, idk where one can get it currently.)
Remember kids, advertising is just the graffiti of the rich.
You owe the companies nothing. You especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.
Banksy, Wall and Piece
Exactly, it’s capitalist propaganda. Advertising is indoctrination into a system that requires conspicuous consumption to continue to make rich people richer. Get a pihole, please.
Thanks for that viewpoint.
I live in a great city with lots of (standard) graffiti, and now wonder what regular graffiti is, as compared to advertising. The crying out of some member of the working class that they exist, I suppose?
Don’t claim your relationship with ads is “actively hostile” if your actions can be described as “skipping” and “muting”.
You should be blocking. I don’t skip or mute anything, ever, because I don’t allow ads into my life.
PiHole is a thing of beauty =)
I started to get mine set up, and was almost done. Then we moved and it got put in a box and i haven’t found it yet. You bet your bottom dollar im reconfiguring that thing as soon as i find it
The only ads I still have to skip are podcast sponsor segments. And sometimes YouTube sponsor segments; I have SponsorBlock but that only works on very popular videos.
be the change you want to see in the world, and mark sponsor segments yourself
Isn’t there an argument that it’s better to get them to waste money sending the ads? Does blocking prevent the adverters paying? I’m not sure how that works.
I got almost everything blocked, but one thing I can’t totally is podcasts, so there I skip em.
Sadly with adverts literally everywhere, there’s no single solution!
There was a browser extension which both blocked ads and simulated clicks iirc. That comes with a processing power cost though.
But that only benefits the advertisement agency (eg. google ads) and doesn’t do much harm to the advertiser imo
I don’t allow ads into my life.
I don’t allow serial killers into my life, but they keep trying to smash through my windows and tackle me on running trails.
Feels like a guy in a horror movie snidely insisting “Just don’t dream about Freddie Krueger and you’ll be fine”.
Except blocking them is trivial, and they must be requested by the browser/client, so it’s much more like vampires than serial killers.
Just because a website gives your computer instructions to initiate requests to an ad server doesn’t mean your computer has to execute those instructions. It’s your computer, your electricity, your network.
Except blocking them is trivial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_advertising
Significantly more difficult to block ads that woven into the observed content.
Like, there are definitely ads that are easy to block. And ads that are more intrusive by design. And software that’s better at getting the more embedded ads. And ads that are better at evading the software.
But it’s a game of cat and mouse. There’s no panacea, just moments when the anti-ads guys have an edge.
Just because a website gives your computer instructions to initiate requests to an ad server doesn’t mean your computer has to execute those instructions.
If you’re watching ET and you get to the scene where he’s eating a line of Reese’s Pieces to get lured into the kid’s room, you’re watching an ad.
There’s no way to not watch the ad other than to stop watching the movie.
And this high tech advancement in advertising was pioneered over 40 years ago.
And ads that are better at evading the software.
Yeah, no. Ad servers are not initiating incoming network requests to your devices. Your devices are openly asking for the ads, and it’s not an obfuscated secret, it’s a standard network request. This evasion is imagined fiction. It isn’t an arms race, there’s never been a time when ad blockers stopped working and had to change how they function to beat the ads again.
There’s no way to not watch the ad other than to stop watching the movie.
other than to stop watching the movie.
stop watching the movie.
Your terms are acceptable.
high tech advancement in advertising was pioneered over 40 years ago
Huh? What exactly is the “high tech advancement” you’re referring to? Filming a product in a movie? Seems kinda low tech…
Ad servers are not initiating incoming network requests to your devices.
They’re piggybacking in on intended content. Or they’re gating content behind ad walls. Or they’re initiating requests on channels not yet flagged as ad servers. Or just permeating your electronics through the OS vendor, the SMS protocol, email, you name it.
What exactly is the “high tech advancement” you’re referring to?
Sarcasm, mate. You simply include the commercial as part of the main body of media.
Or they’re initiating requests on channels not yet flagged as ad servers.
You’re misinformed. Reality is they aren’t initiating requests at all.
I guess ads just show up on your system by magic, then? They’ve overcome the need for IP protocols?
Give them bad data. Click on ads you’re totally disinterested in, ignore ones you’re interested in. Flip that sometimes. That’s actively hostile.
In that case use this: https://adnauseam.io/
muting is the correct action on tv, or even change channel temporarily
I should really invest in a PiHole. I’m just inherently lazy at times and always feel like I’m short on funds.
Pihole is open source software, so it is free and can run on basically any hardware. You could use an old laptop, a raspberry pi or other cheap SoC, and I think it might even be possible to run on something like an old Android phone.
Aye but I don’t have any old hardware lying around to use, so I’d need a Raspberry Pi for it. Again, money just feels like it’s getting tighter everyday that such a rather trivial purchase makes me think twice now.
If your router is OpenWRT it might be possible to run right on the router itself, but I’m not 100% sure
The router actually has DNS options for working to block ads built in it, I might give that try after work today.
You can use something like NextDNS at the router level and it works well.
Any ads that manage to reach me are added to The List. Any products on The List are to be avoided like the plague.
HelloFresh would like to know your location.
NordVPN can mask that while you enjoy your meal by Factor.
We’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty
Fun fact, hello fresh owns factor.
I’ve been playing WarThunder mobile while waiting for my Factor to finish in my Kohler microwave. Can’t wait to bundle up in my limited edition Snuggie and watch some movies on Disney+ until I’m old enough to use that One Secret Trick the Federal government has been hiding from thousands of people like YOU when signing up for benefits…(Link in Description)
Nice double whammy there stealth marketer.
Caught in 4k On your Sony Cybershot
I mean, that’s something of an empty threat in an era of slop ads. Like, I already don’t drink coke, own a PlayStation, or plan to buy a Ford Superduty Truck. And I sure as fuck don’t plan to support Ken Paxton for Senate.
Doesn’t seem to save me from being blizzarded in solicitations.
I have very few ads in my life, because I hate them with a passion. As an autistic person, ads don’t even work on me to the same extent, and I hate having to sit through them.
I have opted into a government program, that means I don’t recieve ads or “free newspapers” in my letterbox. I use special webapps with integrated adblock and curator extensions on my browsers, and even custom scripts using scriptmonkey to get it away. On my TV I run SmartTube, which not only removes ads, but also automatically skips sponsor and other filler from videos, as well as removes clickbait titles where possible using DeArrow.
I run Linux, I have set up all my devices to use adblocking DNS, and I have run a PiHole for years. The only thing in my home that shows ads at this point, is my google TV that will suggest a show on viaplay or prime or whatever, and it is the only thing I cannot get rid of.
The reason I dislike ads, is that these corporations are fucking scum. They collude to ruin people’s self-esteem, and to overflood the market with needless materialist bullshit that we don’t need, by exploiting our deepest insecurities. As AI becomes more normalized, it will get even more insidious. People talk to their chatbots like they are their friends, and soon those chatbots will subtly manipulate them into buying hair products that don’t work, because they see a picture in your photos gallery of you slightly balding, and see you talked to it about feeling insecure about your appearence lately.
Ending my rant with a quote by banksy:
“People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you. You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity. Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head. You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.”
I have run a PiHole for years. The only thing in my home that shows ads at this point, is my google TV
You should add those two domain in your deny list
After that, you clear the data of the Android TV Launcher app. The app won’t be able to grab any ads and it will be stuck will default youtube and play store ads.
Be sure to note how your icon were positionned as it will be cleared also
Very similar situation, pihole and adblockers on everything. I pirate what I want, I refuse even paid services that put ads in like Hulu and netflix, fuck both of those. I refuse to use tiktok since its literally everyone and their brother trying to sell you shit.
google TV that will suggest a show on viaplay or prime or whatever, and it is the only thing I cannot get rid of
GoogleTV as in Smart TV running Android TV, yeah? Get Projectivity Launcher!
I installed it. Works great! Can even make it default launcher without needing to root. Great recommendation, thanks!
Agree. Honestly, websites just feel so much cleaner without ads. Like, ads are literal visual pollution and I hate it.
I’m pretty actively hostile to ads: I have an adblocker built into my router, I won’t subscribe to any streaming thing that will show me ads (and I get a lot of shows and movies from… other ad-free sources), don’t have cable etc. The only place I really see them is outside on billboards and stuff.
But anyway, I’m so used to not seeing ads now that going to family member’s places over Christmas was kind of jarring with the amount of ads. What’s wrong with your TV!
Like, ads are literal visual pollution and I hate it.
Ads are not just visual pollution, they’re more importantly also mental pollution.
Right! They’re trying to get a reaction out of you to then buy their crap.
Then add the ones that lead to malicious sites all over social media or steal your focus that you can no longer scroll that page. They’re insidious and negative, they’re all about manipulating your emotions to then go buy something.
If you block ads from loading, you are using less processing power and thus less energy. Everyone should make the green choice of adding adblock to every browser. Save the planet.
NextDNS at the front in the router. Adblockerwon all browsers. SmartTube on the TV. Sponsor Block add-ons. What ads? The ads I ever manage to get are very non-intrusive and don’t interfere with my browsing experience.
That isn’t hostile enough, AdNauseam clicks them in the background.
I’m not sure I agree with that approach though. I get that the goal is to cost the advertisers money without benefit, but I kinda feel like contributing to that system at all is just encouraging them to do it more.
It provides junk data as well, which a lot of sites and advertisers use to sell to others. If enough people do it, then it becomes less profitable to do so since it because apparent there’s a deliberate attempt to obsfucate.
What if not enough people do it though? If you don’t reach that threshold, aren’t you just inflating the amount of data they have to sell?
Worst case scenario, you give them junk data that they cannot reliably market to you specifically. Best case scenario, they realize it’s all junk and throw it out. I doubt they’ll change their entire model until it’s five 9s worth but every little thorn in their foot just for spite’s sake.
[stands on soap box]
Advertisment is theft.
It is theft of my time and attention, the neurons that have to fire for my brain to process the message and then mentally bin the thought. I value the messages of people trying to sell me things so little, I would request they pay me to sit through their drivil. I have only so many hours on the moist spinning mud ball we call earth that I wish 0% of it being told to buy things.
Back in the day, when the internet was wild and free, advertisment online was a means of allowing hosts and websites to keep the lights on becore e-commerce had its sea legs, and that was the social agreement. Your site hosts ads, I get access to the site, captialism still happened, but it was simple. Then ads loaded by third party sources were not vetted by the trusted site you were visiting and became a vector for malware.
Now, you had ad and ad-free tiers of paid services, you pay your cable bill to watch 22 min. of content every block, 26% of the content on cable is not the content your paying for. Its sick, and now its infested the digital social spaces where people just make the infomericals at home in exchange for free stuff further poisioning the well of trust for interacting online.
[/Gets down from soapbox]
Sorry, I hate ads, moreso that most, but on the level amongst this crowd. To quote the great Miracle Max from the Princess Bride (RIP Rob Reiner) “Life is pain highness. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something”
Advertisment is theft.
It is theft of my time and attention
Are you yourself a thief for using things like YouTube videos for free?
Back in the day, when the internet was wild and free, advertisment online was a means of allowing hosts and websites to keep the lights on becore e-commerce had its sea legs, and that was the social agreement. Your site hosts ads, I get access to the site, captialism still happened, but it was simple
What do you think it is now…?
I mean, obviously, corporate greed turns all of this up to 11, because if it doesn’t the shareholders are sad and the CEO gets sacked, but ultimately, it’s the exact same social agreement - you get to watch or read content without paying for it, and in exchange, you get to watch ads.
NOTE: I don’t do cable TV, so don’t know anything about that. I’m talking specifically about the Internet.
To the previous poster’s point, internet ads have evolved away from ‘paying the bills’ and more towards ‘harvesting and selling your data’. It’s made to be as invasive as possible now because they want your data, whereas before it was much easier to ignore or filter out. And it’s everywhere, from websites to mobile apps.
To your example, the amount of money youtube(well, google) has spent on trying to beat adblockers could make the service free for everyone and keep the lights on…but it makes more money to sell your data instead, so they try to shove more ads in. That’s also not counting the amount of paid research that goes into ‘what advertising is effective’, or ‘how many ads is too many’, stuff like that. Not nearly as much thought was put into them in the early days.
It’s made to be as invasive as possible now because they want your data, whereas before it was much easier to ignore or filter out
Is it, though? You don’t remember the dozens of pop-up ads, or ads that would literally open new browser windows for you? All of that is gone, except on some shifty pirate/porn websites, isn’t it?
has spent on trying to beat adblockers could make the service free for everyone and keep the lights on
Yeah, I’m gonna need a source on that one, chief.
but it makes more money to sell your data instead, so they try to shove more ads in.
They’re not getting your data via ads. They’re serving ads “tailored” for you after they’ve already harvested the data via cookies, browsing history in Chrome, your Gmail, your viewing habits on YT, your Google Search history, etc., etc.
Those ads are STILL there, especially on social media. The amount of times I’ve had a customer call into support for getting malicious advertisement off Facebook is goddamn staggering. They’re made to purposely confuse and confound, especially the older, less savvy folks. Stop simping for data harvessting and invasive advertising by the way. It makes you look bad.
Again: displaying ads happens AFTER the data has been harvested. How is stating this simple fact “simping for data harvesting”? Buddy, are you OK?
Information is harvested from ads displayed as well, whether they’re clicked or not, how long it takes for a person to skip them on a youtube video or how much of it is watched. All useful user data to try and personalize more ads for you. Are YOU okay? One shouldn’t be trying to defend a horrible practice that tries to psychologically manipulate people.
The information harvested from ads is “did they have them displayed? For how long? Did they click”, and that’s it. It’s benign. The malicious stuff that we don’t want harvested is alllll the other shit that leads Google Ads to display ads for sneakers right after you looked at some sneakers on Amazon.
I still don’t know where you’re getting the notion that I’m defending anything here from. It’s weird. Stop being weird.
Advertising is one of the most prolific environmental pollutants of economic activity, and needs to become as socially acceptable as smoking.
It’s not “advertising.” That’s a euphemism. It’s #CapitalistPropaganda. Fucking straight up social manipulation and we’re fire-hosed with it from the day we’re born. It’s the prime reason we can no longer organize collective responses to capitalism.
Nah, as noxious as it is, too many people still consider smoking socially acceptable.
Advertising should be as socially acceptable as ripping random people’s eyes off with a rusty spoon, shitting in the socket, and charging them for it.
Advertisement is fine on its own, as long as we live in a goods/exchange/services world, you will need to display your wares somehow so people will buy or trade for them.
The problem is lack of limits or regulation on how far a company can go with that advertising. We’re so, so far beyond intrusive commercials or annoying jingles that it’s lethally depressing. We have companies who know and understand how to change your feelings, to implant ideas in your mind, to rob you of your free will.
And even if you’re someone who says “I block every ad and don’t buy from that company” like most people commenting in this post, advertisers already have accounted for you. They’re playing the numbers game and they don’t give a shit how much you scream you hate their slop and propaganda or how many ad-blockers you install, they aren’t targeting you directly, they’re going for the percentage of people who do stare at the screen or people who are more mentally compromised first. If they can get enough of the vulnerable class to build momentum, they have gone from a product to a movement and then even the cynical people like those in this post will start to see Product X more like a normal staple than an annoying intrusion in their lives.
See: the Trump effect.
i love smoking but hate advertisements. am I that bad? I put an ad blocker on everything and anything that blocks ad blockers or requires me to pay to not see ads doesnt get used
Smoking is pretty bad, yes, but advertising is orders of magnitude worse. On a whole other league. Even worse than speaking in the theatre.
I actively avoid products I see to many ads for
Same. If I see an ad for your new thing, im most likely never going to get it and will discourage others when the subject comes up to skip it as well.
They likely aren’t concerned, since probably their data shows that while a few people might be annoyed and choose not to purchase, overall sales would still increase compared to not running ads
This is why I stopped using Twitch(among other things). Kept making it harder and harder to block ads, content experience got worse because of it, so I just stopped using the platform entirely.
I used to watch twitch a good bit while i was doing other things. It was great to have on while doing dishes or cleaning up.
I remember trying again in the not too distant past. I got hit with like 5 ads to start the stream. Thought that was going to be is as long as i stayed there… NOPE. Got 5 more ads like 5-10 minutes later. Shut it down and never looked back.
Same, had it on during daily chores, listened to it while mowing the lawn, and if work was slow I’d have it on a tablet off to the side with my headphones(boss didn’t care).
That was back in 2019, haven’t used it since.
Amazon, one of the richest corpos in the fucking world. And they put an ad break every 30 minutes or whatever to promote their paid subscription… That gets rid of ads for you…
Not to mention paywalling basic player features
Fucking hate their guts
Had a gas pump that I couldn’t mute the ads at and they played so loud that I’m sure the people inside could hear. Despite having some of the cheaper gas in town I will never go back
right second button didin’t work?
cause if not, that’s evil
Might as well have been punching my finger through it. Said out loud, “well fuck this”
Carry an awl and gently shred the speaker through the grille.
i’be given serious thought to how illegal taping the speaker hole over would be
Adnauseum for firefox (both pc and android), and PiHole for network-level. When my dad comes over, hes always surprised that his tablet’s crossword game doesnt have ads inbetween levels!
