If you load this page it contacts 82 IP addresses executing 256 separate HTTP transactions to download 18MB of data writing 64 cookies to your device to tell you “no”
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It's an open source app with open source updates that runs on a pi or, if you already have a server running, in virtual or real linux. I've run it on a linode (not advised), on a pi, and now in a virtual Debian Linux thingie (since I have an old, quite power-efficient Mac Mini doing server stuff)
Running adguard really spoiled me. I connected to wifi without it the other day and had almost forgotten how many ads get blocked before it even gets to my browser. Everyone should be running it or pihole
One time Forbes’ web site would demand you turn off ad blocking only to feed you malware. Forbes management deflected responsibility because it wasn’t them as if they didn’t choose the contractor.
Future Me: "I remember the great Browser War of 2025; and BW II that came later. Web pages fell like trees to a chainsaw. Computer screens filled with graphics that caused nausea... Exploding HDs & memory cores... Madness; all was madness."
You can do it yourself. Install ublock and noscript extensions, and block all third party cookies.
I've even been blocking all cookies outside a whitelist (which is probably an unreasonable hassle)
If a website breaks because it couldn't load some script, I often decide that I actually didn't care
I do this as well, in addition to spoofing device telemetry. So many websites screech at me for doing this but rarely does it break anything and when it does most of the time it's not a site I care about anyway.
And all that to answer a question that nobody needs answered because you can just watch the credits to the end. Just let the experience of having watched the film sit for a minute it's fine
Just to clarify in case of offense - I meant this only semi-seriously; it's not I *don't* think there would be social & personal benefit to more people sitting through credits than currently do but I don't actually care that much & it has no incidence on my opinion of you, personally, who disagree
Yes right?! I used to enjoy sitting there after the movie ended while the credits rolled. Just taking it in, discussing it with the friends/family I was there seeing it with, etc. Enjoying quality time with people is why I’m there. While all the impatient folks stampeded to the exit doors.
Back in 1999 a friend of mine said he went to the box office just before “Episode I: The Phantom Menace” came out and asked, “Do you have tickets for Star Wars?”
Does it spread out the answer over 28 pages, each going off into an unintelligible tangent whilst delivering pop up adverts and sponsored click-baits too?
This is one of the only reasons I would tolerate AI. This, and recipes. DON'T TELL ME YOUR LIFE STORY, GREG. I JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW TO MAKE SNICKERDOODLES.
Yep. I was keeping my parts at the non-technical level.
There's a lot of drama around the Manifest V2 to V3 update that gets overblown by fanboys and detractors, alike.
It's a lot of topics, and selection is based-on trust.
Google's broken a lot of people's trust in them.
🤷♀️ I'm deGoogling, I swapped to proton for email and duckduckgo to search (not perfect but not Google), firefox on desktop (for now, considering better options) with adblock and Mullvad VPN, learning Vivaldi on my phone.
It's some getting used to, so I made one big change a week.
I appreciate how deeply moddable Firefox is, and their version of the Tree Tabs extension has been a blessing to my disorganized butt. If it's okay, what's your standard for a better browser?
There are a few browsers being recommended right now and I think it's just going to come down to preference. Firefox has a Mullvad VPN plugin I can use together or separately from Mullvad proper. There is also Librewolf and Brave.
Like many others here, I concur with using firefox as your browser and duckduckgo as your search engine. I've used Adblocker plus extension for a while now and it always seems to do the trick (though I haven't kept up with the newer options lately).
I use Brave, which is built on the same base code as Chrome (called Chromium), so there's a lot of cross-compatibility (in case you run into any issues with sites or plugins not working well with Firefox), but it has a lot of built-in privacy features and quality-of-life improvements over Chrome.
I’m not sure why, but whenever I tried to run Chrome it would overheat my macbook and deplete my battery. Haven’t used it in a while, but I assumed it was my fault and not Google’s.🤷♀️
it's extremely easy on windows or linux. probably easy on mac but idk. its a bit more obtuse on a smartphone because, for example, you can use one on firefox but videos may be buggy
you can use revanced patcher to block ads on youtube but this might not be straightforward to do as it probably won't like the pre installed youtube app
you have to first enable third party apps to install the patcher app, delete/disable youtube, open revanced and then download a specific youtube apk version recommended by the patcher to use, then select that in the patcher and let it make a new one to install
there may be other things im missing though and there may be weird specific issues on a device by device basis, and youtube may break it and then you'll have to watch in a browser or something until revanced updates
For a cell-phone, I have no answer. I think Apple still blocks ad-blockers on their phones and tablets.
For PC, there's a lot. Avoid "Ad-Block Plus", they let bad-actors pay them to let ads through.
I use "uBlock Origin", you can find it in your browser's "Extensions" tab. Usually a puzzle-piece.
Only catch is it’s designed to remember nothing by default and disables some website functions for security, but whenever you need it there’s a menu option to open the page in a different browser that would remember your logins or allows those blocked functions, like regular Firefox.
A lot of the 'focus' apps are pretty stripped-down like that.
I used mutt/elm/pine for email for years, and Lynx/Links and a couple similar I can't remember the name of for BBSes and the internet when I finally got access around 2000/2001.😅
As others mentioned, Google Chrome is trying to kill ad-blockers because Google only makes the browser to gain market-share in order to scrape data/"telemetry", and sell that along with more targeted ads. https://doneforyou.com/how-google-selling-chrome-could-reshape-digital-marketing/
Same reason gmail (and other "Google Services") are free.
Sorry, I'm very "tangential" today. Brain keeps squirrelling-off.
Forgot to answer "are they hard to install?".
No. Click the 'hamburger' menu [the three stacked lines on the far right under the 'X' to close button. There should be an option for 'Extensions'. Click that. Search for --
-- "uBlock Origin", click it. Make sure it's what you're looking for. Should be a button to install it. Do so.
You should be done. You don't always have to restart the browser, but I do from habit when we used to have to. That's it. You can click the new icon to turn it off if you need.
I use an iPhone and downloaded the DuckDuckGo browser app. (They have a browser in addition to being a search engine!) That helps me avoid most ads (though not the pop-ups begging me to turn off my adblocker so they can track me 😒).
Looking-up recipes are the worst, on phones/tablets. Even allegedly "legit" sites fill-up the screen with ads, and fake 'close' Xs, and all are formatted where you have to scroll passed 4+ ad trigger sections that spawn more, or take-over the screen.
Oh God, yes. And then you get to the actual text of the recipe, and it’s three paragraphs, minimum, of rambling before the real recipe begins. A nightmare.
Apple has an extension section for add-ons to Safari in the app store, there are a few options there. I found adguard to be decent one. Aside from a couple of other browser apps people have mentioned.
I wish. I'm way too neurodivergent. Back in the days where changing channels meant clunking through the low-band and high-band dials on the TV, I'd get up and change channels when the commercials started, or leave the room.😅😂
On mobile, you can download Firefox and use Ublock Origin
On desktop, you could either use the Brave browser or Firefox with the Ublock Origin extension
Google Chrome's ad blockers don't work well as Google has worked hard to nerf them (they're an ads business)
Download and install Brave browser. It runs on Chrome as it's backbone so will feel completely familiar. It's great. Tons of built in privacy https://brave.com/
Brave is what I use for sites that don't like Firefox.
I don't fully trust it with all the crypto BS integrated in it, but ad-blockers seem to still work fine, so far. Every few updates, I have to go turn-off the Crypto crap settings that seem to get reset to 'on'.
Ehh it came out at the top of the crypto fad - I don't mind it. Privacy is the main feature they push, the crypto stuff is just more of a gimmick imo to get attention. It's made by a lot of the same people that created Firefox
I'm a grey-beard former unix[irix/hpux] sysadmin, and OpenBSD afficianado.😅 I don't like combining too many things into a tool like a browser. Also, Brave gives very stuttery youtube playback for me.
https://privacybadger.org/#Why-doesn%27t-Privacy-Badger-block-all-ads
For me, it's more a suspenders [bracers] with belt approach. It's more focused on tracking than ad-blocking, per their FAQ, and like they recommend, I run it along-side an ad-blocker.
Though, it *does* block a good amount of ads, because many use tracking.
in Firefox you click the extensions button, search for the name of the extension, could be "ad block" but I suggest uBlock Origin, and click add to firefox, it will do all the resr on its own in 1 second and ask you to allow it in private tabs too, whatever that is.
It's really easy
To answer your question you go to the Google store and search for adblocker. It’s a browser extension. You download it and it installs itself. You manage it through the hamburger (the three horizontal slashes) in the right corner. Or dots. Click manage extensions and you can remove it or turn it off
It seems that both old & new media pages have gotten super aggressive with constant popups hectoring me to subscribe, forcing me to watch intrusive ads, and finding other ways to pester and drive me away.
Save yourself. The backbone of this is Chrome so it will feel completely familiar and will make your internet experience much more enjoyable w/ the built-in ad blocking https://brave.com/
For the most part, yes. You can push that down a little with a few additional steps. I also use Firefox with Ublock Origin, Privacy Badger and Javascript Switcher. The caps below show the results of searching that headline on two different engines as well. Still, people shouldn't have to do this
To be clear, once a creator or site has earned the privilege, I white list them. This mostly applies to indie YT creators I watch a lot and a few DIY type educational sites.
This is why I stay on Firefox with NoScript.. years of toil to ensure the places I visit have the targeted ad spyware blocked from Google, Meta, Amazon etc..
And probably wastes the first 500 words giving a synopsis of the franchise and explaining the concept of a post-credits scene to the three readers who've never seen a movie made in the last 20 years.
I see this clickbait formula a lot in sports 'journalism'
"Manager gives update on player injury".
All I want to know is whether said player is still injured or not, and there's endless blather before the final reveal - still injured.
Welcome to my cooking blog! Here's a story about how my grand-grand-grand-auntie discovered her fantastic recipe of blueberry-cherry pie.
But first,let me...
Sounds a lot like like the AI slop youtube videos I always yell at my friend for clicking on that has to give a 20 minute long entire life story before talking about what the video title says it was supposed to be about.
Sadly, having done some entertainment writing/reporting, it's a requirement of the outlet. Nobody who writes that shit wants to be writing it, they make us do it and we're all freelancers who will get cut off from the $5-$30 we make per article if we don't.
Not for many, but:
- add a pihole or two two your home network
- set your network to use the pihole addrs for DNS
- block outbound port 53 on your home network
- allow only pihole on port 53
It’s a fun little game anyone can play: download the NoScript addon for your browser and just look at how much is there for a given site. If you’re at all technically inclined, play around with how many sources you have to allow for the page to function
It's always
"Does 'Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning" Have A Post-Credits Scene?",
never
"Is The 'Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning' Post-Credits Scene Doing Fine?"
for the folks, asking, i use uBlock origin and privacy badger for ad-block on the waterfox browser. i don't use chrome based browser, except for work where i have to do so, and i used brave, which has some pretty good privacy bits built in.
I'd love to like and share your post, but unfortunately, without Alt text on the screenshot it is unreadable for people who are dependent on screenreaders. #accessibility #inclusion
I can see it too if I turn my phone sideways and manually zoom in. Sometimes I have to download the image to zoom in enough.
It's so much better if the poster simply copies and pastes the text from the image into the alt text box when they post. Especially if they expect it to get read.
Depending on how you opt to do it, you can disable the ad blocker on a domain basis. Extensions like ublock are the best for this, and I think pihole can do it.
Third-party DNS servers I'm not so sure.
yup... fox is always free, yet anything to the left of right is usually limited or behind a paywall. corporate journalism has wrecked the world, and so has whatever Fox thinks it's doing.
if you get Ad nauseam it makes the ads register as if you clicked on them
it makes it so the ad networks can't build a profile on you based on how you interact with the ads because it just feeds them a shit ton of trash data so they can't profile you. wastes their money and the advertiser's
Inevitably, I'll visit a site I want to support. get the "we see you're using an adblocker" popup, tun off ad blocker... and then the site becomes completely unusable as I'm swamped with pinups that refresh when I scroll and auto playing video ads.
I even added Facebook/Twitter/TikTok domains to pihole so I don't get any of the tracking pixels. Then I used tailscale to create a private VPN that means I get pihole everywhere.
While this is true, businesses with no revenue will probably stop existing. Which is great if you don't like them, but there are some Internet services I'm really happy exist, so I'm willing to contribute (a small amount) to keep them existing.
There was plenty of amazing content online before all the slop ruined it. Alternative business models exist. If you *like* the as model, fair enough, go ahead. Many of us detest it, though!
whenever I surf on someone else's PC without Adblocker and outside my home's pihole I'm stunned by the mess I see all over the webpages, this is way out of control.
I don't trust *any* advertising source to protect me from malware embedded in the crap they serve up. They've had years to get this right and never bothered to.
Even if you ignore advertising and tracking, it feels like web developers can’t even scratch their arse without a framework these days. If you’re serving static content, all you need is HTML and CSS! By all means generate it from
markup and templates but that can be done ahead of time.
A yes let's go to the software directly made by Google because the competitor is also funded by Google. Firefox has APIs that make blocking trackers more effective, if you don't want Firefox directly, Mullvad commissioned a hardened version.
This has to use a lot more electricity on the server end, on the servers in-between, and on the user’s end, compared to a responsibly designed page, right?
Many years ago, I worked on one of the fastest loading international news sites. Of course, the competition got in contact and wanted to know how they could get theirs that fast.
The huge amount of inclusions in the header of every page added 18 seconds to a page load time! 😬
No one under forty sees any reason for a webserver to deliver already "hydrated" pages, where JS only provides interactivity beyond HTML spec. A form submit actually going to another URL is heresy.
They, not me, are the future and I hate it more than you do.
I use umatrix to block external stuff by default, but it can be really annoying how many 3rd party servers are necessary to function. I really hate having to let Google know I'm on so many sites because of their captcha.
I tried to read a Forbes article earlier today, and it was itself an impossible mission navigating all the pop ups and redirects. My attempt ended before I got to the end of the cursed thing with a 404 screen
Forbes has turned into clickbait garbage. My phone's news app loves to load their "Government warns all Windows users to turn off their machines after Tuesday!" type articles about security patches. Why are they this bad?
Forbes have over 2,500 contributors, who write articles directly on https://Forbes.com. Contributors are paid based on the traffic their articles generate.
The “compost heap” model of editorial control, it seems.
They’ve put a bunch of old rubbish out to see if something useful emerges eventually. Composting probably has more evidence of success though, you’re right.
You can change your DNS on Android in about 15 seconds and 90% of this crap will get blocked. Here is one filter resource. https://docs.controld.com/docs/free-dns
Honestly it’s disappointing that it even answers the question. I prefer four paragraphs of meandering “many people are wondering about post-credits scenes…”
Well, no, they need you to scroll down first, so it's more like "Many people are flocking to see the new Mission Impossible, starring Tom Cruise. It has left many people wondering if there is some kind of teaser or post-credit stinger, as is common.
[linebreak]
[ad]
[linebreak]
No."
I'd be curious if its possible to prompt a google search such that it gives you one of their AI summaries of this article to see if thats slower, uses more cookies/data, or not.
Forbes used to be decent if you wanted financial news, now they just let any ol' sucker contribute to it. How long before someone on that site writes an article debunking 'charlie brown had hoes'
For a while the pay to publish stuff was labeled like “Forbes contributor network” to distinguish from the stuff written by professional journalists. No idea if they still add the label or if there are any reported articles that the paying contributors need to be distinguished from anymore
Google (and their AdSense product) enshittified the internet so they could embed AI into their search, by making an AI model to tell you "no," without having to go to Forbes in the first place.
Pay for a VPN and implement DNS blocking technology on all your devices.
Google began the enshittification around 2009. I've been trying to warn people literally since I was 17 and I've only ever been mocked and told "learn how to use google".
I hate this. I hate that it was so obvious and nobody cared.
It's what "monetization" is and Google really went hard in 2008 with DoubleClick and AdSense investments. It was stupid for anyone to say anything against you because it was what Google was doing AND telling investors.
I like to think it half had to do with my age. Thing is, though, is I've been online since 1997. I may not have been around before the eternal September, but I still saw the transition from web 1.0 to 2.0, witnessed everything. It felt awful, not being taken seriously.
It sounds like ignorance on the part of the people saying that. I am an old guy now at 41, but it was more than obvious at the time to anyone in the industry -- and I am, and have been since 2000.
I never used Forbes, at least outside of a random click on a link that leads to them.
The problem with block ads on all sites is that it will eventually lead to the subscription model for every site that is not a government site or in some other way is supported by a product.
Comments
...and then the marketing department gets their hands on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h9wStdPkQY
My Grandkids:
I've even been blocking all cookies outside a whitelist (which is probably an unreasonable hassle)
If a website breaks because it couldn't load some script, I often decide that I actually didn't care
Final Destination
Lilo & Stitch
Mission: Impossible
“I don’t think it’s out yet...”
“It came out in 1977!!” 🤨
in combo with uBlock.. very helpful..
Is a refreshing change for news.
See also: the common search "Why is my internet or this site so slow?"
See also: Why I've [and everyone even a little 'security-conscious' has] installed an ad-blocker on every computer I've owned in the last 26 years.
See also: "Malvertising"
See also: Enshittification 😂
https://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm
Go to the add on that is disabled and has a grey button on Chrome Extensions, like eg “Enhancer For YouTube”
Right-click and inspect, use the inspector to find the button, expand that div and change the “DISABLED” flag to “ENABLED”
The button is now active & you can install it
There's a lot of drama around the Manifest V2 to V3 update that gets overblown by fanboys and detractors, alike.
It's a lot of topics, and selection is based-on trust.
Google's broken a lot of people's trust in them.
It's some getting used to, so I made one big change a week.
There are a few browsers being recommended right now and I think it's just going to come down to preference. Firefox has a Mullvad VPN plugin I can use together or separately from Mullvad proper. There is also Librewolf and Brave.
Stupid questions from a non-tech person:
Where does one get an ad-blocker, and are they hard to install?
Bookmarking it!
For PC, there's a lot. Avoid "Ad-Block Plus", they let bad-actors pay them to let ads through.
I use "uBlock Origin", you can find it in your browser's "Extensions" tab. Usually a puzzle-piece.
I used mutt/elm/pine for email for years, and Lynx/Links and a couple similar I can't remember the name of for BBSes and the internet when I finally got access around 2000/2001.😅
https://doneforyou.com/how-google-selling-chrome-could-reshape-digital-marketing/
Same reason gmail (and other "Google Services") are free.
Forgot to answer "are they hard to install?".
No. Click the 'hamburger' menu [the three stacked lines on the far right under the 'X' to close button. There should be an option for 'Extensions'. Click that. Search for --
You should be done. You don't always have to restart the browser, but I do from habit when we used to have to. That's it. You can click the new icon to turn it off if you need.
Looking-up recipes are the worst, on phones/tablets. Even allegedly "legit" sites fill-up the screen with ads, and fake 'close' Xs, and all are formatted where you have to scroll passed 4+ ad trigger sections that spawn more, or take-over the screen.
And don’t use google as your search engine. Another plug for DuckDuckGo
Barring trolling, obviously.
They're just infuriating 99.9% of the time.
On desktop, you could either use the Brave browser or Firefox with the Ublock Origin extension
Google Chrome's ad blockers don't work well as Google has worked hard to nerf them (they're an ads business)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
https://brave.com/
I don't fully trust it with all the crypto BS integrated in it, but ad-blockers seem to still work fine, so far. Every few updates, I have to go turn-off the Crypto crap settings that seem to get reset to 'on'.
Not every update, though.
One more potential risk for ingress/egress.
I'm a grey-beard former unix[irix/hpux] sysadmin, and OpenBSD afficianado.😅 I don't like combining too many things into a tool like a browser. Also, Brave gives very stuttery youtube playback for me.
https://privacybadger.org/
Works very well
For me, it's more a suspenders [bracers] with belt approach. It's more focused on tracking than ad-blocking, per their FAQ, and like they recommend, I run it along-side an ad-blocker.
Though, it *does* block a good amount of ads, because many use tracking.
It's really easy
https://brave.com/
And a data-saver as well.
https://pi-hole.net/
"Manager gives update on player injury".
All I want to know is whether said player is still injured or not, and there's endless blather before the final reveal - still injured.
It's omnipresent and I 𝙡𝙤𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚 it
But first,let me...
We're supposed to put all the relevant content in the first 2 paragraphs, and everything else is supposed to be padding. Not the opposite.
- add a pihole or two two your home network
- set your network to use the pihole addrs for DNS
- block outbound port 53 on your home network
- allow only pihole on port 53
we can finally ask jeeves and it's awful
"Does 'Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning" Have A Post-Credits Scene?",
never
"Is The 'Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning' Post-Credits Scene Doing Fine?"
It's so much better if the poster simply copies and pastes the text from the image into the alt text box when they post. Especially if they expect it to get read.
But this sort of site has finally changed my mind.
Third-party DNS servers I'm not so sure.
uBlock, as you say, does better at this granular blocking but I've found it seems to trigger more "you have an ad blocker, get wrecked" popups.
The ad networks are out of control. And I know they hardly pay the publishers anything, but the publishers don't have a better idea.
(But I feel bad when it's like, a forum for SDR software or something)
it makes it so the ad networks can't build a profile on you based on how you interact with the ads because it just feeds them a shit ton of trash data so they can't profile you. wastes their money and the advertiser's
All the YouTube creators I follow are worth watching the ads for.
I don't mind a banner ad on forums/wikis if it covers the server costs.
To each his own, but I don't have the sort of spare income to pay separately for each website I visit.
markup and templates but that can be done ahead of time.
(And no, Poe's Law doesn't apply to my comment, I'm quite sincere.🙂)
The huge amount of inclusions in the header of every page added 18 seconds to a page load time! 😬
Now I've left the site, all those cookies are gone, too.
It really is ridiculous how convoluted sites are these days, especially with all those individual js files. All that, just to spy on people!
Recipe/guide for whatever the user is looking for at the top.
Longer writeup underneath.
People who care will stick around for the stuff after the recipe.
People who dont care will not instantly click off.
Block it all.
No ads
No scripts, barely any images.
I use reader mode by default on some websites from Firefox. It's a godsend
They, not me, are the future and I hate it more than you do.
Meta, amazon, google, all can track you ALL DAY LONG, to everywhere you've been online during the day, down to even where inside a webpage you went.
(ublock origin specifically)
Personally I'd very much like to be told the exact names of the people catering to the workers that assembled my car...
'Credits' are absurd and should not exist at all 🤨.
Different world or parallel universe?
The “compost heap” model of editorial control, it seems.
I also use 1Blocker for additional ad-and annoyance-blocking.
https://docs.controld.com/docs/free-dns
"why movies have post credit scenes?"
Who is a post credit scene?
"Websites aren't broken by default, they are functional, high-performing, and accessible. You break them."
[linebreak]
[ad]
[linebreak]
No."
Not a single suspicious thing at all.
Hey … how many of those IPs are in China?
And use Duck Duck Go to block all the trackers and cookies.
Pay for a VPN and implement DNS blocking technology on all your devices.
I hate this. I hate that it was so obvious and nobody cared.
That's why I now use a paid search engine, that doesn't need to show me ads or results filled with ads 👌.
"The Age of PageRank is Over"
https://blog.kagi.com/age-pagerank-over
The problem with block ads on all sites is that it will eventually lead to the subscription model for every site that is not a government site or in some other way is supported by a product.