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Author Topic: Ad Blockers - A Force for Good?  (Read 13481 times)

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Geek-9pm


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Re: Ad Blockers - A Force for Good?
« Reply #15 on: February 23, 2017, 09:37:19 AM »
Quote
I feel that the majority of people I know who browse the internet dont use adblockers and so there is still a good amount of people visiting the sites.
Me too. My problem is that the ads come up and cover part of what I am reading. So I tell Firefox to show be the simple text and images and not the fancy stuff.

Lorraine walsh



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    Re: Ad Blockers - A Force for Good?
    « Reply #16 on: February 24, 2017, 02:54:33 AM »
    you are right about the ad not wasting precious moments of your life. If it would be good if they are relevant to you but the problem with this concept is that they will need to invade your privacy and collect information about you to tailor ads for you and give you what is relevant and useful for you

    DaveLembke



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    Re: Ad Blockers - A Force for Good?
    « Reply #17 on: February 24, 2017, 08:01:47 AM »
    Quote
    you are right about the ad not wasting precious moments of your life. If it would be good if they are relevant to you but the problem with this concept is that they will need to invade your privacy and collect information about you to tailor ads for you and give you what is relevant and useful for you

    If voluntary then its not invading... if I had a choice to tell them what i would like to see vs what i dont want to see to keep a profile for me, it would be beneficial for both me the consumer and them the marketer. However I can also understand why they would want to sometimes throw stuff that doesnt apply out there to you to see what will stick. Its sort of like how when you go to a store and your in there for 1 thing and before you exit the store you check out with more than 1 item, because they place things advertising to your brain subliminally before you exit the store such as junk food items in which i picked up little debbies valentine heart cakes for $1.79 that I otherwise would not have bought, but it struck my sweet tooth part of my brain in which like pavlov I had to have that sugary treat and started to salvate wanting one so I bought it. If I didnt have  in my profile with them food items to be advertised, but they show an advertisement for a juicy steak and they have it around lunch or dinner to where they know your ( time zone vs location ) and when to target you for food advertisments, you might make me go to the outback steakhouse for $5.00 off a juicy BBQ steak and shrimp combo if there was a coupon with that to give me the nudge to go theer vs the nudge to go buy my own steak and cook it myself that doesnt benefit the advertiser because the local food store is getting the business instead. So if they had this ability to refine it to people voluntarily willing to have a profile created so its not invasion of privacy and you dont need to install any crap on your computer to print out coupons like coupons.com but can simply click the ad and print off a coupon with ease, then I would welcome ads and shut off my adblock more often.

    Lorraine walsh



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      Re: Ad Blockers - A Force for Good?
      « Reply #18 on: February 26, 2017, 10:45:12 PM »
      See there is a good kind of ads like you mentioned but I am more worried about the ads that truly invade your privacy. There was a woman in Tampa whose sexuality was outed at her workplace when she received ads for gay cruises on her social media. She hadn't told anyone and was embarrassed at her workplace. What I am trying to say is that there should be a fine line between doing what you said and this

      BC_Programmer


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      Re: Ad Blockers - A Force for Good?
      « Reply #19 on: February 26, 2017, 11:11:27 PM »
      I don't like the idea of being a "product" period, but at least wide-net ads aren't harvestiing or benefiting from the harvesting of personal information.

      Sure- with targeted ads I'd see stuff I might actually use- Visual Studio stuff, Database stuff, programming tools, etc. But if I prefer to be the one who finds it because I explicitly am looking for it, Not effectively being asked "can you use this?" as ads both implicitly ask and try to convince you the answer is yes.

      If that was to mean I'd see the occasional ad for feminine hygiene products or Those stupid hats people put on those little terrier dogs, then I'd be fine with that, but they don't, instead ad networks gather information, profile where you go, and make use of the websites that place ads on their pages to do so. Google analytics and adsense are damned near everywhere so Google's ad network tracks bloody well everything, that data is collated and used to sell ad services to advertisers based on how well it can be exploited to find people who are likely to be interested in their product.

      The idea isn't to show people things they want or need, the idea is to show people things that they are likely to buy. Elderly people are often shown advertisements for scams, for example. They don't care about the potential customer- only that they are a potential customer.

      I can't eliminate the data ad networks receive but I can definitely limit it with tools like adblock, and if that violates the implicit moral contract in place for viewing content, then I don't care anymore.
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      EricA.



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      Re: Ad Blockers - A Force for Good?
      « Reply #20 on: February 27, 2017, 11:45:00 AM »
      I don't like the idea of being a "product" period, but at least wide-net ads aren't harvestiing or benefiting from the harvesting of personal information.

      Honestly I'd rather this. If the data they collect shows that I react better to funny ads about electronics then they are going to show funny ads about electronics. Which is good because I do like funny ads about electronics. What really upsets me is when I go to watch a YouTube video on my cellphone and I get an ad for a new brand of nail polish remover that I cant skip, and I HAVE to watch it to get to what I really wanted. The only reason I use an Ad block is not because it shows me ads for things I don't want to see but it shows me ads that block what I really want to do. Ads that reside in the sides of websites don't bother me, I look at them see if its something i like if yes click on it if no literally look away. But that same website will bring a popup ad up and maybe an auto-play video ad and i'm 100% leaving every time.
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      Nipp



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        Re: Ad Blockers - A Force for Good?
        « Reply #21 on: April 22, 2017, 12:28:29 PM »
        I do use an adblocker. You can call me a selfish beast but I don't really care what websites get their income from. If it is necessary I can donate money (like in Wiki's case) but I don't want to be bothered by annoying banners and popups. We are spoiled by choice, so if a website contains too many ads I simply look for a similar one but without "rubbish".

        Rondy



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          Re: Ad Blockers - A Force for Good?
          « Reply #22 on: April 24, 2017, 11:02:31 AM »
          If you keep your Ad Block plus enabled at all times and a site requests you to disable it. Just click on the Ad block logo top right and click on Disable on this site and you shouldn't be bothered again.

          patio

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          Re: Ad Blockers - A Force for Good?
          « Reply #23 on: April 24, 2017, 02:54:03 PM »
          Whitelisting is not the answer...you are basically saying "OK give me ads 'cause i love yer site"...
          " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

          DaveLembke



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          Re: Ad Blockers - A Force for Good?
          « Reply #24 on: May 25, 2017, 01:33:52 PM »
          Just wanted to add to this .... after conversation with nathan in the Dons Bar & Grill on this subject and finding out that ad-blockers hurt ComputerHopes funding to operate freely, so if anyone is using them here, please consider allowing www.computerhope.com into whitelist of ad-blocker.  :)

          patio

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          Re: Ad Blockers - A Force for Good?
          « Reply #25 on: May 25, 2017, 03:13:47 PM »
          Always have... ;)
          " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "