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duncandb

macrumors member
Mar 3, 2023
32
29
I have never installed ad-blocking tools, just went with the privacy features that web browsers like Safari or Firefox have built-in, and have always found the web very usable and not particularly inundated or disruptive.
 
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duncandb

macrumors member
Mar 3, 2023
32
29
The whole model is broken. I'm not sure what needs to be done to fix it. Maybe we just need to nuke the while thing and start over.

I am willing to pay for content that I find valuable, but it seems like the data shows that I'm in the minority, and therefore we continue the slide into the internet becoming more and more worthless.
What are examples of web content that you pay for right now? Not counting any video/music/etc streaming services.
 

HDFan

Contributor
Jun 30, 2007
6,644
2,886
Ads are "fine".

You are much more tolerant than I am. One of the things AT&T did when destroying DirectTV was to replace the screensaver with ads for Pay Per View movies. Dropped it.

Time is precious. Why should women have to watch commercials for men specific products, or visa versa? Or baby products when the kids are gone? Or all of those pharmaceutical ads for diseases you don't have? That's what my doctor is for.
 

dmr727

macrumors G4
Dec 29, 2007
10,428
5,175
NYC
What are examples of web content that you pay for right now? Not counting any video/music/etc streaming services.

I pay for the NY Times (which annoyingly began hitting even its subscribers with ads) and am a subscriber at Ars Technica. I also regularly send money to NPR and Wikipedia. I pay to have the ads removed here (there used to be a much more active private community, but these days it's generally about removal of the ads). It all adds up to about $10/month. But I realize it's ultimately a losing battle.
 
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Queen6

macrumors G4
I pay for the NY Times (which annoyingly began hitting even its subscribers with ads) and am a subscriber at Ars Technica. I also regularly send money to NPR and Wikipedia. I pay to have the ads removed here (there used to be a much more active private community, but these days it's generally about removal of the ads). It all adds up to about $10/month. But I realize it's ultimately a losing battle.
If I pay and still see ad's I cancel and move on. Sooner people wake up the better, problem being most are comatose to such matters and meekly accept whatever is dished out to them...

Q-6
 
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dmr727

macrumors G4
Dec 29, 2007
10,428
5,175
NYC
If I pay and still see ad's I cancel and move on. Sooner people wake up the better, problem being most are comatose to such matters and meekly accept whatever is dished out to them...

Q-6

Yeah, I almost rage-quit the NYT right then and there when I first saw ads in the app. Part of the issue is that I'm paying for my in-laws to have it delivered to their house, which is even more upsetting because I'm paying these guys $500/year instead of the $50 I'd be paying for digital only. I absolutely agree with you in principle, but I think my situation illustrates that today's model is unsustainable. I don't think NYT is showing me ads to further line their pockets - I think they're in crisis mode.

Again, I don't know what the answer is. I'd pay more for an ad-free digital tier, but I'm not sure how much more, and I don't think today's market can sustain what it takes to employ actual journalists on purely an ad-free basis, and of course the ad-supported side just continues its slide into more obnoxiousness. It'd be interesting to know the financials behind MR - people talk about how obnoxious the ads and tracking are here (I pay the $25 to avoid it), and this is a very active site. I'd be surprised if arn is making much money at all once everyone is getting paid. If that's true it just goes to show that it's impossible to 'do it right' and still make any money, which is a shame.
 
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con2apple

macrumors newbie
Mar 25, 2024
22
93
Germany
I would like to recommend 1Blocker.
Yes, it is a small subscription and yes, it is only for Apple devices.

But it is an all in one. With a Firewall to block In-App-Trackers and a full-YouTube-Adblocker. And no problems with Apples private relay.

Using it for years.
 

progx

macrumors 6502a
Oct 3, 2003
776
883
Pennsylvania
I use BitDefender on my Mac, PC, iPhone and iPad, its TrafficLight plugins on Safari and Chrome really keeps you locked down.
 

throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
8,893
7,054
Perth, Western Australia
You are much more tolerant than I am. One of the things AT&T did when destroying DirectTV was to replace the screensaver with ads for Pay Per View movies. Dropped it.

Time is precious. Why should women have to watch commercials for men specific products, or visa versa? Or baby products when the kids are gone? Or all of those pharmaceutical ads for diseases you don't have? That's what my doctor is for.

You need to take the rest of my reply into context.

By "fine" I mean I can deal with them/ignore them, accept them as a cost of free content hosting.

I don't like it but as someone who's seen the costs of hosting and bandwidth provision I can accept that ads are needed for free content.

But when they start stealing information, tracking me, being obnoxious with spawning pop-overs, pop under windows, etc. (i.e., today's reality) then sorry... I'm blocking it. And I do run ad blockers both on my edge firewall and my browsers.
 
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Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,653
4,055
New Zealand
Good grief, my ad blocker has stopped working on YouTube and it seems to be worse than free-to-air TV at this point!

- A 2-minute ad for what appeared to be a phone game
- A 15-second ad for dairy-free chocolate
- A 70-second ad for some sort of writing tablet.

That's a total of 3:25 before I could actually watch the video I wanted. I'm not interested in any of those products, and none of the ads were skippable. At least with TV the ads are short and have the potential of keeping your attention, but spending more than a minute slogging through the features of the game and tablet was enough to bore me silly.
 

throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
8,893
7,054
Perth, Western Australia
Good grief, my ad blocker has stopped working on YouTube and it seems to be worse than free-to-air TV at this point!
Much as I hate google, I eventually paid for it.

I realised I spend more time watching YouTube both for work related educational content and hobbies/entertainment than I do Netflix, appletv, disney+, etc. - and I pay for them.

So I now pay for YouTube.
 
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Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
19,646
22,156
Singapore
Much as I hate google, I eventually paid for it.

I realised I spend more time watching YouTube both for work related educational content and hobbies/entertainment than I do Netflix, appletv, disney+, etc. - and I pay for them.

So I now pay for YouTube.
Same. I have stopped subscribing to Netflix, disney+ and Apple One and now pay only for YouTube premium. 😛
 
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boswald

macrumors 65816
Jul 21, 2016
1,311
2,186
Florida
1Blocker is fantastic. Easy to customize. Good Privacy features.
Would you say it's better than Wipr? I feel like Wipr is like an "Apple approach" as in "set-it-and-forget-it" type of thing, but there's no information anywhere about which lists it uses. I'm assuming it's a variant of EasyList, but who knows?
 

boswald

macrumors 65816
Jul 21, 2016
1,311
2,186
Florida
I would like to recommend 1Blocker.
Yes, it is a small subscription and yes, it is only for Apple devices.

But it is an all in one. With a Firewall to block In-App-Trackers and a full-YouTube-Adblocker. And no problems with Apples private relay.

Using it for years.
I want to use Private Relay but it NEVER works. Every network I join, even cellular, says "not supported". I don't know what's going on. I guess it could be NextDNS, but it's not set to block any Apple services.
 

iStorm

macrumors 68000
Sep 18, 2012
1,773
2,207
Good grief, my ad blocker has stopped working on YouTube and it seems to be worse than free-to-air TV at this point!

- A 2-minute ad for what appeared to be a phone game
- A 15-second ad for dairy-free chocolate
- A 70-second ad for some sort of writing tablet.

That's a total of 3:25 before I could actually watch the video I wanted. I'm not interested in any of those products, and none of the ads were skippable. At least with TV the ads are short and have the potential of keeping your attention, but spending more than a minute slogging through the features of the game and tablet was enough to bore me silly.
This happened on my iPad when a link opened up a YouTube video in Safari...I couldn't skip the ad. I noticed I could skip the ad after five seconds if I turned off content blockers (from the address bar). It was the same ad both times too.

I tried this a few more times with other videos/ads and had the same results. Looks like YouTube is now making the ads non-skippable if they detect you're using an ad blocker.
 
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