“How can you say something like that? Ads keep websites free to use and we need ads to get informed about things!”
Technically somewhat true. Advertising can (or could) be useful to inform people about your business or your (new) products. The problem is: They have gone too far. Ads are everywhere. And they are – for the most – not factual information but often misleading and made by professionals just to grab attention.¹ There is only one direction: Louder, more dazzling, bigger, more aggressive!
WILL YOU PAY ATTENTION TO ME?!?! I AM AN IMPORTANT, FANCY AD!!!
Because advertising has become really annoying I started avoiding any form of ads.
Watching classic TV? Nah. Go away. Haven’t seen or heard any commercials for years since I stopped watching TV more than a decade ago.
Listening to the radio? Only in the car for two minutes to hear if there is a traffic jam where I want to drive.
Newspapers and magazines? I don’t buy them for the most. In the past I bought MAD (guess what: It was expensive and had no ads) and I buy Desinfec’t (C’T special once a year with license for four anti-virus engines on a live Ubuntu by Heise Verlag). That one is about €10 and the very small magazine has almost no ads.
Even waiting for the bus can become a major headache. Each bus stop in the city has some huge posters.
=========
Now to the most problematic topic: Online advertising. I hate it with passion. It is more than static images or video or audio. It is active. It has tracking. Tries to target people. (Google) Analytics. Statistics. Argh! How should I be convinced to buy anything – from a stalker? Malvertising anyone? Just leave me alone!
This is my computer. My CPU. My battery and my electricity bill. Stop wasting my compute power with aggressive animation. Stop wasting bandwidth with videos. Stop stalking. Stop fingerprinting. Stop being obtrusive. Just stop being an a..hole! I will not look at your stuff just because you get even more importunate.
Again: They have gone too far, too aggressive, too invasive, much of a pain. So I chose to block them all. Collective punishment. It will wrongly hurt those who were/are moderate with their campaigns. Maybe I’ll miss something which would indeed be of interest for me. Send your thanks to those who are obtrusive. Whenever I think about this topic, I hear the song from this one ingenious Simpson Halloween episode (with the giant ad characters wrecking the town) in my head. Ads are indeed monsters and they will lose their power when ignored.
“Turn on Javascript and turn off your adblocker to use this website.” How about “NO!”? I’ll just leave. I will rather pay with money for an online service than with my personal data/privacy and my time and my nerves! The Pi-hole will stay. So will uMatrix and uBlock Origin.
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I’ll stop here and rather let this be a rant than providing loads of arguments for my point of view that nobody will read anyway.
View attachment 262661
View attachment 262662
View attachment 262766
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¹ What those professionals often seem to forget is, that grabbing attention is only one part of the way to success. If you grabbed my attention with aggressive colors and some stupid slogan that is burned into the brain after seeing or hearing it once, I can tell you one thing: I will never be your customer!
Technically somewhat true. Advertising can (or could) be useful to inform people about your business or your (new) products. The problem is: They have gone too far. Ads are everywhere. And they are – for the most – not factual information but often misleading and made by professionals just to grab attention.¹ There is only one direction: Louder, more dazzling, bigger, more aggressive!
WILL YOU PAY ATTENTION TO ME?!?! I AM AN IMPORTANT, FANCY AD!!!
Because advertising has become really annoying I started avoiding any form of ads.
Watching classic TV? Nah. Go away. Haven’t seen or heard any commercials for years since I stopped watching TV more than a decade ago.
Listening to the radio? Only in the car for two minutes to hear if there is a traffic jam where I want to drive.
Newspapers and magazines? I don’t buy them for the most. In the past I bought MAD (guess what: It was expensive and had no ads) and I buy Desinfec’t (C’T special once a year with license for four anti-virus engines on a live Ubuntu by Heise Verlag). That one is about €10 and the very small magazine has almost no ads.
Even waiting for the bus can become a major headache. Each bus stop in the city has some huge posters.
=========
Now to the most problematic topic: Online advertising. I hate it with passion. It is more than static images or video or audio. It is active. It has tracking. Tries to target people. (Google) Analytics. Statistics. Argh! How should I be convinced to buy anything – from a stalker? Malvertising anyone? Just leave me alone!
This is my computer. My CPU. My battery and my electricity bill. Stop wasting my compute power with aggressive animation. Stop wasting bandwidth with videos. Stop stalking. Stop fingerprinting. Stop being obtrusive. Just stop being an a..hole! I will not look at your stuff just because you get even more importunate.
Again: They have gone too far, too aggressive, too invasive, much of a pain. So I chose to block them all. Collective punishment. It will wrongly hurt those who were/are moderate with their campaigns. Maybe I’ll miss something which would indeed be of interest for me. Send your thanks to those who are obtrusive. Whenever I think about this topic, I hear the song from this one ingenious Simpson Halloween episode (with the giant ad characters wrecking the town) in my head. Ads are indeed monsters and they will lose their power when ignored.
“Turn on Javascript and turn off your adblocker to use this website.” How about “NO!”? I’ll just leave. I will rather pay with money for an online service than with my personal data/privacy and my time and my nerves! The Pi-hole will stay. So will uMatrix and uBlock Origin.
===========
I’ll stop here and rather let this be a rant than providing loads of arguments for my point of view that nobody will read anyway.
View attachment 262661
View attachment 262662
View attachment 262766
_________________
¹ What those professionals often seem to forget is, that grabbing attention is only one part of the way to success. If you grabbed my attention with aggressive colors and some stupid slogan that is burned into the brain after seeing or hearing it once, I can tell you one thing: I will never be your customer!
