Ad Blocker, yes or no?
 

Been kicked off a forum for using an ad blocker, see the pop-ups all the time "Please turn off your ad blocker"
And I think the YouTube guys get more pay for their work if you watch the ads. I had two ad blocker programs that did a great job (although I blame one of them for the pop-ups I was getting).

But the ads are so freaking annoying! So what do you think? Be a good Capitalist and leave the ad blockers off or install and have more enjoyable online time?

Yes, at the network level by spoofing DNS on my home LAN.

If you want to serve me an ad, use YOUR bandwidth and YOUR server to send it, same as YOUR content I want to view. Also block a lot of the javascript CDNs etc for the same reason, as well as google analytics.

Happily using one.

THe way I see it, the more advertising a site relies on, the more biased its information. If you won't serve me content without ads, then I'm not interested in it, or can find it elswhere.

I too old school to keep up...I just run with JavaScript disabled 99.99% of the time....turn JS back on when I need to....and just avoid all the bs and remain stoopidly content with all that I miss out on....works fer me ;)

T-Rex

yep..I use adblocker. If I can't see a site because of it, I just move on. Same reason I never click on something linked to facebook or twitter...let the Zuck anal probe somebody else.

Absolutely. I use Firefox for 99.999% of my browsing. I use uBlock Origin (ad blocker) and NoScript (java script killer/tool). I have very few problems.

I use Opera as my browser with "Block ads" turned on 100% of the time. I support our host by buying parts for my cars.

Like others have posted if a site wont let me see their content without disabling add block I just close that page and move on.

I always use an Adblocker!

uBlock Origin and Ghostery here. I do turn uBlock off for places like Pelican, but 99.9999% of the time Ghostery stays on.

Any site that uses sound or auto playing videos gets blocked or banned.

I use AdBlock - awesome.
If there is a website not letting me, too bad, I won't disable.
I just move on to other sites..

Note: Its disabled for online banking

Block 'em all and let dog sort 'em out

Using Ghostery and I block everything. On my phone I use Ghostery + NoScript. Same as others have said - if a site hides their content due to AdBlocker I move on.

If I am blocked for using an ad blocker I just go elsewhere. You aren't that special that I can't find what I need somewhere else bubye. SmileWavy

I use Adblocker for Youtube, Disconnect (anti-tracking), uBlock Origin for Firefox and, I shut off the auto-play function in Firefox for videos. Some website insist that every link shows you a vid and its annoying unless you have the setting to have it not autorun. No extra software needed, just a setting change with Firefox.

Had an ad blocker and had problems that I didn't need. The workaround is just too much compared to the ads. I have a back door to a newspaper subscription that ran out and I can keep reading as long as I do not block the pop ups. Worth it to me.

+1 for Adblock. It works.

I went scorched earth with ad-blocking..

Had used U-Block and others but the my inner geek became interested in...

Pi-hole® Network-wide Ad Blocking

Also stopped using Firefox or Chrome... and now use Brave... which is a Chrome based browser with in built ad blocking..

With my set up some sites are broken, or you still see the space where the add was supposed to be, and its blank..


It doesn't block adds on YouTube though... supposedly they are served in a different way.. which I don't understand...

If you you have a Raspberry laying around you can make a Pi-hole and have it configured in less than an hour..

I use AdGuard Antibanner he is still one of the popular ad blockers and well known in work.

I posted this somewhere else, but didn't search that hard for it. I'd heard enough and happened upon a page talking about setting up pi-hole to run on a NAS drive. I was thinking about getting a Raspberry Pi, but then thought that if I've already got a server sitting around that can do the work, I don't need to buy another server.

I have a Synology NAS (network attached storage) as a way to keep files in a central location which also acts as a backup to the files that are on our individual PCs. I also have an ext hdd that I can back the NAS up to.

Anyway, most NAS systems are just a small specialized Linux server with a bunch of hard drives. Most of these things also have various "apps" that you can install to do various things besides just store files.

In about 10-15 mins, I was able to watch a youtube video and get pi-hole installed and running on my NAS. I've actually got "Docker" installed on my NAS and then Pi-Hole is running in Docker. (kind of like a super small portable virtual machine app)

Pi-Hole can/will block adds (and porn if you want) for every device on the network in your family.

You can even set it up with a vpn to your home network to use it anywhere if that's your thing.

I get beotched at constantly for not accepting cookies.
Nope, not gonna do it. See ya don't wanna be ya.

effem.

Thanks for bringing this conversation back. I'm investigating running Pie-Hole with Alt-F on my DNS 323 now. I have two - one for file backups of my computers, another for shared media. The former isn't getting much use right now.

Wow, what a conundrum this is.

I've had great success with ad blockers but, when I click an embedded youtube video in PP threads I get nailed for an ad. Has anyone got a suggestion on how to block those ads other than opening up youtube on a separate tab each time?

you weren't on a forum

you were on an ad server that wants you to think it is a forum

It made too much sense to me to get it running on the "server" that I already had sitting there powered on 24x7 than it did to buy another appliance (regardless of how small or how curious) and have something else sitting around.

Use ad blocker plus, little snitch (then configure to block requests from anything outside of the domain you’re actually trying to visit) and Stop the Madness plug-in on safari. Life is good. Some sites require a little tweaking to display right but all ads, pop-ups, ding-dings and forced manual password entries are gone. Obviously delete cookies a lot (and limit to the minimum needed on sites that you actually go to) and things are pretty nice. Also block Google anything - especially analytics.

It’s a shame that one needs to employ all these sorts of countermeasures but it’s worth it IMO.