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The frequency and duration of ad breaks is beginning to make me feel like I’m in that black mirror episode where they had to pay to stop ads from constantly playing. (kbin.social)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I definitely consume too much dystopian content to be a fair dystopian barometer, but the sheer amount of ads being pushed my way is starting to make me feel legitimately anxious. It feels like a techno-dystopia where all of the neat and artistic elements have been extracted and then ground into dust for our corporate overlords. Even the ‘regular’ people are just trying to sell themselves. The streamers, the funny videos, the pet videos, the porn, the reposts of all of those, so much of it is just monetizing my attention.

Do ads even influence people that much? Does anyone even eat Church’s Chicken?! Do people consider switching their car insurance? I though the postmoderns were jumping the gun a little with the pictures they painted of a future with corporate logos and other advertisements spread across every visible surface, but now I have to see 5 ads and a cookie consent pop up to look up a quick definition. Watching a friend’s youtube video? 30 seconds of rapidfire ads from 15 brands. It’s starting to feel absurd. Are we going to be okay?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I’m sure you know about Brave being called out here lately so I just want to give you some iOS alternatives so you can stop using Brave (if you care enough, of course)

AdGuard (I paid for the lifetime, $12 I think) and it works great. Just like having uBlock on Firefox, but in safari so I still get all the integration that safari offers on your iOS device.

Dark reader is on the App Store.

When it comes to YouTube, I sideload a YouTube app with all the essentials installed using Sideloadly.

The rest is up to you.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

I appreciate the well thought out and articulated response.

The thing is it's not like I'm blindly using Brave; I've tried to dig into these things with Brave which users have brought up, the biggest complaints usually being "forced" cryptostuff (I had mine on first, and now off...), affiliate links and Brendan Eich being an anti lgbt asshole, etc. Then I went down the same hole with Mozilla; their asshole execs laying off people and then giving themselves bonuses, making deals with Google, etc.

Richard Stallmans an asshole too, should I stop using GNU? The world is a fucked up place and people are the most fucked up of all and pitting my morals against pragmatism sometimes only gets me so and so far.

I'd love to get behind some sort of new open-source alternative; I'm hoping we get a viable new thing ASAP, waiting for someone to pull a Linus and create something that truly enables me to consume the web in a manner that I can be personally satisfied with.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Unfortunately, AdGuard for iOS does not block ads in Safari as promised, at least not with the free tier (I double checked the instructions and toggled on all AdGuard related features in Settings). ~~Comparing it to uBlock in Firefox is laughable.~~

For example, I searched for lasagna recipes, still saw ads in search results on DDG. Clicked a link to allrecipes.com, and bam—multiple banner ads embedded in the page before I can even read the actual recipe, plus another one docked to the bottom of my screen. Fail.

EDIT: Clarified that I’m referring to the free tier of Ad Guard, which I think is fair to say represents most users’ experience with it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

would you mind sharing the exact url?

I do know that you need to manually update the blocklist through the AdGuard app.

Comparing it to uBlock on Firefox is laughable how? You do know that there is a way to add or remove any blocklist you want in the app. Now, this is only with the pro or paid version which is one of the reasons other than blocking ads as stated that I decided to spend my money on it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

World’s Best Lasaga - scroll down past the image carousel and the little box that shows prep time, cook time, and servings. Under the prep time box, before the orange “Jump to Recipe” button, there’s an ad.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Thank you for following through with the url!

I was able to slowly scroll down all the way to the very bottom of the page and saw no ads at all.

I also need to let you know that I use their DNS protection which you might not have ticked in the settings. I wish I could help you, but I think if you dig more into the app, you’ll see more options that will allow you to block just like I have. :/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

That looks how I’d expect it with just the basic free protection. Based on the description of that feature in Ad Guard (emphasis mine):

Blocks ads and trackers on websites opened in Safari.

Alas, I’m not ready to spring for the premium tier, at least not yet (but never say never).

Thanks for sharing what it could look like, though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I see what you’re saying. I instantly went for the trial because I saw how cheap the lifetime was and if it worked well enough, they could have that $12.

I apologize for misleading you. The app does work as intended for me.

I do understand about not springing for premium! I loathe ads so much that I’ll pay for something to get them out of my face. 😅

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Wipr is also quite good for Safari!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

If you are looking for a good YouTube client on iOS, you don't even have to get into sideloading. Check out Yattee with this guide.