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Comment by rdtsc | Hacker News Reader

That is one nice thing about living around DC, there are no billboards around the highways around here. You don't notice it until you go to other states. Then it becomes obvious and it looks jarring -- "Hey, what is this crap everywhere? How can people tolerate this!?"

Kind of the same effect if you are used to watching Netflix and then at a relative's house and you see cable TV with commercials every 15 minutes. They probably don't even notice it, but to me it feels strange and annoying to have to put up with it.

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That's how I feel when I surf the web without ad blocking now.

Oh man, it's awful isn't it? I upgraded my phone the other day and it took me a little while to root the thing and reinstall AdAway.

After over six months of completely ad-free internet use it came as quite a shock as to how intrusive and distracting mobile advertising actually is.

Once I had it set up again, the relief was palpable, like finally being alone after being shouted at by a roomful of idiots.

You're not the only one I've heard this from. Do you mind if I ask what kind of sites you're getting this from? I can't tolerate TV or radio ads. I've never used any ad blockers on the web, and I don't find much objectionable advertising other than clickbait link farms.

I for years don't bothered with web ads, but sites got increasingly slow, sometimes some sites would time out after exchanging 10mb of data with ad servers, when the site itself had 300kb or something like that.

So I installed ad blocking to get rid of this issue...

The difference is DRASTIC, not only in performance (it feels like it felt when I switched from dial-up to DSL) but there are no more blinking and flashing stuff anymore, the browser crashes much less (because of badly coded flash ads) and some sites are much better to see the content (example: one of the most popular brazillian newspaper, Folha.com has some flash banner ads that when you mouseover they expand and cover the entire page, the problem it is really easy to unintentionally mouse over them, and then to get rid of them again is really obnoxious)

> to get rid of them again is really obnoxious

I've recently taking to switching off Javascript for just this reason. The Chrome extension "Quick Javascript Switcher" does it on a site-by-site basis. No more interstitials, cookie-warning crap, etc.

I'm using RequestPolicy for this. If a site doesn't load completely, just enable a couple of required sources, and you're done. It's an extra step sure, but usually needs to be done just once per site.

Yeah, I've been doing the same. It's not difficult to switch JS on for an individual site if it's something I actually want to use. For most sites, however, killing JS just makes life easier.

It's kind of like a noise you don't notice until it stops.

I don't mind ads when viewing sites on desktop - except for tracking, which I block unconditionally, and autoplay videos - but I can't stand mobile ads.

There's the battery life/bandwith problem, they take up precious screen space, especially popovers and sticky banners, but my real problem is that mobile is a much more personal, close up experience. I don't want things shouting in my face when I'm trying to read.

Publishers need to make money, but the cost of mobile advertising is too high.

That's amazing, I live in MD near DC and I never thought about this until now. I frequently drive the Beltway and I-95 north to Baltimore and I can't think of any billboards off the top of my head. On the other hand, back in Arkansas (where I'm from) there are quite a few billboards on interstates, usually clustered near exits.

If like many Washingtonians you never leave NW, sure. But there are plenty of billboards in NE and SE. There are definitely billboards when you get a little ways out on 66, also on 50E towards Annapolis. 95 in VA is non-stop billboards, I forget if 395 has them. The one I'm not certain about is the beltway ... but pretty sure I've seen billboards on the beltway in parts of MD. There are (were?) also what amount to billboards along H St in NW. So I have to disagree, and encourage you to explore the area more.

Never had visited DC I googled "billboards in DC" and got plenty of results. A billboard in support of Chelsea Manning, companies selling billboard space and companies selling mobile billboard space as well. Nothing to indicate there was a lack of billboards there.

Yeah I am mainly in NW and Northern VA. Billboards are not illegal, but they are just regulated better. I was mainly comparing with Pensilvania, Ohio and a few Midwest states I drive through sometimes.

Agreed, there are very few billboards in northern Virginia; I think Fairfax and Arlington Counties have stringent requirements for them, if not outright bans.

When I lived in Sacramento, on the Cap City Freeway there was a highly visible, gaudy billboard advertising liposuction, fat belly and all. I always wondered about that one ... there's no way the funds from renting that space justified the terrible light it cast on Sacramento for visitors passing through, and there must be other bidders. Also it's not as though this is the norm, I can't think of any similarly awful billboards in the Sacramento area, and the Cap City Freeway itself has few billboards.

If like many Washingtonians you never leave NW

At 7th and H NW there are three giant electronic billboards that play sound, not to mention the array of billboards plastered all over the Verizon center.

I mentioned those, but you're right that they're inconsistent with what I said about people not leaving NW. 2006-ish I think there was a big debate on if they'd be allowed ... they've always seemed like a special case, being part of the arena itself. In any case, billboards are few and far between in NW.

the bad ones are the super bright LED ones that, when suddenly changing to the next advertisement, make me think there's a cop behind me when it's humid [always] at night [half the time]

It's similar in Washington state. Signs on interstates are heavily regulated: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/653A31E9-ADE7-42CA-854E...

There are exceptions - the animated and ugly signs on the I-5 corridor are all on reservation land.

There was a giant LCD billboard outside my window in Baltimore. Though it was quite some distance away, at night it shone into my window like a nighttime Sun. Destroyed the otherwise lovely view of Baltimore Penn Station, not to mention required pulling the blinds to be able to sleep.

There aren't many LCD billboards here (Dublin, Ireland). The few that I've seen are reasonably small and generally used for stuff like how many parking spaces are free in the city centre.

But I despise the things, especially if they change what they're displaying (ie movement or flicker). The number of of times that they switched from dark to blindingly-bright almost causing an accident is shocking. I'm surprised that nobody has been seriously injured because of this (that I know of).

There are a few littered along NY Ave when entering the city.

you kind of tune them out. however I have nothing against them provided they are maintained. as kids we used to play games by "collecting" them.

still if they don't require hacking down a trees I have no problem with people using their property this way

I think it says something about the region, about what is important there. A lot are neutral, but some are ridiculous -- liposuction, jesus saves, abortion will take you to hell, matress discounters, private investigator services for when your loved one is cheating on you, snake petting zoo next exit. One can argue, yeah it is free market, if you own the land next to the freeway, you can do whatever. But another argument is it make the whole area look bad.

they actually can take, parts at least, of the sky from me...

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