Hacker News Reader

Comment by Endy | Hacker News Reader

My only problem with this website is that when I used it with a class of students, there were pornographic advertisements in between the plane types. That was really upsetting. Please reconsider your ads.

View on HN

That is very odd and not what I want. It’s just google Adsense. You sure your computer doesn’t have spyware?

So, I just discovered that Adsense has an option to block ads that have "Significant Skin Exposure" so I turned this on a few mins ago.

Thank you! Now I can go back to suggesting this to all the physics teachers in the schools where I teach! Oh and regarding malware, we'd gotten the Chromebooks, brand new, from Dell, a week before.

I mean, I know this is probably not in your control and all (and I know I'm off-topic). But wouldn't an adblocker be appropriate for your school environment? I most definitely wouldn't want my kids to see any ads, but obviously and especially those with "significant skin exposure".

I applaud you for not recommending this site in the first take. But it seems like you should have more support, adblockers being the first line of defense.

Thank you for teaching, by the way. I feel teachers need the same thanks that we so commonly give soldiers and first responders. You are truly on the front line, and we all appreciate you.

But wouldn't an adblocker be appropriate for your school environment?

Maybe, but in general that boat sailed in 1989: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_One_News

Ad-blockers from the point of view of UK copyright would seem to be tortuous copyright infringement (unauthorised modification and/or unauthorised creation ofa derivative). I can't see schools here using them because of the legal risk.

So you're saying, adblockers in the UK are illegal due to copyright concerns? I don't think that holds. If I buy a magazine and rip the ads from it, that's perfectly fine. This logic even holds in a school setting.

Actually, it doesn't - you can't take the ads out (eg a clipping service) in any commercial setting. Using a tool that you put your newspaper in that removed all ads would be creating a tortuous derivative too. There's no general personal exemptions in UKCDA either.

Chances of being prosecuted for use are roughly zero.

Lawful educational use is highly restricted in the UK, but there are few prosecutions. For example if you show TV broadcasts you have to have both music licenses (as well as the TV license) to cover you for when they play music on the show (or in the adverts!).

Thanks for the reply. Very interesting stuff.

How do you feel about suggestions that people should ad-block your site?

You can control which categories of ads will be displayed in your Adsense account settings. It shouldn't be necessary in a civilised world, of course, but there you go.

I would strongly recommend an ad blocker or use a browser such as Brave which by default blocks ads and other nasties

Honest question: How would I do that when I'm on a rather locked-down school Chromebook?

Best to use Brave as your browser. Or even Opera. Both has built-in ad blocker.

Couldn't do that when I was using the school Chromebook.

The school doesn't have some kind of filtering proxy setup? A decade and a half ago I was having to end-run Bess to get to the Sun Javadocs - blocked for "hacking." Useful education, but it made studying for the AP comp sci test difficult...

Agree, sorry only saw your response after I posted mine. I don't know how I missed seeing it

Reply on news.ycombinator.com