Nation Wary of Suddenly Usable Website | Hacker News Reader

Nation Wary of Suddenly Usable Website

theonion.com

37 pointsrobin_reala11 comments

You don't have to put up with the web this way.

In case anyone doesn't know, ad blockers exist. If you are seeing ads when you browse the web, you should install an ad blocker. There is no reason not to.

On Android, you can use the Firefox web browser (available in the app store) with the uBlock Origin extension (use the Add-Ons menu in Firefox).

On iPhone, you can use one of various ad-blockers from the app store. I use one called "AdBlock Pro," but there's many others with pros & cons.

On desktop, you can install uBlock Origin in most browsers. The experience is best in Firefox. There are browser-specific links here: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

If you are using uBlock Origin, be sure to hop into its settings and enable the "Annoyances" and "Cookie Notices" filters, too. That'll remove the email address beg dialogs, the ad-blocker popups, and the pointless cookie banners.

> On desktop, you can install uBlock Origin in most browsers

"Most browsers" includes a hell of a lot of Chrome derivatives, many of which will not work with uBlock Origin's MV2 extension.

If you want adblocking that works properly, there's only one browser to recommend. It's time to drop the milquetoast "most browsers" and call Chrome out for the adware that it is.

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...

Yeah, OK, but switching browsers is a much bigger ask than "install this extension and forget about it." Sometimes you gotta pick your battles.

Is there a single clean/simple/trustworthy single page site to point normal people to encourage them to use an adblocking browser?

Hm, not that I know of. That's a good idea though, might be a fun project. Have some Before & After screenshots and easy to follow guides.

Ive found AdGuard Pro to work best on iOS.

For real, though. The web is a cesspool without an ad-blocker.

Vampiric preload JS scripts hoovering up bandwidth and stealing system resources. Autoplay video/audio ads that are the equivalent of attention-seeking injury lawyer billboards that should have been outlawed FOREVER ago. The whack-a-mole bad ads on seedy websites (p0rn) that deliver malware. List goes on.

Can't wait until Goog^H^H^H^H the "keepers of the open Internet" decide that the web can be made "more efficient" by using same-origin ad delivery and "more secure" by blocking extensions that can be updated out-of-release, like, oh, say, ad-blockers!

Usually we don't discuss the everyday enshittification of websites, but they've left themselves wide open to criticism here:

* 9 clicks to say no to personal information collection

* 1 click to dismiss the giant popup ad

* 2 clicks to say no to cookies

Is saw that and hit back. I simply cannot be arsed with these things any more - the few years when the web got itself rid of popups and became clean and easy was a golden era that slid quietly into the oblivion of cookie prompts and annoyances.

On all platforms except iPhone, you can install Firefox and uBlock Origin and enable its Annoyances and Cookie Notices filters: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

Another option, or addition, is to set up a Kill Sticky bookmark, which also gets rid of those awful sticky headers & footers: https://www.smokingonabike.com/2024/01/20/take-back-your-web...

I don't ever go to their website and just assumed that was part of the joke.

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