I would use an adblocker that compromised by only blocking ads (and “you’re supposed to be seeing an ad here :(” notifications) that move and/or cover text. I said this in a comment on the last post, but I wasn’t kidding when I said ads make some websites truly unusable (or slow them down to that point). Just last night I was using Chrome with no adblocker (I usually use Firefox with ublock origin), and citationmachine.net/ was so slow and cluttered that I ended up switching back to Firefox to make my single citation and copy it back to my document in Chrome.
citationmachine.net in Chrome with no adblocker; there are 4 ad slots visible including 1 video. All of the ads are moving and the actual content of the website is below all of the ads.
The same website in Firefox with ublock origin. There is a large blank space where ads would normally go, so I still have to scroll down to the content, but nothing is covering said content.
I would be happy with an adblocker that froze these moving ads and removed the “Ace hardware” ad which is covering the content as well as the HBO Max video (which plays sound). The CVS/Paypal ad is duplicated in this screenshot, but as the ads refresh they are usually not duplicated.
If all ads looked like ads on slatestarcodex used to, I would be fine with them. I’ve bought things from facebook ads before and I don’t mind being shown content I’m likely to buy (and I find facebook’s strategy of disguising its ads like posts to be misleading, but minimally disruptive). But I cannot navigate around an internet that shows 4+ ads on any page I visit. It’s excessive.
Slatestarcodex did a really god job with it. Like, I actually visited the page with ‘these are approved ads’, because I was curious and wanted to learn more (even about stuff I hadn’t seen). (I remember liking what was done with the Jane Street ad/puzzles, but everything did a really great job of looking good, and also a surprising amount of time, matching with the color scheme of the page.)
I would use an adblocker that compromised by only blocking ads (and “you’re supposed to be seeing an ad here :(” notifications) that move and/or cover text. I said this in a comment on the last post, but I wasn’t kidding when I said ads make some websites truly unusable (or slow them down to that point). Just last night I was using Chrome with no adblocker (I usually use Firefox with ublock origin), and citationmachine.net/ was so slow and cluttered that I ended up switching back to Firefox to make my single citation and copy it back to my document in Chrome.
I would be happy with an adblocker that froze these moving ads and removed the “Ace hardware” ad which is covering the content as well as the HBO Max video (which plays sound). The CVS/Paypal ad is duplicated in this screenshot, but as the ads refresh they are usually not duplicated.
If all ads looked like ads on slatestarcodex used to, I would be fine with them. I’ve bought things from facebook ads before and I don’t mind being shown content I’m likely to buy (and I find facebook’s strategy of disguising its ads like posts to be misleading, but minimally disruptive). But I cannot navigate around an internet that shows 4+ ads on any page I visit. It’s excessive.
Slatestarcodex did a really god job with it. Like, I actually visited the page with ‘these are approved ads’, because I was curious and wanted to learn more (even about stuff I hadn’t seen). (I remember liking what was done with the Jane Street ad/puzzles, but everything did a really great job of looking good, and also a surprising amount of time, matching with the color scheme of the page.)