Do you run an AdBlocker?

Linus managed to incur the wrath of Reddit the other week when he compared people who watch his content while running an ad-blocker 'was the same as pirating a movie'. on Twitter. I understand his point but what made me roll my eyes was the fact he was surprised by the controversy that it caused, I mean calling your own audience a bunch of pirates isn't exactly good PR.
 
I was running pihole, but my wifi access points don't route the dns requests when people access the "guest" wifi. Since it blocks all internal network traffic it can't see the pihole anymore... so I'm using nextdns instead which is less effective. I'm not clever enough to try and make my pihole accessible regardless of which wifi network you access.
 
Freddie1980 said:
Linus managed to incur the wrath of Reddit the other week when he compared people who watch his content while running an ad-blocker 'was the same as pirating a movie' on Twitter.
Click to expand...

Saw the same, face palmed too as, despite Linus being tech savvy, he sometimes has that "unfiltered" approach when approaching fans with his comments.

I've always said if your content is worth it, and the adverts aren't "too" overbearing, then I'll whitelist a website I use so you do get ad revenue generated, but sadly theres a large amount of "good" websites which are virtually unusable due to the amount of advertising on show, slowing everything, breaking formatting and, rarely, being a virus etc.
 
Freefaller said:
I was running pihole, but my wifi access points don't route the dns requests when people access the "guest" wifi. Since it blocks all internal network traffic it can't see the pihole anymore... so I'm using nextdns instead which is less effective. I'm not clever enough to try and make my pihole accessible regardless of which wifi network you access.
Click to expand...

Depending on our router, could you not setup a firewall rule to allow access to the IP of your Pihole only? I've put my work laptop/phone on a different subnet, so it doesn't have access to the rest of the network, but I've configured firewall rules to allow these devices to access pihole & my printer on my normal network, but nothing else.
 
R.C.Anderson said:
Depending on our router, could you not setup a firewall rule to allow access to the IP of your Pihole only? I've put my work laptop/phone on a different subnet, so it doesn't have access to the rest of the network, but I've configured firewall rules to allow these devices to access pihole & my printer on my normal network, but nothing else.
Click to expand...

Possibly, I think the wifi APs (they're a mesh system separate to the router) create a private vlan directly to the router and basically cuts off the rest of the network, so if the dhcp server issues a dns which isn't accessible it gets a bit funny - but I do need to have a bit more of a play with it.
 
Freefaller said:
Possibly, I think the wifi APs (they're a mesh system separate to the router) create a private vlan directly to the router and basically cuts off the rest of the network, so if the dhcp server issues a dns which isn't accessible it gets a bit funny - but I do need to have a bit more of a play with it.
Click to expand...

If you have a static IP you could possibly push that IP as the DNS server from your guest wifi then set-up a loopback rule to allow it through from your home IP.


Those of you running Pihole might want to look at setting up something like Cloudflared. It means your upstream DNS requests go out over HTTPS which stops anyone (e.g, your ISP) snooping on your requests.

If you're using Docker it's fairly easy to get going, and I can paste the configs if anyone needs them. It's only a few lines of configuration from what I remember. I think this was the tutorial I used but it kind of over complicates it. If you're not using Docker :confused: this may help.
 
ianh said:
Saw the same, face palmed too as, despite Linus being tech savvy, he sometimes has that "unfiltered" approach when approaching fans with his comments.

I've always said if your content is worth it, and the adverts aren't "too" overbearing, then I'll whitelist a website I use so you do get ad revenue generated, but sadly theres a large amount of "good" websites which are virtually unusable due to the amount of advertising on show, slowing everything, breaking formatting and, rarely, being a virus etc.
Click to expand...

Funny how the Internet has changed. Sometimes I don't know if the 2000s were better than this decade. Or even the 2010s. In some ways things have been better and worse through it all but in so many ways the greed of today feels worse.
 
V F said:
Funny how the Internet has changed. Sometimes I don't know if the 2000s were better than this decade. Or even the 2010s.
Click to expand...

This makes me sound very pompous but I think the "Social" side of the Internet was "better" when it still req'd some amount of technical PC knowledge to access as this helped gate-keep it from the dumb as **** masses which infest the web now. Sadly today it's filled with those who are only capable of grunting "wifi password" before consuming hours of non-stop Social Media rubbish craving Likes etc.

Thats not to say it was some enlightened time, anyone who was in a Quake 2 or Unreal Tournament lobby could tell you horror stories of the language used, or the folks using Kazaa etc being virused left and right looking for the latest chart song etc but those time also felt more "innocent" compared to the hyper-sensitive times we're in now.
 
ianh said:
This makes me sound very pompous but I think the "Social" side of the Internet was "better" when it still req'd some amount of technical PC knowledge to access as this helped gate-keep it from the dumb as **** masses which infest the web now. Sadly today it's filled with those who are only capable of grunting "wifi password" before consuming hours of non-stop Social Media rubbish craving Likes etc.

Thats not to say it was some enlightened time, anyone who was in a Quake 2 or Unreal Tournament lobby could tell you horror stories of the language used, or the folks using Kazaa etc being virused left and right looking for the latest chart song etc but those time also felt more "innocent" compared to the hyper-sensitive times we're in now.
Click to expand...

That it did. It seemed to changed when the phone generation hit in 2008/9 when every smartphone had Facebook and twitter on it. The rapid change didn't seem to feel it until 2010 - 2012.

I used to think back in 2007 how the Internet seemed to feel great then. No woke culture existed, no cancel culture, no perpetually offended culture. Youtube didn't seem as much as an obsessive business then chasing 5 minutes of fame, clicks and ad revenue. Just like what twitch has become. They'll do anything for money. Things just seemed to appear more sane and stable back then.
 
Add blocker can have some adverse effects - using ublockO inside chrome left , and opera without ublocko on the right ,
I get a different simpler interface in chrome, no adds , but the next button is also gimped, as though chrome has reverted to a mobile version of the search results ?
is google being vindictive, I haven't found what ublockO options cause this.
was wondering if a user agent handler add-on in chrome might help
(both pages have additional information in the middle of the page I didn't copy)

51871015592_5d41d503e4_o_d.jpg
 
I think you have to use add block. Some websites are silly and then YouTube has too many adverts too. You have to play the game sadly.

Linus just seems like he is more interested in money than making videos. I get the vibe he is being a bit greedy.

I wish I could get no adds on the TV. Need a pihole but to be fair I might pay for YouTube. I think it's worth the money.
 
Eurofighter said:
I think you have to use add block. Some websites are silly and then YouTube has too many adverts too. You have to play the game sadly.

Linus just seems like he is more interested in money than making videos. I get the vibe he is being a bit greedy.

I wish I could get no adds on the TV. Need a pihole but to be fair I might pay for YouTube. I think it's worth the money.
Click to expand...

Even twitch is cancer. You whitelist twitch, you get one or two ads as you enter a stream and before the end of the first minute you then get 6 ads. Then it can be up to 5 minutes later it is another 6 - 9 ads.

I got to the stage I went all in blocking everything through every kind of script. I don't mind ads but when you're interrupted by endless ads while talking to a streamer, or listening to the discussion that you couldn't hear what the response was from 2 minutes of ads. No, that's just so annoying. I have no tolerance for that.

Some streams you get 4 - 6 or even 8 - 9 ads every 5 - 8 minutes. TV is nowhere as bad as that.


The other worst part is Youtube. I love it when it says the video will play after the ad. Then ad two pops on. That's irritating. Especially when they're ramming funeral ads down me.
 
Freddie1980 said:
Linus managed to incur the wrath of Reddit the other week when he compared people who watch his content while running an ad-blocker 'was the same as pirating a movie'. on Twitter. I understand his point but what made me roll my eyes was the fact he was surprised by the controversy that it caused, I mean calling your own audience a bunch of pirates isn't exactly good PR.
Click to expand...
Isn't that half the reason he does Sponsors within the video? Honestly I have uBlock origin on my desktop and YouTube is great. If I watch any videos on my phone or iPad it's awful, 3-5 adverts in a 20 minute video, sentences cut off at random, unskippable ads up to 30 seconds long. I get the escalation between the ads and the ad blockers but if the ads weren't so bloody annoying and intrusive more people would allow them.
 
YouTube is horrendous, and it isn't just YouTube I feel like I have no choice but to run an adblocker these days. I used another device(no adblocker) and was on YouTube and had a music video suggested to me that I hadn't heard in ages Clicked on video and a 20 /30 second Ad was going to play therefore I ended up clicking off it.
 
V F said:
Even twitch is cancer. You whitelist twitch, you get one or two ads as you enter a stream and before the end of the first minute you then get 6 ads. Then it can be up to 5 minutes later it is another 6 - 9 ads.

I got to the stage I went all in blocking everything through every kind of script. I don't mind ads but when you're interrupted by endless ads while talking to a streamer, or listening to the discussion that you couldn't hear what the response was from 2 minutes of ads. No, that's just so annoying. I have no tolerance for that.

Some streams you get 4 - 6 or even 8 - 9 ads every 5 - 8 minutes. TV is nowhere as bad as that.


The other worst part is Youtube. I love it when it says the video will play after the ad. Then ad two pops on. That's irritating. Especially when they're ramming funeral ads down me.
Click to expand...

I use uBlock origin and add a couple of lines of text in the settings,blocks all ads on twitch no problem(bit blurry when ad should be playing).
 
Last edited:
A lot of twitch ads are inserts by the streamer. Sure pre stream ads and some ads after a certain time frame are auto inserted but a steamer with a decent following can make a hundred dollars or more with a button press that serves a 20-30 second ad. Looking for that new pair of trainers? Want to buy a PS5? Mash that button twice an hour in a four hour steam and you’re up a thousand bucks just like that.
 
jpaul said:
Add blocker can have some adverse effects - using ublockO inside chrome left , and opera without ublocko on the right ,
I get a different simpler interface in chrome, no adds , but the next button is also gimped, as though chrome has reverted to a mobile version of the search results ?
is google being vindictive, I haven't found what ublockO options cause this.
was wondering if a user agent handler add-on in chrome might help
(both pages have additional information in the middle of the page I didn't copy)
Click to expand...

Also blocks embedded twitter feeds on this site for me, links are ok but not embeds if I hit the reply button the ID shows up which may or may not show up in a google search -
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom