Any particular reason why AdBlocker Plus doesn't work anymore?

[Rocket Surgery]

The last two times I've attempted a more detailed version of this post it's arbitrarily deleted itself just as I was finishing up, and since typing is a colossal ballache for me at the moment I don't particularly relish the prospect of that happening again, so: question in thread title. Just me?

[newbridge]

Is it not working at all or are you just surprised to be seeing some ads? There was a news story a couple weeks ago about how AdBlock Plus is launching a new venture where they charges companies to have "approved" ads appear, so if it's the latter that's probably why.

I haven't yet gotten around to finding a replacement for when I dump these sellouts.

[Rocket Surgery]

I've already unticked the box that says "Allow some unintrusive ads," and tried several other tweaks; it's made the square root of bugger-all difference. Properly disappointed.

[Zetetic]

Replace with uBlock Origin.

[olliebean]

Is it because advertisers are dreadful cunts who work tirelessly to defeat ad blockers in the mistaken belief that forcing you to see ads even though you've explicitly blocked them will somehow make you want to buy their product?

Fucking 9-minute unskippable video ad on YouTube the other day. I mean ffs.

[checkoutgirl]

I suppose eventually everything has to make enough money to cover it's costs so either we pay adblock some money or they sell out. It's kind of inevitable and you don't have to be pro advertising to think so. Thankfully the Internet is a resourceful bugger and there'll always be a replacement waiting.

The only real danger is if your Internet provider sells out to the music and film industry or advertisers like Eircom did in Ireland about 5 years ago. I suppose you can just change provider. But what if you're in your parent's house and they're too stupid to change provider?

[BlodwynPig]

Desolation thread: An advertising industry develops sentience and kills a man in Slough.

[checkoutgirl]

Is it because advertisers are dreadful cunts who work tirelessly to defeat ad blockers in the mistaken belief that forcing you to see ads even though you've explicitly blocked them will somehow make you want to buy their product?

Fucking 9-minute unskippable video ad on YouTube the other day. I mean ffs.

I doubt it's the advertisers as much as whoever the advertisers are paying and they're desperately clinging on to whatever money they get from them. Adblock is a big threat to that so they get the boffins in. Long term it'll never work, all you have to do is Google "adblock replacement" or something and you're back in business.

[BlodwynPig]

i'm still clueless - do these invasive and annoying adverts WORK? have their been studies done on this?

[Dr Rock]

Has anyone else's spellchecker got really shit? Mine now can't work out what I mean if I type 'indefenisble'

[checkoutgirl]

i'm still clueless - do these invasive and annoying adverts WORK? have their been studies done on this?

When I was about 15 in Economics class in school I remember the teacher saying there is no proof that advertising works. All it does I think is legitimises a brand or product so if someone mentions it you instinctively think "Oh yeah, I've heard of that". Even the stupidest people on Earth must be somewhat desensitised to adverts. I have noticed that if I look at a product on google I notice the next day that they're advertising the exact same product to me, as if I'm too stupid to remember to buy the thing. No mate, I was just browsing.

Imagine window shopping for a shirt and the next day a guy comes up to you in the street trying to flog you a few shirts. That's the internet.

[BlodwynPig]

When I was about 15 in Economics class in school I remember the teacher saying there is no proof that advertising works. All it does I think is legitimises a brand or product so if someone mentions it you instinctively think "Oh yeah, I've heard of that". Even the stupidest people on Earth must be somewhat desensitised to adverts. I have noticed that if I look at a product on google I notice the next day that they're advertising the exact same product to me, as if I'm too stupid to remember to buy the thing. No mate, I was just browsing.

Imagine window shopping for a shirt and the next day a guy comes up to you in the street trying to flog you a few shirts. That's the internet.

OK, I can see how it might work on a dumb, greedy materialist.

Is it the same reason I got an e-mail at work from someone offering Sxxy times.

[Rocket Surgery]

Has anyone else's spellchecker got really shit? Mine now can't work out what I mean if I type 'indefenisble'

Mine always seems to be American, which isn't entirely synonymous with "shit" but...

Words like "neighbour" or "recognise" always cause issues for it, and the other day I got a red-line bollocking for typing "internet" without a capital "I" but I've got used to it by now. Certainly haven't noticed any particular deterioration recently, unlike with AdBlock.

Amusingly, my spellchecker has red-lined the word "spellchecker" as well. Daft cunts.

[hewantstolurkatad]

Have you tried the Brave browser? It's specifically built around blocking obtrusive ads. Doubt it will last but I've found it faster and the dudes behind it are pretty damn good.
Chrome plugins work for it too.

[Rocket Surgery]

Replace with uBlock Origin.

Cheers for the tip. Before I click, do you know if there are likely to be any complications using that in conjunction with ubuntu MATE (that is genuinely what my current OS is called)?

Remember: I am shit at computers.

_{Incidentally, the spellchecker on my ubuntu machine has red-lined "ubuntu" as well.}

EDIT:

Have you tried the Brave browser? It's specifically built around blocking obtrusive ads. Doubt it will last but I've found it faster and the dudes behind it are pretty damn good.
Chrome plugins work for it too.

Same question applies; I'm just posting too slowly.

[hewantstolurkatad]

If you're shit with computers, what in the hell are you using Linux for?

[Rocket Surgery]

If you're shit with computers, what in the hell are you using Linux for?

Because the only computer I could afford when my last one shat the bed (which it did last week) was from a charity place that militantly refuses to install Microsoft on any of the machines they sell. I was on elementary OS for about 18 months before that for exactly the same reason.

It's actually working out fine; definitely a lot more user-friendly than Linux used to be. I'm just aware it doesn't automatically cooperate with all software, hence my question.

[Cortez the Surfer]

Replace with uBlock Origin.

Thanks for the tip.

Just installed uBlock Origin as a replacement for adblocker on Chrome and for adblock plus on Firefox then went to few sites I know to be bit ad happy to see how it did.

It does seem to be better at blocking stuff and I also noticed pages are now loading much quicker on both browsers.

[Zetetic]

Cheers for the tip. Before I click, do you know if there are likely to be any complications using that in conjunction with ubuntu MATE (that is genuinely what my current OS is called)?

I doubt it. I assume you're either using Firefox/Iceweasel or Chrome/Chromium. uBlock Origin[nb]The 'Origin' is there for stupid reasons to do with the original developer trying to pass development on to someone else, and then taking it back but not being able to reclaim the name everywhere.[/nb] exists as plugins for both, and various other browsers now to some extent.

It's worth considering the blocklists you've chosen with it as well.

[Zetetic]

Have you tried the Brave browser? It's specifically built around blocking obtrusive ads.

And replacing them with its own, attached to a system of revenue sharing, it should be noted.

[Rocket Surgery]

I doubt it. I assume you're either using Firefox/Iceweasel or Chrome/Chromium. uBlock Origin[nb]The 'Origin' is there for stupid reasons to do with the original developer trying to pass development on to someone else, and then taking it back but not being able to reclaim the name everywhere.[/nb] exists as plugins for both, and various other browsers now to some extent.

It's worth considering the blocklists you've chosen with it as well.

Yep, still on Firefox so will give it a bash. Ta muchly.

[Dropshadow]

For Windows/Firefox users Adblock plus is only the first line of defence against internet shite. You really have to run it in conjunction with NoScript. I have none of the problems some of you are reporting.

[olliebean]

i'm still clueless - do these invasive and annoying adverts WORK? have their been studies done on this?

If you work on the assumption that their primary purpose is not to sell products to consumers, but to sell the services of ad agencies to their clients, then I reckon they work just fine.

[JesusAndYourBush]

i'm still clueless - do these invasive and annoying adverts WORK? have their been studies done on this?

Yean I kindof don't understand how they work.  For example if I was talking to the ad company I'd tell them that even if I could see the ads (my adblock still works) I'd never click any of them so what difference does it make.  And they'd reply "no, you have to see them, even if you don't click them", and something to the effect that they get paid even if I see the ad but don't click it.  It just seems that there's a lot of money going round that doesn't deserve to be.

On Chrome I'm running ScriptBlock, Adblock Plus & FlashBlock and I've not seen an increase in ads lately except for one or two sites that've started displaying ads in a non-obnoxious way - i.e. a simple image hosted on their own webspace (which adblock can't block as it can't differentiate between that and all the jpgs on the site that I want to see) which I can click if I wish as opposed to something (possibly in a frame) hosted off-site and loaded with flash and scripts which sucks my cpu dry which can fuck right off and gets blocked by my adblockers.  That's one thing the ad companies need to learn.  Stop making your ads so obnoxious and people won't be so quick to want to block them.

[imitationleather]

Will this uBlock Origin thing stop those ads on PornHub which open a new tab for whatever grot you click on and turn the old page into an ad saying that you too can make £££s doing what mook did back in the day or that your Mac might be infected or whatnot? I hate those.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Will this uBlock Origin thing stop those ads on PornHub which open a new tab for whatever grot you click on and turn the old page into an ad saying that you too can make £££s doing what mook did back in the day or that your Mac might be infected or whatnot? I hate those.

When that's happened to me with various sites I've resorted to adding the domain the ads are on to my hosts file.  It doesn't stop it opening the tab (or opening it in the old tab etc) but it's unable to load the content.

[Bhazor]

I do like that the advertisers answer to people blocking intrusive ads is to make ads even more intrusive.

That said the greatest trick advertisers ever played was convincing companies that high end advertising actually works. "Yeah sure we'll get errrr Beyonce to point at a can of Peps- I mean Coke and say hmmm I'm Lov- I mean It Does Exac- sorry I mean err what is it this year? Oh right, yeah she'll say that. How much? Errrr two th- hundr- million, yeah two hundred million dollars. Yeah, I promise you'll make it back like ten fold in an hour because of how great our advert is I mean have you seen the press release for the survey we did about how affective our advertising... I mean did you read the impartial third party survey we di-... I mean the the impartial third party survey the university of Wisconsin did? Now those numbers don't lie and I should know.... erm."

[Zetetic]

Will this uBlock Origin thing stop those ads

Probably.

There is no reason to use AdBlock Plus rather than uBlock Origin, as far as I know, at this point.

[olliebean]

I've had to turn uBlock Origin off for YouTube, because not only was it not getting rid of the pre-roll video ads but it was making them unskippable. Don't know if ABP has the same problem.

[mook]

ABP is working on youtube for me.

is it possible to have uBlock & ABP installed at the same time? i don't mean running at the same time, just so i can switch between them. ABP is letting a few ads through on couchtuner is all.